A Persistent Traffic: Portugal, Mozambique, and the Slave Export Trade in the Mozambique Channel at the End of the Nineteenth Century
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A PERSISTENT TRAFFIC: PORTUGAL, MOZAMBIQUE, AND THE SLAVE EXPORT TRADE IN THE MOZAMBIQUE CHANNEL AT THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Lorna Mungur History and Classical Studies McGill University, Montreal October 2013 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts © Lorna Mungur, 2013 2 ABSTRACT This research examines the illegal slave trade in the Mozambique Channel at the end of the nineteenth century. Although outlawed by Portugal and then heavily regulated by colonial powers, the trade persisted in important numbers. The project describes the measures taken throughout the century to regulate and prohibit the slave trade, and demonstrates how they ultimately failed. Le sujet de cette recherche est la traite illégale d’esclave dans le canal du Mozambique à la fin du dix-neuvième siècle. La traite fut interdite par le Portugal ainsi que durement prohibée par d’autres puissances coloniales telles que la Grande-Bretagne. Cependant, elle persista en nombres importants. Ce projet examine les mesures prises à travers le siècle afin d’interdire la traite des esclaves et conclut qu’elles échouèrent à réprimer la traite des esclaves. TABLE OF CONTENT Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………5 Introduction………………………………………………………………………..... 6 Chapter I The Structure of the Slave Trade in the Mozambique Channel………………..……13 Chapter II Regulation of the Slave Trade and Slavery in the Portuguese Empire………..……..27 Chapter III Increased European Presence in Southeast Africa……………………..………….....43 Chapter IV A Look into Slaving Activities from Mozambique Island, 1878-1898………..……. 59 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….. .74 Appendixes…………………………………………………………………………...78 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………….79 List of Maps Mozambique………………………………………………………………….14 The Peoples of East Central Africa…………………………………………..18 The Rose Coloured Map: Portuguese Claims in Africa……………………...45 Madagascar and the Mozambique Channel…………………………………..62 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people have supported me throughout this year-long project. First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Gwyn Campbell, for his support and valuable insight. I am grateful for his faith in my research. He has given me the opportunity to travel to Portugal to do valuable archival research, much needed for this project. I would also like to thank the Indian Ocean World Centre and McGill’s department of History and Classical studies for their financial and educational support. I would like to thank the members of the Indian Ocean World Centre for their help, advice, and constructive criticism. It is an honour to be part of such a wonderful team. I would also like to thank the Project Manager at the Indian Ocean World Centre, Lori Callaghan. She was always there when I needed assistance, she helped me with my complicated paperwork, she put me in touch with people who could assist me in my research, she taught me the basics of Excel, and she was always available to chat. I would also like to thank Dr. Margaret Kalacska for her help analysing the database I compiled. This project would not have been possible without the support I got in Lisbon, Portugal. I would like to thank the members of the Arquivo histórico ultramarino for helping me navigate through historical documents, and assisting me during the seven weeks I was there. I also would like to thank the friends I made in Lisbon who made my stay unforgettable. I would like to thank the people close to me, who supported at all times: François Anderson De Serres, Junie Latte, Étienne Pineault. I am especially grateful to my dear friend, Katherine-Anne St-Louis, for always being there for me, and for taking the time to edit my work. Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents for their unwavering support in me. 6 INTRODUCTION In 1807, Great Britain abolished the slave trade in its empire. Fifty years later, the Atlantic slave trade had, for the most part, ended. In Europe, the end of the Atlantic slave trade was seen as a victory for humanitarian forces. It was believed by many to mark the end of the global traffic in slaves. However, forced labour and migration remained a common practice in East Africa, after the end of the Atlantic slave trade and it did not end with the closure of the Brazilian and Cuban markets in the middle of the nineteenth century, as it is commonly argued. The East African slave trade has conventionally been depicted as an Arab or Islamic phenomenon, which could only be ended by European intervention. The portion of the East African slave trade in the Mozambique Channel has been described as a residual trade, not important in numbers, especially compared to the Atlantic slave trade. However, it had considerable impact in reshaping societies in Mozambique and in the islands importing slaves such as Réunion, Madagascar, Mayotte, Nossi Bé and Zanzibar. Moreover, groups other than Arab traders were involved, including Europeans. Thus, though it involved relatively small numbers compared to the Atlantic slave trade, it was of major significance in the region. By the end of the nineteenth century, the slave trade had been outlawed by Portugal, and European powers had gained control of most of the African continent. Laws to abolish the slave trade, to patrol land and sea and to punish belligerents were put in place, but ultimately failed to suppress the traffic. This research argues that despite the measures adopted to end slave trafficking in the Mozambique Channel, the practice persisted. The failure of colonial powers to stop the traffic in human beings in the region can be attributed to the lack of resources put into the anti-slave trade campaign, and to the many loopholes in the regulations. Moreover, while slavery and the fight against it were important humanitarian issues, they were used to justify 7 increasing European presence in Africa, European powers’ objectives in Africa were, first and foremost, economic and territorial. This work will be divided in four sections. The first will discuss the different structures shaping the slave trade in the Mozambique Channel, such as geography, the monsoon system, trading routes and centres, the people involved, and the supply and demand for slaves. The second section will address the multiple attempts by Portugal to abolish the slave trade and slavery in its empire. Encouraged by its ally Great Britain, Portugal enacted a series of decrees and laws prohibiting the trade in slaves and slavery in its possessions, but they ultimately failed due to lack of resources. The third section examines the increasing European presence in Southeast Africa. The Berlin Conference of 1884 and the subsequent Scramble for Africa brought many more Europeans to the region. Indigenous rulers such as the Sultan of Zanzibar came under European influence, and foreign presence in the interior provoked a violent backlash from Arab traders, unhappy about their loss of economic and political sovereignty. The conflict in turn propelled an increase in the flow of slaves to markets on the Mozambican coast. The Brussels Conference of 1889 put in place laws and regulation to prohibit the trade in East Africa, and territory around the Mozambique Channel were particularly targeted. However, the measures put in place by Portugal and by the Brussels Act did not succeed in suppressing the slave trade in the Mozambique Channel. The continued slave trade forms the core of the fourth section of this dissertation. This section is based on archival research done at the Arquivo histórico ultramarino (overseas historical archive) in Lisbon, Portugal. It is more specifically based on the port records of shipping entries and exits from Mozambique Island and points to continued illegal slaving activities 8 Historiography The slave trade in the Mozambique Channel is a subject that has not been explored to the same extent as the slave trade in West Africa, or in North-East Africa. The literature on the subject is thus limited to a few scholars. This is partly due to the availability of sources, which tend to focus on the northern portion of the East African coast, supplying slaves to Muslim markets and the belief that the trade in slaves from Mozambique largely died out with the closure of the Brazilian and Cuban markets respectively in 1851 and 1862. However the slave trade from southern East Africa, which was under the rule of the Portuguese Crown, remained vibrant throughout the nineteenth century with exports to the French colonies of the Western Indian Ocean, Zanzibar and Madagascar, and the Northern Muslim markets. In his study of East Africa over an extended time period, Edward Alpers has focused chiefly on the ivory and the slave trades1. Alpers also emphasises the role of Madagascar in the East African slave trade and considers the large island as the “missing link” in the history of East Africa in general. Gwyn Campbell also argues that Madagascar’s role is crucial in the study of East African trade history.2 He argues that the East African slave trade south of Kilwa was sustained after the closure of the Brazilian market in the 1850s by growing demand for slaves from the French islands and Madagascar. The Merina Empire in Madagascar constituted one of the largest regional markets for slaves due to an economy that was based from the 1870s on unfree labour. However, Madagascar was unique as it also was a supplier of engagés and slaves to the French sugar islands. This is explained by the failure of the Merina Empire to control the 1 See Edward Alpers, Ivory & Slaves in East Central Africa, London : Heineman, 1975 ; East Africa and the Indian Ocean, Princeton : Markus Weiner Publishers, 2009. 2 Gwyn Campbell, “Madagascar and Mozambique in the Slave Trade of the Western Indian Ocean 1800-1861” Slavery and Abolition 4, (1988) : 165-192 ; Campbell, “The East African Slave Trade, 1861-1895 : The Southern Complex”, The International Journal of African Historical Studies 22, (1989), 1-26.