East African slave trade
The capture, sale, and forced movement of enslaved people within and from East Africa, especially during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Swahili Coast: The East African coastal region shaped by Swahili language and culture, stretching from southern Somalia to Mozambique. Coastal towns linked inland trading routes to Indian Ocean markets.
Swahili city-states: Independent or semi-independent urban centers along the East African coast, connected by commerce and Swahili culture. Their longstanding trade connected coastal communities with inland and overseas markets.
Tippu Tip: A Zanzibari-based trader and political actor who operated in Central Africa during the nineteenth century. His commercial and political career exemplifies the inland networks tied to Zanzibar.
Slavery in Zanzibar: The enslavement of people in Zanzibar, including domestic, agricultural, and commercial labor. The island’s plantations and households depended heavily on enslaved labor.
Atlantic slave trade: The forced transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. It differed in destination, maritime routes, and scale from East African and Indian Ocean networks.
Zanzibar slave trade: The trade in enslaved people centered on Zanzibar, a major nineteenth-century market and entrepôt. Zanzibar became the trade’s most prominent regional hub in the nineteenth century.
Kilwa Sultanate: A medieval Swahili polity based at Kilwa Kisiwani, influential in Indian Ocean commerce. Kilwa illustrates the coast’s earlier commercial connections, including trade in enslaved people.
Seyyid Said: The Omani sultan who moved his political center to Zanzibar and ruled from 1806 to 1856. His reign accelerated Zanzibar’s growth as a trading and plantation center.
Anglo-Zanzibar Treaty of 1873: An agreement between Britain and Zanzibar that prohibited the export of enslaved people from Zanzibar and closed its public slave market. It restricted the trade through Zanzibar without immediately ending slavery.
Trans-Saharan slave trade: The long-distance trade in enslaved people across the Sahara and between North Africa, the Sahel, and regions farther south. It followed desert routes and linked different markets and political powers.