Latest / The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History / The Slave Trade in East Africa: Zanzibar and the Indian Ocean
Transcript
- Lucas: So far in this series, we've focused heavily on the Atlantic — the Middle Passage, the plantations of the Americas, the legal battles. But there's another massive slave trade that ran parallel to it, and in some ways outlasted it: the East African slave trade, centred on the Indian Ocean. Luna: Right, I've heard of Zanzibar being a hub, but I don't know much about it. Lucas: Exactly, Zanzibar is the key. By the early 19th century, the Omani Sultanate — that's from the Arabian Peninsula — had taken control of the East African coast. In 1832, Sultan Said bin Sultan actually moved his entire court from Muscat to Zanzibar, a small island just off the coast of modern Tanzania. It was a strategic move because Zanzibar became the commercial powerhouse of the region. Lucas: The island had ideal conditions for clove cultivation, which was hugely profitable. But to grow cloves at scale, you need an enormous labour force. And that labour force was enslaved Africans, captured from the interior and shipped to Zanzibar and other coastal plantations. Luna: So it's similar to the Atlantic model, but with different products and routes. Lucas: Precisely. The East African trade was older too — it had existed for centuries, with Arab and Swahili traders moving people across the Indian Ocean to the Middle East, India, and even as far as China. But in the 19th century, it exploded in scale. By some estimates, between 1800 and 1896, around 1.2 million people were taken from East Africa and sold. That's in addition to the millions already taken over centuries. Luna: Who was doing the capturing? Lucas: That's where we get into the controversial figure of Tippu Tip. He was a Zanzibari trader of mixed Arab and African descent, real name Hamad bin Muhammad, but he's known as Tippu Tip. He operated in the late 19th century and became one of the most powerful slavers in Central Africa. He organized large-scale raids into what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, capturing thousands of people, especially from the Yao, Nyamwezi, and Makua peoples. Lucas: Tippu Tip was also a diplomat and politician — he later became the governor of Stanley Falls District under King Leopold II of Belgium. So he straddled the line between African, Arab, and European colonial spheres. His networks were incredibly extensive. Luna: So the Europeans were involved even before formal colonization. Lucas: Absolutely. The Omani sultans controlled the trade from Zanzibar, but they relied on Indian financiers to fund the caravans. And the British, after outlawing their own Atlantic slave trade in 1807, started pressuring other powers to stop. But in East Africa, the British were conflicted — they wanted abolition, but they also wanted to maintain good relations with the Sultan of Zanzibar, who was a key ally against other colonial rivals. Lucas: The turning point came in the 1870s. David Livingstone's reports from Central Africa, especially his accounts of the devastation caused by the slave trade, shocked British public opinion. Livingstone, though a flawed figure, wrote vividly about the 'open sore of the world' — the brutal raids, the broken families, the dead left on the roads. Luna: And that led to the 1873 treaty? Lucas: Yes. Under British pressure, Sultan Barghash bin Said, who succeeded his father, signed the Treaty of Zanzibar in 1873, which outlawed the slave trade within his domains. But here's the thing — the treaty only banned the export of slaves from East Africa, not the domestic trade. So slaves already in Zanzibar remained enslaved, and the trade continued clandestinely. Lucas: The British East Africa Squadron, which had been patrolling the Atlantic, shifted some ships to the Indian Ocean to intercept slave dhows. But it was a vast coastline, and the trade persisted well into the 1880s. Luna: How did it finally end? Lucas: It took several more steps. In 1890, Britain and Germany signed the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty, which gave Britain a protectorate over Zanzibar in exchange for ceding Heligoland to Germany. That effectively ended the independence of the Omani Sultanate. Under British control, the slave market in Zanzibar's Stone Town was finally closed. But even then, slavery itself wasn't abolished in Zanzibar until 1897, under Sultan Hamoud bin Mohammed. Lucas: The legacy of that trade is still visible today. The former slave market site in Stone Town is now a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage site. There's an Anglican cathedral built on the site of the old slave market, with a crucifix placed over the spot where the whipping post stood. It's a powerful symbol of transformation — but also a reminder that the trade was built with the cooperation of many players: Omani, African, Indian, and European. Luna: It's sobering that this trade is less known than the Atlantic one, even though it was so extensive. Lucas: Exactly. And part of the reason is that the historiography has focused on the West. But the numbers are staggering. Some scholars estimate that over the centuries, the Indian Ocean slave trade moved between 3 and 5 million people. That's comparable to the Atlantic trade, which is usually cited at about 12.5 million. So East Africa's story is not a footnote — it's a parallel tragedy that deserves far more attention. Luna: And it lasted well into the colonial period. Lucas: Right. When the Scramble for Africa began in the 1880s, European powers claimed to be bringing 'civilization' and an end to slavery. But in practice, they often perpetuated or adapted the existing labour systems. The clove plantations of Zanzibar, for example, continued to rely on forced labor under British rule, just with different names — 'contract labor' or 'apprenticeship'. Lucas: The East African slave trade also had a profound impact on the interior societies. The Yao, for instance, became heavily involved as middlemen, capturing people from other groups to trade for firearms and cloth. This reshaped political dynamics, increased warfare, and depopulated large areas. Luna: It's a stark reminder that slave trades are never just about the buyers — they involve local collaborators too. Lucas: Absolutely, and that's a hard part of the history. The Omani sultans, the Swahili elites, the African chiefs who traded in captives — all were complicit. But at the same time, many Africans resisted. Some escaped into fortified communities, much like the Maroons we discussed in a previous episode. There were also revolts on the clove plantations, though they were brutally suppressed. Luna: So what happened to the enslaved people who remained in Zanzibar after abolition? Lucas: Many stayed on the plantations as wage laborers, but conditions improved slowly. Some returned to the mainland, though often they found their home communities had been destroyed. Others integrated into Zanzibari society. Today, the island's population is a complex mix of African, Arab, Indian, and Persian ancestry — a living legacy of that trade. Lucas: If listeners want to see a tangible piece of this history, I recommend looking up images of Stone Town's old slave market. The Anglican cathedral there has a haunting memorial: a set of chains and a statue of slaves in a pit. It's a deliberate effort to remember — and to educate. Because the East African slave trade, like the Atlantic one, was an empire built on human suffering. Luna: Thanks for bringing this part of the story to light, Lucas. Lucas: My pleasure. Next time, we'll look at another dimension of resistance — the role of formerly enslaved Africans in the abolitionist movements in Africa itself.