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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V ON SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA). 189 no formal instrument declaratory of the precise nature of the grant. Under these circum stances no decision can be based on the alleged recognition by Syud Thoweynee of his brother’s claim. 9. The 2nd and 3rd grounds being thus briefly disposed of, the 1st ground (the will or wishes of the late Syud Saeed) is presented for consideration. Two questions naturally arise: 1st. Did the late Imam clearly manifest his wishes? 2ndly. Would the wishes of the late Imam, if ascertained, constitute a valid title to the succession ? To the first of these questions the Honourable the Governor in Council would reply that Syud Saeed did not clearly manifest his wishes, but that there was considerable ground for the inference that they were in accordance with the claims of Syud Majeed. It stands clear upon the evidence, that the late Imam did indicate in his will that on his death his dominions should be divided ; that the Arabian portion should be assigned to Syud 'fhoweynee, and the African portion to Syud Khaled ; that he entrusted during his own life the adminis tration of the respective portions to the sons thus named ; that on Syud Khaled’s death he placed Syud Majeed in authority over the African dominions ; that he led the British Agent, Colonel Hamerton, with whom he had long been on terms of friendly intercourse, to believe that he intended the arrangement to remain in force after his own death. The proof of the late Imam’s wishes is inadequate, but there are very strong presumptions in favour of the conclusion that, if the claim of Syud Majeed were established on other grounds, the British Government would recognise the claim which had the sympathy and support of Syud Saeed. 10. Next, with respect to the question of whether the wishes of the late Imam, if ascertained, could confer a valid title to the succession. The Honourable the Governor in Council considers it to have been clearly shown by Brigadier Coghlan that succession in the Imam’s family has in practice, as generally in Arab chiefships, been regulated by election. The wishes of the late Imam, though they might very naturally exercise a material influence on the opinions of the various chiefs and tribes, could not therefore, from any inherent authority of their own, determine the succession. They might influence the election, and they might still more lend an appearance of legitimacy to pretensions which really owed their success to other causes of a less respectable character, to force or intrigue ; but it cannot be doubted that, if the will of the sovereign was in Muscat and Zanzibar decisive as to the succession, there must have been instruments producible which would have put the fact beyond all doubt. In the absence, then, of all satisfactory proof, the Honourable the Governor in Council fully concurs with Brigadier Coghlan in considering that the will or wishes of the late Imam cannot be regarded, even if ascer tained, as authoritatively decisive of the dispute. They would in all probability have exercised a material influence on the election, and that is all. 11. The last ground, then, on which Syud Majeed bases his claim remains for considera tion, that he was elected by the chiefs and tribes in the late Imam’s African dominions to be their ruler. The Honourable the Governor in Council considers it to have been satisfactorily shown that in the Imam’s family the succession is determined by election. The question then is, was Syud Majeed elected? On this point there can be no doubt. No opposition appears ever to have been manifested in Zanzibar or Africa until some years after Syud Majeed had commenced his rule, and then the opposition might more correctly be termed disaffection to the existing ruler, excited by the intrigues of a rival claimant. That Syud Thoweynee should have commenced these intrigues was but natural, but the Honourable the Governor in Council is of opinion that the conclusion cannot be resisted, that Syud Majeed was elected to the sovereignty without a murmur from those included within the limits of his government, and that he would have continued to rule without protest or resistance but for the acts of those who were not included within the limits of his rule. 12. But an important point is presented for consideration at this period of the discussion. Had the chiefs and tribes of the African dominions, which were conquered dependencies of Muscat, a right to elect their own sovereign without reference to the desires of the chiefs in Oman ? On this point the Honourable the Governor in Council has no difficulty in concurring with Brigadier Coghlan in opinion that the enhanced importance of the African dominions, both in their political and commercial aspects, an importance far surpassing that of Muscat, invested the chiefs of those young and vigorous settlements with a right of exercising a potential voice in the selection of their ruler. The late Imam, by whose courage and administrative ability the dominions had been consolidated and raised to their present prosperity, virtually relieved Zanzibar of its dependent character by making it the seat of government ; and he still further indicated, his views on this point by his desire, after making the administrations distinct during his life, to continue the arrangement after his death, in favour at least of Syud Khaled, if not of Syud Majeed. 13. The Honourable the Governor in Council then holds that Zanzibar had the right of choosing its own ruler, and that it chose Syud Majeed. But another complication is at this point presented for solution. It may be fairly contended by Syud Thoweynee that the election of Syud Majeed was, stripped of all its accidents, a mere exhibition of force ; that Syud Majeed was on the spot when the throne became vacant; that he had all the advan tages derivable from his position as viceroy ; and that no opposition could safely be or ganised against this array of circumstances by those who really favoured the pretensions 0.116. A A 3 of Appendix, No. 8

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