The Chagga People & Kilimanjaro

Long before the first Europeans laid eyes on the snow covered peak of Kilimanjaro the Chagga people had lived, worked and worshiped on its slopes. It seems unlikely that the Chagga climbed to the summit before Hans Meyer made his successful summit attempt in 1889. The Chagga people have lived on the slopes of Kilimanjaro for around 400 years and their lives and culture are intertwined with the mountain on many different levels.

Most of the Chagga traditions have now been lost and replaced by western cultures and religions but the writings of some of the early African explorers still give an insight into the Chagga way of life before western culture took hold. ‘Kilimanjaro & It’s People’, written by Charles Dundas, published in 1924 gives the most recent historical account of the Chagga people. Hans Meyer also visited the region in 1889 and he describes Machame as the biggest Chagga settlement with around 8000 inhabitants; Moshi had around 3000 inhabitants as did Marangu.

The Chagga people have been just as fascinated with Kilimanjaro as westerners are today. According to Dundas the Chagga people viewed the summit of Kilimanjaro as something beautiful, strengthening and ete
al, its snows providing streams that support life while the rain clouds that gather on its slopes providing precious rainfall.

The question that many people ask is, ‘Did the Chagga climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro before Meyer summited in 1889?’ Johannes Rebmann was probably the first European to lay eyes on Kilimanjaro in 1848. He believed that they had reached the snowline as they understood that Kilimanjaro was covered in what they described as magic silver which melted its way down the mountain. Rebmann also heard a second hand account relating to a group of Chagga that were sent to investigate the ice above Machame. Only one member of the group returned and his hands and feet were so frost bitten that no further attempts were made on the mountain. Rebmann describes how his Chagga guides referred to the snow on Kilimanjaro as coldness and the Chagga word for snow is Kibo.

In Hans Meyer’s book, ‘Across East African Glaciers’ he describes how he found the remains of a hunting camp on saddle betwee
Mwenzi and Kibo. This is the highest historical account of human life on Kilimanjaro before Meyer summited. The saddle sits above 4000 metres so we can definitely assume that the Chagga made it this high. No evidence exists that they made it any higher and the evidence points more to the Chagga not venturing to the summit until after the mountain was climbed by Hans Meyer.

Whether or not the Chagga summited before Hans Meyer is only important in history. Today the Chagga people are among the most experienced mountain guides on the African continent. The Chagga understand the history of Kilimanjaro, they live on and around the mountain in its present state and they wonder what the future holds for themselves and Kilimanjaro.