Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa); together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 832922498

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-79587

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa); together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index

Place of publication:: [London]

Publisher:: [The House of Commons]

Year of publication:: 1871

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XXIV, 242 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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74 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE Rev. E. Steere, LL.D. 25 July 1871. Arabs who come in the monsoon time come to Zanzibar^ and there stop. 1041. They do not negotiate with the dealers on the mainland?—Not with the people on the mainland ; they kidnap slaves in Zanzibar, and sometimes take them off the plantations; they procure them by any means they can, in Zanzibar and immediately on the coast. 1042. What was your experience as to the healthiness of Zanzibar ?—I was quite as well myself in Zanzibar as I should have been in England. 1043. You were in the town ?—Yes. 1044. Can you speak to the healthiness of the country ?—I have no reason to think that the climate of the country is worse ; we all thought that the mainland opposite, particularly at Dar Seelam, was likely to be more healthy than Zanzibar itself. I have been at Dar Seelam, which is very finely situated ; it has an excellent harbour, and there are some very fine buildings ; but T am told that it is now to be abandoned. It was always thought that Seyyid Majid intended it as a place of security against his brother, the Imaum of Muscat, the town not being so accessible from the sea as Zanzibar is. 1045. What proportion of the slaves brought to Zanzibar are children ?—Among the slaves I have seen landed from the dhows at Zanzibar there has not been a large proportion of children : I should think, taking one with another, you would get the ordinary proportion of children to grown people. 1046. What is the ordinary proportion ?—A sixth, I would say, were children ; but almost all the slaves are young people. 1047. I mean between the ages of six and ten ? —About a sixth of the slaves I have seen landed in Zanzibar would be under 10, but of the cargoes I have seen taken from vessels going to Arabia, the proportion of children has been very much larger ; in some cases they seemed to be almost all children. 1048. Did you see the boats in Zanzibar taking slaves on board for export ?—I used to see the dhows coming from Kilwa with slaves ; they used to go round our house close to our windows, the deck of the dhow woud be entirely covered with slaves squatting side by side, so closely packed that it was impossible for them to move ; there would be sometimes 200 to 300 in a large open boat. 1049. Would that be about the ordinary number carried in a dhow ?—I think they always aim at getting as many as 200 into the dhow. 1050. Of course then there would be con siderable mortality before they reached Arabia? —No doubt the mortality must be enormous. 1051. Did you see those dhows lying in wait in the harbour for a convenient opportunity of escaping our cruisers ?—It was all done perfectly openly ; the trade was legitimate to Mombaza and Lamoo, and there was not the slightest attempt at interfering with it. 1052. Have you an}; reason to suppose that any considerable proportion of those slaves that are taken to Lamoo are taken to remain there ? —No, I should think a very small proportion in deed go to Lamoo to remain there. 1053. It is a mere blind?—It is a mere blind. 1054. As to nine-tenths would you say?—As to nine-tenths I should think. There is besides this, a slave trade which is illegitimate in the eyes of the Arabs at Zanzibar ; that is conducted chiefly by the northern Arabs that come from the Persian Gulf, who kidnap and steal their slaves, and who avoid paying the customs duties on them. The ordinary slave carriers are from Sur near Ras al Hadd ; the northern Arabs or Shemali are Wahabees from Ras al Kheymah, near Cape Mussandum. 1055. Hotv do they get off from Zanzibar? — They generally sail in the night; they have houses in the town ; it is notorious in what parts of the town they make their stay while they are collecting their slaves, and in the back parts of those premises they gather the slaves ; then when they have a good opportunity they slip them on board the dhows secretly at night and the dhow goes out to sea. 1056. Are there a large number of dhows en gaged in that particular trade ? — There have been generally a large number of them every season. 1057. Have ymu any idea of the number of dhows engaged in that trade in the course of a year ?—There is so much secrecy about it that I do not think anybody can tell accurately ; there is a certain build of dhow one knows, and one used to see eight or ten of them in the harbour at a time, I do not know how many of them there would be in the course of a year. 1058. You saw many dhows in the harbour at a time, which in the night would load their slaves and go away ?—Dhows which everybody knew were there for piratical purposes if the opportu nity offered. 1059. Would they carry off a great number of slaves?—They would carry as many as they could on board ; there was one taken by the “ Wasp ” that had, I think, 380 on board. 1060. Do you look forward to any considera ble increase of commercial intercourse at Zanzi bar, supposing the slave trade were put down ?— Yes, I think commerce will go on increasing, and I think commerce tends to suppress the slave trade ; the legitimate commerce of Zanzibar is so large that the slave trade is being rather squeezed out by it. 1061. Do you think that the export of slaves is now decreasing rather than increasing ?—■ Ifes. 1062. For how long has that been the case?— It has been chiefly, I suppose, since cloves began to be planted in Zanzibar. 1063. That has given rise to a great trade ?— To a very great trade. 1064. Does not that render it their interest rather to prevent the slave trade ?—The Zanzibar people feel, as a rule, that the slave trade is a disreputable occupation, and they say among themselves “money made by the slave trade never prospers. ” 1065. They think it injurious to the interests of the state?—No, I do not say they think that, because the whole life of an Arab is bound up with the employment of slaves : all their domestic arrangements would be overthrown by the aboli tion of slavery. 1066. I am speaking of the slave trade, and not slavery ?—T on always find that the Arabs are anxious to supply their friends and relations with the slaves they want, and they consider it a laudable thing to do so ; but they consider the slave trade generally to be disreputable. 1067. Is there any idea growing up in Zanzi bar that they want the labour of the negroes themselves,

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