The French Slave Trade in East Africa (1721-1810) - article ; n°37 ; vol.10, pg 80-124

Edward A.Alpers

Description

Cahiers d'études africaines - Année 1970 - Volume 10 - Numéro 37 - Pages 80-124
45 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: CAHIERS_D-ETUDES_AFRICAINES
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1970
• Nombre de lectures: 31
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

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Edward A. Alpers
The French Slave Trade in East Africa (1721-1810)
In: Cahiers d'études africaines. Vol. 10 N°37. 1970. pp. 80-124.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Alpers Edward A. The French Slave Trade in East Africa (1721-1810). In: Cahiers d'études africaines. Vol. 10 N°37. 1970. pp.
80-124.
doi : 10.3406/cea.1970.2845
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cea_0008-0055_1970_num_10_37_2845EDWARD ALPERS
University o/California Los Angeles
The French Slave Trade in East Africa 1721-1810)*
The historian who wishes to come to an understanding of the
East African slave trade will soon be struck by the paucity of reliable
detailed studies bearing on the subject Indeed there is scarcely any
aspect of the trade which has received adequate scholarly attention
In the existing literature the only studies which begin to satisfy are
those dealing with the Sultanate of Zanzibar although on the African
side the future promises more substantial considerations of the effect
of the slave trade on various East African societies.1 All attempts at
synthesis then including my own recent effort must be read with this
caveat firmly in mind.2 This situation contrasts sharply with that
for West Africa and the Atlantic slave trade where recent revival
of interest among historians has already produced number of impor
tant new quantitative and interpretative studies focusing on the basic
questions of how and why the trade was generated and sustained and
An earlier version of this paper was presented in February 1969 to the
research seminar in African History at the University of California Los Angeles
am grateful to Professor Robert Griffeth and the members of the seminar
for their comments on that draft The greater part of the material in this essay
was originally included in my doctoral dissertation The role of the Yao in the
development of trade in East-Central Africa 1698-0.1850 University of
London 1966) and the research was partly financed by travel grant from the
Central Research Fund of that institution
See e.g. Reginald COUPLAND East Africa and its Invaders from the
Earliest Times to the Death of Seyyid Said in iSyo Oxford 1938 and The Exploi
tation of East Africa )6-i8()0 London 1939 John GRAY History of
Zanzibar from the Middle Ages to 1856 London 1962 However neither histo
rian deals extensively with the crucially important Banian trading community
at Zanzibar For two contrasting examples of the impact of the slave trade
on East African societies see Edward ALPERS Trade State and Society
among the Yao in the Nineteenth Century The Journal of African History
hereafter JAH) 1969 pp 405-420 and Isaria KIMAMBO Political
History of the Pare of North-Eastern Tanzania oo-l oo Nairobi 1969
ALPERS The East African Slave Trade Nairobi 1967 Historical
Association of Tanzania Paper No 3) FRENCH SLAVE TRADE IN EAST AFRICA 81 THE
on its impact on African society.1 The present essay explores these
very same questions in the context of East Africa and the French slave
trade in the Indian Ocean during the eighteenth century
Given the largely unsatisfactory state of Indian Ocean historical
studies however it is more than little difficult to denne precisely
the wider context of this subject The admirable confidence with
which Philip Curtin for example can discuss the components of the
South Atlantic System in which the slave trade was key institution
cannot be aspired to here.2 Yet in looking at the broad patterns of
Indian Ocean history the historian can discern certain entities which
constitute systems such as Curtin describes for the South Atlantic
And although the East African littoral clearly was an integral part of the
entire Indian Ocean complex especially in the pre-Portuguese period3
it is equally clear that the main world setting for pre-colonial East
Africa both coast and after 1500 interior can be characterized as the
Western Indian Ocean System
The economic staples of this system were African ivory on the
one hand and Indian trading cloths and beads on the other Among
Hindus there was and still is constant demand for ivory to be
fashioned into bridal jewelry as well as the less pressing demand for
luxury goods by wealthy Asian potentates and merchants The tusks
of African elephants are both larger and more malleable than the
brittle ivory of Indian elephants.4 The earliest records of Western
Indian Ocean trade indicate that ivory was the primary item being
sought from East Africa by foreign merchants from the beginning of
cially See Ch 7) e.g. Walter Jan VANSINA RODNEY Kingdoms African of Slavery the Savanna and Other Madison Forms 1966 of Social espe
Oppression in the Context of the Atlantic Slave Trade JAH VII
pp 43I443 Karl POLANYI and Abraham ROTSTEIN Dahomey and the Slave
Trade An Analysis an Archaic Economy Seattle 1966 Pierre VERGER Flux
et reflux ae la traite äes nègres entre le golfe de Bénin et Bahia de Todos os Santos
du XVIIe au XIXe siècle Paris-La Haye 1968 Philip CURTIN Epidemiol
ogy and the Slave Trade The Political Science Quarterly LXXXIII 1968
pp 190-216 The Atlantic Slave Trade Census Madison 1969 published
after this article was written and FAGE Slavery and the Slave Trade
in the Context of West African History JAH 1969 pp 393-404
CURTIN The Image of Africa British Ideas and Action /àî- âäî
Madison 1964 pp 4-6 and 432-440
Outstanding among several studies which convey sense of the vital flow
of Indian Ocean history is Charles BOXER The Portuguese in the East
1500-1800 in LIVERMORE ed. Portugal and Brazil An Introduction
Oxford 1953 pp 185-247
Gervase MATHEW The East African Coast until the Coming of the
Portuguese in Roland OLIVER and Gervase MATHEW eds. History of East
Africa Oxford 1963 pp 94-127 Neville CHITTICK The Coast before the
Arrival of the Portuguese in OGOT and KIERAN eds Zaman
Survey of East African History Nairobi 1968 pp 100-118
FREEMAN-GRENVILLE The Medieval History of the Coast of
Tanganyika Oxford 1962 pp 25-26 and 16 82 EDWARD ALPERS
the Christian era Indian textiles remained staple of trade well
into the nineteenth century when first American and then British
cottons challenged and overwhelmed their hold on the African market
The so-called Trade Wind beads of Indian manufacture were complete
ly replaced by Venetian glass beads by the eighteenth century at
the very latest and may have been losing ground to them over
number of centuries But whatever the provenance exotic cloths and
beads for African ivory and to much lesser extent gold formed the
base line of the international economic order in the Western Indian
Ocean System
Although slaves were exported from Africa to the Red Sea Persian
Gulf and the Indian sub-continent from the earliest times they did
not generally become factor of major economic significance until
well into the eighteenth century And for all their participation in
the South Atlantic System the Portuguese in the East never were
major maritime carriers of slaves until the nineteenth century exten
sion of that system to Mo ambique In the first place the Portu
guese primarily sought gold in East Africa and despite their disap
pointment in the proportions of that trade they continued to seek it
into the nineteenth century In the second place and more impor
tantly the Portuguese never established major plantation economy
in the East which required African slave labor to oil the wheels of pro
duction There simply was no great Portuguese demand for slaves
from East Africa within the context of the Western Indian Ocean
System
Herein lies the great importance of the French role in the East
African slave trade For the earliest body of traders in the Western
Indian Ocean who came to East Africa in search of slaves above all
else were French merchants from the Mascarene Islands Ile de
France modern Mauritius and Bourbon modern Reunion Never
seeking ivory they directed all their efforts to securing regular and
growing supply of slave labor for the colonial plantation economy
based on coffee and sugar which mushroomed on the twin islands
during the course of the eighteenth century Indeed the French
were significant economically not only for their early concentration on
exporting slaves from East Africa but also for their innovation of
importing firearms and coinage as part of their main stock in trade
Two other aspects of the French slave trade deserve mention in
this introduction First the were more than simple econom
ic threat to the Portuguese in East Africa they were equally poten
tial imperial rival of the first order throughout the eighteenth century
Second and somewhat paradoxically the operation of the French
slave trade at the Portuguese controlled ports of Mo ambique stands
as notable exception to the rule that European powers established THE FRENCH SLAVE TRADE IN EAST AFRICA 83
on the coast of Africa excluded the nationals of other Western nations
from trafficking at each coastal entrepots In some respects
during the eighteenth century Portuguese commercial policy at
Mo ambique Island and lbo seems more typical of small indigenous
coastal state striving t