Until the 1860s, the Wafipa were described as still peaceful and prosperous, although somewhat plagued by raiders. By the 1870s, however, warriors were now carrying Wahehe-style hide shields and spears. The villages had become palisaded, and slowly chaos, terror, and warfare began to dominate the area, primarily as a result of the private army of Kimaurunga (Kimalaunga). The rulers of Ufipa, from 1860–1890, made alliances with coastal traders, and the state experienced stability and outward prosperity. On entering Ufipa, a visitor paid a small tribute and then became the chief's guest. Each village provided the visitor with accommodations and carried his load to the next settlement. The Fipa were not aggressive, were said never to wage war, but generally obtained enough firearms to deter most potential aggressors by exchanging their grain for slaves, with which they then bought guns from the coastal traders. Below the surface, however, there were a number of destructive consequences. The local weaving industry declined, while the Twa chiefs were able to enforce much heavier contributions in goods, livestock, and labor from their subjects. In place of cotton, beads, and wire being exchanged, there were guns and powder going into the interior to trade for human beings. In 1889–1890, British explorer H. H. Johnston wrote of the Ufipa area: "I...have seen all human life and culture stamped out for a distance of 50 miles along the road, where only a short time before the most flourishing villages existed." __________________________ Fipa People in Tanzania and their Contact with Europeans ________________________________________ Prophet Kaswa is said to have prophesied the coming of Europeans: "There are coming terrible strangers who bring war; they will surely come. O you people, you are going to be robbed of your country: you will not even be able to cough." It was not until 1905–1919 that the Wafipa began seeking employment with Europeans. ______________________________________ Fipa People in Tanzania and their Traditional society Cultural Settlements of Fipa People in Tanzania _____________________________________________ The Wafipa tended to live in concentrated, widely spaced settlements of 20–30 round huts, no more than a few yards apart, each housing three to five each, with two surrounding corridor walls for small livestock. An inner room was for eating and sleeping. Reed mats for sleeping and filtering beer were made by the women, who also used a small hoe when working the fields. Men also made the beds: a single cow hide, or cow hide strips, stretched over a wooden frame with a reed mat placed on the bed before sleeping in it. A total of 100 people in a village were normal; 300–400 people were large and not common. Everyone wore durable cotton cloth of black and white stripes of six by five feet. It took four to five hours to cover the eight-to-nine miles between settlements. Within the settlements, there was a strong emphasis placed on communal values, the most important being sociability. Almost all of East Africa's people viewed forests and fields to be at least somewhat antagonistic. There was hostility between cultivated land and the wildness of the bush. The Fipa in particular saw the bush as full of dangers and stressed the village as properly dominant over the surrounding bush. With the Wafipa, each spirit cult was associated with rocks, mountain, groves, and lakes, and had a shrine where a priest tended a sacred python whose domestication represented man's control over nature.
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