The Indian Ocean Slave Trade
Edward A. Alpers
UCLA
Africa in World History
NEH Summer Institute for School Teachers
Michigan State University
27 July 2015
Introduction



“tyranny of the Atlantic” in all ST studies still a factor, despite recent comparative
research on trans-Saharan, IO, internal African STs
Quantitative studies have dominated field, e.g. Curtin’s census (1970), mortality
rates (Herb Klein), shipping records, Slave Trade DB
Qualitative studies: understanding how ST was experienced by captive Africans
themselves, seeking African voice
Mapping the IOST: Sources



Sudanic Africa/NE Africa
East Africa/Swahili coast
SE Africa/Mozambique/Madagascar
Mapping the IOST: Destinations





Arabia/Ottoman Empire
South Asia/Sri Lanka
SE Asia/China
Coastal East Africa: Benadir, Zanzibar & Pemba, Mrima, Comoros, Madagascar,
Mascarenes, Cape Colony
Atlantic World: San Domingue, Louisiana, Chesapeake; Brazil & Spanish
America
Chronology, directions, dimensions




Ancient → Zanj Revolt, 8th-9th centuries
Religio-political wars in Ethiopia, 14th-16th centuries → Arabia, South Asia
“Swahili-Malagasy”, late 17th-end of 19th centuries; heyday
Mozambique → Brazil, c.1790-1830
Factors in growth of ST



Moderate growth with some exceptions (domestic labor, concubines, sailors,
mamluks) until …
Economic expansion in Lamu archipelago and Arabia (Ya‘arubi in Oman)
Globalization and rise of consumerism
o Rise of plantation economies on Mascarenes, 18th century
o Omani Zanzibar (cloves and coconuts), Pemba after 1872 hurricane,
Mrima and Benadir (grains, cotton, sugar)
o Madagascar (food production, manual labor), export-import phenomenon
o Oman and Gulf: date plantations and pearl diving 19th into 20th century
Abyssinians/Habshis & Sidis in India










Delhi Sultanate, 13th century
Sharqis of Jawnpur (c.1394-1479), possible Habshi origins
Habshi military slaves under Sultanate of Bengal under Rukn-al-Din Barbak Shah
(c.1459-1474)
Habshis seize power (1491-1494), overthrown, expelled → the Deccan
Habshi governors & ministers in Bahmani kingdom; on breakup → Ahmednagar,
Bijapur, Golconda in 16th century
Soldiers & sailors from 13th century; read Ibn Battuta in India
5000 Habshi soldiers in Ahmedabad under Sultan Bahadur (c.1526-1537)
Malik Ambar:
o b.c.1548, Oromo, Chapu; captured, sold & re-sold to Mocha, Baghdad,
renamed Ambar;
o purchased by Chief Minister of Ahmednagar, rises through military
prowess, leadership; married a Habshi woman
o Wazir, virtual ruler Ahmednagar, 1600-1626: defended vs. Mughal
Empire under Akbar the Great; reorganized revenue system, founded new
capital at Khirki (later Aurangabad) in 1610, constructed water supply to
city
o Tomb at Khulabad
o Succeeded by another Habshi and then by his grandson
Ikhlas Khan, wazir of Bijapur, 1627-1656
Konkan coast between Goa and Bombay/Mumbai; conquered by Ahmedabad
early 16th century; Sidis appointed to rule fort at Janjira by Malik Ambar;
dominate coast into 19th century, recognize British control 1819, remain semiindependent to 1870.
Plantation slavery at Île Bourbon (La Réunion) and Île de France (Mauritius)


Réunion: mainly coffee, food crops for Mauritius/ships, sugar; limited cultivable
land
Enslaved population 2,225 in 1735 → 70,927 in 1830




1808 census shows 42% African, 29% Creole, 26% Malagasy, 3% Indian
Mauritius: geologically older, fields cleared for sugar
Enslaved population 648 in 1735 → 66,613 in 1835
In 1835 2/5 from Africa, 1/5 from Madagascar, 1/3 Creoles, rest Indians & others
Omani Zanzibar and rise of coastal plantation economies








Omani rulers help oust Portuguese from Mombasa in 1728-1729; Bu Sa’idi,
Zanzibar, defeat Mombasa rivals (Mazru’i) in 1828, Seyyid Said b. Sultan moves
capital to Zanzibar Town, 1837
Key role of Indian (mainly Kutchi and Gujarati) merchant capital in financing
Oman’s maritime empire
Cloves introduced c.1820; coconuts; land seizure moves Hadimu to east of island
1872 hurricane destroyed Z plantations → Pemba expansion
Omani empire expands to Mrima → plantations on coast, from Kilwa to
Mogadishu and up Shabelle/Juba river valleys
Labor needs supplied by enslaved Africans; sources mostly S interior (Nyasa,
Yao, Makua) , later T interior (Nyamwezi) and E Congo (Manyema)
Most captive Africans stayed in East Africa: Z, P, Mrima, Benadir; Z as entrepôt
for Arabia
Dimensions uncertain: Lovejoy suggests 769,000 for coast in 19th century
NB important continuing ST across Red Sea to Arabia from Ethiopia, Sudan (Galla,
Nubians, Takrur); figures problematic
Oman & the Gulf






Major imports to Mukallah, Salalah, Sur, Muscat, Sohar (Batinah) for re-export to
UAE ports, Qatar, Basra
Est. 3,000-10,000 captives/year to Arabia from 1860s; Lovejoy suggests 347,000
sent to Arabia, Persia, India for 19th century
What drove this market for enslaved labor?
o Date plantations, falaj (gravity irrigation) and elevated water well (zijrah)
construction
o Pearl diving
o Maritime labor
o Domestic work
o Barbers
o Eunuchs
o Concubines
1876 est. Muscat population at 10,000 Africans out of total 40,000
In 1930 Oman annually sent 5,000-7,000 divers (many still slaves) to pearl beds
between Dubai and Bahrain
Slave markets move inland with British pressure: Buraimi traded 1,000/year in
1938
Mozambique and Mozambique Channel









Demand side: urban slavery and rural agriculture on Comoros
Madagascar: agriculture and pastoral production; Zanzibar links;
Madagascar slave raids on Comoros and EA coast, 1780s-1820
Madagscar both importer and exporter of enslaved labor, certainly tens, perhaps
hundreds of thousands in both directions
Portuguese and slow abolition
Cape Colony: agricultural and domestic labor, Mozbickers (few thousand total)
French plantations on Nosy Be and Mayotte in 1840s, abolition of slavery in 1848
→ “free labor emigration” system until 1880s
Angoche and other Swahili slaving ports, only ending 1902; close ties of religion
and family to Comoros and Madagascar
Brazil: factors opening up ST in 1st quarter of 19th century, 21% of imports to Rio
de Janeiro from SE Africa (Mozambique, Quelimane, Inhambane); est. total
1795-1830 = 164,000+/- embarked, 144,000 landed
Antislavery & abolition





Napoleonic Wars & British imperialism in IO
British enforcement (naval patrol, treaty-making, British Indians)
Omani Zanzibar (1909)
Arabia: Bahrain (1937); Kuwait (1949); Qatar (1952); Saudi Arabia and Yemen
(1962); United Arab Emirates (1964); Oman (1970)
Slavery & memory: Zanzibar
Sources: Finding African voices






Royal Navy anti-slave trade patrol: three kinds of evidence: numbers, British
descriptions, both published and archival, and embedded African voices; a
cumulative corpus of more than 200 mini-narratives in records of IOL, FO 84,
ZNA. Main challenges: representativeness (focus on children in late 19th century,
translation)
British Consular records at Zanzibar and in Arabia; similar characteristics to naval
records
Xn Missionaries, mainly CMS and UMCA, but also Spiritans: CM Intelligencer,
Kiungani; “Swema”; autobiographies of converts - Petro Kilekwa, James Juma
Mbotela
Colonial accounts: Ten Africans
Life histories collected by modern scholars
Limitations: abolitionism, translation (both kinds)