PART ONE: BACKGROUND AND SCENARIOS

In my previous series on wargaming 19th century "Darkest Africa", I presented a few ideas for scenarios from the period of European exploration, rather
than that of actual conquest. One reason for concentrating on the former was the feeling that a lot of the campaigns of the 1880s and 90s which led to the
establishment of the colonial empires were too one-sided to make enjoyable games. Furthermore, it is difficult to refute the argument that - gruesome as
warfare in general may be as a subject for light entertainment - recreating the machine-gunning of naked spearmen is going just a bit too far.
But not all African colonies were brought under European control by the application of overwhelming force against all and sundry, and not all of the
resistance consisted of ill-equipped tribesmen defending their homes and families. The case of what was to become British Nyasaland is an especially
interesting one. Here, the locals enthusiastically welcomed British support against the slave traders who had been preying on them, but the government in
London was very reluctant to take on the obligation of administering the territory. The result was that the first British war against the slavers was
undertaken by a private company, and even after a Protectorate was finally established in 1891, the only forces available to continue the war were a ragbag
of company-sized detachments from the Indian Army, naval landing parties, and half-trained local African auxiliaries.
Consequently, neither phase of the campaign was a walkover: in fact on the first occasion the slavers fought the British to a standstill, and emerged if
anything the winners from the peace treaty. The whole affair is little-known, but from a wargaming point of view it provides a wealth of unusual forces and
scenarios. So in the first part of this article I shall beg the indulgence of those who object to "potted history", and briefly outline the course of the military
operations in Nyasaland between 1887 and 1896, concluding with a more detailed look at a few actions with particular potential as scenarios for
wargaming. Then in the second part, I propose to conclude with some notes on the organisation, equipment and appearance of the various forces involved.
TRADERS AND SLAVERS IN NYASALAND, 1887 TO 1895:
A NEGLECTED AFRICAN CAMPAIGN
BY CHRIS PEERS
War By Private Enterprise, 1887 - 1889
Lake Nyasa is the most southerly of the chain of great lakes which lie along
the line of the Rift Valley down the eastern side of central Africa. Its
western shore, which was to become the British Protectorate of Nyasaland
(nowadays Malawi), is a fertile region of mountains and forests, occupied
by a dense farming population - Chewa, Nyanja, Nkonde and other
tribespeople. The Portuguese had passed through the area centuries ago,
but the lake was only "discovered" officially in 1859 by Livingstone, who
as far as is known was the first white man to actually stand on its shores.
Ever since then the Scottish missionary community had taken a special
interest in the region, and its missionaries had been working there
intermittently since the early 1860s. In 1875 the Free Church of Scotland
established its Livingstonia Mission on the north-western shore, while the
rival Church of Scotland set up its own operation south of the lake at
Blantyre - a settlement named after Livingstone's Scottish birthplace.
Subscriptions raised from Glasgow businessmen helped to pay for a
wood-burning steamer on the lake, which could be reached from the
Indian Ocean via the Zambezi and Shire rivers.
All this progress was being made while huge tracts of the continent to the
north still remained completely unexplored, but the next stage - that of
colonial occupation - was surprisingly long delayed. By the late 1880s the
Portuguese in Mozambique had laid claim to most of the eastern shore of
the lake, as well as the approaches along the lower Zambezi, and the new
German possessions in Tanganyika had been recognised as extending as
far as its northern extremity (although neither power had yet achieved
effective control in these territories). To the west, the British annexed
Bechuanaland in 1885, and Cecil Rhodes was already casting covetous
eyes on Matabeleland. Nyasaland, as it was soon to be called, was
generally accepted as being within the British sphere of influence, but
Lord Salisbury's government was, as always, unwilling to take on more
territorial responsibilities. Meanwhile, however, the missionaries were in
trouble.
The Lake Nyasa region, with its relatively peaceful and vulnerable
population, had a long history of attracting human predators. In the 1830s
the Ngoni, a splinter group fleeing from the troubles of the "Mfecane" in
South Africa, had descended on the region. They were still there fifty
years later up in the hills, living as they always had by plundering and
terrorising the farmers. Then - from the east this time - came another
aggressive tribe, the Yao, who had taken to slave-raiding with enthusiasm,
using guns bought from the Arabs with the proceeds of previous raids. The
Arab slavers themselves arrived in the 1860s, and set up fortified bases
from which to carry on their depredations. With their help, Nyasaland soon
became the last stronghold of the slave trade in eastern Africa.
The missionaries had put their heads right into the lion's mouth. Luckily
for them, however, they were no longer the only white people in the area,
for British traders were also moving in and establishing "legitimate"
trading stations under the umbrella of the African Lakes Company, which
was founded in 1878. The two parties together managed to persuade the
British government to appoint a Consul for the region, with responsibility
for trying to get the slave trade stopped. This was a bizarre situation, as the
Consul was not accredited to any state, and had no resources whatever to
back up his authority. He was simply an irritation to the slavers, who were
also antagonised by the missionaries' practice of giving refuge to escaped
slaves at their settlements.
Late in 1887, one of the most powerful of the Arab slavers, Mlozi, moved
against the peaceful Nkonde people who lived around the African Lakes
Company's station at Karonga's, not far from Livingstonia. Having
massacred the Nkonde, his next move was to try to eliminate the station
itself. His first attack was held off for a while by a handful of white men
and native station employees under the command of the Consul, a Mr.
O'Neill. Luckily, 5000 Nkonde from another branch of the tribe were
brought in in the nick of time and raised the siege, but the Arabs built a
stockaded village only a few miles away, and effectively blockaded the
place.
The defenders were short of supplies and ammunition, and so reluctantly
decided to evacuate Karonga's and take refuge with the friendly tribesmen.
The Arabs burnt the station to the ground, but in March 1888 the joint
manager of the Lakes Company, Fred Moir, returned with a force of eight
Europeans and 500 Africans to reoccupy and rebuild it. He went on to
attack Mlozi's stockade, but failed. The enemy responded by erecting
several more fortified encampments in the vicinity, intensifying the
blockade.
Enter Captain Lugard
O'Neill had meanwhile returned to the coast and set about scraping
together a proper relief expedition. But there were no regular troops
available, and the British government washed its hands of the whole
business, on the grounds that the area was "beyond Her Majesty's
dominions". The Company was going to have write off its investment and
abandon the missionaries to their fate, or else fight the war by itself. At this
point, as if in answer to the Consul's prayers, Captain F. D. Lugard arrived
out of the blue, on a steamer from Zanzibar. Lugard was later to make his
name by the pacification of Uganda, and eventually became the virtual
creator of the colony of Nigeria. This was his first African campaign. A
veteran of several campaigns in India and Burma, he was now on extended
sick leave from the Indian Army. He had been disappointed in love, and in
true Victorian style was looking for a cause which he could usefully die
for. After wandering aimlessly down the East African coast he fetched up
in Mozambique, where O'Neill snapped him up and sent him on to
Blantyre.
At this stage Lugard was utterly oblivious to his own safety, and on the trip
upriver he gained quite a reputation for apparently trying to catch lions
with his bare hands. But somehow his escort got him there in one
the steamer.
This vessel, the "Ilala", was scarcely big enough for all of the men and
their baggage, and the voyage was made alarming as well as
uncomfortable by the sparks from her funnel which rained down
indiscrminately on both the passengers and their powder barrels, but on
the 27th they arrived safely at Deep Bay, just south of their goal. Here,
where the lake is only about 15 miles wide, supply caravans for the Arabs
were transported across from the eastern shore in canoes. Lugard devised
a hasty plan to capture one which had just arrived, bound for Mlozi. The
idea was that the "Ilala" would land his force on a nearby headland at
piece. At
Blantyre he met Fred Moir, who offered him the command of the relief
expedition. So far, Moir explained, only three of the slaving warlords had
actually taken up arms against the white men - Mlozi, the ringleader, and
his allies Kopa-Kopa and Msalema. But unless Karonga's was relieved
quickly and British prestige restored, others would surely join them, and
the whites might be chased out of the territory altogether. The appeal to
Lugard's patriotism - not to mention the chance of getting killed - was
irresistible.
So on 24th May 1888 the expedition set out. In addition to Lugard there
were 17 other white men - Company employees, volunteers from the
missions, and seven South African mercenaries. Most of the whites had
little or no military experience, but on the whole they performed well in
their unaccustomed role. The best of them was a former elephant hunter,
Alfred Sharpe, who had been among the defenders of Karonga's against
Mlozi. He spoke the local Chinyanja tongue fluently, and was later to be
employed as Vice-Consul under the British administration. He was given
the task of recruiting native allies at the Free Church Mission at Bandawi
and taking them overland to Karonga's, while the other whites travelled on
night, and they would then launch a surprise attack on the Arab camp. This
operation was not a resounding success, as the enemy saw the steamer
coming - the sparks from the funnel were a bit of a giveaway in the dark -
and escaped. But on 28th May the expedition reached Karonga's, where
another six white Lakes Company employees joined them.
Lugard found the station in a bit of a mess. There were no sanitary
arrangements, and heaps of dry grass, thatched native huts, kegs of
gunpowder, and even piles of loose powder were all jammed together in
close proximity within a flimsy wooden stockade. The enemy had
obviously missed a golden opportunity by not setting fire to the place! But
the new commander quickly put things in order. He demolished the
natives' houses and established a new camp for them nearby, outside the
stockade, then set up a proper roster for the sentries, and built a fireproof
magazine and houses for the Europeans.
However, Lugard had no intention of waiting to be attacked. On 1st June
he went out with the senior Lakes Company man at the station, Monteith,
and five natives, to reconnoitre two Arab stockades about seven miles
from Karonga's. These were the strongholds of Kopa-Kopa and Msalema.
Early the next morning, the party was spotted by the enemy and had to
make a hasty retreat. They succeeded in escaping after an exchange of
shots, but the incident was unfortunate in the long run, as the
reconnaissance had been only half completed. Five days later Sharpe
arrived at Karonga's with 190 Tonga allies. (The men of this largely
Christian tribe had been recommended by the missionary Dr. Laws as the
most reliable recruits.) By now the expedition had about 300 native
from the Tanganyika plateau, and
the rest Tonga. With these reinforcements - and without delaying for
further reconnaissance, since he was worried that his amateur soldiers
might lose their enthusiasm if they had to remain inactive for long - Lugard
went onto the offensive.
The first attack was against Kopa-Kopa, and it was a disaster (see the
scenario below for details). For the second time Lugard had displayed his
talent for going off half-cocked and launching himself at the enemy
without proper preparation. Although its casualties were not heavy the
force failed to storm the stockade, and returned in disarray to Karonga's.
Lugard himself did not manage to get killed, but he was seriously
wounded, and temporarily lost the use of both arms. Despite this setback,
however, his men continued to patrol aggressively, and they soon
dominated the open country.
auxiliaries: some 50 Yao, 50 Mambwe,
On 17th July another sortie by Monteith to Deep Bay led to the capture of a
flotilla of canoes and the seizure of a good supply of loot from the slavers.
This success was largely due to the leader of the Atongas, Djenzi - "a
gigantic savage" says Lugard, and "among the bravest natives I have ever
met". For the next few months, desultory fighting continued. The wooden
stockade at Karonga's was replaced by a loopholed burnt-brick wall, and
arrangements were made for a cannon to be brought up on the steamer. An
envoy from the Sultan of Zanzibar turned up and began peace negotiations
with the slavers. But these dragged on inconclusively, the gun failed to
arrive, and by the end of the year everyone was becoming demoralised by
disease, shortage of food and other frustrations.
A bizarre incident occurred on 23rd December, when the partially
recovered Lugard was camped at Deep Bay with 25 Tonga soldiers. A
dhow sent by the Arabs on the eastern shore of Lake Nyasa anchored off
the shore at night, apparently with the aim of landing a cargo of guns for
Mlozi. Lugard and his men raced to the spot and rushed out into the
shallow water, but found that a deep channel ran between the ship and the
shore. As neither side could get at the other, a firefight ensued, in which
Lugard's sporting guns in the hands of himself and his servants could be
seen to blow holes in the vessel's wooden planking. Lugard and his men
got hold of a canoe and paddled out towards the dhow, but had to turn back
in the face of the defenders' fire. The enemy were left to sail back across
the lake. It was later discovered that the bulletholes from the heavy rifles
had nearly sunk her, and that 18 of her fighting crew of 35 had been either
killed outright or fatally wounded. The eastern Arabs had learned their
lesson, and soon afterwards sent messengers to declare their friendship for
the British.
On 16th January 1889 the long-awaited artillery piece - a 7-pounder
breech-loader - finally arrived. Mlozi was still spinning out the
negotiations, and by this time Lugard's force was on the verge of
disintegration. So a track was cleared to within range of Kopa-Kopa's and
Msalema's stockades, and on 20th February the gun was brought up to
bombard them. This time no attempt was made to assault the
fortifications. Again the operation was unsuccessful, mainly because the
ammunition for the gun proved unreliable. Another bombardment on 13th
March was more effective, but still produced no decisive results. It
seemed that the Arabs' resistance was being prolonged by encouraging
reports of the success of their compatriots - the Abushiri rebels - against
the Germans on the coast.
The Empire Takes A Hand
So the slavers were by no means defeated when, on 15th March, Lugard
departed for England. The war settled down to a stalemate. Events in
Europe, however, had now begun to dictate the fate of Nyasaland. It had
become known in London that a Portuguese expedition under a Major
Serpa Pinto was preparing to march up the Zambezi from Mozambique.
Ostensibly this was a scientific survey destined for the territory on the
south-eastern shore of Lake Nyasa which had already been allocated to
Portugal, but Portuguese secrecy and the size of the expedition - 700 native
soldiers had been recruited - aroused fears that it might be intended to
occupy the country around Blantyre.
So Harry Johnston, who had taken over from O'Neill as Consul for the
region, went up the Zambezi and met Serpa Pinto, whose assurances failed
to satisfy him. Johnston then proceeded northwards, making treaties with
the local warlords in an attempt to secure British influence before the
Portuguese could intervene. In October he arrived at Karonga's. He took
command of the garrison, and immediately concluded peace with Mlozi,
effectively recognising the status quo. The slavers agreed not to molest the
Nkonde or other allies of the African Lakes Company, and to evacuate one
of the two stockades threatening Karonga's. In the event they did not do
even this much, and must surely have considered the campaign so far to
have been a resounding victory for them.
Meanwhile, war with the Portuguese had been narrowly averted, and in
1891 a formal British Protectorate was proclaimed over what was now
called "British Central Africa". Johnston was appointed Commissioner
and Consul-General, with Alfred Sharpe as Vice-Consul. The way was
now open for the territory to receive some proper financial and military
support. This was just as well, because the peace was not destined to last.
For the first time a proper military force was now put together at Chiromo
in the south of the new territory. Johnston had a staff of four officers from
the Royal Engineers, and Captain Maguire of the Hyderabad Lancers was
sent from India with a contingent of Sikhs and a few Indian cavalrymen.
Two gunboats, the "Herald" and "Mosquito", were brought up from the
Zambezi under Commander Keane, R.N. Weapons and equipment were
provided to form Lugard's Tonga auxiliaries into a uniformed native police
force. Two African Lakes Company steamers, the "Ilala" and "Domira",
were also now at Johnston's disposal.
By this time British settlers had begun to establish coffee plantations south
of Lake Nyasa, and an outbreak of fighting between them and a local Yao
chief provided the first test of the new army. Captain Maguire and the
Sikhs made short work of the Yao, who submitted after a couple of days'
fighting. Then Johnston and Maguire, with 70 Indians, nine Zanzibaris
and a 7-pounder gun, marched up to the lake to attempt to mediate between
more warring Yao factions. The main troublemaker was a chief named
Mponda, who was still raiding for slaves as vigorously as ever. About a
quarter of a mile from Mponda's village the expedition built a stockade,
named Fort Johnston, which later grew into a major British base. When the
chief refused to release his slaves, Johnston began to fire incendiary shells
from the 7-pounder into the village. Mponda had at least one muzzle-
loading cannon with which he tried to reply to the bombardment, but his
artillery was outranged, and he was quickly forced to come to terms. Two
other Yao chiefs, Makandanji and his powerful overlord Zarafi, then
followed suit.
A String of Disasters
After that, one thing after another went wrong for the British. A force
under one of Johnstons Vice-Consuls, John Buchanan, was sent against
the hilltop stronghold of another Yao chief, Kawinga. This force was
repulsed with several killed or wounded, among the latter being Captain
Maguire. Then on 15th December Maguire set out in the steamer
Domira to capture two dhows belonging to yet another hostile chief,
Makanjira, which had been hidden along the lake shore. The Captain
landed on the beach with 28 Indian soldiers, and was preparing to destroy
the dhows when Makanjira appeared with 2000 warriors. The little party
ran for the shore, only to find that the boat which had ferried them from the
"Domira" had been thrown onto some rocks and wrecked. The steamer
tried to get as close inshore as possible to rescue the shore party, but ran
aground on a sandbank within musket range of the enemy. A volley of fire
from the Yao killed three of the soldiers on the beach, and wounded the
master and the second engineer on board the "Domira". Maguire ordered
his men to swim to the steamer, but as he prepared to follow them he was
shot dead. This was by no means the end of the ordeal. The "Domira"
remained aground for five days, during which time the Yao lured a party
including two white men ashore under a flag of truce, and then massacred
them. Eventually the wounded engineer managed to get the steamer off
the bank, and the traumatised survivors made their escape.
At this point Zarafi also turned against the British, and attacked Fort
Johnston. After Christmas Johnston led a force to take on Zarafi at his base
in the nearby hills, but was forced to call off the operation when all his
porters ran away. He admits in his book that this was a stroke of luck,
because the enemy was much stronger than he had realised, and an attack
would certainly have met with disaster. This is exactly what did happen in
February 1892, when Mr. J. G. King, whom Johnston had left in command
of the fort, took advantage of the appearance of a large force of Ngoni -
traditional enemies of the Yao - and marched out against Zarafi.
As soon as they reached the base of the hills, the Yao came out in strength
and attacked. The Ngoni, it appears, ran away at once. King was badly
wounded by a musket ball, and the whole expedition was routed. It was
saved from annihilation by a naval Petty Officer, Mr. Inge, who manned
the 7-pounder gun in a desperate delaying action until the ammunition ran
out. Inge got away, but the gun was captured. Meanwhile the triumphant
Makanjira launched a series of successful attacks on fellow chiefs who
had kept the peace with the British. The future of the Protectorate looked
very uncertain.
In June 1892, however, welcome reinforcements arrived. Captain C. E.
Johnson of the 36th Sikhs was sent out to replace Maguire and reorganise
the demoralised Indian forces. Then Lieutenant Robertson, RN, turned up
with three more gunboats, followed by an expedition led by Major von
Wissmann of the German Anti-Slavery Society. The Germans had their
own steamer, which they made available to the British for operations on
Lake Nyasa.
The Final Pacification
The year 1893 saw the situation stabilise somewhat, as the administration
of the Protectorate was put on a stable footing, and a network of roads and
forts was established. With the addition of another hundred Sikhs, the
British forces were by now far stonger than they had been before.
Nevertheless fighting continued, as various Yao chiefs revolted in an
unco-ordinated fashion. Makanjira concentrated against Jumbe of
Kotakota, an Arab potentate allied with the British. An expedition was
sent to help Jumbe, and the Sikhs distinguished themselves by storming
the stronghold of an ally of Makanjira, Chiwaura. A fort was built in
Makanjira's country, but the Yao were far from disheartened, and early in
1894 launched an attack on the fort. Makanjira was not finally defeated
until the following year, when he was driven across the border into
Portuguese territory by Major Edwards - now Johnston's commander in
the field - with a mixed force of Sikh and Tonga soldiers. Zarafi was also
defeated during this campaign. His hilltop capital at Mangoche Mountain
was taken after a week of heavy fighting, and the captured 7-pounder gun
recovered (Johnston makes no mention of the Yao ever attempting to use
this gun against its former owners). It was time to try conclusions with the
man who had started all the trouble - Mlozi.
Mlozi had not been idle while the Protectorate forces were advancing from
the south. He had recruited a large number of troops from the Bemba tribe
to the west, and was obviously preparing for another attack on Karonga's.
In July 1895 Johnston travelled up to Karonga's to try and persuade the
Arabs to keep the peace, but Mlozi responded with threats. It was the
Arabs' custom to undertake operations against the whites during the rainy
season, when malaria was more common and European armies - and
especially their artillery - found it difficult to travel. So Johnston realised
that he would have to settle the issue before the rains began in the
following January. By late November he had collected a force of 100 Sikhs
and 300 Africans, with a strong force of artillery commanded by the senior
naval officer on Lake Nyasa, Commander Cullen. The little army was
ferried up the lake to Karonga's with the aid of the "Domira" and the
German steamer "Wissmann", lent for the occasion by Captain Berndt.
On 2nd December 1895 the British arrived outside Kopa-Kopa's and
Msalema's stockades, and opened fire with the artillery. The contrast with
Lugard's efforts was astonishing. The enemy returned fire briefly, but after
a short time they abandoned both fortifications and retired. It seems that
Kopa-Kopa had already decided to make only a brief demonstration
before joining Mlozi in his main village, about eleven miles from
Karonga's. The same afternoon, Johnston's men marched on to Mlozi's
headquarters and began the attack. The "Ever-Victorious Army" as the
force had by now been nicknamed, eventually fought its way into Mlozi's
village. The Arab leader himself was captured and hanged. After this
victory, the rest was just mopping up. The last of the Yao rebels were
driven out of the territory; a final raid by the Ngoni was thwarted; and by
the time Johnston was sent home with fever in May 1896, British control
over Nyasaland had been firmly established.
Some Scenarios For Wargaming.
It should be obvious from the above narrative that this period is full of
incidents which could be reconstructed as wargames - Lugard's failed
reconnaissance of Kopa-Kopa's stockade, for example; or his firefight
with the Arab dhow; or Makanjira's ambush and killing of Captain
Maquire. In the original sources, which will be listed at the end of Part
Two, will be found many more possibilities, which there is not space to
mention here. The three which I have selected, however, will at least give
an idea of the sort of operations which were typical of the campaign. As
we are well within the period covered by any number of "colonial" rules
sets, I do not propose to make any specific recommendations as regards
rules. I hope you will find, however, that the little battles in Nyasaland
make an interesting change from the colonial wargamer's usual diet of
Dervishes and Zulus.
The Attack on Kopa-Kopa, June 1888
For the first attack on Kopa-Kopa's stockade near the African Lakes
Company's station at Karonga's, Captain Lugard fielded a force of about
300 native askaris and 17 white men. These were organised as follows:
1 company of 50 Mambwe spearmen
1 company of 50 Yao musketeers
5 companies each of about 40 Tonga askaris, roughly half armed with
Snider breechloaders, and half with muskets
In order to force a way through the enemy stockade, Lugard had equipped
several men in each company with axes, powder kegs and improvised
bangalore torpedoes made out of brass tubing filled with gunpowder.
Each company also had a white officer and two other Europeans
accompanying it. Two doctors were detailed to set up a dressing station
near a prominent "hospital tree" in the rear.
The size of Kopa-Kopa's force is not known. Lugard's pre-battle
reconnaissance had been faulty, and he was basically attacking an enemy
of unknown strength in a defensive position which had not been properly
surveyed. (How you go about persuading your players to do anything so
crazy is your problem.) As a rough guide, there must have been several
hundred slavers inside the stockade, mostly Yao or Bemba tribesmen with
a handful of Arab officers. All would be armed with muskets.
Tactically, Lugard's plan of attack was simple to the point of
foolhardiness. The men were deployed under cover of darkness, about
200 yards from the village. At first light they advanced quietly to within
50 yards, then raised a cheer and charged. Falling into hidden gullies and
scrambling out again, their leading elements reached the defences, only to
find that what they had taken to be merely a wooden fence on top of a bank
was in fact something much more elaborate - in Lugard's words, "a solid
mud-wall, some six feet high, and perforated with minute loop-holes!
Above the wall rose the poles of the stockade, some 14 ft. high, intertwined
with thorns."
At this point it turned out that the men with the axes and explosives were
nowhere to be seen. In fact most of the natives had failed to join in the
charge, and the whites and a few of the braver askaris were stranded in
front of the stockade with no way of forcing a way through. And the Arabs
were waiting for them. According to Lugard's diary:
"It was still too dark to see anything distinctly, but flashes of flame in the
wall showed us that it was loop-holed, and manned on the other side by the
Slavers, who had been sleeping on their posts with their guns beside
them... There was a very heavy fire kept up through these invisible loop-
holes; every now and then a flash in front of one showed that another step
forward would have resulted in a ball through one's body."
In this crisis Lugard did the only thing he could think of: he grabbed hold
of a branch sticking out from the palisade and started to climb over,
shouting to the others to follow him. Almost at once he was hit by a musket
ball, which passed first through one arm and then the other, grazing his
chest on the way. He fell to the ground, believing that he was mortally
wounded, and allowed Sharpe, who was next to him, to carry him off the
field.
The rest of the men immediately fell back until Sharpe rallied them, still
under heavy if inaccurate enemy fire, in a gully about 80 yards away. But
the attack had obviously failed, and so the little force returned to its base at
Karonga's. Serious casualties had in fact been remarkably light - three
Europeans, including Lugard, and 14 Africans. It appears that the Arabs
were unable to aim properly through the loopholes in the wall and could
only fire blindly straight ahead, so that it was a matter of luck whether they
hit anyone or not. Lugard even expressed doubt whether some of the
muskets were firing live rounds at all. This is something which should be
taken into account when devising or adapting rules for this scenario, but if
the attackers had persisted in trying to climb over the stockade, or had
managed to blow a breach in the wall and storm through, their casualties
must surely have been far higher. Lugard later admitted that he had been
lucky to be wounded when he was, for as soon as he had got to the top of the
palisade he would almost certainly have been shot in the head instead.
Obviously the crucial factor in this game is the morale of Lugard's men. If
the explosives can be brought to the front as they were supposed to be, then
they have a good chance. Later experience (see Johnston's attack on
Mlozi's village, below) suggests that the Arabs would have broken once
the attackers were inside the stockade. If this happens, therefore, they
should immediately have to take a very tough morale test.
Another late 19th century source, Sidney Hinde's "The Fall of the Congo
Arabs" (1897), has some useful information on how Arab fortifications
were constructed - explaining, among other things, exactly how the mud
walls were loopholed. Although Kopa-Kopa's stockade differed in some
details, Hinde's description is worth quoting here:
"...the slaves plant this timber (saplings 12 to 15 feet high) in a circle of
about fifty yards in diameter, inside which the chiefs and officers establish
themselves. A trench is then dug and the earth thrown up against the
palisades, in which banana stalks, pointing in different directions (ie.
horizontally), are laid. Round the centre, and following the inequalities of
the ground, a second line of stakes is planted, this second circle being
perhaps three or four hundred yards in diameter. Another trench is then
dug in the same way, with bananas planted, as before, in the earthwork.
The interval between the two lines of fortification is occupied by the
troops. If the boma is only to be occupied for two or three days, this is all
that is usually done to it; but if it is intended for a longer stay, a trench is dug
outside the palisades. The object of using banana stalks in this manner is
ingenious. Within four or five hours they shrink, and on being withdrawn
from the earth leave loopholes, through which the defenders can fire
without exposing themselves. Little huts are built all over the interior of
the fort, and these huts are also very ingeniously devised, and are
furthermore bomb-proof. They consist of a hole dug a yard and a half deep,
and covered with wood. This wood forms a ceiling, over which the earth
from the interior is placed to the depth of a couple of feet, and a thatched
roof placed over all to keep off the rain... The whole fort is often divided
into four or more sections by a palisade and trenches, so that if one part of it
is stormed the storming party finds itself in a crossfire - a worse position
than when actually trying to effect an entrance."
Some ideas there for enterprising terrain builders!
The Defence of Fletchers Boma, May 1895
This next scenario reverses the roles, and pits an attacking slaver force
against "British" defenders. Early in 1895 the Yao warlord Kawinga, who
had previously made peace with the Protectorate but had so far never been
defeated in battle, decided to change sides. Fortunately for the British, he
signalled his intentions by starting off with a few raids against a chief
named Malemia, whose village served as a base for the Church of
Scotland missionaries. So a small party of troops was sent to protect
Malemia and guard the approaches to the main station at nearby Domasi.
This force consisted of:
1 British Corporal, William Fletcher.
1 Tonga Sergeant, Bandawe.
6 Sikhs.
"A few" Tonga askaris - say 20 or so, for game purposes.
All the above armed with Snider breechloading rifles.
(It is a revealing comment on the attitudes of the time that the white
corporal was unquestioningly assumed to outrank the black sergeant!)
Fletcher's party built itself a small stockade, or "boma", and settled down
for what they must have imagined was no more than a spell of guard duty.
A couple of days later Kawinga attacked. But this was no minor raid; he
had raised some 2000 Yao and allied Nguru tribesmen, and was clearly
intending to sweep through Domasi, link up with his fellow warlord
Zarafi, and then push on to take Blantyre itself. Finding "Fletcher's boma"
in his path, he launched his men straight at it. But the defenders of this
miniature Rorke's Drift replied with deadly accurate rifle fire, which
threw back one assault after another. The fight continued until the British
ammunition was running short, at which point the Yao had suffered over a
hundred casualties. Then, just in the nick of time, two white planters
appeared at the head of a relief force of Tonga soldiers. Sergeant Bandawe
"proposed" to Fletcher that they should charge the wavering enemy
(which I suppose was how an African took command in those days), and
so the defenders sallied out. They fired off the last of their ammunition,
and then went in with the bayonet. Kawinga's men broke, and were
pursued for miles by the Sikhs and Tonga, many prisoners being taken.
The revolt was over almost as soon as it had begun.
For Kawinga's people, you will need truckloads of Yao and similar
musketeers - all the figures you can get, plus a lot more. It is not certain
that all the attackers were musket-armed, but presumably the majority
who were would have been well to the front. Bearing in mind Johnston's
comments on Yao tactics (see Part Two), it is unlikely that these would
have charged Zulu-style. Presumably they fought in their usual
skirmishing fashion, but they were decisively outranged by the Sniders.
For game purposes, the defender's task is simply to hold off the attackers
for a predetermined (perhaps randomly selected) number of moves -
although he will not necessarily know in advance exactly how many
moves. Obviously ammunition supply was a crucial factor in the actual
battle, but this is difficult to account for in games without a lot of fiddly
bookkeeping. Probably the best solution is to assume that the ammunition
will providentially run out at the same time as the relief force arrives, and
for the game to finish at that point.
The attacking player can bring on as many figures as he has available, and
keep on bringing back the casualties as reinforcements. It will probably
occur to him that he has a better chance if he just charges in with spears,
rather than engaging in a firefight in which his men will be at a
disadvantage. If the troop classifications reflect reality, though, his men
will not be all that keen to do this, and will be sufficiently inferior in
equipment and morale to ensure that they cannot just walk all over the
defenders. The objectives are straightforward: the British will win the
game if they are still around at the end. If they are wiped out or overrun,
they will lose!
The Storming of Mlozi's Village, December 1895
Mlozi's "village" was in fact a fairly large town, covering about half a
square mile and protected by an impressive system of defences. Johnston
describes it thus:

"...A rather remarkable stockade which consisted of a double fence of
withies thoroughly coated with hard clay and with a flat roof of wooden
beams, thatch and clay. This hollow stockade was cut up by transverse
partitions into innumerable dwellings. It was loopholed in two rows and
pits were dug below the level of the ground for the shelter of the defenders
who fired from the upper and the lower loopholes. Here and there angles
of the stockade were guarded by specially strong bastions, and in most
places there was a kind of moat below the glacis of the stockade. At
intervals small gateways had been made, their doors being of heavy hewn
planks and the passages through the doorway into the town most intricate.
It was an admirable stockade for the purpose as shells had no effect on it,
merely making a round hole as they passed through, the resistance being
too weak to cause any breach to be made by an exploding shell."
The forces involved in the battle on the British side were:
100 Sikhs
300 Tonga askaris
10 British officers
About 700 Nkonde, armed only with spears, who were supposed to be
non-combatants.
"A strong force" of artillery. This obviously played an important role, but
unfortunately Johnston neglects to tell us exactly what it consisted of. As
in Lugard's day the appearance of a single gun had been considered
decisive, a "strong force" need not have meant more than about four or five
pieces. At least one was a 9-pounder, manned by a naval detachment. The
Navy also provided a single Nordenfelt gun.
As usual we have no details of the Arab forces, but as they suffered several
hundred casualties during the fighting, we can assume that there must have
been at least a thousand or so to start with. All of them would be armed
with muskets, but the comments made above about their effectiveness
would still apply. Johnston says that their fire "was rather high and the
bullets whistled harmlessly over our heads". There was also a single
muzzle-loading cannon, which was of little use as it was outranged by the
British artillery.
The weaknesses of the Arab position, as Johnston explains, were that it
had no water supply, being a quarter of a mile away from the river, and that
the houses inside had grass roofs, and were easily set on fire by incendiary
shells. So the attackers decided on a preliminary bombardment.
Pouring rain limited the effect of the incendiaries, but an alternative
tactic quickly succeeded beyond all expectation. Mlozi's house,
which was conspicuous because of its height, had been pointed out
by a deserter, and a naval crew with a 9-pounder gun gave an
astonishing display of gunnery, hitting the house with three shells.
Mlozi was wounded, and several of his followers killed.
At this point the battle escaped from the control of the
commanders on both sides. The rumour spread among the Arabs
that their leader was dead, and they rushed out of the village in a
"furious sortie", which was presumably an attempt to break out
to safety. The British were preparing to repulse this onslaught, when the
supposedly timid Nkonde decided that this was their opportunity to take
revenge for the decades of Arab oppression. They charged into the
astonished enemy and drove them back inside the stockade, leaving two
or three hundred of them dead outside, either speared or shot by Johnston's
men. The Sikh contingent, following up, reached the walls, and without
waiting for orders clambered onto the roof of the stockade.
The Sikhs then reached down and dragged their officers up after them.
One of these, Lieutenant de Herries Smith, was the first man to jump down
into the village. He was immediately shot through the arm, but by this time
Johnston and the rest of the white officers had joined in the mad rush.
Commander Cullen smashed down a door with an axe, and the battle-mad
Nkonde rushed in and made straight for the Arabs' cattle. Cullen and
Johnston got through after them, and as night began to fall the Arabs
panicked and fled in all directions. Total "British" casualties were four
dead and twelve wounded. Some of the Nkonde must surely have been hit,
but we have no details.
The village was now a scene of utter chaos, in the middle of which
Johnston was trying to organise a search for Mlozi. Just as he was
concluding that he must have escaped, the Tonga Sergeant Bandawe -
whom we have already encountered in the fight for Fletcher's boma -
brought him in. Bandawe had gone to Mlozi's ruined house after the Sikhs
had finished searching, suspecting that there must be a secret hiding place,
and heard voices coming from under the floor. Eventually he found an
opening under a bedstead and crawled - alone and unarmed - into the
hidden chamber. Inside he found a man armed with a spear, but Bandawe
grabbed the weapon off him and ran him through with it. The only other
inhabitant of the chamber was the wounded Mlozi, who was so
intimidated that he followed Bandawe without resistance. The man who
had menaced the British in Nyasaland for nearly a decade would do so no
longer.
It seems unlikely that the affair could have gone much better for the
British if it had been planned that way. A head-on attack at any other
time might have met with a bloody repulse, but by
following up the rout of the Arab sortie the Sikhs
and Nkonde - whether intentionally or not - seized
the best chance they had to finish the battle quickly
and avoid a long drawn-out artillery bombardment - an
obvious case for some sort of "uncontrolled advance" morale
result in your rules. On the other hand, you could let the British
player make an elaborate plan, and see what sort of mess he
makes of it. Either way, it should be fun. Happy wargaming!
FOUNDRY Atonga Askari in Birtish service
1. Combined British
forces attack
2. Sikh Artillery
3. Tonga Askaris
4. Sikhs & Askaris
storm the defences
Models 28mm
Foundry Darkest
Africa & North West
Frontier
Painting by Steve Dean &
Kevin Dallimore
3 2
4
1