Abushiri was born in 1845 to an Arab father and an Oromo mother. He descended from one of the first Arab settlers on the Tanganyikan coast and belonged to a community that had come to regard itself as locally rooted. His background reflected the mixed social world of the coast, where Arab and African populations intermarried, traded, and participated in the development of new towns.

As a young man, Abushiri organized expeditions into the interior to trade in ivory. The profits allowed him to purchase a farm and cultivate sugar cane. He also campaigned against the Nyamwezi, an experience that enabled him to assemble warriors who later became the military foundation of his resistance to German intervention.

Abushiri opposed the influence of the Sultanate of Zanzibar and advocated independence for the coast. When German authorities sought to replace coastal commercial networks with their own colonial system, he became the principal leader of armed resistance. His forces attacked German positions at Tanga, Kilwa, and Bagamoyo in 1888, presenting German rule with a coordinated challenge.

German forces under Hermann von Wissmann attacked Abushiri’s fortress near Bagamoyo in 1889 and drove him northward. After his betrayal in Uzigua, he was handed over to the Germans and hanged at Pangani on 15 December 1889. His death did not immediately end coastal opposition, which collapsed only after the German bombardment and capture of Kilwa in May 1890.