Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dmitry
Forgive my ignorance, and not being familiar with the Omani slave trade. If I am not mistaken the majority of slaves in the Americas were from Western Africa. while Zanzibar is obviously on the Indian Ocean coast, so I don't think the West African slaves would make it all the way across the continent, while there were supplies of local slaves available. Or the slave traders procured slaves from the Western Africa and marched them for 1500 miles to the Eastern Coast?
|
Zanzibari slave traders extended their reach well into equatorial Africa. The notorious slaver Hamed bin Muhammad, a.k.a., Tippu Tib, was appointed governor of the Stanley Falls district of the Congo Free State (by King Leopold II) in the late 19th century, which positioned him on the navigable Congo River. While the territory from which he captured slaves ranged primarily south of the Congo (well into Central Africa, around the 8th parallel south), merchant trade from downriver was the bloodline of all upriver communities. It was
up the mouth of the Congo by which Stanley transversed Africa in his 'rescue' of Emin Pasha in 1887. Tippu Tib accompanied him on this particular voyage, which in fact originated in Zanzibar.
Tippu Tib:
In the map attached below, the inner circle is the approximate location of Stanley Falls, while the ellipse (roughly) represents the area over which Tippu Tib poached ivory and captured slaves.