Qualla: Kasanga https://qualla.com/kasanga en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:26 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Kasanga https://qualla.com/kasanga Kasanga: Introduction https://qualla.com/kasanga/ Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson took one look at the German fort above Bismarckburg harbor, decided the guns were real, and withdrew. When the British finally walked into the abandoned post on 8 June 1915, they discovered the guns were wooden dummies. The deception had worked long enough for a Schutztruppe garrison to escape across Lake Tanganyika in a flotilla of dhows. The town is called Kasanga now - the German name was quietly retired after 1920 - but the ruined research station built in 1888 is still there, slumped into the hillside above the water, and so is the strange history of a settlement named after Otto von Bismarck.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/q/p/kasanga-wp/kwqp-kasanga-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Kasanga: The Research Station https://qualla.com/kasanga/ In 1888 the explorer Ludwig Wolf and the German East Africa Company established a Forschungsstation - a research post - on the east shore of Lake Tanganyika at an elevation of 810 meters. They named the place Bismarckburg after the German chancellor. The settlement had a scientif...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/q/p/kasanga-wp/kwqp-kasanga-the-research-station.mp3 0:06 2 full Kasanga: War on the Lake https://qualla.com/kasanga/ Lake Tanganyika in 1914 was patrolled by German gunboats. When war broke out in Europe, those boats started attacking British positions in Northern Rhodesia to the south. In response, the British mounted one of the stranger operations of the First World War - the Mimi and Toutou ...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/q/p/kasanga-wp/kwqp-kasanga-war-on-the-lake.mp3 0:06 3 full Kasanga: The Wooden Guns https://qualla.com/kasanga/ When the combined British force entered Bismarckburg on 8 June 1915, the fort was empty. The guns that had deterred Spicer-Simson turned out to be logs, painted black and mounted to look convincing from a distance. The trick was classic fortress bluff, old as the idea of fortific...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/q/p/kasanga-wp/kwqp-kasanga-the-wooden-guns.mp3 0:06 4 full Kasanga: After the Germans https://qualla.com/kasanga/ In 1920 the British Mandate administration of Tanganyika Territory took over, and one of its first housekeeping tasks was to strip the German names from the map. Bismarckburg became Kasanga. Wissmannhafen became Kala. The research station charter had been repealed as far back as ...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/q/p/kasanga-wp/kwqp-kasanga-after-the-germans.mp3 0:06 5 full Kasanga: Ruins and Futures https://qualla.com/kasanga/ You can still find the research station's ruins on the hillside above the lake, the stonework softened by a century of rain. The small harbor at Kala still services dhows and the occasional ferry. In 2008 the Tanzanian government announced a major investment to revamp the harbor ...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/q/p/kasanga-wp/kwqp-kasanga-ruins-and-futures.mp3 0:06 6 full