Kinjikitile was a member of the
Matumbi people, living in what is now
Kilwa District of
Lindi Region in
Tanzania (then German East Africa, later
Tanganyika). The Matumbi practiced religious forms of
folk Islam. In 1904, the then relatively unknown Kinjikitile disappeared from his home in
Ngarambe. He returned after a few days and claimed that he had been possessed by a spirit medium called Hongo, believed to take the form of a snake. Kinjikitile claimed to have communicated with the deity
Bokera through the spirit Hongo. Kinjitkile's reputation grew rapidly, drawing followers from the 100,000 square kilometers the territory encompassed. He told his followers that their ancestors had commanded him to lead a rebellion against the
German colonial empire. Kinjikitile gave his people 'holy water' () - consisting of water mixed with
millet and
castor oil - claiming that it would protect them from German bullets. The rebellion is considered to have begun on 20 July 1905, with the symbolic destruction of a cotton field worked with
forced labour. After a group of Matumbi people attacked the home of a local official in July 1905, Kinjikitile was arrested by German troops. He was hanged for treason on August 4, 1905. or 200-300,000 Africans killed in the German suppression of the revolt. Present-day Tanzanians consider the failed rebellion to have been the first stirring of nationalism, and Kinjikitile "Bokero" Ngwale a proto-national hero. == Reception ==