Kinjikitile Ngwale

Kinjikitile "Bokero" Ngwale, also spelled Kinjeketile, (died 4 August 1905) was a spiritual medium and leader of the 1904–1905 Maji Maji Rebellion against colonial rule in German East Africa (present-day Tanzania).

Biography 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 4 August 1905. or 200,000–300,000 Africans killed in the German suppression of the revolt.