Askari Monument
Sanamu ya Askari ( | |
| Designer | James Alexander Stevenson |
|---|---|
| Material | Bronze |
| Opening date | 1927 |
| Dedicated to | Tanganyikan Soldiers Askari |
The Askari Monument or Dar es Salaam African MemorialGerman Army in East Africa in World War I. It was unveiled in 1927. The monument is located at the centre of a roundabout on Samora Avenue at the perpendicular junction to Maktaba Street and Azikiwe Street, a place that reportedly also marks the exact centre of downtown Dar es Salaam.
The monument was erected in honour of the
Royal Academy, receiving critical praise.[citation needed] The soldier has a rifle with bayonet pointed towards the Dar es Salaam harbour.[3] The statue stands on a stone pedestal. On the narrow sides of the pedestal are plaques with a dedication in Swahili (Arabic and Latin script) and English; on the wide sides of the pedestal are two pictorial plaques showing fighting African soldiers and the Carrier Corps. The English inscription includes "If you fight for your country even if you die your sons will remember your name", which is attributed to Rudyard Kipling
.
In the place where the Askari Monument is located, there used to be another statue, namely that of German explorer and army major
Karl Peters and Otto von Bismarck.[4]
The monument in Dar es Salaam belongs to a group of three Askari Monuments that were unveiled in the same year in what was then
British East Africa; the other two are at Mombasa and Nairobi.[5] A separate Dar es Salaam British and Indian Memorial, commemorating by name more than 1,500 British and Indian officers and men who died in East Africa during and after January 1917 and who have no known grave, is now in Dar Es Salaam War Cemetery.[6]
Gallery
-
Memorial plaque of eight fighting African soldiers -
Memorial plaque of eight Carrier Corps -
Inscription in English -
Memorial inscription in Swahili - Arabic script -
Memorial inscription in Swahili - Latin script
Notes
- ^ Cemetery details: Dar es Salaam African Memorial. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
- ^ Tanzania
- ISBN 1-84353-531-9.
- ^ V. Hodd, p. 341
- ^ V. Samson, p. 161
- ^ Cemetery details: Dar es Salaam British and Indian Memorial. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
References
- Michael Hodd, East Africa Handbook, Footprint Travel Guides 2002, ISBN 1-900949-65-2.
- Anne Samson, Britain, South Africa and the East Africa Campaign, 1914–1918, J. B. Tauris 2005, ISBN 1-84511-040-4
External links
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