This exhibit introduces the visitor the eventful history of Iringa Region and its most famous resident, Chifu Mkwawa of the Hehe people.

Iringa Town was established as a military base called ‘New Iringa’ in 1896 by the German colonizers following their defeat at Lugalo 1891 at the hands of Chief Mkwawa and the subsequent destruction of his Hehe stronghold in 1894. The first residents of Iringa Town were African Askari troops, who fought on behalf of German East Africa, and their families.

Iringa fell to the British in 1916 during World War I. Under British rule, Iringa slowly grew as a favourable location for trade and commerce. The process was supported by the arrival of Indian and Arab entrepreneurs, and Greek farmers who came to grow tobacco. They employed Kinga people from further South to work on their fields who eventually started their own business in Iringa Town.