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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3 OX SLAVE TRADE (EAST COAST OF AFRICA). 18. You are acquainted, I presume, with the statements of Dr. Livingstone with respect to the slave traffic ?—Yes ; and we considered his book very much in connection with our Report. Have his statements been confirmed by the information you have collected at the office ? Yes, certainly, we have found them generally very trustworthy. 20. You have stated that the limits within which the export of slaves is recognised from one port to another on the coast, are Lamoo on the iiorth, and Kihva on the south ?—Yes, that in cludes a coast line of about 350 miles. 21. Have those limits been pretty much kept . to, or have they been overstepped ?—They are, Û0 doubt, constantly overstepped. 22. The line on each side is, of course, only ‘Oiaginary line?—Yes. 23. What is the approximate annual export of ^aves from the dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar ?—We estimated it in our Report at -0,000 a year, but it may be more. I was looking at Dr. Kirk’s returns, in which he says, as I understand him, that between 1867 and 1868 the Sultan got 270,000 dollars for his tax upon slaves ; if that is the case, that amounts to about 56,000/.; we only calculated it at 20,000 /. a year on 20,000 slaves. 24. You suspect that the number would be double/ — T es, upon that calculation; but I am îlot quite sure whether Dr. Kirk included in that the sale of slaves as well as the tax ; you can safely take it at 20,000, it certainly is not less. 25. Have you any reason to doubt the state- ^leut made by Dr. Kirk, and confirmed by Dr. Livingstone and the Rev. Mr. Waller, that four or five lives are lost for every slave delivered safe at Zanzibar ?—I have no reason to doubt it, and fhe hardships the slaves encounter become greater every year. As the country near the coast oecoines depopulated, and the slave hunters have o go further into the interior for slaves, so does he march become more horrible and deadly to the slaves. f ' Hr. lù'nnaird.] From the last accounts, how ai does it appear that the slaves are now brought ^ jy-Accor ding to the last accounts they are brought from Lake Kyassa. 27. Have you any idea what the distance would he . —No ; several days’journey. , 28. C/imrman.^ The plea on which the recog nised slave traffic is carried on is, that there is°a certain amount of labour required in Zanzibar and the adjoining islands, and that slaves are ■wanted for that purpose?—That is the case. *" 11 1 your idea of the number that ^ actually required for that purpose ?— 1. Kirk estimates the requirements of Zanzibar at about 1,7m per year. . Ai/i?iaird.] Nominally for domestic ser- vice. — ies, there is nothing but slave labour in anzi ai all the menial offices connected with the household are performed by slaves ; free labour can hardly be obtained. 31 Theie is no peculiar qualification required or that service ?--No; they aie employed in ynous ivorhs and drawing water, and in all the Usual labour in a household. CAa/rwmii.] How do you account for the aitterence between the 1,7()0 and the 20,000?— -Most of the others go to the foreign slave trade, cp. ’r us far as female slaves are con- erned they are, to a great extent, taken to the U.116. harems of the Imaum of Muscat and the Arabian chiefs ?—I believe that most of the slaves are taken to Muscat itself and Soor, and from thence they are exported to various ports on the Persian Gulf, and to Persia itself, wherever the market is the highest ; they go even up to Bussorah and Mohamrah, and from thence I have no doubt some find their way into Turkish harems. 34, In point of fact, I suppose, at Muscat there is a recognised slave market ?—Yes. 35. I need hardly ask you whether the system of obtaining slaves and exporting them involves great hardships and misery ?—In answer to that question, I cannot do better than read the begin ning of our Report. “ The slaves required, as well for the legal as for the illegal traffic, are obtained from the interior of Africa. Formerly they could be procured from the countries border ing on the coast, but constant slave raids have so depojmlated those districts, that the slave dealers are now forced to go far inland for their supplies. Year by year further tracts of country are de populated and laid waste, an l at the present time it is chiefly from the neighbourhood of Lake Nyassa and beyond it that slaves are obtained. The persons by whom this traffic is carried on are, for the most part, Arabs, subjects of the Sultan of Zanzibar. These slave dealers start for the interior well armed, and provided with articles for the barter of slaves, such as beads and cotton cloth. On arriving at the scene of their opera tions, they incite and sometimes help the natives of one tribe to make war upon another. Their assistance almost invariably secures victory to the side which they support, and the captives become their property, either by right or by purchase, the price in the latter case being only a few yards of cotton cloth. In the course of these operations thousands are killed, or die subsequently of their wounds or of starvation ; villages are burnt, and the women and children carried away as slaves. The complete depopulation of the country be tween the coast and the present field of the slave dealers’ operations attest the fearful character of these raids. Having, by these and other means, obtained a sufficient number of slaves to allow for the heavy losses on the road, the slave dealers start with them for the coast. The horrors attend ing this long journey have been fully described by Dr. Livingstone and others. The slaves are inarched in gangs, the males with their necks yoked in heavy forked sticks, which at night are fastened to the ground, or lashed together so as to make escape impossible. The women and children are bound with thongs. Any attempt at escape, or to untie their bonds, or any waver ing or lagging on the journey, has but one punishment, immediate death. The sick are left behind, and the route of a slave caravan can be tracked by the dying and the dead. The Arabs only value these poor creatures at the price which they will fetch in the market, and if they are not likely to pay the cost of their conveyance, they are got rid of. The result is that a large number of the slaves die or are murdered on the journey, and the survivors arrive at their destination in a state of the greatest misery and emaciation.” 36. Mr. Kinnaird.'] You do not believe that there is the slightest exaggeration in that Report? —No ; but of course evidence upon the state of things in the locality would be better given by peojile acquainted with the country. 37. Chairman.^} What revenue does the Sultan of Zanzibar derive from the tax upon slaves ?—We A 2 have Hon. C. Vivian, 10 J uly 1871.

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