Kinjikitile was a member of the Matumbi people, living in what is now Kilwa District of Lindi Region in Tanzania (then German East Africa, later Tanganyika).
[2] His leadership was successful in uniting peoples of separate ethnic groups in German East Africa in a single movement against colonial rule, which is claimed as the first predecessor of a shared Tanzanian national identity.
[2][3] His followers wore millet stalks around their foreheads, and were equipped with an arsenal that included cap guns, spears and arrows.
[9] After a group of Matumbi people attacked the home of a local official in July 1905, Kinjikitile was arrested by German troops.
[5] Present-day Tanzanians consider the failed rebellion to have been the first stirring of nationalism, and Kinjikitile "Bokero" Ngwale a proto-national hero.