Slavery and Exploration

In 1827, Sultan Seyyid Said's small but efficient navy captured Mombasa and effectively took control of the coast. Britain had signed a treaty with Said's father, and in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars did not want to see the coast fall into French hands. Said chose Zanzibar as his east African base because of its proximity to Bagamoyo, which had been the terminus of a caravan route to Lake Tanganyika since 1823. Said's commercial involvement with Zanzibar began in 1827 when he set up clove plantations, in the process confiscating land from the local inhabitants.

By 1840, when he moved his capital from Muscat to Zanzibar, commerce on the island was dominated by Said and his fellow Arabs. Traditionally, West Africa was the centre for the slave trade but this rapidly moved eastwards as the British systematically shut down the West African slave centres. By 1839, over 40,000 slaves a year were being sold through Zanzibar under the control of Said and his associates. The slaves were brought via two caravan routes. The first being the central caravan route between the Lake Tanganyika region and Bagamoyo, and the second, southern route, between Kilwa and Lake Nyasa. Certain tribes acted as porters for the slave traders while still others actually organised the slave raids that devastated weaker tribes and villages. As the fit and strong men and women were captured and led away, the sick, old and young were left to die. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of slaves were sold in the mid 19th century and still more died of disease and exhaustion before they even reached the coast.

Europeans knew little about the African interior in 1850. The first Europeans to see Kilimanjaro were Johannes Rebmann and Johann Krapf and were laughed at for their reports of snow on the equator. The most successful Europeans in this regard were undoubtedly Richard Burton, John Speke, David Livingstone and Henry Stanley. In 1858, on a quest for the source of the Nile funded by the Royal Geographical Society, Burton and Speke became the first Europeans to see Lake Tanganyika. In addition, Speke also became the first European to see Lake Victoria (named after his Queen). In the quest to find the source of the Nile, Speke returned to Lake Victoria in 1863 and concluded that Ripon Falls on Lake Victoria was the Nile's source. Burton ridiculed this conclusion and challenged Speke to a public debate. On the eve of the debate Speke died of a self inflicted gunshot wound although some say that this was under mysterious circumstances. The tragedy was twofold in that Speke was actually correct.

David Livingstone was born in Scotland in 1813. He put himself through medical school and joined the London Missionary Society in 1841. He undertook several journies throughout Africa but his most famous exploits took place right here in Tanzania. In 1872 he was found, after being considered missing for quite some time, by Welsh born American journalist Henry Morton Stanley who uttered those inimitable words "Doctor Livingstone, I presume". Livingstone was the first European to see the Victoria Falls and discovered Lake Nyasa about the same time as Burton and Speke found Lake Tanganyika. His hatred of the slave trade caused him to spend his last few years wandering between the great lakes, making notes on the despicable practices. He died near Lake Bengweulu in 1873. His heart was removed and buried by his porters who then carried his body more than 1,500 kms to Bagamoyo. Livingstone and Stanley's outspoken opposition to the slave trade brought the first hand destruction and tragedy it caused back home to England. It has been suggested that his emotional funeral held in Westminster Abbey might have acted as a catalyst for the British pressure that finally brought an end to the slave trade.

Captain John Kirk, the British Consul in Zanzibar (who had travelled with Livingstone on his trip to Lake Nyasa) was instrumental in delivering the final blow to the trade as  the British blockaded the island of Zanzibar. Kirk offered Sultan Barghash an ultimatum - end the slave trade, close the slave markets and the British will provide protection, or else. Barghash agreed. Thus came an end to slavery as an economy and with the journies of exploration conducted by these explorers came maps and important commercial information that opened the door for real expansion into the interior.