The fights for

Because I am always more interest in smaller events in more remote and unknown areas during the Great War in East Africa,
let me add here some details and photos from the still today relatively quiet and isolated border-area of Zambia and Tanzania.
• This thread follow the operations in British Northern Rhodesia: The fights for Saissi summer 1915 on the BNR / GEA border
• A second, separate topic will dealing with German East Africa: The German Fort Namema in 1915 / 1916 on GEA / BNR border
• A final thread will follow the footsteps of one Company in GEA: The tracks of the 29. F.-K. from Bismarckburg to the Bangala
Below is a comparison between a presently map with a colonial map from that time and the marked locations of Saisi and Namema.


The border river was written by the Germany, Ssaissi and from the Britons Saisi. The spelling at that time placed by phonetic
records in the language of the respective Colonial power. Some sources mentioned this place was named by the Germans,
Jericho Farm and by the Britons, Saisi Post. To be exact, both was correct. It existed west from the River Saisi a Plantation
with a Farm house which was named at that time by the British owner themselves, Jericho Farm. - “I think he took that name
as assort of joke having been told by someone to go to Jericho. ” Charles Hordern described this on his map as Lobb´s Farm.

The owners of Jericho Farm were the related families of Mr. / Mrs. Charles William Blyth and Mr./ Mrs. Gordon Horak Lobb
This experimental rubber plantation, was situated 42 km east from Abercorn (Mbala). Both later warring countries Germany
and Great Britain started in the beginning of the 19th century with the cultivating of a special type of caoutchouc (Ceara and
Para trees; a rubber-bearing plant related to cassava) on the thinly populated and remote area of the Tanganyika Plateau
with its dryer and cooler climate. This first Farm house of the family Blyth-Lobb was built 1902 with a thatched roof west from
the River Saisi and the hill themselves was positioned east of the river. Gordon H. Lobb named this Farm also as `Mula´; the
local name for Sitatunga-gazelles, which appear occasional on this spot. The British military administration named their new
established outpost on the hill in absence of other references, Saisi. The distance between Farm house and Hill was 700m.
In 1914 activities on all Farms along both border sides stopped and the opponents evacuated their European civilian people.

Mr. Lobb mentioned after the War that the Germans burned his Farm down. Maybe he was really not be aware that the British
District Commissioner Hector Croad themselves had given the order on the 23. December 1914 to burn down the Jericho Farm.
This was done with all buildings which are located directly at the border with GEA in order to avoid to give the enemy any shelter.
All settlements, nearer than 3 miles to the border were demolished and the people of this Mambwe Area were send to the south.
The same thing happened with the Saisi Outpost which was entirely destroyed by the withdrawing British forces in October 1915.

Today are no remains of the buildings visible. The Farm and the rubber business were never rebuilt after the war there. In 1918
East Africa were affected by the rinderpest and the border area were closed by the Government. In addition, still there came the
dramatic drop in prices for law rubber. Also the lack of labours have had obstructed not only in the agriculture a considerably
decline, in some parts had brought it to a standstill altogether. Only in the north and north-east areas of North Rhodesia 50,000
served as carriers, 12,000 canoe men, 30,000 other men on line of communication and 8,000 with the fighting forces. The conflict
between the British Crown and the B.S.A.C. after 1918 contributed to the fact that the whole country took a long time to recover.
Specific Sources:
• The Abercorn May Day Party 1914”, Northern Rhodesia Journal. Vol. II, No.1.
• History of Abercorn by Marion and Hope Gamwell, Northern Rhodesia Journal, IV, No. 6.
• Gordon Lobb on his Ulendo to Abercorn in 1905, In: The writings of Gordon Horak Lobb.
• In Tropensonne und Urwaldnacht, Wanderungen und Erlebnisse in Deutsch-Ostafrika, Robert Unterwelz, Stuttgart 1923
• Deutsche Kolonialblatt, 24. Jahrgang, 1913, herausgegeben von der Kolonialabteilung des Auswärtigen Amtes, Berlin 1913
• Britain, Northern Rhodesia and the First World War - Forgotten Colonial Crisis, Edmund J. Yorke, R.-M. Academy, UK 2015.
• Der Tropenpflanzer, Zeitschrift für tropische Landwirtschaft, Organ des Kolonial-Wirtschaftlichen Komitees, IX. Jahrgang 1905.
• African Manpower Statistic for the British Forces in Eastern Africa, 1914-1918, G. Hodges, The Journal of African History, 1978.
• The British Annexation of Northern Zambezia (1884 - 1924) Anatomy of a Conquest, F. MacPherson, Edinburg University, 1976.
• The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia, Being some impressions of the Tanganyika Plateau, Cullen Gouldsbury, London 1911.
• Forged in the Great War, People, Transport, and Labour, the Establishment of Colonial Rule in Zambia, 1890-1920, Jan B Gewald.
The following own photos are taken during a trip in June and July 2016 from both border sides of present Zambia and Tanzania.
Starting on this morning from Mwenzo Mission western from Nakonde on the main road D1 to the direction of Mbala (Abercorn).

After comparison with the geographical road course with the counted mileage we turned right into a track. No one was seen to ask
about the correct way. The ever shrinking tracks to the rough direction of Saisi are not pictured in any map. Only questions to the
very less people and sometimes the usage of a compass led us finally, after four hours from the tarmac main road to the right place.



Today is no signage for Saisi, Jericho or the present named Nyembe. At some point we found a reference on a board. But the
name, Isofu, have no relationship to `our´ location. Safu (Siafu or Isofu?) is the border-river 50 km in the North-West. The sandy
ground showed always bicycle tracks. During the following days between Saisi, Kawimbe and Mbala we didn´t saw any other cars.

When we reached a bank with this view on the Saisi Valley and Mambala River in the foreground, it was clear where we are.

Below is also another comparison between a present Google picture with Charles Hordern´s map of the area around Saisi in 1915.

Original Source: https://www.google.de/maps/@-8.9395114, ... a=!3m1!1e3

Original Source: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... 0;size=150
Will be continued. . .
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