Frere Treaty was an treaty signed between Britain and the Sultanate of Zanzibar in 1873. Signed by Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar, it formally prohibited all import of slaves to the Sultanate of Zanzibar and forced the closure of the slave market in Zanzibar Stone Town. It made it possible for the British to stop all slave ships in the Indian Ocean, becoming a major blow to the Indian Ocean slave trade.
History
editThe treaty was a result of the Bartle Frere Mission to Zanzibar by Henry Bartle Frere. Anti slavery policy, which had been a part of British foreign policy since they abolished their own slave trade in 1807. The Bartle Frere Mission addressed the issue of the Zanzibar slave trade between the Swahili coast in Zanzibar and Oman in the Arabian Peninsula, which was at the time the major part of the ancient Indian Ocean slave trade.
The Zanzibar slave trade had been an issue of British abolitionist interest for decades. The Moresby Treaty of 1822 had banned the export of slaves from Zanzibar to India, and the Hamerton Treaty of 1845 had prohibited the export of slaves to the Arabian Peninsula. An agreement with the British in 1867 further restricted the slave trade to be legal only from the mainland to the Sultanate of Zanzibar itself.[1] However, these agreements had been mainly nominal in nature. Since it was still legal to import slaves from mainland Africa to the island of Zanzibar, it was in practice difficult for the British to control the slave ships and prevent them from continuing to the Arabian Peninsula. The British therefore deemed it necessary to prevent all legal slave ship traffick in order to prevent the export of slaves between the African East coast and the Arabian Peninsula.
The Frere Treaty of 1873 banned all further import of slaves from the African mainland to the Zanzibar Archipelago. The treaty resulted in the closure of the open slave market in the Zanzibar Stone Town.[2] It made it possible for the British fleet to stop all slave ships outside of the Swahili coast of East Africa and more efficiently combat the slave trade between the Swahili coast and Oman and reduce the Indian Ocean slave trade. The treaty was therefore a considerable mile stone in the combat against the Indian Ocean slave trade. However, the slave trade was not eradicated. The Zanzibar slave traders did not discontinued their business, but continued in a clandestine basis, acquiring slaves by kidnapping and trafficking them via smuggling.[3] The Zanzibar slave trade continued in a reduced scale until the 20th-century. Slavery in Zanzibar itself was not prohibited until 1897–1909.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Mbogoni, L. E. Y. (2013). Aspects of Colonial Tanzania History. Tanzania: Mkuki na Nyota. p172
- ^ McMahon, E. (2013). Slavery and Emancipation in Islamic East Africa: From Honor to Respectability. Storbritannien: Cambridge University Press. p. 48
- ^ McMahon, E. (2013). Slavery and Emancipation in Islamic East Africa: From Honor to Respectability. Storbritannien: Cambridge University Press. p. 43-44