The slaves on Zanzibar Island are roundly estimated, at two-thirds of the population; some travellers increase the number to three-fourths. The annual loss of males by death, export, and desertion, amounted, I was told, to 30 per cent., thus within every fourth year the whole gang upon a plantation required to be renewed. The actual supply necessary for the Island is now estimated at a total varying from 1700 to 6000, and leaving 12,000 to 16,000 for the export slave-market. As usual in Moslem lands, they may be divided into two distinct classes: first, the Muwallid or Mutawallid, the Mazáliyá of the Wasawahili, the famulus or slave born in the family, or rather on the Island; secondly, the captive or imported chattel.
The Muwallid belongs solely to his mother’s owner, who sells him or gives him away at pleasure. Under no circumstances can he claim manumission—one born a slave is a slave for ever, even in the next world, amongst those nations which, like the Dahomans, have a next world. If notoriously ill-treated, however, he may compel his proprietor to dispose of him. Few Arabs behave cruelly to their ‘sons;’ they fear desertion, which here is always easy, and the master, besides being dependent for comfort upon his household, is also held responsible for the misdeeds of his property. He is also probably living in concubinage with the sisters of his slaves, and in this case the latter can take great liberties—they are the most unruly of their kind. I need hardly remark that the issue of a slave-girl by an Arab or by any other ‘Hurr’ (free-born man) has been legitimate in El Islam since the days of Ishmael, inheriting like the son of a lawful wife, and that neither mother nor child can be sold. It is to be regretted that in this matter the Christian did not take example of the Mohammedan.
The domestic slave-girl rarely has issue. This results partly from the malignant unchastity of the race, the women being so to speak in common; and on the same principle we witness the decline and extinction of wild tribes that come in contact with civilized nations. The chief social cause is that the ‘captive’ has no interest in becoming a mother; she will tell you so in the Brazil as in Zanzibar; her progeny by another slave may be sold away from her at any moment, and she obviates the pains and penalties of maternity by the easy process of procuring abortion.
The wild slaves are brought over in daus which carry from 10 to 500 head. Most of those intended for the Island market are comparatively young: the Portuguese settlements at Mozambique give higher prices for able-bodied adults. Since the last treaty the value has more than trebled; what then cost $10 has now risen to $30 to $35. A small boy fresh from the mainland commands from $7 to $15; a girl under 7 or 8 years old, from $10 to $18. The live cargo pays duty to the Zanzibar and Kilwa custom-houses, as at Zayla, Tajurrah, and the slave-exporting harbours of the Red Sea: the sick and the refuse, however, enter free. About 1835 the import duty varied from $0.50 to $4, according to the port whence the ‘black ivory’ was shipped: some races had such an ill fame that only excessive cheapness found purchasers. Presently $2 and at last $1 were levied upon all, good or had. Of late years (1857) the annual maximum collected was $23,000: this enables us to rate the import at an average of 14,000 to 15,000 per annum, the extreme being 9000 or 18,000. In 1860-61 it rose to 19,000, in 1861-62 it fell to 14,000, and in 1862-63 there was a further declension.[[122]]
The impudence and audacity of the wild slaves almost passes belief. Such is their habit of walking into any open dwelling and carrying off whatever is handy, that no questions are asked about a negro shot or cut down in the act of simple trespass. At night they employ themselves in robbing or smuggling, and at times in firing a house, when they join the crowd and spread the flames for the purpose of plunder. They are armed burglars, and not a few murders are laid at their door. In the plantation they gratify their savage, quarrelsome, and ungovernable tempers, by waging desultory servile wars with neighbouring gangs; hundreds will turn out with knobsticks, stones, and a few muskets, and blaze wildly in the direction of one another: at the first casualty all will run. Some proprietors have had as many as 2000 blacks—not half the number often owned in the Southern United States, and in the Brazil—but at those times the negro was worth only from $3 to $10. They were allowed two days out of the week to fish for themselves, and to work at their own patches of ground.
Of late years the Zanzibar serviles have attempted to compete with the honest and hardworking porters of Hazramaut; but they cannot keep their hands from picking and stealing, and thus they have ruined several of their ‘Akidahs,’ or headmen, who rendered themselves responsible to the merchant. Being capable of considerable although desultory exertion, they get a living by day-work on board European ships, and they prefer this employment because they receive rations of rice and treacle, with occasionally a bit of beef or pork. When there is no work upon the plantation its slaves are jobbed at the rate of 8 to 10 pice per diem, and of this sum they receive 2, about the wage of an Indian ‘biggaree.’ Of course they do their best to defraud their masters of the hire.
The following are the distant races of whom a few serviles find their way to Zanzibar.
Circassians and white slave girls being exceedingly rare, are confined to the harems of the rulers. They are brought from Persia, and are as extravagant in tastes as they are expensive in prime cost. A ‘Járiyeh bayza’ soon renders the house of a moderately rich man unendurable.
Abyssinians, or rather Africans from Gurague, Amhara, and the continent north of the parallel of Cape Guardafui, are mostly imported from El Hejaz. Boys and lads range from $50 to $100: girls, from $60 to $150. The former are circumcised, and having a good reputation for honesty, intelligence, and amiability, they are educated as stewards, superintendents, and super-cargos. The latter, though exceedingly addicted to intrigue, are favourites with men, and, it is said, with Arab women.
Galla captives of many tribes, especially of the Arisha and a few of the southern Somal, are shipped from Hafun, Brava, and Hanir or Makdishu. They fetch low prices, and are little prized, being considered roguish and treacherous. In appearance they are savage likenesses of the Abyssinians.