Zanzibar: The Darker Side

When people think of Zanzibar today they think of beautiful resorts on long white beaches, amazing tropical food and diving in crystal clear water. There's no doubt about it - it's a great place to visit. But it has a dark past...

A place of trade

Zanzibar is an island off Tanzania on the East coast of Africa. Its position made it a convenient hub of trade ever since people first settled there twenty thousand years ago. Trade between the East African coastal cities and Great Lakes region with the Arabian peninsula and Indian subcontinent thrived.

The Portuguese were the first to colonise it, holding onto it for 200 years when in 1698 it fell to the Sultanate of Oman. They put in place a ruling elite which developed Zanzibar's economy. First, they participated in the Spice trade, together with the other Indian Ocean islands, known as the Spice Islands. Huge plantations were established, requiring a large labour force. Second, they became the trading hub for ivory; tusks from elephants killed on the Tanganyika mainland. This practice still continues to this day.

But it was the third leg of the economy that brought great shame to the island: the slave trade.

A trade in misery

By the beginning of the 19th century, the Arab slave trade had been in full swing for over 300 years. The Arabs together with Swahili traders captured people in Central East African and shipped to traders in the Middle East and farther afield. It is estimated that as many as 17 million people were sold into slavery between 1500 and 1900.

In 1811 San Bin Sultan opened a slave trade market in Zanzibar. At its height, Zanzibar became the slave capital of the world. In the 60 years of its existence, the Zanzibar slave market traded over one million slaves. Some were sold to the spice plantations but the majority were shipped to Persia, Egypt and Arabia.

Enter the British

The British gained more and more influence over the islands during the nineteenth century. As the world's superpower at the time, small countries did not have to be ruled directly by Britain to comply with its wishes. If needed, the British usually relied on their gunboat diplomacy to make independent-minded leaders see things their way.

In 1876 the slave trade was officially abolished and the sale of individuals became illegal. But, not so fast: slavery itself remained legal and continued as before.

Britain enjoyed good, compliant relations with the nominally ruling sultans - to the extent that a blind eye was turned to the continuing slave trade. During this period 40-50,000 human beings annually were being piled onto overcrowded boats, with thousands perishing on the journey.

In 1890 Zanzibar became a British protectorate, but the Sultans continued ruling, but under Britain's terms.

The world's shortest war

This happy state of affairs came to an abrupt end in 1896 when the pro-British Sultan died, and his replacement, one Sultan Khalid bin Barghash did not meet with the approval of the British. By treaty, the Sultans were supposed to get Britain's permission before appointing a new leader.

So as was their want, they gave the new guy an ultimatum to step down by 9:00 on the 27th of August. That was just enough time to get a few warships in place. By that morning three cruisers and two gunboats were looming over Stonetown, manned by 150 marines and sailors. A further 900 Zanzibari soldiers were on land.

The ultimatum was not met and Khalid barricaded himself in the palace, defended by 2,800 Zanzibaris recruited from the local population. By 9:40 it was all over. The palace was on fire, the defenders decimated and the sultan had vanished to the German embassy.

This came to be known as the Anglo-Zanzibar War and is marked as the shortest war in history.

The end of slavery

One of the first acts of the new British rulers was to abolish the slave trade. The misery was finally over.

But no-one can just forget such a terrible history. Today the island's capital, Stonetown, has an in-your-face memorial at the site of the old market. This monument of chained slaves was constructed in 1998 using the original 19th-century chains.

Credit

Also posted on Weku, @tim-beck, 2018-10-19