An Analysis of Discourses on Slavery
Slavery in Zanzibar and the Historical Perception of African Omanis
Okawa, Mayuko
JSPS Research Fellow, Sophia University
This paper explores the various kinds of discourses on slavery that existed in nineteenth-century Zanzibar (now a part of Tanzania) and the present historical perception of African Omanis on slavery, some of whose ancestors used to be involved in slave trade. Coincidental to Oman’s political expansion into East Africa in the mid-seventeenth century followed by the eventual move of the Omani capital from Muscat to Zanzibar in 1832, thousands of Omanis emigrated to East Africa, especially Zanzibar. However, consequent to the Zanzibar revolution in 1964, which resulted in the killing of many Arabs, as well as Sultan Qaboos’s accession to the throne in 1970 and his call for the return of Omanis living abroad, many Omanis in East Africa returned to their homeland. These African Omanis entered Oman’s workforce as professionals.
First, I introduce the various kinds of discourses concerning slavery in East Africa from both European and African sources that existed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Next, I elaborate on several anti-Arab descriptions wherein Omani Arabs were considered to exploit and abuse African slaves in nineteenth-century Zanzibar, thereafter, I present some pro-Arab descriptions according to which slavery in East Africa was not as harsh as it was considered to be. However, it was only the orientalistic image of Arabs as cruel slave traders that had been fi xed in the process of British-led antislavery movement; this image was subsequently reproduced in the Tanzanian nationalism after independence.
Some African Omani intellectuals have recently tried to “revise” such “master-narratives” that originated in Europe. Although they do not deny the existence of slavery itself in East Africa, they claim that Islamic slavery is different from the European one, wherein slaves were ill-treated to an even greater extent. They criticize the European strategy for representing a partial image of the Omani Arabs who used to be involved in slave trade as the image of Arab as a whole.
This critical attitude, at the same time, is implicitly linked to the native Omanis, who have resided in Oman before 1970. Despite African Omanis’ high level of education and professional positions, native Omanis are condescending toward them and do not consider them as Arabs. African Omanis believe that such a distorted view stems from the native Omanis’ ignorance regarding the historical experience of their ancestors in East Africa.
However, the Omani government has not welcomed such “revisionism”. The Omanis’ involvement in the slavery in East Africa is not narrated in the Omani national history, although Omani political expansion to East Africa is treated as a glorious event in national texts. In this sense, African Omanis’ revisionism is not only a political activity aiming at their positional recovery in Europe, but also a movement to get established in the national history of Oman and to gain a fair assessment as the leader of the national “glory” of maritime empire.