But do you know that the slave market in Zanzibar island was the last legally operating slave market in the world?
Contents contributed and discussions participated by tshehla222227980
9More
JSTOR Article: THE SLAVE TRADE AT ZANZIBAR AND THE ROLE OF KUTCHIS. - 0 views
-
-
-
-
Slave labor was highly needed in Muslim families which need domestic labor including agricultural labor [wanting slave labor in cultivation of the land].
-
-
-
They were however not compensated, they the forcefully overloaded with work under obnoxious conditions that they had to endure from being captured, sold and forced to carry out hard labor without their consent.
-
- ...1 more annotation...
-
-
Slavery was however yielding more that other commercial activity during that time hence it persisted for a very prolonged period of time.
-
-
According to this article, slavery [slave trade] has been going for the longest time before the sultanate of Zanzibar tried to stop it in the 1890, however, did little to nothing to stop the continuation of slavery in the region. It may be discerned that in an attempt to prohibit the rapidly ongoing slavery, the U.S including other countries tried to expand their trade to primary materials then consequently restrict countries that trade slaves to quit.
TIFFANY AND FRANCIS ARTICLE - 4 views
28More
Blog Article: The History of Slavery in Zanzibar. - 1 views
-
-
This is the main thesis of the entire data collection. "The slave trade center in Zanzibar".
-
-
Because of its specific position in the Indian Ocean, the history of Zanzibar was very turbulent.
-
Very turbulent in a manner that a lot of activities occurred due to the coastal region that encouraged harbors which were essential particularly during slave trading.
-
-
Zanzibar was a part of the Portuguese Empire for almost two centuries.
-
Portuguese traded slaves also forcefully while exploiting Zanzibar as it had zero power over Portugal because when Portugal arrived in Zanzibar, they established their dominance and held all the power over the island
-
- ...11 more annotations...
-
Together with the ivory, clove and spice trade, the slave trade was very important for the economy. Zanzibar had a central role in trade routes into the interior of Africa. And the new city on the Swahili coast was born: Zanzibar city or Stone Town.
-
This is generally my argument. Although they were also trading ivory, clove and spice trade, i feel like they just used the other raw materials to tone down the shame of being rich through this inhumane act of enslavement. I am arguing this because slavery was generally profiting them more than all the other products combined, so they could have dropped them and focused only on slavery but they just kept them in the picture so that there is good in the worst they did to native Africans
-
-
The late 18th and early 19th centuries was a period of rapid expansion of the slave trade
-
What impact did this have at Zanzibar? -This increased their gross domestic product. -Commercially, slavery/ slave trade markets yielded the region [Zanzibar] more profit.
-
-
Unguja (Zanzibar) was a perfect place and port for traders voyaging between the African Great Lakes, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian southern region.
-
Briefly, the reason Zanzibar was the perfect place and port was because it was located in a geographical area where boats may access it for exports such as slaves which consequently increased Zanzibar's wealth due to being the trade focus of the region.
-
-
The streets in Zanzibar were full of slaves, accounting for more than two-thirds of the population. People were taken from a vast area, extending south of Lake Nyasa (now Malawi), west of Lake Tanganyika (now DR Congo), and north of Lake Victoria (now Uganda), to the Stone Town open slave markets. Today, this area includes countries such as Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Ruanda, Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique. However, people from Zanzibar were free and not slaves.
-
Also, i feel like the people from Zanzibar were at the mercy of the traders because the trade market was in their region hence they were not the first priority of enslavement. This is just an arguable point, someone might say otherwise.
-
-
The captives were from different cultures and language groups, and usually, the whole families were taken to slavery. Some of them were skilled craftsmen and women, musicians, ironworkers, and farmers. They lived in settled communities and engaged in hunting, fishing, and gathering firewood.
-
This is really an important point, this exudes that they people were being exploited. Their skills, hard labor was taken without they concern. Forcefully migrating them to foreign countries were they are forced into hard labor without being paid. Therefore, it may be said that the Zanzibar market costed the Eastern Africa its skills and labor that could have being used to develop that portion of Africa.
-
-
Many of them also had armed guards
-
Harsh measures were implemented to force the natives into slavery. They had to be suppressed under traumatic experiences such as usage of guns to force them to journey to the Zanzibar market where they would be traded like they were property.,
-
-
They travelled for days, sometimes for weeks, with minimum food and water. Some people died of exhaustion, disease or malnourishment.
-
These are some, if not the least, challenges that the slaves had to endure during the journey to the slave market. Having to endure the extreme temperatures also.
-
-
Many of them did not survive the journey to Zanzibar island.
-
It may be assumes that a majority of them did not survive the journey because of the traumatic experience that their body could not absorb all at once.
-
-
After captives arrived in Zanzibar, the slave traders imprisoned them in underground chambers. It was a test. If they lived for more than three days, they would be sold on the market at Mkunazini, in Stone Town.
-
Not only was their journey tough, however, extreme measures such as those mentioned in the article were put forth to test the natives' survival. This are some of the painful experiences that reading about slavery unfolds.
-
-
The slaves were stripped completely naked and cleaned
-
This suggest that their dignity was stripped of and their originality was washed away so they they may be sold as slaves. This to me means more that just stripping them naked and being washed away, it was so much symbolic that literal.
-
-
But there is something more. The slaves were tied to a tree and whipped with stinging branches. It was a demonstration of their strength. Those who didn’t cry or scream during the whipping got a higher price at the market. Terrible isn’t it…?
-
I am actually sad that I got to read this, but personally, I feel like my skin is a map that illustrates were I come from as a descendant of the slaves who were traded. This is a very emotional and a traumatic experience.
-
2More
Image: Zanzibar- Slave Market. - 2 views
-
In the eighteenth century towards the nineteenth century, the Zanzibar stood out for being the main slave market in Eastern Africa due to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean. The provided picture below depicts the enslaved people [natives] at the East African slave market in the port of Zanzibar. The region/ city was infamous for its trade in slaves, having some seven thousand enslaved people sold annually by the 1860s. -How the slaves were treated is also illustrated in the picture, they were often not treated like humans, they were stripped off their clothes which denotes that they were stripping off their dignity.
11More
Gale Article: Portugal Loses Zanzibar. - 3 views
-
By the tenth century, Persians had begun to settle on the island and intermarry with the indigenous people.
-
blockaded
-
-
Conclusively, it may be said that slavery was a big proportion of Zanzibar's economical activities in terms of bringing more profit into the region hence Zanzibar in the eighteenth century stood out for being the main slave market in Eastern Africa due to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean as I have mentioned above.
-
- ...3 more annotations...
-
-
This is technically where their dominance began allowing them power to profit in many other things including slavery which is the key theme of the assignment.
-
-
By taking over the east coast of Africa, Portugal was able to profit from trade in gold, ivory, and slaves
-
It is an existing reality that more than anything, slave trade was the most lucrative form of commercial activity in the trade market.
-
-
Because the leaders of Oman were strict Muslims and therefore forbidden by Islamic law from enslaving Muslims, they made non-Muslim Africans their slaves instead.
-
I feel like the Islamic laws did not restrict them, the Islamic laws do not allow anyone to treat their neighbors badly or in an inhumane way. If they really followed the Islamic laws they would have not engaged in slave trading.
-
-
Some of the annotations are in the texts, i highlighted and added texts instead of adding sticky notes.
tshehla222227980