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Zanzibar is an insular semi-autonomous region which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 km (16–31 mi) off the coast of the African mainland, and consists of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja and Pemba Island. The capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre, Stone Town, is a World Heritage Site.
Stonetown of Zanzibar, also known as Mji Mkongwe, is the old part of Zanzibar City, the main city of Zanzibar, in Tanzania. The newer portion of the city is known as Ng'ambo, Swahili for 'the other side'. Stone Town is located on the western coast of Unguja, the main island of the Zanzibar Archipelago. Former capital of the Zanzibar Sultanate, and flourishing centre of the spice trade as well as the Indian Ocean slave trade in the 19th century, it retained its importance as the main city of Zanzibar during the period of the British protectorate. When Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined each other to form the United Republic of Tanzania, Zanzibar kept a semi-autonomous status, with Stone Town as its local government seat.
Wituland was a territory of approximately 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi) in East Africa centered on the town of Witu, just inland from the Indian Ocean port of Lamu, north of the mouth of the Tana River in what is now Kenya.
Mikindani is a historic coastal town located in Mtwara-Mikindani District of Mtwara Region in Tanzania. The name comes from the Swahili word mikinda which means "young coconut trees". Therefore, the term "Mikindani', literally means "the place where there are young coconut trees" in old Swahili language. Mikindani is part of the city of Mtwara and is governed by the Mtwara Mikindani Municipal Council. The site is a registered National Historic Site.
Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were once commonplace in parts of Africa, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient and medieval world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Red Sea slave trade, Indian Ocean slave trade and Atlantic slave trade began, many of the pre-existing local African slave systems began supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa. Slavery in contemporary Africa is still practised despite it being illegal.
People have lived in Zanzibar for 20,000 years. The earliest written accounts of Zanzibar began when the islands became a base for traders voyaging between the African Great Lakes, the Somali Peninsula, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, and the Indian subcontinent. Unguja offered a protected and defensible harbour, so although the archipelago had few products of value, Omanis and Yemenis settled in what became Zanzibar City as a convenient point from which to trade with towns on the Swahili Coast. They established garrisons on the islands and built the first mosques in the African Great Lakes Region.
Slavery in Seychelles existed until its final abolition in 1835. Slaves were brought to the Seychelles when the island was first populated by French planters and their slaves from Mauritius. The British banned the slave trade on the island when it became British territory in 1815, and slavery itself was abolished twenty years later.
The Swahili coast is a coastal area of East Africa, bordered by the Indian Ocean and inhabited by the Swahili people. It includes Sofala ; Mombasa, Gede, Pate Island, Lamu, and Malindi ; and Dar es Salaam and Kilwa. In addition, several coastal islands are included in the Swahili coast, such as Zanzibar and Comoros.
The Shirazi people, also known as Mbwera, are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting the Swahili coast and the nearby Indian ocean islands. They are particularly concentrated on the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba and Comoros.
The Moresby Treaty was an anti-slavery treaty between Sayyid Said, Sultan of Muscat and Oman and Fairfax Moresby, senior officer of Mauritius, on behalf of Britain in September 1822.
The history of slavery in the Muslim world began with institutions inherited from pre-Islamic Arabia.
Legal chattel slavery existed in the area which was later to become Oman from antiquity until the 1970s. Oman was united with Zanzibar from the 1690s until 1856, and was a significant center of the Indian Ocean slave trade from Zanzibar in East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, a central hub of the regional slave trade, which constituted a large part of its economy.
Legal Chattel slavery existed in Saudi Arabia until the 1960s.
The Indian Ocean slave trade, sometimes known as the East African slave trade, involved the capture and transportation of predominately black African slaves along the coasts, such as the Swahili Coast and the Horn of Africa, and through the Indian Ocean. The areas impacted included East Africa, Southern Arabia, the west coast of India, Indian ocean islands and southeast Asia including Java. The source of slaves was primarily in sub-saharan Africa, but also included other parts of Africa and the Middle East, Indian Ocean islands, as well as south Asia. While the slave trade in the Indian Ocean started 4,000 years ago, it expanded significantly in late antiquity with the rise of Byzantine and Sassanid trading enterprises. Muslim slave trading started in the 7th century, with the volume of trade fluctuating with the rise and fall of local powers. Beginning in the 16th century, slaves were traded to the Americas, including Caribbean colonies, as Western European powers became involved in the slave trade. Trade declined with the abolition of slavery in the 19th century.
The Red Sea slave trade, sometimes known as the Islamic slave tradeArab slave trade, or Oriental slave trade, was a slave trade across the Red Sea trafficking Africans from the African continent to slavery in the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East from antiquity until the mid-20th-century.
Slavery existed in the Sultanate of Zanzibar until 1909. Slavery and slave trade existed in the Zanzibar Archipelago for at least a thousand years. When clove and coconut plantations became a big industry on the islands, domestic slavery expanded to a point where two thirds of the populations were slaves. Zanzibar was internationally known as a major player in the Indian Ocean slave trade, where slaves from the Swahili coast of Eastern Africa were trafficked across the Indian Ocean to Oman in the Arabian Peninsula during the Zanzibar slave trade.
Chattel slavery existed in the Trucial States (1892–1971), which later formed the United Arab Emirates. The Trucial States consisted of the Sheikdoms Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah, and Ras Al Khaimah. The region was mainly supplied with enslaved people from the Indian Ocean slave trade, but humans were also trafficked to the area from Hejaz, Oman and Persia. Slaves were used in the famous pearl fish industry and later in the oil industry, as well as sex slaves and domestic servants. Many members of the Afro-Arabian minority are descendants of the former slaves.
Hamerton Treaty was an treaty signed between Britain and the Omani Empire in 1845. It was named after Atkins Hamerton, who negotiated the treaty on behalf of Britain. The treaty addressed the issue of the Zanzibar slave trade between the Swahili coast in Zanzibar and Oman in the Arabian Peninsula, which was at the time the major part of the ancient Indian Ocean slave trade.
Slavery existed in the Comoros until 1904. The Comoros was as a player in the Indian Ocean slave trade, where slaves from the Swahili coast of Eastern Africa were trafficked across the Indian Ocean to Oman in the Arabian Peninsula, and was one of the major players of the trade alongside the Zanzibar slave trade.
The Suppression of the slave trade in the Persian Gulf, refers to the Imperial Firman or Ferman (Decree) issued by Sultan Abdülmecid I in 1847. It formally prohibited the import of African slaves to Ottoman territory via the Indian Ocean slave trade of the Persian Gulf. The decree did not address the other slave trade routes trafficking slaves to the Empire.
References
- ↑ Mbogoni, L. E. Y. (2013). Aspects of Colonial Tanzania History. Tanzania: Mkuki na Nyota. p172
- ↑ McMahon, E. (2013). Slavery and Emancipation in Islamic East Africa: From Honor to Respectability. Storbritannien: Cambridge University Press. p. 48
- ↑ McMahon, E. (2013). Slavery and Emancipation in Islamic East Africa: From Honor to Respectability. Storbritannien: Cambridge University Press. p. 43-44
