Tanganyika had been acquired largely through the efforts of the German Colonization Society, founded by Dr. Karl Peters. This earned Peters, who was the Tanganyika colonial governor, the name “Milkono wa Damu,” meaning “Man with Blood on His Hands.”
One reason for the rebellion was the Germans’ forceful and invasive control of the region’s forests, which were important to regional commerce and filled with rubber, ivory and copal. The forests were also important to physical and spiritual healing since mediums derived authority and power from them for healing sicknesses and social ills.

