Amani Research Institute
Another, named Kwai farm and located in the nearby West Usambaras, preceded Amani as the colony's chief center for agricultural and livestock experiments.
Kwai lacked Amani's international reputation, but it nonetheless held a prominent place in the minds of the Africans who lived in its shadow.
[4] Hindorf was also a co-founder of the Colonial Economic Committee (German: Kolonial-wirtschaftliches Komitee), which passed the resolution in June 1898, in Berlin, "to send a submission to the Reich Chancellor that there is set for... German East Africa in 1899 a sum of 100,000 Marks with the purpose of the setting up and operation of a research station for tropical cultures in Usambara."
[6] It quickly expanded into other areas of research in the following years and soon became a 'tropical scientific institute superior to anything in the British colonies and protectorates and comparable with Pusa in India or the Dutch establishment at Buitenzorg in Java.
"[7][8] Stuhlmann introduced the first systematic planting of cinchona bark trees in East Africa, which was to be used for the production of quinine against malaria.
Species were introduced from various parts of the world for agricultural trials with varied economic interests, such as medicinal plants (i.e. Cinchona spp.
), valuable timber (e.g. Cedrela, Eucalyptus), cosmetics (i.e. Cananga), rubber, fibre, oil (e.g. Hevea) and ornamental plants (e.g. fan palms).
The first published description of sleeping sickness cases during the 1900-1920 'epidemic', in the British Protectorate of East Africa, now Uganda, was made at the Church Missionary Society (CMS) Hospital at Mengo in 1901.
Koch's methods have recently raised ethical questions about his trials of atoxyl, since the drug had serious side-effects, including blindness.
These included medicine and chemical products, from local material to meet war needs and those of the German settlers at a time when the colony was cut off from the rest of the world and could not import anything: "Considerable ingenuity was shown in producing in the colony manufactured goods and medical supplies normally imported from Europe.
[20] The East Africa Commission founded in 1924 was, however, justifiably critical of the neglect of this fine institution when it reported that "this world-famous research institution is, for all practical purposes, lying derelict, its laboratories unoccupied, its costly apparatus dismantled, the living quarters deteriorating, the magnificent and priceless collection of books and scientific records and specimens unused.
The research centre served not only Tanganyika but also Kenya, Uganda, Zanzibar and British Somaliland in the prevention and control of malaria and other vector-borne diseases.
After the British administration of Tanganyika ended, the institute continued to play an important role as a research centre in Tanzania.
The Amani Botanical Garden therefore has several bodies responsible for its management – the Ministry of Agriculture, the Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI) and the NIMR.
Alien species introduced by the Botanical Garden are a major conservation issue for the adjoining Amani Nature Reserve.
