Maji Ottoman in Petal
Meaning water in Proto-Bantu (reconstructed Bantu languages), Maji is a reminder of the historical rebellion between Africans and Germans when indigenous populations were forced to grow cotton for export between 1905-1907, causing a famine where many died.
The tale goes that a spirit medium named Kinjikitile Ngwale, who practiced Animism, the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence, believed the people of German East Africa (what is now Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and part of Mozambique) were called to eliminate the Germans. Ngwale gave his followers a liquid to empower them to rebel and believe that it would turn German bullets into water. This “war medicine” was in fact Maji (water) mixed with castor oil and millet seeds.