Zanzibar Island is known today as one of the best destinations that depict the authentic history of slavery in East Africa, hence why it is regarded as the “Center of East African Slave Trade.”
The dark and painful past that has shaped the present and future of this sunny paradise dates back over 200 years.
Zanzibar was, and still is, famous for two things: its variety of spices and its history of slave trade.
The selling of African slaves can be traced back to before the Middle Ages but gained prominence in the 7th Century when Islam began gaining strength in North Africa.
Arab Muslims in North and East Africa sold these captured Africans to the Middle East, where they worked as teachers, field laborers, and Harem guards.
It is for this reason that male slaves were castrated, a practice that was outrightly discriminatory because African Muslims could not be enslaved.
Since the 17th Century, the Island of Zanzibar became renowned worldwide as the “land of spices,” an unpleasant center of slavery, and a place of origin for expeditions into the vast and unique continent until the latter half of the 19th Century.
More and more merchants from Oman and other Middle Eastern countries settled in Zanzibar, solidifying its crucial role in international trade of goods.
This was mainly due to the significant trade at the Swahili coast and subsequently in the slave trade.
This is how the largest slave market in East Africa was established.
Being the main slave trade port of the African Great Lakes region, it had only rough estimates of the number of Africans sold from East to North Africa, primarily because many slaves perished.
However, it is believed that over 50,000 African slaves crossed through Zanzibar each year.
It is said that three out of four slaves perished before reaching the selling point, and David Livingstone, a Scottish physician, pioneer of Christian missionary work, and Congregationist with the London Missionary Society in the 19th Century, estimated that over 80,000 Africans lost their lives each year before even arriving on Zanzibar Island.
The causes of their deaths were illnesses, hunger, maltreatment, and exhaustion after long journeys.
Young people were forced into slavery, compelled to work, and subjected to sexual molestation.
Studies estimate that over 17 million East Africans were sold into slavery.
However, some historians dispute these figures as there were even fewer than 40 million people in the whole of Africa at that time.
Not all slaves that passed through Zanzibar were taken to Saudi Arabia or Egypt.
Omani settlers began cultivating cloves in Zanzibar Island to meet the growing global demand.
Vast clove plantations swiftly expanded, making slaves readily available at the local slave market.
End of Slavery in Zanzibar
Slave trade rebellion began in today’s Dominican Republic and Haiti by the end of 1791, calling for the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism in the African continent.
The exceptional variety of spices in Zanzibar attracted ships from as far as the United States, prompting the establishment of a consulate in 1837.
However, the early interest of the United Kingdom in this island was driven by both commercial trading and the determination to end the slave trade.
It wasn’t until 1873 that the Sultan of Zanzibar, Seyyid Barghash, signed an agreement to end slavery in his territory under pressure from Great Britain.
However, the declaration was not immediately enforced, and the slave trade in East Africa was completely abolished in 1909.
This marked the beginning of a slave trade-free era in Zanzibar Island and East Africa in general.
