February 27 is memorable to the people of Songea, Tanzania, as it is on this day that German colonial rulers executed the leaders of the Maji Maji Rebellion one of Africa’s greatest wars of resistance, that was fought between 1905 and 1907.
The Maji Maji Rebellion went into the annals of history for the strategy and organisation of African fighters who believed in the superiority of their mystical powers against a heavily militarised German force. The fighters, drawn from the Songea people of southern Tanzania, also had fighters from the Ngoni, who had migrated north from southern Africa.