War

Morogoro is definitely worth a mooch about. There’s a bustling centre and some interesting spots in the hills surrounding town. One of these is the Commonwealth War Cemetery, the location used to bury the World War 1 dead, taken over from the previous German civilian cemetery. At the outbreak of the war, modern day Tanzania was under German control.

Lots of Peacocks, Taylors, Crowes and other such English-sounding names attest to the loss of life here during the East African Campaign of World War 1. They are commemorated alongside very many German and South African troops as well as Hindus and Africans recruited to boost army numbers.

I was walking with a guide from a very good local organisation which does tours of Morogoro and surrounds. He asked me ‘how was it during the colonial time in England?’

I wanted to explain that it was during the colonial era that the British nation cultivated a sense of racial and moral superiority over many parts of the world, which many people have evolved away from, whereas others cling onto it, culminating in national embarrassments like Brexit. However I simply confirmed that I hadn’t been alive, at which he seemed surprised. For reference I would have to be 61 to have been alive when Tanzania achieved independence, and surely that’s a stretch despite the whitening beard and increased usage of mzee (Swahili term of respect for ‘old man’) that I’m getting as a greeting.

Colonial history runs deep in places like Morogoro, with a double whammy of first German then British occupation after World War 1. The Regional Commissioner’s office still occupies buildings constructed by the Germans and we stumbled across an area named Falkland. I can’t figure out the link to this suspiciously British or German name because Google only thinks I want to know how to fly between Tanzania and Stanley in the Falkland Islands.

The evening was spent laying on my hotel bed, eating jackfruit and watching political phone-ins where callers make idiots of themselves. This is what Christmas holidays were made for.