TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.
—The transcriber of this project created the book coverimage using the title page of the original book. The imageis placed in the public domain.
My Reminiscences of East Africa
General von Lettow-Vorbeck.
My Reminiscences
of East Africa
By General von Lettow-Vorbeck
With Portrait, 22 Maps and Sketch-Maps,
∷——∷——and 13 Drawings——∷——∷
By General von Lettow-Vorbeck’s Adjutant
LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, LTD.
PATERNOSTER HOUSE, E.C.
PREFACE
IN all the German colonies, though but a few decades old, a lifefull of promise was discernible. We were beginning to understandthe national value of our colonial possessions; settlers andcapital were venturing in; industries and factories were beginningto flourish. Compared with that of other nations, the colonizingprocess of Germany had progressed peacefully and steadily, and theinhabitants had confidence in the justice of German administration.This development had barely commenced when it was destroyed bythe world war. In spite of all tangible proofs to the contrary, anunjustifiable campaign of falsehood is being conducted in order tomake the world believe that the Germans lacked colonizing talentand were cruel to the natives.
A small force, mainly composed of these very natives, opposed thisdevelopment. Almost without any external means of coercion, evenwithout immediate payment, this force, with its numerous nativefollowers, faithfully followed its German leaders throughout the wholeof the prolonged war against a more than hundredfold superiority.When the armistice came it was still fit to fight, and imbued with thebest soldierly spirit. That is a fact which cannot be controverted,and is in itself a sufficient answer to the hostile mis-statements.
It has not been possible for me to give an exhaustive account of theoperations of the German East African Protective Force. Theexisting material is insufficient, much has been lost, and even now Iam unacquainted with various events, the actors in which have notyet returned home. My own records have for the most part been lost,and I had not the leisure to prepare a detailed description of the campaignin East Africa in addition to my other duties. My account istherefore necessarily incomplete. In the main I must rely upon mymemory and on my personal experiences. Errors in detail are unavoidable.
But in spite of this, the following account may not be without value,nor perhaps without interest, since it shows how what is up to thepresent the greates