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{{short description|Swahili slave trader}}
{{short description|Slave trader}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name = Tippu Tip
| name = Tippu Tip
Line 6: Line 6:
| birthname = Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi
| birthname = Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi
| caption =
| caption =
| birth_date = c. 1837<ref>{{cite book |author=Zenabi Badawi |author-link=Zenabi Badawi |date=18 April 2024 |title=An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence |publisher=Ebury Publishing |isbn=9780753560129}}{{page needed|date=October 2024}}</ref>
| birth_date = 1832
| birth_place = [[Zanzibar]], [[Omani Empire]]
| birth_place = [[Zanzibar]], [[Omani Empire]]
| children = [[Sefu bin Hamid]]
| children = [[Sefu bin Hamid]]
| death_date = June 14, 1905 (aged 73)
| death_date = June 14, 1905 (aged 68)
| death_place = [[Stone Town]], [[Sultanate of Zanzibar]]
| death_place = [[Stone Town]], [[Sultanate of Zanzibar]]
| occupation = Slave trader, ivory merchant, explorer, governor
| occupation = Slave trader, ivory merchant, explorer, governor
| title =
| title =
| signature = Signature_of_Hamid_bin_Mohammed_el_Moerjebi_Tippu_Tip,_February,_24_1887.jpg
}}
}}
⚫
[[File:TipputipPortrait.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Tippu Tip, [[House of Wonders]] Museum, [[Stone Town]], [[Zanzibar]].]]
⚫
'''Tippu Tip''', or '''Tippu Tib''' (c. 1837 &ndash; June 14, 1905), real name '''Ḥamad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jumʿah ibn Rajab ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al Murjabī''' ({{langx|ar|حمد بن محمد بن جمعة بن رجب بن محمد بن سعيد المرجبي}}), was an [[Afro-Omanis|Afro-Omani]] ivory and slave owner and trader, explorer, governor and [[plantation]] owner. He worked for a succession of [[Sultan of Zanzibar|sultans of Zanzibar]] and was the [[Tippu Tip's state|Sultan of Uterera]], a short-lived state in [[Kasongo]], [[Maniema]] ruled by himself and his son [[Sefu bin Hamid|Sefu]] who was an [[emir]] of the local [[Manyema|WaManyema]].


⚫
Tippu Tip traded in slaves for [[Zanzibar]]'s [[clove]] plantations. As part of the large and lucrative trade, he led many trading expeditions into [[Central Africa]], constructing profitable trading posts deep into the [[Congo Basin]] region and thus becoming the best-known slave trader in Africa, supplying much of the world with enslaved Africans.
⚫
'''Tippu Tip''', or '''Tippu Tib''' (1832 &ndash; June 14, 1905), real name '''Ḥamad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jumʿah ibn Rajab ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al Murjabī''' ({{lang-ar|حمد بن محمد بن جمعة بن رجب بن محمد بن سعيد المرجبي}}), was an [[Afro-Omanis|Afro-Omani]] ivory and slave trader, explorer, governor and [[plantation]] owner. He worked for a succession of the [[Sultan of Zanzibar|sultans of Zanzibar]] and was the [[Tippu Tip's state|Sultan of Uterera]], a short-lived state in [[Kasongo]], [[Maniema]] ruled by himself and his son [[Sefu bin Hamid|Sefu]] who was an [[Emir]] with local [[Manyema|WaManyema]].


⚫
He also bought ivory from WaManyema suppliers in Kasongo, the capital of the Sultanate of Utetera and resold it at coastal ports.
⚫
Tippu Tip traded in slaves for [[Zanzibar]]'s [[clove]] plantations. As part of the large and lucrative trade, he led many trading expeditions into [[Central Africa]], constructing profitable trading posts deep into the [[Congo Basin]] region and thus becoming the most well-known slave trader in Africa, supplying much of the world with black slaves.

⚫
He also bought the ivory from WaManyema suppliers in Kasongo, the capital of the [[Sultanate of Utetera]], and resold it for a profit at coastal ports.


==Early life==
==Early life==
⚫
Based on descriptions of his age at different points in his life, it is believed that Tippu Tip was born around 1832 in Zanzibar.<ref name= Hinde8/> Tippu Tip's mother, Bint Habib bin Bushir, was a [[Muscat, Oman|Muscat]] [[Arab people|Arab]] of the ruling class. His father and paternal grandfather were coastal [[Arabs]] of the [[Swahili Coast]] who had taken part in earlier slave-trading expeditions to the interior. His paternal great-grandmother, wife of Rajab bin Mohammed bin Said el Murgebi, was the daughter of Juma bin Mohammed el Nebhani, a member of a respected Muscat ([[Oman]]) family, and a [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] woman from the settlement of Mbuamaji, south of what would later become the German capital of [[Dar es Salaam]] in present-day Kigamboni District.<ref>Brode, 7-8</ref>
[[File:Tippu Tip 1889.jpg|thumb|upright|Tippu Tip in [[The Illustrated London News]]. Front cover of 7 December 1889 issue.]]
⚫
Based on descriptions of his age at different points in his life, it is believed that Tippu Tip was born around 1832 in Zanzibar.<ref name= Hinde8/> Tippu Tip's mother, Bint Habib bin Bushir, was a [[Muscat, Oman|Muscat]] [[Arab people|Arab]] of the ruling class. His father and paternal grandfather were coastal [[Arabs]] of the [[Swahili Coast]] who had taken part in the earliest trading expeditions to the interior. His paternal great-grandmother, wife of Rajab bin Mohammed bin Said el Murgebi, was the daughter of Juma bin Mohammed el Nebhani, a member of a respected Muscat ([[Oman]]) family, and a [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] woman from the village of Mbwa Maji, a small village south of what would later become the German capital of [[Dar es Salaam]].<ref>Brode, 7-8</ref>


Throughout his lifetime Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi was more commonly known as ''Tippu Tib'', which translates to "the gatherer together of wealth".<ref name= Hinde8/> According to him, he was given the nickname Tippu Tip after the "tiptip" sound that his guns gave off during expeditions in Chungu territory.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ferant|first1=Leda|title=Tippu Tip and the East African slave trade|date=1972|publisher=Hamilton|page=42|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=McO4AAAAIAAJ|accessdate=24 November 2017|quote=For two months Tippu Tip's caravan camped in Chungu's territory and punitive parties were sent out looking for Samu and his men. According to Tippu Tip this was the time he was given his nick-name because guns went 'tiptip, in a manner too terrible to listen to'.}}</ref>
Throughout his lifetime Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi was more commonly known as ''Tippu Tib'', which translates to "the gatherer together of wealth".<ref name= Hinde8/> According to him, he was given the nickname Tippu Tip after the "tiptip" sound that his guns gave off during expeditions in Chungu territory.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ferant|first1=Leda|title=Tippu Tip and the East African slave trade|date=1972|publisher=Hamilton|page=42|isbn=978-0-241-89156-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=McO4AAAAIAAJ|accessdate=24 November 2017|quote=For two months Tippu Tip's caravan camped in Chungu's territory and punitive parties were sent out looking for Samu and his men. According to Tippu Tip this was the time he was given his nick-name because guns went 'tiptip, in a manner too terrible to listen to'.}}</ref>


At a relatively young age, Tippu Tip led a group of about 100 men into Central Africa seeking slaves and ivory.<ref name= Hinde8>{{harvnb|Hinde|1897|p=8}}</ref> After plundering several large swathes of land, he returned to Zanzibar to consolidate his resources and recruit for his forces. Following this he returned to mainland Africa.<ref name= Hinde9>{{harvnb|Hinde|1897|p=9}}</ref>
At a relatively young age, Tippu Tip led a group of about 100 men into Central Africa seeking slaves and ivory.<ref name= Hinde8>{{harvnb|Hinde|1897|p=8}}</ref> After plundering several large swathes of land, he returned to Zanzibar to consolidate his resources and recruit for his forces. Following this he returned to mainland Africa.<ref name= Hinde9>{{harvnb|Hinde|1897|p=9}}</ref>


==Later life==
==Career==
⚫
Tippu Tip built a slave-trading empire, and is considered the second wealthiest Muslim slave trader in history, using the proceeds to establish [[clove]] plantations on [[Zanzibar]]. [[Abdul Sheriff]] reported that, when he left for his twelve years of "empire building" on the mainland, he had no plantations of his own. By 1895, he had acquired "seven 'shambas' [plantations] and 10,000 slaves".<ref>Sheriff, 108</ref>
⚫
[[File:TipputipPortrait.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Portrait of Tippu Tip, [[House of Wonders]] Museum, [[Stone Town]], [[Zanzibar]].]]
⚫
Tippu Tip built a trading empire, using the proceeds to establish [[clove]] plantations on [[Zanzibar]]. [[Abdul Sheriff]] reported that when he left for his twelve years of "empire building" on the mainland, he had no plantations of his own. By 1895, he had acquired "seven 'shambas' [plantations] and 10,000 slaves".<ref>Sheriff, 108</ref>


He met and helped several famous western explorers of the [[Africa|African continent]], including [[David Livingstone]] and [[Henry Morton Stanley]].<ref name=Stanley>Stanley, H. M., 1899, ''Through the Dark Continent'', London: G. Newnes, Vol. One {{ISBN|0486256677}}, Vol. Two {{ISBN|0486256685}}</ref>{{rp|Vol. Two,91–97}} Between 1884 and 1887 he claimed the [[Congo (area)|Eastern Congo]] for himself and for the Sultan of Zanzibar, [[Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar|Bargash bin Said el Busaidi]]. In spite of his position as protector of Zanzibar's interests in [[Congo (area)|Congo]], he managed to maintain good relations with the Europeans. When, in August 1886, fighting broke out between the [[Swahili people|Swahili]] and the representatives of King [[Leopold II of Belgium]] at [[Boyoma Falls|Stanley Falls]], al-Murjabī went to the Belgian consul at [[Zanzibar]] to assure him of his "good intentions". Although he was still a force in Central African politics, he could see by 1886 that power in the region was shifting.
He met and helped several Western explorers of the [[Africa|African continent]], including [[David Livingstone]] and [[Henry Morton Stanley]].<ref name=Stanley>Stanley, H. M., 1899, ''Through the Dark Continent'', London: G. Newnes, Vol. One {{ISBN|0486256677}}, Vol. Two {{ISBN|0486256685}}</ref>{{rp|Vol. Two,91–97}} Between 1884 and 1887, he claimed the [[Congo (area)|Eastern Congo]] for himself and for the Sultan of Zanzibar, [[Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar|Bargash bin Said el Busaidi]]. In spite of his position as protector of Zanzibar's interests in [[Congo (area)|Congo]], he managed to maintain good relations with the Europeans. When, in August 1886, fighting broke out between the [[Swahili people|Swahili]] and the representatives of King [[Leopold II of Belgium]] at [[Boyoma Falls|Stanley Falls]], al-Murjabī went to the Belgian consul at [[Zanzibar]] to assure him of his "good intentions". Although he was still a force in Central African politics, he could see by 1886 that power in the region was shifting.


===Governor of the Stanley Falls District===
===Governor of the Stanley Falls District===
[[File:The contract signed by Henry Morton Stanley with slave trader Tippu Tip on behalf of King Leopold II at the British consulate in Zanzibar in 1887.jpg|thumb|The contract signed between [[Henry Morton Stanley]] and Tippu Tip on behalf of [[King Leopold II]] at the British consulate in [[Sultanate_of_Zanzibar|Zanzibar]] in 1887, in which Leopold appoints Tippu Tip as governor of the [[Stanley Falls District]]]]
In early 1887, Stanley arrived in Zanzibar and proposed that Tippu Tip be made governor of the [[Stanley Falls District]] in the [[Congo Free State]]. Both Leopold and Sultan [[Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar]] agreed and on February 24, 1887, Tippu Tip accepted.<ref>Bennett and Brode</ref> At the same time, he agreed to man the expedition which Stanley had been commissioned to organize for the purpose of rescuing [[Emin Pasha]] (E. Schnitzer), the German governor of [[Equatoria]] (a region of [[Khedivate of Egypt|Ottoman Egypt]], today in [[South Sudan]]) who had been stranded in the [[Bahr el Ghazal (region of South Sudan)|Bahr el Ghazal]] area as a result of the [[Mahdist Sudan|Mahdi]] uprising in Sudan.{{citation needed|date= January 2016}}
In early 1887, Stanley arrived in Zanzibar and proposed that Tippu Tip be made governor of the [[Stanley Falls District]] in the [[Congo Free State]]. Both Leopold and Sultan [[Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar]] agreed and on February 24, 1887, Tippu Tip accepted.<ref>Bennett and Brode</ref> At the same time, he agreed to man the expedition which Stanley had been commissioned to organize for the purpose of rescuing [[Emin Pasha]] (E. Schnitzer), the German governor of [[Equatoria]] (a region of [[Khedivate of Egypt|Ottoman Egypt]], today in [[South Sudan]]) who had been stranded in the [[Bahr el Ghazal (region of South Sudan)|Bahr el Ghazal]] area as a result of the [[Mahdist Sudan|Mahdi]] uprising in Sudan.{{citation needed|date= January 2016}}


Tippu Tip travelled back to the Upper Congo in the company of Stanley, but this time by way of the Atlantic coast and up the [[Congo River]]. Aside from its doubtful usefulness, the relief expedition was marred by the near annihilation of its rearguard, a disaster for which Stanley attempted to place the blame on Tippu Tip.
Tippu Tip travelled back to the Upper Congo in the company of Stanley, but this time by way of the Atlantic coast and up the [[Congo River]]. Aside from its doubtful usefulness, the relief expedition was marred by the near annihilation of its rearguard.


===Congo–Arab War===
===Congo–Arab War===
After his tenure as governor, the [[Congo–Arab War]] broke out. Both sides fought with armies consisting mostly of local African soldiers fighting under the command of either Arab or European leaders.
After his tenure as governor, the [[Congo–Arab War]] broke out. Both sides fought with armies consisting mostly of local African soldiers fighting under the command of either Arab or European leaders.


When Tippu Tip left the Congo, the authority of King Leopold's Free State was still very weak in the Eastern parts of the territory and the power lay largely with local Arabic or Swahili strongmen. Amongst these were Tippu Tip's son [[Sefu bin Hamid]] and a trader known as [[Rumaliza]] in the area close to [[Lake Tanganyika]].
When Tippu Tip left the Congo, the authority of King Leopold's Free State was still very weak in the Eastern parts of the territory and the power lay largely with local Arabic or Swahili strongmen. Amongst these were Tippu Tip's son [[Sefu bin Hamid]] and a trader known as [[Rumaliza]] in the area close to [[Lake Tanganyika]].


In 1892, [[Sefu bin Hamid|Sefu bin Hamed]] attacked Belgian ivory traders, who were seen as a threat to the Arab-Swahili trade. The Free State government sent a force under commander [[Francis Dhanis]] to the East. Dhanis had an early success when the African warlord [[Ngongo Lutete]] changed sides from Sefu's to his. The better armed and organised Belgian force defeated their opponents in several fights until the death of Sefu on 20 October 1893, and finally forcing also Rumaliza to flee to German territory in 1895.
In 1892, [[Sefu bin Hamid|Sefu bin Hamed]] attacked Belgian ivory traders, who were seen as a threat to the Arab-Swahili trade. The Free State government sent a force under commander [[Francis Dhanis]] to the East. Dhanis had an early success when chief [[Ngongo Lutete]] changed sides from Sefu's to his. The better armed and organised Belgian force defeated their opponents in several fights until the death of Sefu on 20 October 1893, and finally forcing also Rumaliza to flee to German territory in 1895.


⚫
[[File:ZanzibarTipputip.jpg|thumb|House of Tippu Tip in Stone Town, Zanzibar City]]
===Death===
===Death===
⚫
[[File:ZanzibarTipputip.jpg|thumb|House of Tippu Tip in Stone Town, Zanzibar City]]
After returning to Zanzibar around 1890/91, Tippu Tip retired. He set out to write an account of his life, which is the first example of the literary genre of autobiography in the [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] [[Swahili language]]. Dr. Heinrich Brode, who knew him in Zanzibar, transcribed the manuscript into Roman script and translated it into German.<ref>* Autobiographie des Arabers Schech Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi, genannt Tippu Tip. Transscribirt und übersetzt von Dr. H. Brode. Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin Dritte Abtheilung V 1902, Afrikanische Studien 1902, p. 175 [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_tVspAAAAYAAJ First part online , pdf S. 676] (Swahili-German)</ref><ref>Autobiographie des Arabers Schech Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi, genannt Tippu Tip (Schluss). Transscribirt und übersetzt von Dr. H. Brode. Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin Dritte Abtheilung VI 1903 Afrikanische Studien, S. 1 [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_UA_gAAAAMAAJ Second part, pdf p. 560] (Swahili - German)</ref> It was subsequently translated into English and published in Britain in 1907.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.72620/page/n3 Tippoo Tib, The story of his career in Central Africa, narrated from his own accounts by Dr. Heinrich Brode, London, Edward Arnold 1907]</ref>
After returning to Zanzibar around 1890/91, Tippu Tip retired. He set out to write an account of his life, which is the first example of the literary genre of autobiography in the [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] [[Swahili language]]. Dr. Heinrich Brode, who knew him in Zanzibar, transcribed the manuscript into Roman script and translated it into German.<ref>* Autobiographie des Arabers Schech Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi, genannt Tippu Tip. Transscribirt und übersetzt von Dr. H. Brode. Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin Dritte Abtheilung V 1902, Afrikanische Studien 1902, p. 175 [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_tVspAAAAYAAJ First part online , pdf S. 676] (Swahili-German)</ref><ref>Autobiographie des Arabers Schech Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi, genannt Tippu Tip (Schluss). Transscribirt und übersetzt von Dr. H. Brode. Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin Dritte Abtheilung VI 1903 Afrikanische Studien, S. 1 [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_UA_gAAAAMAAJ Second part, pdf p. 560] (Swahili - German)</ref> It was subsequently translated into English and published in Britain in 1907.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.72620/page/n3 Tippoo Tib, The story of his career in Central Africa, narrated from his own accounts by Dr. Heinrich Brode, London, Edward Arnold 1907]</ref>


Tippu Tip died June 13, 1905, of [[malaria]] (according to Brode) in his home in [[Stone Town]], the main town on the island of Zanzibar.
Tippu Tip died June 13, 1905, of [[malaria]] (according to Brode) in his home in [[Stone Town]], the main town on the island of Zanzibar.

==See also==
* [[Zanzibar slave trade]]


==References==
==References==
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[[Category:African slave traders]]
[[Category:African slave traders]]
[[Category:Arab slave traders]]
[[Category:Arab slave traders]]
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[[Category:19th-century slave traders]]
[[Category:19th century in Zanzibar]]
[[Category:19th century in Zanzibar]]
[[Category:1832 births]]
[[Category:1830s births]]
[[Category:1905 deaths]]
[[Category:1905 deaths]]
[[Category:African warlords]]
[[Category:African warlords]]
[[Category:Deaths from malaria]]
[[Category:Deaths from malaria]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in Tanzania]]
[[Category:Congo Free State]]
[[Category:Congo Free State]]
[[Category:History of Central Africa]]
[[Category:History of Zanzibar]]
[[Category:Tanzanian people of Omani descent]]
[[Category:19th-century African businesspeople]]
[[Category:19th-century African businesspeople]]
[[Category:Congo Free State people]]
[[Category:Congo Free State people]]
[[Category:19th-century Arabs]]
[[Category:Explorers of Africa]]
[[Category:19th-century Omani people]]
[[Category:Zanzibari slave traders]]
[[Category:Arab explorers]]
⚫
[[Category:Slave traders of Zanzibar]]
[[Category:Slavery in Oman]]

Latest revision as of 17:14, 28 October 2024

Tippu Tip
Born
Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi

c. 1837[1]
Zanzibar, Omani Empire
DiedJune 14, 1905 (aged 68)
Stone Town, Sultanate of Zanzibar
Other namesTippu Tib
Occupation(s)Slave trader, ivory merchant, explorer, governor
ChildrenSefu bin Hamid
Signature
Portrait of Tippu Tip, House of Wonders Museum, Stone Town, Zanzibar.

Tippu Tip, or Tippu Tib (c. 1837 – June 14, 1905), real name Ḥamad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jumʿah ibn Rajab ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al Murjabī (Arabic: حمد بن محمد بن جمعة بن رجب بن محمد بن سعيد المرجبي), was an Afro-Omani ivory and slave owner and trader, explorer, governor and plantation owner. He worked for a succession of sultans of Zanzibar and was the Sultan of Uterera, a short-lived state in Kasongo, Maniema ruled by himself and his son Sefu who was an emir of the local WaManyema.

Tippu Tip traded in slaves for Zanzibar's clove plantations. As part of the large and lucrative trade, he led many trading expeditions into Central Africa, constructing profitable trading posts deep into the Congo Basin region and thus becoming the best-known slave trader in Africa, supplying much of the world with enslaved Africans.

He also bought ivory from WaManyema suppliers in Kasongo, the capital of the Sultanate of Utetera and resold it at coastal ports.

Early life

[edit]

Based on descriptions of his age at different points in his life, it is believed that Tippu Tip was born around 1832 in Zanzibar.[2] Tippu Tip's mother, Bint Habib bin Bushir, was a Muscat Arab of the ruling class. His father and paternal grandfather were coastal Arabs of the Swahili Coast who had taken part in earlier slave-trading expeditions to the interior. His paternal great-grandmother, wife of Rajab bin Mohammed bin Said el Murgebi, was the daughter of Juma bin Mohammed el Nebhani, a member of a respected Muscat (Oman) family, and a Bantu woman from the settlement of Mbuamaji, south of what would later become the German capital of Dar es Salaam in present-day Kigamboni District.[3]

Throughout his lifetime Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi was more commonly known as Tippu Tib, which translates to "the gatherer together of wealth".[2] According to him, he was given the nickname Tippu Tip after the "tiptip" sound that his guns gave off during expeditions in Chungu territory.[4]

At a relatively young age, Tippu Tip led a group of about 100 men into Central Africa seeking slaves and ivory.[2] After plundering several large swathes of land, he returned to Zanzibar to consolidate his resources and recruit for his forces. Following this he returned to mainland Africa.[5]

Career

[edit]

Tippu Tip built a slave-trading empire, and is considered the second wealthiest Muslim slave trader in history, using the proceeds to establish clove plantations on Zanzibar. Abdul Sheriff reported that, when he left for his twelve years of "empire building" on the mainland, he had no plantations of his own. By 1895, he had acquired "seven 'shambas' [plantations] and 10,000 slaves".[6]

He met and helped several Western explorers of the African continent, including David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley.[7]: Vol. Two, 91–97  Between 1884 and 1887, he claimed the Eastern Congo for himself and for the Sultan of Zanzibar, Bargash bin Said el Busaidi. In spite of his position as protector of Zanzibar's interests in Congo, he managed to maintain good relations with the Europeans. When, in August 1886, fighting broke out between the Swahili and the representatives of King Leopold II of Belgium at Stanley Falls, al-Murjabī went to the Belgian consul at Zanzibar to assure him of his "good intentions". Although he was still a force in Central African politics, he could see by 1886 that power in the region was shifting.

Governor of the Stanley Falls District

[edit]
The contract signed between Henry Morton Stanley and Tippu Tip on behalf of King Leopold II at the British consulate in Zanzibar in 1887, in which Leopold appoints Tippu Tip as governor of the Stanley Falls District

In early 1887, Stanley arrived in Zanzibar and proposed that Tippu Tip be made governor of the Stanley Falls District in the Congo Free State. Both Leopold and Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar agreed and on February 24, 1887, Tippu Tip accepted.[8] At the same time, he agreed to man the expedition which Stanley had been commissioned to organize for the purpose of rescuing Emin Pasha (E. Schnitzer), the German governor of Equatoria (a region of Ottoman Egypt, today in South Sudan) who had been stranded in the Bahr el Ghazal area as a result of the Mahdi uprising in Sudan.[citation needed]

Tippu Tip travelled back to the Upper Congo in the company of Stanley, but this time by way of the Atlantic coast and up the Congo River. Aside from its doubtful usefulness, the relief expedition was marred by the near annihilation of its rearguard.

Congo–Arab War

[edit]

After his tenure as governor, the Congo–Arab War broke out. Both sides fought with armies consisting mostly of local African soldiers fighting under the command of either Arab or European leaders.

When Tippu Tip left the Congo, the authority of King Leopold's Free State was still very weak in the Eastern parts of the territory and the power lay largely with local Arabic or Swahili strongmen. Amongst these were Tippu Tip's son Sefu bin Hamid and a trader known as Rumaliza in the area close to Lake Tanganyika.

In 1892, Sefu bin Hamed attacked Belgian ivory traders, who were seen as a threat to the Arab-Swahili trade. The Free State government sent a force under commander Francis Dhanis to the East. Dhanis had an early success when chief Ngongo Lutete changed sides from Sefu's to his. The better armed and organised Belgian force defeated their opponents in several fights until the death of Sefu on 20 October 1893, and finally forcing also Rumaliza to flee to German territory in 1895.

Death

[edit]
House of Tippu Tip in Stone Town, Zanzibar City

After returning to Zanzibar around 1890/91, Tippu Tip retired. He set out to write an account of his life, which is the first example of the literary genre of autobiography in the Bantu Swahili language. Dr. Heinrich Brode, who knew him in Zanzibar, transcribed the manuscript into Roman script and translated it into German.[9][10] It was subsequently translated into English and published in Britain in 1907.[11]

Tippu Tip died June 13, 1905, of malaria (according to Brode) in his home in Stone Town, the main town on the island of Zanzibar.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Zenabi Badawi (18 April 2024). An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence. Ebury Publishing. ISBN 9780753560129.[page needed]
  2. ^ a b c Hinde 1897, p. 8
  3. ^ Brode, 7-8
  4. ^ Ferant, Leda (1972). Tippu Tip and the East African slave trade. Hamilton. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-241-89156-8. Retrieved 24 November 2017. For two months Tippu Tip's caravan camped in Chungu's territory and punitive parties were sent out looking for Samu and his men. According to Tippu Tip this was the time he was given his nick-name because guns went 'tiptip, in a manner too terrible to listen to'.
  5. ^ Hinde 1897, p. 9
  6. ^ Sheriff, 108
  7. ^ Stanley, H. M., 1899, Through the Dark Continent, London: G. Newnes, Vol. One ISBN 0486256677, Vol. Two ISBN 0486256685
  8. ^ Bennett and Brode
  9. ^ * Autobiographie des Arabers Schech Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi, genannt Tippu Tip. Transscribirt und übersetzt von Dr. H. Brode. Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin Dritte Abtheilung V 1902, Afrikanische Studien 1902, p. 175 First part online , pdf S. 676 (Swahili-German)
  10. ^ Autobiographie des Arabers Schech Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi, genannt Tippu Tip (Schluss). Transscribirt und übersetzt von Dr. H. Brode. Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin Dritte Abtheilung VI 1903 Afrikanische Studien, S. 1 Second part, pdf p. 560 (Swahili - German)
  11. ^ Tippoo Tib, The story of his career in Central Africa, narrated from his own accounts by Dr. Heinrich Brode, London, Edward Arnold 1907

Sources

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