Execution

The photograph depicts the execution of a native man by hanging. The man's eyes are covered with a white cloth, and his hands are tightly bound behind his back at elbow level, causing his chest to be pushed forward, prominently displaying his ribs and exposing his thin figure. His feet, which are hanging in the air, must have previously rested on an overturned crate or a log. Directly behind him are Askari soldiers – native troops in the German African army – and several other men, two of whom appear to be digging a pit. The execution is being watched by colonizers, officers, Schutztruppe soldiers from the German colonial forces of German East Africa, Askaris, a chaplain, and local people: men, women, and children. The Europeans are looking towards the photographer, posing for the picture. This is one of 76 photographs from the album of Aleksander Dandelski (1863–1944), a Prussian officer who participated in a military expedition to German East Africa (the territory of present-day Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi) around 1893. This period was marked by anti-German uprisings by natives against the invaders, who ruthlessly exploited people and resources. The first uprising occurred just three years after the founding of German East Africa, in 1888. Between 1891 and 1898, the Hehe people (Wahehe in Swahili), led by Chief Mkwawa (Mkwavinyika Munyigumba Mwamuyinga, 1855–1898), fiercely resisted the Prussian colonizers until 1898. It is possible that the executed man was one of the guerrilla fighters or a slave trying to free himself. Slavery in German East Africa was only officially abolished in 1922, after Tanganyika became a British protectorate. Katarzyna Findlik-Gawron