MAP OF THE ROUTES
between
ZANZIBAR and the GREAT LAKES
IN
EASTERN AFRICA
in 1857, 1858 & 1859,
by
R. F. Burton

[Larger map]

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX I.
COMMERCE, IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

Commerce has for ages been a necessity to the East African, who cannot be contented without his clothing and his ornaments, which he receives in barter for the superfluity of his country. Against its development, however, serious obstacles have hitherto interposed. On the seaboard and in the island the Banyans, by monopolizing the import traffic, do injury to the internal trade. In the interior the Wasawahili excite, with all the animosity of competition, the barbarians against Arab interlopers, upon the same sordid and short-sighted principle that the latter display when opposing the ingress of Europeans. Finally, the Arabs, according to their own confession, have by rapacity and imprudence impoverished the people without enriching themselves. Their habit of sending fundi on trading trips is, as has been explained, most prejudicial both to seller and buyer; the prices of provisions as well as of merchandise increase almost visibly; and though the evil might be remedied by a little combination, solidarity of interests being unknown, that little is nowhere found. All, Banyans, Wasawahili, and Arabs, like semi-civilised people generally, abhor and oppose a free trade, which they declare would be as injurious to themselves as doubtless advantageous to the country. Here, as in Europe, the battle of protection has still to be fought; and here, unlike Europe, the first step towards civilisation, namely, the facility of intercourse between the interior and the coast, has yet to be created.

The principal imports into East Africa are domestics and piece goods, plain and unbleached cotton cloths, beads, and brass wire. The minor items for the native population are prints, coloured cloths Indian and Arabian, broadcloth, calicos, caps, ironware, knives and needles, iron and copper wires for ornaments, and in some regions trinkets and ammunition. A small trade, chiefly confined to the Arabs, is done in provisions, spices, drugs, and other luxuries.

The people of East Africa when first visited were satisfied with the worst and flimsiest kaniki or indigo-dyed Indian cotton. This they presently gave up for the “merkani,” American “domestics,” or unbleached shirting and sheeting, which now supplies the markets from Abyssinia to the Mozambique. But the wild men are losing predilection for a stuff which is neither comfortable nor durable, and in many regions the tribes, satisfied with goat-skins and tree-barks, prefer to invest their capital in the more attractive and durable beads and wire. It would evidently be advantageous if England or her Indian colonies would manufacture an article better suited to the wants of the country than that at present in general use; but, under existing circumstances, there is little probability of this being done.

The “domestics” from the mills near Salem, Lawrence, Manchester, and others, called in the island of Zanzibar wilaiti (“foreign”), or khami (the “raw”), is known throughout the inner country as “merkani” or American. These unbleached cottons are of two kinds: the wilaiti mpana (broad) or sheeting, sold in pieces about 30 yards long and 36 to 38 inches broad, and the wilaiti kabibu (narrow) or shirting, of the same length but less in breadth, from 32 to 34 inches. In the different mills the lengths vary, the extremes being 24 and 36 yards. The cloth measures in use throughout the country are the following:—

21⁄2 Fitr (short spans)=1 Mukono, Ziraá, or cubit.
2 Mikono, or Ziraá (cubits)=1 Half-Shukkah (i.e. 3 feet of domestics).
2 Half-Shukkah=1 Shukkah, Mwenda, Upande, or Lupande, the Portuguese Braça (i.e. 6 feet of domestics).
2 Shukkahs=1 Tobe (Ar. Saub), Doti, Unguo ya ku shona (washing cloth), or simply Unguo (12 ft.)
2 Doti=1 Takah.
7 to 11 Doti=1 Jurah or Gorah, the piece.

The fitr or short span is from the extended end of the forefinger to the thumb; the shibr or long span is from the thumb to the little finger; of these, two go to that primitive measure the cubit or elbow length. Two cubits in long measure compose the wár or yard, and two wár the ba’a or fathom.