Dodoma was destined to be the Nation’s capital

If land talked, Dodoma would tell many tales to surpass those in Arabian Nights. It would tell, for example, about the expedition by Speke and Burton, which passed through in 1857 in a quest to reach the great equatorial lakes that were believed to exist and to be sources of the Nile.

It would also tell us about Tippu Tib, the Zanzibari Afro-Arab trader, who ruled a commercial empire in equatorial Africa from the 1860s to 1890 by monopolising ivory and timber trade.

This land would also tell us about famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who passed by in 1871 with about 2,000 men, going to the interior to look for Dr David Livingstone, who had ventured into the heart of Africa and disappeared without trace. The land would also tell us that it saw the sad faces of David Livingstone’s followers in June 1873, when they passed by carrying his body to Zanzibar.

Not to forget Julius Nyerere, who happily made Chamwino Village home and deemed its environs suitable for a capital city in 1973.

Dodoma as capital city

It is quite reasonable to suggest that many residents as well as teeming thousands of transient visitors to Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania, are almost all oblivious of the history of the countryside around them. As far as most of them are concerned, probably the fame of Dodoma started, when it was declared the capital in 1973. Similarly, when slave traders trekked through with their hordes of walking cargo and ivory in the pre-colonial period, they had no idea the inhabitants, who were demanding and getting tributes to let them through were themselves immigrants from south.

People everywhere have always been on the move, of course, including Dodoma residents. While Dodoma as the regional administrative centre may today be about 54 years old, it has been a vigorous centre of trade for over 100 years. Caravans bringing slaves and ivory from the interior to the coast inevitably had to go through Dodoma, and many explorers made it their temporary home.

A map drawn by Speke for the Royal Geographic Society in 1858 indicates that the neighbours of the Wagogo to the west were Watakana, Wakonongo and further west the Wafipa. Amateur etymologists suggest that the word “Wakonongo” as presently used by the Wagogo to mean “people from afar” could point to the fact that some Wagogo had travelled west as far as present-day Rukwa Region, where the actual Wakonongo lived.

Before settling at Mvumi, the first Wagogo to arrive in the area came from the Udzungwa Mountains in the south, where they escaped from after losing an inter-tribal war under Mwagobelo, who was their chief, according to historical records.

During the long trek north, chief Mwagobelo died and his son, Luchinga Mwagobelo took over the reigns of power. The sources at the national archives in Dar es Salaam show that the trekkers eventually arrived at Kimagayi in what is today Mpwapwa District, where they stayed for a while before moving west to Chipanga, which - according to traditional account - was inhabited by people, who were “dressed in red clothes” and, who escaped into the unknown after the new comers killed one of them with an arrow. However, since Chipanga was too dry, the immigrants immediately went searching for water, guided by their dog.

They later found a watering hole, where they set a camp, surviving only by drinking water and eating frogs. They thus called themselves Wagogo wambukwa mnyambwa wanyanzula. It is not easy to tell for sure, when exactly these events took place, but approximate dates can be worked out because it is well established that by Tanganyika’s Independence in 1961, the Wagogo of Mvumi had been ruled by 11 chiefs, the first being Luchinga Mwangobelo and the 11th being Mazengo Chalula, who was born in 1880 and ruled from 1903.

It is, however, necessary to point out that although tradition places the Wagogo around Mvumi, the Wagogo are the dominant tribe in Mpwapwa, Manyoni and Dodoma districts. The areas are also home to Wasandawi, Wairangi and Wakaguru.

Probably only a few Tanzanians know that Dodoma was in fact Idodomya before the arrival of the Germans in 1885. The word ‘idodomya’ means “the place, where it sank”, ‘it’ being the elephant that got stuck in the mud of a watering hole near, where the capital is situated.

The conversion of the original, poetic Idodomya to Dodoma can safely be attributed to the Germans:, when they drew the Central Railway Line on their maps, carefully plotting the railway route to follow the well-beaten track of slave traders, the name was erroneously transcribed as Dodoma!

Wars

Unfortunately, very little information about the place before the German colonial period was written. Of what exists in the oral tradition relates only to famine and tribal wars – which were numerous. According to these sources, during Chief Mtongachi Mwilalwi rule, for example, the Wagogo fought and won two major wars against the Wamasai from the north, who had raided the area for cattle. They also fought and won two bitter wars against the Wahehe from the south. But those accounts are emphatic that there was no winning in the war that followed - the First World War.

According to historical accounts, the First World War brought too much misery and calamity to the area: reckless appropriations of the local people’s grain supplies and cattle to aid the war effort – by both the Germans and later the British - eventually led to the death of thousands of the inhabitants due to the resulting famine. Two words were coined by the stricken people for the period: mutunya and kaputula.

Mutunya, meaning scramble, refers to the frenzy of the starving crowd whenever a supply train passed through while Kaputula on the other hand, refers to the shorts which were worn by the British troops. It was these soldiers, according to the Wagogo, who were responsible for the catastrophe.

However, it is probably in order to mention that there had been no apportioning of blame in the famines of the pre-European period, which, according to tradition, were given the names Mwandem, Magubika, Chonyamagulu, Chilemu and Masije. The famines, the sources add, “were characterised by terrible misery, dead bodies all over the place, anarchy and banditry”.

But it was the European war, which generated more memorable episodes, some legendary. One story is told to highlight how the First World War got to the nerves of even the supposedly valiant Germans, who became paranoid and suspicious of everyone – especially the chiefs. Fearing that Chief Mazengo was no longer loyal, one Mr Herr Sperling, the district officer, tried to kill him only for the chief to be tipped off in time and went and hid in one of his subject’s house.

When the colonial officer, who had been sent for him reached Mvumi, he was shown a grave and told that Mazengo had died and was buried there. To be sure, the officer demanded to see inside the grave.

Apparently, a ruse had been worked out meticulously and a goat had been buried there, so when the people started to open up the grave, a terrible stench expelled the officer, who then left in a hurry to inform his superiors about the demise of Chief Mazengo!

It is not difficult to imagine now what Dodoma would have become without the First World War: records show that at the beginning of the war a German administrator in Dodoma had suggested that the small market town ought to become the capital of German East Africa. This proposal failed to materialise, of course, because the German colonial authorities obviously had a more pressing matter to think of. So, we know that Dodoma was destined to become capital after all!

Dodoma as communication centre

Still, even at that time, gradually, Dodoma Township, which had a population of about 1,250 inhabitants, established itself as a communications centre based on its location at the crossroads of the country’s main North-South and East–West roads. The town even found itself in the international spotlight when it’s airport became the stopover for the record-breaking London - Cape Town flights of 1926/27.

It was also just prior to this historical event – on March 2, 1926 - when Dodoma District (consisting of two sub-districts of Kilimanjaro and Singida), Manyoni District, and Mkalama District, became the new Central Province. It is, however, interesting to note that during this time, for some reason, the Wagogo in Dodoma District, which had 14 chiefdoms, consisted of more females than males: 67,369 females compared with 59,238 males, making a total of 126, 607. Other tribes added up to 1,519 inhabitants, while Europeans and Asians added up to 879.

As Dodoma continued growing in importance, the population of the Wagogo reached 130,349 by 1931. However, the distribution of the Wagogo in a wide area spanning several districts seems to have created problems in administering them as one group. As a result, the colonial administration tried to merge and to split districts several times without meeting objectives.

One would be hard pressed to find another tribe in Tanzania, which engaged the colonial administration as much, in trying to rule them. For example, after declaring the sub-division of Mpwapwa a district in 1929, in January 1937 the districts of Dodoma, Manyoni and Mpwapwa were merged into one big Dodoma District “to bring the whole Gogo tribe, who were previously distributed into three districts into one district administration, thus allowing uniform direction of their affairs,” the colonialist explained.

It is great irony that a place, which was notorious for unlawful assembly should now be hosting the nation’s Parliament! However, later on, the plan to move the country’s capital was raised again but the scheme was still considered too ambitious and in 1959 it was vetoed by the British colonial government.

After independence, administering land of the Wagogo was not straightforward as it still involved splits and mergers like before.

For a start, the province, that was now renamed Central Region in February 1962, was six months later split into Dodoma Region consisting of the districts of Dodoma, Mpwapwa and Kondoa plus Kongwa sub-district; and Singida Region consisting of Iramba, Singida and Manyoni. Enough was enough though and finally, in 1973, the government under President Julius Nyerere, decided it was high time Dodoma became the capital of Tanzania.