Pt.II: Colonialism, Nationalism, the Harem 19th-20th centuries”
Week 10: Nov. 18-22 “Zanzibar – the ‘New Andalous’ Zanzibar: 19th-20th C.
(Zanzibar) Zanzibar: 19th-20th C.
• Context: requires history of several centuries
• Emergence of ‘Swahili’ coast/culture
• 16th century with Portuguese conquests
• 18th century Omani political/military involvement
• 19th century Omani Economic presence
Zanzibar: 19th-20th C.
• Story ends with in late 19th century:
• British and German involvement
• Imperial political struggles
• Changing global economy
• Abolition of Slavery
Zanzibar: 19th-20th C.
• Story of the Swahili Coast
Ocean Trade:
Tied East Africa into Arabian and Indian Economies From Medieval Period Zanzibar: 19th-20th C.
• Emergence of ‘Swahili’:
Trade Winds (Monsoons):
Changed direction every Six months
Traders forced To remain on East African Coast Zanzibar: 19th-20th C.
• Emergence of ‘Swahili’: • Intermarried with African women, established settlements
• Built mosques, created Muslim communities
• Emergence by 15th century: wealthy ‘Swahili City States’ scattered along coast
• Language and culture embracing ‘Indian Ocean World’ Swahili Mosque: 19th-20th C.
Zanzibar: 19th-20th C. Zanzibar: 19th-20th C. Swahili Coast: 16th-17th C
• Portugal Creating ‘Ocean Empire’:
• Following on trans-Atlantic expansion
• Developed trade relations with West and Central Africa
• Goal: to recapture Indian Ocean and Asian (China) commerce from Muslims
• Meant controlling East Africa Portuguese in East Africa
Swahili Coast: 16th – 17th C.
• 1505: Portuguese successfully sacked Kilwa
Swahili Coast: 16th – 17th C.
• Established influence along most of coast, built ‘Fort Jesus’ (modern Mozambique) Swahili Coast: 16th – 17th C.
• 1552: Portuguese Captured Muscat – Omani Capital
Controlled from 1508 – 1650; taken by Persians – retaken by Oman 1741 Swahili Coast: 16th – 17th C.
• Portuguese activity drew Omanis into East Africa:
• Oman traded in Indian Ocean, as far east as China
• Muscat: principal centre for Indian Ocean Trade
• Controlled Arabian Sea
• Portuguese Presence: destroying commerce, basis of Oman wealth
Portuguese in East Africa
• 18th Century: Oman…
• drove Portuguese from Muscat (1740-50)
• assisted several East African ‘Sultans’ (Swahili City States) to do the same
• claimed control of the region re: rights to maritime trade
Omani Empire c.18th C
Had rebuilt power (political, economic): -at home - at sea by late 18th c.
Oman in East Africa: 19th C.
• Oman consolidated under rule of Sayyid Said bin Sultan (1804-1856):
• concentrated on developing economy, commerce
• made Zanzibar ‘second capital’
• concluded agreements Britain, France
• built up navy, secured Persian Gulf
[Father of Princess Sayyid Salme ‘Memoire of an Arabian Princess’, Add’l. Rdg]
Oman in East Africa: 19th C.
• Developed complex plantation economy, rooted in trade to interior:
• invested in grain plantations on mainland (now Tanzania)
• expanded ivory, slave-trading network to interior
• Indian merchants provided credit for goods that moved as far inland as (today) eastern Congo
Oman in East Africa: 19th C.
Omani ‘Empire’ in East and Central Africa mid-19th Century Oman in East Africa: 19th C.
• Sayyid Said’s death (1856) posed succession problem:
• dispute threatened Oman’s prosperity
• British Viceroy (India) mediated:
• 1861 Omani sultanate ‘divided’
- Oman, Muscat to one son - Zanzibar, its ‘dependencies’ to the other
[see Bhacker, ‘Family Strife and Foreign Intervention’, Add’l Rdg]
Oman in East Africa: 19th C.
Sayyid Majid bin said became Sultan of Zanzibar (1856-70)
Oman in East Africa: 19th C.
Followed by his brother Sayyid Bargash in (1870-88) Oman in East Africa: 19th C.
And Khalifa I bin Barghash And Sayyid Ali bin Said (1888-90) (1890-93)
Oman in East Africa: 19th C.
• Zanzibar was financial centre of empire:
• subsidy built into agreement (Zanzibar to subsidize Oman)
• Oman rejected terms but nevertheless, became dependent ‘backwater’ for next century
• Zanzibar flourished: ‘the New Andalous’
[see Ghazal, ‘The Other Andalous…”, Resources]
Germany in East Africa: 19th C.
• During Sultan Bargash’s reign: Germans successfully conquered mainland:
• British worried about Indian Ocean trade
• ‘traded’ for rights to territories of what became Kenya, Zanzibar and Pemba
Germany in East Africa: 19th C.
German East Africa Co. 19th C. German East Africa c.1914 British in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Sultan Sayyid Ali: had little choice
• Be destroyed by the Germans or…
• accept British Protection
• Formal British Protectorate established 1890
• Story of ‘harem’ caught up in history of Abolition efforts Zanzibar (and Pemba) and adjacent coast
Harem on Swahili Coast: 19th C.
• Looking at ‘harem’ in Zanzibar, Lamu and Mombasa: both Imperial and Household
• Imperial Harem: Zanzibar
• Bhacker article: story of Hilal, son of Sayyid Said – reflects political, ‘moral’ role of harem
• ‘Memoir’: specific to Palace harem mid-19th century (Princes b. 1844, writes of childhood years; leaves Zanzibar 1866) – reflects ‘life’ in harem but also intrusion Europeans (women, merchants, British… ultimately German merchant is her ‘downfall’)
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Looking at ‘harem’ in Zanzibar, Lamu and Mombasa: both Imperial and Household
• Household Harems: • Zanzibar: presence concubines, eunuchs in context ‘slavery’ [Mackenzie, 1895, Resources – also notes trade in eunuchs]; concubinage as special aspect ‘abolition’ (Zanzibar, coast) [ Cave
• Lamu: harem as space, presence concubines [Donely ‘Life in Swahili Town House’; Add’l Rdg.; also Romero, ‘Where have all the slaves gone…?’, Resources]
• Mombasa (Kenya): seclusion,concubinage [McDougall, ‘Story of Bi Kaje’, Add’l. Rdgs.]
Zanzibar Women, Stone Town
•
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• The Move to Zanzibar:
• Sayyid Said officially transferred his capital to Zanzibar in 1840
• Building to house new administration began as early as late 1820s
• One of first was Mtoni Palace (about 5-6km north of Zanzibar town) built 1828-30
• [said to be] Home to Sultan, First Wife, “Secondary Wives”, children and (supposedly) “hundreds of slaves”
Mtoni Palace
•
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Sultan Sayyid Said:
• Had no children by legal wives
• Maintained some 70 souriya (slave concubines): mostly Circassian, Ethiopian
• Had 25 sons, unknown number of daughers
• Princess Salme one of them: born Mtoni Palace 1844
[‘Memoir’, Add’l. Rdg. Discussion Friday * postponed* until Monday ] Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Sultan Sayyid Said: one of sons was Hilal
• 1844 Sultan disinherited Hilal
• One theory (based on British consular reports): this was because Hilal “had violated his father’s harim” [Bhacker]
• Internal evidence (including ‘Memoirs’) suggests rumour spread by an aunt promoting the case of her son
• Hilal born of Assyrian concubine who died in birth: no one in harem to take up his case
• Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• ‘Aunt’ was Indian woman from Malabar, concubine: largely successful in pushing case for son Khalid
• “She was uncommonly tall, and possessed a great strength of will combined with a high degree of common sense... during the time that Khalid represented my father in his absence, it was said that it was she who actually governed the country, and that her son was only her tool. Her advice and counsel in all matters concerning our family was considered quite indispensable, and much depended always upon the decision she came to…”
[Bhacker 270]
• Importance of story: shows role of harem and influence of Sultan’s concubines (umm al-walad) Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Successors to Sayyid Said all had harems:
• Sultan Barghash built Maruhubi Palace 1880-82: 4kms north of Stone Town
• Said to have been built ‘for his harem’ (‘Second Wives): 50 acres of gardens
• Largely destroyed by fire 1899
Maruhubi Palace
•
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Sultan Barghash:
• Also built Beit al-Ajaib (“house of wonders”) 1883
• after 1890, harem moved there permanently
• Has covered walkways so harem women could move from one building to another, unseen
• Sultans at the time said to have about 100 concubines with Eunuchs to attend to them
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
Beit al-Ajaib or ‘House of Wonders’ [note covered passage ways on right Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
Mackenzie reported that Sultan Hamid bin Thawayni had 15 eunuchs to guard his harem (1895)
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Household Harems in Zanzibar:
• Know much less: nothing from early century
• British efforts at abolition (more below) reveal what we do know
• Reports/correspondence from c.1894-5
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Consul General Arthur Hardinge:
• In 1894, wrote concerns about abolition noting it would cause grave social changes because every ‘every householder is a slave holder’; losing slaves would impoverish whole class…
“[and these] impecunious masters would release their slave concubines into the streets; ‘incapable of work,’ the concubines would drift into prostitution…”
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Donald Mackenzie (‘Report on Slavery’, 1895): Three categories of slaves:
• Domestic Slaves: principally composed of concubines, male and female household Slaves, and eunuchs.
• Plantation/farm ‘shamba’ slaves and…
• Town labourers
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Gives idea of slave holdings among well-off shamba holders:
• Abdallah ben Salam: owns 6 shambas with 3,000 Slaves on each. He has 1 wife, 5 concubines, and 10 Slaves in his harem. His wife owns 7 small shambas, 1,600 Slaves
• Tippu Tip [slave trader]: owns 7 shambas and 10,000 Slaves.
• Mohammed ben Salam: owns 3 small shambas with 250 Slaves. He has 15 Slaves besides for domestic purposes.
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Also has note on Eunuchs:
“In nearly all the dhows [small sailing ships] which have been captured going north in these parts from time to time small boys were found, mutilated for eunuchs for the harems in Arabia. I am told that the mortality is very great among these poor boys, who are operated upon by native doctors. The Sultan op Zanzibar is said to have fifteen eunuchs to guard his harem, but I could not learn that any other Arabs have them in these islands…”
Harem in Lamu: 19th C.
• Lamu: ‘household harem’ revealed through archaeological work [Donely]
• a famous 17th century Swahili utendi (poem) 'Lament to Greatness', spoke of a declining Swahili urban civilization which had once known "harem chambers" ringing with laughter and the talk of slaves…
• 18th C. Lamu ‘life in a town house’: speaks of the ‘house’ as “physical metaphor of Swahili society”
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
“People considered to be inferiors (slaves) lived downstairs, and the master and his family lived upstairs.1 Domestic slaves were considered to be superior to those who worked on the plantations and who did not live in the master's house. Female domestic slaves (madada) lived on the ground floor of the house. Any of these women could become a concubine, souriya, of the master, which would bring her and her offspring freedom. She would then live either upstairs or in a separate house provided by her husband/master. This would be a step in the direction of obtaining the status of the free-born Waungwana. Several Waungwana informants told me that no relative of theirs would ever live on the lower level of a two- storey house. …” Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
“Great care must be taken to try to separate the material culture related to each group when working on a Swahili two- storey house site. Within each storey of the house the level of each room is raised approximately 10 cm as one moves into the darker and innermost room, the ndani. This is the location of many rituals and is where the freeborn women must retreat if a male stranger enters the house, which is rare even today. The daka, a covered porch with stone benches, the lowest and outermost area of the house, is associated with public, male and secular business. Male slaves and Indian or Arab traders came only to the daka, the area outside the valued social space of the house. …”
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
“[While freee-born women]were limited in their access to the mosque and were not allowed to go with a body to the place of burial, within the seclusion of the house they governed the social formation of the society. Most of the rituals relating to birth, death and weddings were organized by the Waungwana woman. These were the practices that could cause and resolve discord within the extended household.
Men spent little of the day within the female-dominated house. One man, reported to be 96 years old, said that he went out every day because it is 'unmanly' to spend time at home. …”
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Article makes clear: Swahili households contained ‘harems’:
• Issue of ‘space’ and ‘status’
• Physical seclusion
• Presence of slave concubines (and other domestic slaves)
• Had ‘permanent’ place in household and some ‘social mobility’ within it
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Abolition and the role of Harems and Concubines:
• 1822 Moresby Treaty: Oman agreed not to sell slaves to Christian territories – little impact as various Muslim markets continued to support trade
• After 1840: establishment Zanzibar as Oman Capital, development clove and grain plantations – became ‘African’ market
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Abolition and the role of Harems and Concubines:
• 1873: agreed to make sea-borne trade illegal, close main Zanzibar slave market
• Marketing took place clandestinely
• Slaves continued to be shipped by small dhows, ‘in darkness’
• Story of ‘Rashid bin Hassani’ [Resources]
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Abolition and the role of Harems and Concubines: • With establishment of Protectorate, issue of ‘slavery’ arose
• Early 1890s: reports largely sympathetic to ‘Arab’ perspective
• Arguments against abolition: • Arab slave owners would flee to German territories, taking slaves • Or… slaves would flee ‘kind’ masters… • Either way, would destroy local economy ‘and not benefit anyone’
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• After much debate (among British, between British and Zanzibar): agreement reached
• April 6, 1897 -- Abolition Decree issued by Sultan • Withdrew legal recognition from status of slavery • Slaves desiring freedom had to bring ‘request’ to court (presided over by Muslim judge) • Authorized compensation for masters who could prove ‘economic hardship’ (would ensue…)
Noted Exception: Concubines …..
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Concubines could only be released from Harems if they could prove mistreatment:
• More specifically:
“. According to the Ordinance of Emancipation, 'concubines shall not be deemed to be slaves ... and nothing in this ordinance shall alter the law relating to... the rights and duties of concubines';
but, if a concubine was mistreated and brought charges against her master, she was free and no compensation would be paid for her . . . •
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Criticism of the legislation:
• Compensation clause: ‘like bribing a criminal to give up his criminal acts…’
• Sanction of existing ‘harem’ which included slaves
• By September 1897, ‘Friends of the Anti-Slavery Committee’ complaining that: ‘the Arabs’ were using concubinage (permitted under the Decree) “as a cloak to cover up slavery, kidnapping, outrage and cruelty”
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• In Lamu: Romero notes that…
• For concubines who produced free children: ordinance worked in their favour
• were treated as ‘wives’, children inherited (with other children of master): emancipation would deprive them of these gains
• in any case, in Lamu NO cases brought against masters citing ill-treatment
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Exception of the Harem and Concubinage under Abolition Decree 1897:
• When Decree of 1897 being discussed, rumour that concubines were to be offered freedom raised ‘considerable feeling’
• British pledged to Arabs that “their family life should at that time be left undisturbed”, a pledge fulfilled by the exemption of concubines from the Decree
• Reveals extent to which that had been an issue in negotiations – underscoring degree to which ‘harem’ and ‘concubines’ part of larger society, not only ‘Palace’
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• 1907: "Abolition of the Legal Status of Slavery Ordinance" established on Mainland
• Extended to Zanzibar: decline in number of slaves as consequence of previous decrees, especially 1897 rendered objections almost moot
• Went further than previous ordinance in many respects
• BUT: faltered over issues of compensation for masters, which was to continue until end of 1911 in limited fashion…
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• AND… Concubinage [following drawn from Cave, 1909 – excerpts, Add’l Rdg; full article in Resources] • ‘regarded as a fundamental institution of Islam’ and is therefore seen by ‘Mohammedans’ on personal level with ‘jealous eye’
• But: number of concubines declining as all children born after 1890 are ‘free’ (and concubines must be slaves…)
• Current concubines must be over 19 (implication… and therefore of less attraction)
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Free Swahili women being taken into concubinage illegally: further need for action
• Problem: women who had children with masters bore ‘free children’ and had rights to support (food, clothing, housing, maintenance) and to inheritance from children
• To address this, “ and at the same time to preserve, in so far as it was possible, Mohammedan family life, it was provided that a legally-held concubine who remained with her previous owner, or left him by mutual consent or by his desire, should retain her legal rights, although she would forfeit them if she left him against his wish.
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Second Problem concerned the Child:
• a child born of a concubine who had been freed, and who was therefore no longer lawfully held under the Mohammedan Law, would be illegitimate and consequently lose his rights of inheritance to his father's estate.
• This injustice has been provided against in the new Decree
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Third concerned the Master:
• Complaint that if concubine left without Master’s permission, she would take children which were ‘his’ [this was seen as issue of respecting ‘Mohammedan Law’]
• Addressed by conceding, “that a concubine who left her late master without his consent would forfeit, in common with her other privileges, the right to the custody of her children of which he was the father.”
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Last concern addressed the oft-repeated issue of ‘immorality’: this generated a lengthy response of which the following is the essence
“The extent to which concubines will take advantage of the new Decree to leave their masters is at present only a matter of conjecture, but in this connection it is to be observed that the total number of existing legally- held concubines cannot be a very large one, and that there appears to be a strong probability of a majority of them remaining in the harem, either in pursuance of their personal inclinations, or in view of the disabilities which they would otherwise incur. …
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
…Even admitting, however, that the number of those who elect to start a new life will assume considerable proportions, it by no means follows that they will lead a life of immorality; the value of a woman in the Swahili marriage market is rather enhanced than diminished by the fact that she has been an inmate of an Arab harem, and, as there can be no lawful concubine who is not approaching twenty years of age, and a native of the tropics matures very early, there cannot be more than a minority of these women to whom a life of immorality would still be open.”
[see Cave ‘Excerpt, 1909’, Add’l. Rdgs.] •
Harem in Mombasa: 20th C.
• Household ‘harems’: colonial Mombasa
Story of Bi Kaje wa Mwenye Matano
-born c.1890 to poor Muslim man from Mombasa and his concubine
[oral history collected early 1970s by Margaret Strobel]
Harem in Mombasa: 20th C.
• Household ‘harems’: colonial Mombasa
• confirms concubinage not restricted to elites/middle class
• “Swahili”: emphasized distinctive culture – sees Omanis as ‘outsiders’
• Tells story of ‘Faida’: slave given to her father (one of two) along with farm, by woman who raised him
Harem in Mombasa: 20th C.
• Story of Faida: my father took her as concubine
“He secluded her; she did not have to go out. …She had a child, but it died. So, she lived with my father and when the child died, Faida had no work. My father didn’t live with her anymore. By our custom, if you make a person a concubine and then want to let her go, you should marry her off. You look for another husband and marry her off. If she is not married because you, her master, didn’t find a husband for her, if she stays unmarried and then gets another man, if she gets pregnant and delivers a child, it must be yours. …
•
Harem in Mombasa: 20th C.
• Story of Faida: my father took her as concubine
…My father said, “I made her a concubine, she had a child. When she delivered, the child died.” My father didn’t want her again.
She built a house for herself and lived there…. Then my father found a person named Msengesi, a slave of people from Zanzibar. He returned and married Faida.
They stayed here in town. He didn’t build a house; they rented other people’s houses and lived in them. She had no children. … ”
•
Harem in Mombasa: 20th C.
• Bi Kaje also spoke to ‘seclusion’: buibui
• This is ‘veiled’ long, long-sleeved garment worn by women today
• Bi Kaje explains that when she was a child, when secluded women went out, slaves carried a moving tent around them
• Another idea of ‘taking seclusion’ into public
• With decline in slavery, women developed a ‘seclusion’ specific to the person that did not require ‘company’ and slave assistants
Harem in Mombasa: 20th C.
For several views of the buibui: http://www.africaimagelibrary.com/page/2?search=bui+bui Harem in Mombasa: 20th C.
• Slaves integral to ‘family’: special status of second, third generation slaves mzalia – note role of seclusion
• ““Among us, if a person is an mzalia once or twice [that is, in terms of generations] you treat them like your own child, if you like. … they say: two times an mzalia and their father is a freeborn man. But they keep the slave name because the grandmother was purchased [she is speaking of a particular slave history here]. We say you let them free. You write, “This person is free. He is neither my slave nor anyone else’s. I will not make him serve.” Now you have set him or her free; he or she is a freed slave, an mzalia of the lineage, and is not a person to be ordered about… You seclude her [if a female] like your own child …”
Harem in Mombasa: 20th C.
• Bi Kaje’s Story:
• Confirms continuing of domestic ‘harems’ and concubinage well into colonial era
• But, at same time, some ‘modernisations’: ‘shopping’ was issue (like Huda Shaawri)
• That said, no mention of eunuchs: would seem they were specific to Arab/Omani use (not Swahili)
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Conclusion:
• Issue of ‘harem’ and concubines clearly significant negotiating point in context of Abolition Politics
• While assumed to be largely one of ‘royalty’ (Palace Harem), in fact embraced elite Arab and upper class Swahili
• Looking at impact ‘colonial rule’ through prism of harem reveals gendered discourse at heart of negotiations •
•
Harem in Zanzibar: 19th C.
• Conclusion:
• Subsuming protection of ‘harem/concubinage’ to ‘promises to respect Islam’ allowed for longevity of slavery, albeit one constantly shifting to adjust to changing society [‘Bi Kaje’]
•