The Makran-Baluch-African Network in Zanzibar and East Africa during the XIXTH Century

Throughout the western Indian Ocean during the XIXth Century there\r\nwere not just one, but people from many regions, merchandise and slave\r\nroutes. They were generally divided in two main monsoon directions: one\r\nfrom East Africa and the Red Sea to Arabia, to India and to South East\r\nAsia, and the other in the opposite direction; consequently, slaves were\r\nnot only black Africans, but also Asians.1 African slaves were imported\r\nin great numbers annually from East Africa to Oman, travelling on Arab\r\ndhows (sanbuq). Around the first half of the XIXth Century there was an\r\nextensive commerce of slaves from Ras Assir (“The Cape of Slaves”) and\r\nPemba, and many African people were bought with cloth and dates on\r\nZanzibar and Pemba Islands, enslaved, and transported to the Arabian\r\nPeninsula where they were mainly engaged in fishing pearls in the Persian/\r\nArab Gulf.2 Slaves also became lords of African “reigns”, as they\r\nwere considered to be more loyal than anybody else within their clans\r\nand tribes. In this regard, Omanis used to recruit mercenary troops also\r\nfrom the Baluch tribes, who developed a long-lived military tradition,\r\nrepresenting a real element of power within Omani areas of influence\r\nin East sub-Saharan Africa.\r\nThis article examines the role played by the Makrani-Baluch tribes\r\nduring the XIXth Century’s sub-Saharan East African apogee with the\r\nOmanis, and their influence on the social, political and economic level\r\ngiving special attention to slavery.