akida

An African or Arab administrator of a section of a district.

The country was administered by a Bezirksarntmann (District Commissioner) with groups of villages headed by an akida and each village by a Jumbe, all detested by the population. German settlers lived in constant fear of attacks, protecting themselves in forts armed with machine-guns.

Exactions by the Akidas, incessant taxation, disruption of social and economic patterns, contempt for traditional life and constant demands by the German Administration for forced labour, exacerbated the frustration of the indigenous population; discontent increased with the setting-up of the German Land Kommission allocating the best lands to German settlers and confining populous tribes in Moshi, Arusha, Tanga, Meru, Kilimanjaro regions into congested areas.

The stage was set for fierce and long rebellion, and repression.