Tanzania & The Hunting Monks

[Kevin Peacocke]

Some time ago I reported on a visit to the Benedictine monastery of St. Ottilien, near Munich.
The present abbey was founded in 1898 by Cassian Spiß to missionize the - at that time non-Christian - population of Ungoni(Ruvuma Region). In 1931 Peramiho became a territorial abbey and thus the centre of the Benedictine mission in the southwest of today's Tanzania.
I asked the archivist of the monastery to pick out some hunting photos from the old days and he was kind enough to do so.
I would like to thank brother David for this (the address of a monk is brother, I did not know if this also applies to "civilians", but they did not hold it against me).
For all those interested in the history of this country, the monastery is a treasure trove of the first order.
I got the permission to take these pictures here and maybe one or the other of you will enjoy them as much as I did.

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two old warriors.
Maneater (lions and leopards) were a permanent problem, once they did not eat people, they robbed the station's cattle.

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The back of the photos is full of anger and fright against the lions

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The monks were generally good marksmen, almost all of them had military training.
During the war they were only used for sanitation purposes

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You may not think it possible, but 100 -120 years ago, there were more nuns than monks in Tanzania.
What courage and even more trust in God these ladies had to muster.
Unspeakable diseases, hunger, riots and more than 10,000 kilometres away from home to train people in handicrafts and schools and to spread the word of God, we can no longer imagine that time.
Here a nun with a self firing device (right word ?).
Again and again lions that made trouble.

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What a joy.
Young monk with a strong cape buffalo.

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Easy rider
Born to be wild

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Monk with an eland.
Does anyone recognise the rifle?

It was interesting to hear that the leadership of the mission took place in the monastery St.Ottilien (1 hour drive from Munich today)
But the military operations during the Kaiserreich of Wilhelm II. were not planned in Berlin (Arab riots on the coast and Sansibar,Wahehe,Maji Maji .....) but in Ingolstadt !!! (today the center of AUDI cars )
There is a military museum there, that I would like to visit.

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Leopard in the trap.

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a lion killed by spear in the eye.
On the back of the photo
"this is the lion that ate our carpenter Sebastian".

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-use enough gun

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Lions were a real plague for the people in that times
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these could be two Wanderobos warrior,
Wanderobos were impoverished Massai.

So ,and now I let it go.
I hope you have some joy, to see some hunting pictures from really old Africa.
Foxi

Fascinating! I believe the wine they made is still done today too.

 

[leslie hetrick]

as a young man two friends and i hunted small game with a priest in our area, he used a fine 20 ga fox double barrel shogun, he didn,t hunt large game.

 

[Foxi]

Hello folks,
thank you all for your kind words for my OLD AFRICA pics.Here a few further

Again and again self firing traps .
Again and again threats from the big cats of prey .
One hardly believes this today, but the big excitement seems to have been the lion plague.
Several monks have also risked their lives hunting them.

Schutztruppenoffizier of the German Empire with Sudan askaris.
A naval officer ? I am not very familiar with uniforms.
The army of the German Empire called itself "Schutztruppe" (protect troops) in the colonies.
Until the war in East Africa, it consisted exclusively of black soldiers, led by the whites and their NCOs (Effendis called).
The Sudan-Askaris from the Egyptian British Sudan had the best reputation.
Which were replaced by England for money.
An early forerunner of personnel leasing one might think.
These Sudanese were outstanding and hot-blooded because of their military skills.
England then stopped this programme because they could not and did not want to do without the Sudan (and Zulu) Askaris, because they needed them themselves and they did not want to give the German Empire such an advantage with well trained and warlike soldiers.

The famous Askari Order by Hermann von Wissmann, the conqueror of Tanzania (DOA in those times) under Reich Chancellor Bismarck .

"I will severely and ruthlessly punish any (white officer) who treats these soldiers and their wives unruly"

Without these guys Lettow Vorbeck (middle, general of the German troops in DOA during the 1st WW) would never have lasted so long. In 1926 Lettow-Vorbeck made sure that the Askaris received their promised pensions. During the Second World War the payments came to an end. The pensions of the Askaris were paid out again by the Federal Republic of Germany from the beginning of the 1960s until the death of the last Askaris at the end of the 1990s.

Lettow always spoke with great appreciation about the Askaris (and their support teams). This did not fit at all into the picture of the Nazis' racial mania. They would have liked to put him in front of their carts. So Goebbels and Hitler also dropped him- thank God.
(Beg your pardon for a little bit off topic)

I hardly know of any other picture that depicts the myth of OLD AFRICA as this one does.
This photo tells more than 100 books.
Just let it work for you too.

Regards from Munich
Foxi

 

[Wheels]

Thanks for the new photos and comments!

 

[Forrest]

Awesome photos and story. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Bullhunter]

Great story.
I had it in my arcives for decades also.

 

[Frederik]

Superb.

 

[Randy F]

Thank you both for sharing the history. Can't get enough of that. Keep it coming please.

 

[Foxi]

here are two more pictures of hunting monks from Tanzania.
The rifles are unknown to me.
Especially the one with the elephant.
At the buff cow ,also a Swiss K11 ?
Does anyone know it ?

Merry Christmas to you
Foxi

 

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

Great old pictures. Thanks for sharing Foxi.

 

[jacques smith]

Great stuff fellas, it truly is amazing to look back and compare to today. Makes u wish more history was available. Thanks so much

 

[Wheels]

Always enjoy your photos Foxi!

Thanks for the new post.

The elephant is certainly a keeper.

Frohe Weihnachten

 

[Red Leg]

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck is one of my great military heroes. The British had an almost mythical appreciation for him in the same way they did Erwin Rommel in the Second World War. Badly outnumbered, he ran the British in circles in East Africa throughout WWI and retained the initiative and the total loyalty of his native troops until the very end.

As @Foxi notes, he refused to be part of the Nazi movement, but due to his reputation both in Germany and internationally, he came to no harm from the regime. In the chaotic aftermath of the war, British officers saw to it that he was able to retain a hunting rifle in order to help provide for his family.

His autobiography and history of the East African campaign are really worth reading.

My reminiscences of East Africa book by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck

Signed, First Edition & Collectible copies of My Life | ThriftBooks

Thanks for posting such wonderful photos!

Frohe Weihnachten indeed!!

 

[mark-hunter]

Von Lettows East African campaign was most impressive, to British as well, as @Red Leg has put it.
Von Letow, never joined Nazi movement indeed, being a national hero, who never lost a battle on African soil, he surrendered after armstice, and on return home celebrated as national hero of Germany (later, 3rd Reich). Being non-Nazi, and national hero in the same time, he could not be removed, but he was left without means and out of govt service. In order to survive during worst period of Nazi regime, he was even selling buttons that he made from the antlers of his trophy stags. (pationate hunter, of Prussian military backgorunds, where hunting is part of tradition and heritage, so he had collection of red stag antlers, from pre ww1 time). Died 1964.

Proven to be quite the opposite from another notable German leader in east African capmaign in Tanganyika, Capt.Fregattenkapitän Adolf von Trotha, (SMS Konigsberg), a capable officer, who later quickly joined nazi party, and had very much different treatment in Hitlers Germany. SMS Konigsberg was a light cruiser in Kaisers Kreigsmarine, stuck in Rufiji Delta after short and succesful naval campaign in Indian Ocean, and later sunk by british (after numerous attempts). Before sinking, Von Trohta managed to salvage big guns from cruiser, and supplement Von Letows army with (quite) heavy artillery for reamianing of east african campaign. Von Trotha died at early stages of WW2, and burried with full militray honors, with Adolf Hitler present at funeral.

Anyway, Another book to reccomend:
African Kaiser, by Robert Gaudi

 

[Nyati]

Great pictures Foxi, thank you.

Frohe Weihnachten

 

[Foxi]

I still have a few pictures that I would like to bring in loose sequence.

Croc shot by a monk.Not a small one.

the caliber with which the monks in Tanzania shot the elephants was not known to me.
But I guess, it was the colonial bred and butter cartridge of the Germans 9,3x62

a strong Tom

when Im looking at the thick cover behind...........than Im happy not to search them.

the lioness has youth spots,but a mighty body

the kids really enjoy the python

lion skin ideal rug for the cottage

Monks with a Sable ( two ?).
The left gentleman wears Lederhosen (short leather pants ,typical old Bavarian costume).
It looks that he was just coming from Oktoberfest

this looks like a native granary

Unsharp, sorry for that.
But you can see-lions are heavy animals.

a rat trap

strong cat.
The archive of the monks in St. Ottilien is overflowing with stories and pictures of man-eating lions (and leopards)
Nobody knows anything about it.
Most people believe such animals existed only in Tsavo/ Kenya.

Lion in a self firing trap.



Tanzania has the highest population growth in Africa.
From 1960 to 2019, Tanzania's population increased from 10.07 !! million to 58.01 million.
In 2050 there will be 130 million people living there ,according to the UN
and the wilderness will have disappeared.
I hope I do not bore you with this picture cycle.
It would be only a pity if these time and picture documents disappear forever in the drawer and everything falls into oblivion.
This memory can be, thanks to AH, but at least preserve.
Thanks for watching this.

Regards from Munich.
Foxi

 

[Randy F]

Very nice, thank you for sharing them.

 

[Newboomer]

Fascinating! thanks for the history lesson. I have had the privilege of hunting our Canadian elk with a Benedictine monk who accompanied my father and me on some hunts until he retired from hunting at 80 years of age. He also was a WWII Canadian Air Force veteran, and our parish priest serving the Catholic citizens of our small rural town. A very interesting man of many talents. Knowing him makes me feel more connected to this story.

Just out of curiosity, why did he become a monk after serving in the military? Was there something traumatic in his service that affected his life?

 

[Pondoro]

Foxi, your photos are very much a part of african hunting history.. We seem to forget that Germany had 4 colonies in Afrika and that the germans did a LOT of big game hunting...suffice to say that great big game cartridges like 9,3x62-64 and 9,3x74R came about for this reason and still have a great following. I recently bought a double rifle in the latter and I am very pleased with it..

Also have a .500 Schüler in the make..

 

[Foxi]

Just out of curiosity, why did he become a monk after serving in the military? Was there something traumatic in his service that affected his life?

I don't think so, the rulers all demanded compulsory military service.
Service for the fatherland was also in demand among the monks and in case of war they reported for medical service, but could also join the fighting troops.
Since the defeat against Napoleon in 1807, all young men were called to serve in the army for a certain period of time.
In the Treaty of Versailles it was forbidden in 1919, Hitler reintroduced it and in our country it has been abolished since 2011 (I think).
Americans, Englishmen and some others do not know such a thing.
In the Civil War there was a compulsory military service for you(I think so), but you could buy yourself out of it.Money makes it possible.