The rebellion started on 8th august 1888 in pangani districts where the German east African company had established an administrative post
It was led by abushiri ibin salim all harthi a prominent trader of afro Arabs origin.his father was an Arab and the mother an African of the galla tribe
It all started when abushiri refused to host the German flag and refused to listen to the German instructions. His people then started rioting against the Germans
It then abruptly and spontaneously spread to other areas like tanga kilwa bagamoyo mikindini kilwa etc
Some Bantu communities like the bonda and zinguwa also joined the rebellion bwana her a Swahili cheifs in uzingua and other coastal traders joined the revolt later
Than Germans were caught unaware and therefore suffered heavy losses when the rebellion had just began
Company officials were beaten and driven out of all coastal towns with the exception of bagamoyo and Dar es salaam where the abushiri rebels besieged them
The Germans called for assistance from home by may 1889,reinforcement had arrived under major con wissman
He commanded the large army comprising of 600 Nubian Sudanese 50 Somalia 350 Zulu and 20 Turkish troops hence the resistance started to crumble
Within two months wissman had captured northern towns of pangani and dares salaam
Following this success many Arabs who had supported abushiri opted to make peace with the Germans which weakened the rebellion
Abushiri retreated into the interior and hired 500 mavti fighters who used the ngoni tactics of warfare but these still didn't save the situation because they were only interested in looting
At first he used conventional war fare but sensing the possibility of defeat he embarked on guerilla tactics.
On 15 December 1889 he was betrayed by a jumbes called magaya of usagara who reported him to the German. He was captured and killed at bagamoyo
Abushiri had used Islam to rally support and his weaponry consisted of old fashioned guns and bows,arrows clubs and spears.the Germans had superior weapons like machine guns and bombs
By 1890 the German commander had moved to the south and captured almost all the southern coastal towns like kilwa Lindi
He then turned to bwana heri who realized first that he was bound to lose the fight and desperately submitted to Germans in April 1890.this marked the end of uprisinguprising
