Andriamasinavalona

Andriamasinavalona (1675–1710), also known as Andrianjakanavalondambo, was a King of Imerina in the central highlands of Madagascar. He made significant and enduring contributions to the social, political and economic life of Imerina. Chief among these was the expansion of his territories and the pacification and unification of certain principalities that had become locked in violent conflict; Andriamasinavalona established and ruled over the largest extent of the Kingdom of Imerina. He gave the name of Antananarivo to the capital city that was rapidly expanding around the royal palace on the hill of Analamanga, created a large public square at Andohalo outside the gates of the city, and named a series of other locations within the city. He also took possession of a distant hill he renamed Ambohimanga as a lodging for his son Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana; the royal city that developed there has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The innovations of Andriamasinavalona were numerous and enduring. He created two additional noble castes and defined their associated rights, responsibilities and restrictions, and was responsible for introducing the tradition of the red parasol as an indicator of royalty; he also decreed that all women had the right to choose their husbands. Trade with the Sakalava kingdom enabled this king to increase the firearms, cannons and gunpowder available for the defense of the kingdom, and expanded the availability of luxury items like silver piastres and porcelain dishes. The dikes around the Betsimitatatra rice fields of Antananarivo were expanded and raised to help ensure against famine.
In the interest of strengthening the defenses of the kingdom, Andriamasinavalona divided his realm into four quadrants to be ruled by his four favorite sons. This decision had the opposite effect, however; each was interested in expanding his own realm, prompting one son to kidnap the king and hold him hostage for seven years. After the king's eventual release, he famously committed a mock human sacrifice to re-sanctify his authority. Upon his death, Andriamasinavalona's sons launched military campaigns against one another to seize each other's territories, triggering 77 years of civil war in Imerina. In Madagascar today, Andriamasinavalona's reign is remembered as a golden age of justice, harmony and prosperity.
Early life and accession to throne.
Andriamasinavalona was born Prince Andrianjakanavalondambo in the historic Merina capital of Alasora to his father King Andriantsimitoviaminandriandehibe and mother Rampanambonitany. He was made Prince of Alasora upon his father's death in 1670; his older brother, Andrianjaka Razakatsitakatrandriana, was named king. Andriamasinavalona ascended to the kingship of Imerina upon the deposition of his brother in 1675. The deposed king fled to the Sakalava kingdom to the west and attempted unsuccessfully to secure military support there to regain the throne.
Two enduring royal traditions emerged in Imerina as a consequence of the power struggle between Andriamasinavalona and his older brother. Some versions of oral history describe a combat between their armies at Ambohibato in which Andriamasinavalona emerged victorious. He erected a commemorative stone at the battle site that he named Ankazonorona, designating it the site where newly enthroned kings would stand to receive their first expression of "hasina" (homage, affirmation of authority) from their subjects. Andriamasinavalona also introduced the practice of gathering his subjects to consult them and obtain their consent before making certain decisions. This practice was continued by subsequent rulers in Imerina.
Family and descendants.
Andriamasinavalona married twelve wives and produced nine sons and one daughter. The children of four of his wives would go on to rule their own kingdoms: Ratompoindroandriana gave birth to Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana at Ambohimanga; Ramananandrianjaka gave birth to Andriantomponimerina at Ambohidratrimo; Ramananimerina had her son Andrianjakanavalona at Antananarivo; and Rasolomanambonitany had Andrianavalonimerina near Ambohitrabiby. The children of four other wives would renounce all claims to the throne: Andriamborosy and Rafaralahimanjaka, born to Renilambo in Ambohidrapeto; Andriantsilavo, born to Ranavalona in Anosimanjaka; Andrianavalona, born to Rakalafohy in Isoraka; and Andriankotofananina, born to Reninandriankotofananina in Anosipatrana. The descendants of Andriamasinavalona's wives who renounced claim to the throne were ennobled by him as the royal "Andriamasinavalona" class. The remaining four marriages (to wives Ralanimboahangy, Raseranolona, Ranavalotomponimerina and Ramanamabahoaka) would not produce children, but one of these wives - Ralanimboahangy - adopted a girl named Andriamanitrinitany. She was housed with her adoptive mother at Ambohipeno and died without producing children of her own, although she likewise adopted a child named Ramasina, who was most likely the son of her sister.
Reign.
Andriamasinavalona is remembered in Imerina as a king of significant achievements. He is credited with unifying a number of warring principalities in Imerina and expanding the territory of the kingdom to its largest extent. He created the Andohalo town square outside the gate of Antananarivo, where all successive sovereigns delivered their royal speeches and announcements to the public. Andriamasinavalona gave the city - previously called by the name of its hill, Analamanga - its current name of Antananarivo, and assigned the names of numerous locations within the city, based on the names of similar sites in the nearby village of Antananarivokely. During his reign the production of the Betsimitatatra rice fields around Antananarivo was dramatically increased. He also increased the number of guns and quantity of gunpowder in Imerina through trade with neighboring kingdoms, and imported the kingdom's first cannons for its defense. Other innovations included the importation and fabrication of plates made from sea turtle skin. He strengthened the social order by creating two new noble castes, putting in place further restrictions and responsibilities for each, and decreeing the right of every woman to choose her own husband.
Under Andriamasinavalona's rule, the political administration of Imerina became more clearly defined. The number of "andriana" (noble) sub-castes was expanded from four to six and additional roles and specific territories were designated for each group, both within the neighborhoods of Antananarivo and in the countryside surrounding the capital. These territorial divisions were strictly enforced: members of subcastes were required to live within their designated territories and were not authorized to stay for extended periods in the territories reserved for others. Andriamasinavalona decentralized governance and strengthened the power of local administrators by creating a series of new decrees that further formalized the relationship between the andriana and the "hova" (commoners) they ruled.
The king's reign was marked by a drought lasting seven years that caused a famine in much of Imerina. According to oral history, the king attempted to purchase rice from his fief at Ambohipiainana. The town had a surplus but the local leader refused to sell rice to Andriamasinavalona, claiming none was available. The king then sent porters to purchase rice from Antsahatovoka, where the residents declared that while the land was his and it was thus unnecessary for the king to purchase what already belonged to him, there was no rice available to share. Finally Andriamasinavalona sought to purchase rice in Andraisisa. His money was refused by the local leader, Andriandrivotra, who willingly gave the king large shares of food and a tribute of silver. To reward the leader of the fief, Andriamasinavalona promised to give him anything he liked. Andriandrivotra declared that all he desired was the love of his sovereign. To show his appreciation, Andriamasinavalona declared that he would make Andriasisa into a great fief, and gave Andriandrivotra a large piece of land to the west of the territory. He then undertook a major expansion of the Betsimitatatra rice fields around Antananarivo, significantly increasing their rice production to feed the populace.
Sociopolitical restructuring.
Andriamasinavalona's reorganization and refinement of the subdivisions of the noble class took into account the precedents set by earlier Merina kings Andrianjaka and Ralambo. He declared that only members of the Zazamarolahy ("Numerous Children") caste, composed of nobles descended from Andrianjaka's children, could be shaded by the red parasol of royalty; the tradition of the royal parasol was introduced to Imerina during Andriamasinavalona's reign and persisted until the dissolution of the monarchy in 1897. He also decreed that their tombs should be topped with a "tranomasina", a small wooden house without windows or hearth and containing their worldly riches, where their spirit could return to visit after death. Unlike other noble subcastes, the Zazamarolahy were not constrained to inhabit a particular neighborhood, as Andriamasinavalona acknowledged the privilege of future sovereigns to determine the proximity of these most influential nobles according to the particularities of changing circumstances. Andriamasinavalona also narrowed the pool of potential future sovereigns by restricting this right to a new sub-group within the Zazamarolahy, which he termed Zanak'andriana ("Children of the Sovereign"). This group comprised all the descendants of the royal wives who had given birth to the king's four designated heirs. New rulers could only be selected from among this new sub-class of nobles.
The four wives of King Andriamasinavalona whose children were not chosen to rule one of the four districts of Imerina were assigned the noble sub-caste of "Andriamasinavalona" and transferred this ranking to their descendants. The king declared that members of this sub-caste would inhabit Ambatobevanja, at the southern limit of the neighborhood of Andohalo in Antananarivo, just outside the walls of the royal palace. Although not authorized to rule the kingdom, the Andriamasinavalona were deemed societal elders and gained the right to become "masters of the fief" ("tompo-menakely") and construct tranomasina on their tombs. They were also assigned the honor of burying deceased sovereigns and carrying out sacrifices requested by the king. Outside of Antananarivo, the Zazamarolahy and the Andriamasinavalona settled throughout Imerina in the individual fiefs centered around the hill towns that they governed. In this way, nobles always lived in close proximity to the people they ruled, ensured their defense and provided for their livelihood.
Andriamasinavalona established new rules to strengthen the authority of the tompo-menakely over their subjects. Inhabitants of the fief paid taxes ("isam-pangady") to the local lord, and offered him the hindquarters of all slaughtered zebu as tribute. Parents who adopted or disowned a child paid a fee of one silver piastre to the lord, and the property of those who died without children would revert to the king, who would share it with him. The inhabitants of a fief were bound to execute any work or task ordered by the tompo-menakely. The authority of the lord was highly independent and interference of the king was infrequent, in part due to the close kinship ties uniting the king to the Zazamarolahy and Andriamasinavalona sub-castes.
The Zana-tompo (or Andriantompokoindrindra) were also considered elders, and Andriamasinavalona decreed that kings would henceforth select their wives and royal food tasters from among this caste. The rites pertaining to circumcision were another honor reserved for the Zana-tompo. The king decreed that they should inhabit the countryside south of the capital extending from Ambavahadimitafo southward to Ambatolampy. Outside of Antananarivo, the Zana-tompo lived in the village of Ambohimalaza.
The Andrianamboninolona (or Zanakambony), Andriandranando (or Zafinandriandranando) and Zanadralambo were considered junior nobles. They were excluded from most of the rules imposed on other noble castes and exempted from "fanampoana" (forced labor in lieu of monetary tax payment). Instead, they were made responsible for maintaining a key dike that supported irrigation of the capital's rice paddies, producing the silk used to make the king's clothing, and conscripting soldiers for the king's army. They were also responsible for gathering used hoes for the royal blacksmiths to melt down and then supervise the artisans as the metal was crafted into nails, shackles and other forged objects.
Within Antananarivo, the territory of the Andrianamboninolona, designated generations before by King Andrianjaka, included the neighborhood of Ambatomasina (east of Andohalo) and extended from Ambohitantely eastward to Ambatolampy and north to the principal road that led to Ambavahadimasina. The neighborhoods reserved in Antananarivo for the Andriandranando, also decreed by Andrianjaka, laid to the northeast of Andohalo and extended from Ambavahadimasina in the west to Ambohimanoro in the east, and from the road to Ambavahadimasina northward to Ambatonandriankoto. King Andriamasinavalona decreed that within the capital city, the Zanaralambo would live in the area delimited by Ambohitsoa to the southwest, Ambodivoanonoka to the east, and Andohalokely in the north. Outside the capital, each group had its designated villages. The Andrianamboninolona lived in Ambohitromby, Fieferana, Ambohipiainana and Ambohitriniandriana. The Andriandranando lived in Ambohibe, Ambohimailala, Manankasina, Soamanandrariny, Betsizaraina, Iadiambola, Masinandriana, Ampomanjaka and Akadindramamy. Finally, the Zanaralambo inhabited Lazaina, Ambatofotsy and Masindray.
In addition to these new roles for noble sub-castes, Andriamasinavalona singled out the Antehiroka as sacred royal advisers and custodians of ancestral traditions related to circumcision. This clan was formed of the descendants of Andriampirokana and his two sons, themselves descendants of a vazimba king. Andriampirokana befriended King Ralambo and played an integral part in establishing the tradition of circumcision in Imerina. The collection of water gourds and arranging of freshly woven mats for use in the ceremony were made the responsibility of this clan. The Antehiroka were also tasked with delivering royal benedictions, receiving "hasina" (tribute) on behalf of the king, and wrapping deceased sovereigns in the traditional "lambamena" shroud. In Antananarivo, the Antehiroka were placed in Ampamaho, the location of their clan tomb. In the countryside, Andriamasinavalona decreed that they should inhabit Ambohitrinimanga and Amboditsiry.
Expansion of realm.
At the time of Andriamasinavalona's reign, the highlands around Imerina were wracked with violent conflict among minor princedoms centered around fortified hill towns. Andriamasinavalona successfully united a number of these principalities in the territory bordering his own, thereby expanding the boundaries of Imerina to include Fanongoavana to the west, Rangaina to the north, Ombifotsy to the east and Sahasarotra to the south. As he brought each territory under his control, he restricted the autonomy of its original rulers and imposed strict submission to his own authority. His diplomatic and political conquests enabled Andriamasinavalona to extend his kingdom to its fullest historical extent, making him the first Merina sovereign to rule over the entire province of Imerina.
The first of these four territories to be incorporated into Imerina was Fanongoavana, then a principality ruled by Andriampanarivofomanjaka. Continual threats to his kingdom's security led Andriampanarivofomanjaka to secretly travel to the Rova of Antananarivo to pledge submission to Andriamasinavalona. He was accompanied by seven advisers who eloquently communicated their master's willingness to acknowledge Andriamasinavalona as his king. Andriamasinavalona accepted this offer and sealed the union of their territories by marrying Andriampanarivofomanjaka to his sister, Ranavalontsimitovy. Andriampanarivofomanjaka then returned to his realm, announced the union to his people, and then spoke with the leaders of the neighboring Bezanozano people to successfully persuade them to join the kingdom and benefit from Andriamasinavalona's protection.
The territory of Ombifotsy was ruled by Andriambahoakafovoanitany, who had a friendly relationship with Andriamasinavalona. The two agreed to a challenge: each would leave his palace simultaneously on a chosen Friday night, and walk toward the other's palace until the two met. They crossed paths at the Ombifotsy ("White Zebu") river, so named because the two sacrificed a white zebu there in honor of their friendship and the peace agreement between their two territories of Imamo and Imerina. Andriambahoakafovoanitany's son dug a trench along the river, where he erected a stone to commemorate the agreement. Imamo was divided into four parts, each administered by one of Andriambahoakafovoanitany's sons.
In addition, Andriamasinavalona is credited with founding Ambohimanga, a site of spiritual and historical significance that was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. Oral history recounts that Andriamasinavalona first remarked a distant hill named Ambohitrakanga when he noticed a bonfire lit on its southern face 24 kilometers away from his rova at Antananarivo; the visibility of the site from his capital led Andriamasinavalona to desire the hill as a residence for his son, Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana. Andriamasinavalona gave the hill its current name, and when he divided the Kingdom of Imerina into four quadrants in 1710, he gave the eastern quadrant of Avaradrano to Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana, who transformed his rova at Ambohimanga into its capital.
Division of Imerina.
The greatest point of controversy in Andriamasinavalona's reign was his decision to divide his kingdom among his four favorite sons: Andrianjakanavalonamandimby, Adrianmanotronavalonimerina, Andriantomponimerina I and Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana, who received the largest share of the land and was the most powerful of the four young sovereigns. Andriamasinavalona furthermore declared that his nephew Andriambonimena, his sister's son, would replace his own sons and succeed him as king after his death to rule all of Imerina as a united whole. The controversial decision to divide Imerina into four sub-kingdoms may have been rooted in the desire to reorganize the kingdom in accordance with traditional notions of symbolic unity as represented by the four cardinal points surrounding a unifying center termed the "heart of Imerina" ("Imerina efa-toko"). Andriamasinavalona believed the kingdom would be better defended by four brothers than by one alone, and that they could support one another in warding off attackers from the outside.
According to oral history, Andriamasinavalona asked the guardian of Matsatso, one of the three most prominent royal idols, to ask the idol which of his sons should rule after him. The guardian hesitated to declare the idol's choice, but after the king promised no ill reaction to the decision, the man declared the successor to be Andrianavalonimerina. However, the king had hoped that the successor would be another son, Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana. He decided to test the prophecy by sending one of his wives to the guardian's house, where the population showed her respect by offering zebu for her to eat. The zebu cooked inconsistently, and the king interpreted this as a sign that the guardian was dishonest and intended to seize power himself, so Andriamasinavalona ordered him put to death and had the idol Matsatso discarded in a lake. He then asked the guardians of the two other idols (Kelimalaza and Soratra) to declare a successor; the guardian of Soratra fled, while the guardian of Kelimalaza stated that only the king could choose his successor.
Oral history relates that Andriamasinavalona then gathered the people at Andohalo to announce his decision. He requested the presence of his respected adviser and elder, Andriamampandry, who rebuffed the messenger by stating "I have no lamba." The king sent him a lamba to wear, and the elder sent it back with the four corners torn off. The king again returned the lamba, and this time the elder trampled it in the mud. Nonetheless, Andriamampandry dressed in the lamba, declaring "What's been torn can be mended, and what's been dirtied can be cleaned," then attended the king's "kabary". There, the king declared that he would divide his kingdom into four parts, each one a fief to be inhabited by his four favorite sons, who would participate in royal decision-making without being made kings themselves. The two northern principalities had their capitals at Ambohimanga and Ambohidrabiby, while the capital of the western principality was located at Ambohidratrimo. The southern principality was ruled from Antananarivo by Andriantomponimerina.
Andriamampandry tried on several occasions to warn Andriamasinavalona of the danger of administering the kingdom in this way. In one instance, he placed a hen in the middle of a room, then set one red rooster free in each corner. The roosters attacked one another viciously, leaving the king speechless. On another day, the elder brought four eagles to the king in a basket. When the basket was opened, the eagles flew wildly about the room, creating havoc. Andriamampandry warned the king that his realm would be no better off once his four sons got a taste of power. Andriamasinavalona recognized the danger but could not bear to choose which among his sons should be excluded from having a part in the decision-making responsibilities of the kingdom, so ignored the elder's advice. Finally Andriamampandry decided to give the king a very explicit warning. Andriamasinavalona had gathered his people in Andohalo to give a speech, when Andriamampandry set a bull loose into the crowd. In the panic that ensued, numerous people were gored or trampled to death, several pregnant women miscarried, and the gathering dispersed in chaos. The king demanded to know who had loosed the bull so that he may be executed, but when Andriamampandry took responsibility he warned the king that yet more blood would be spilled before the earth would be quenched. He then criticized the king for his concern over the relatively few deaths at the gathering, in light of the number of people who would die as a consequence of his division of Imerina. He further predicted that the prince at Ambohimanga would unite Imerina and lead it back to greatness. Andriamasinavalona reportedly had no response to give Andriamampandry, but instead hung his head in shame.
The 19th century transcription of Merina oral history, "Tantara ny Andriana eto Madagasikara", relates that Andriamampandry privately assessed the leadership qualities of each of the four selected sons, with disappointing results. He presented Andriambonimena of Alasora with a beautiful parrot, which the prince killed and served as food. The elder concluded that he was "a gun that loads itself." The oldest son, Andrianjakanavalonamandimby, was given a pot of honey, which he smashed in order to eat every last drop. Afterward Andriamampandry remarked that the kingdom had become a pot of honey without a lid, implying the first one to come along would be free to reach his hand inside and take all its bounty for himself. He visited Andriantomponimerina at Ambohidratrimo and offered him a zebu kidney (considered unpalatable), which the prince ordered to be prepared as a meal nonetheless, leading the elder to remark, "This man can't even resist the temptation to eat the kidney." He visited Andrianavalonimerina at Ambohitrabiby carrying a lemon and a weaver's stake, which the prince's wife demanded he give to them, demonstrating their greediness. Andriamampandry also visited prince Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana at Ambohimanga, carrying an axe and a rope. The prince asked to borrow the two items, then ordered a servant to use the axe and rope to butcher a zebu, put some of the best meat in a basket, cook the rest of the good meat for their meal, and set aside the neck and the ribbed part of the tripe in a second basket. The elder dined with the prince and spent the night at the village. When Andriamampandry was about to leave, the prince returned the rope and axe, gave him the basket of fine meat for his wife, and gave him the second basket, declaring "These are the parts for the axe (i.e. the neck) and the rope (i.e. the striated omasum)." Andriamampandry was deeply impressed by the hospitality and foresight of the prince. He related these incidents to Andriamasinavalona, who decided to test his sons in turn by calling them together to his house, then observing how they slept on the bed they shared there. Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana had his head highest on the pillow, but Andriamasinavalona failed to understand the significance of this, and Andriamampandry rebuked him, remarking "You are the king, and yet you do not understand?"
Imprisonment.
According to oral history, Andriamasinavalona was temporarily usurped through the trickery of his son Andriantomponimerina, who ruled the western territory from his "rova" at Ambohidratrimo. Once Andriamasinavalona's sons had been installed in their territories, Andriantomponimerina tested his authority by imposing a particular hairstyle upon the Marovatana people he ruled, in disregard of the promise that the king had made to respect the diverse customs and taboos of Imerina. The Marovatana reminded the king of this vow and refused to submit, prompting the king and his sons to prepare for war against the people of the fief. This conflict provided the prince with an opportunity to seize power. Upon the suggestion of the prince's half-brother, Andrianentoarivo, the prince hid himself in a trench he dug into the dirt floor of his royal residence at Ambohidratrimo, then ordered his people to send word to his father that he was "in the ground". Believing his son to be buried alive by the Marovatana as a punitive measure, Andriamasinavalona hurried to Ambohidratrimo carrying reeds as a symbol of peace; upon the king's entrance into the residence, however, Prince Andriantomponimerina locked Andriamasinavalona inside and refused to release him for the next seven years. During this time the prince repeatedly offered to free the king on the condition that Andriamasinavalona accept to transfer power to him, which the king repeatedly refused. Andriantomponimerina prevented his brothers from taking action against him by telling their messengers that the king simply preferred his company and had decided to reside with him at Ambohidratrimo.
After some time, the king's designated successor, Andriambonimena, launched a retaliatory attack against the prince's half-brother Andrianentoarivo at Ambohipotsy and successfully chased him from his fief. Andriantomponimerina recognized the need to take more dramatic action to consolidate his grip on power and sent a messenger to the Sakalava king requesting his support. The Sakalava reaffirmed their loyalty to Andriamasinavalona, however, and threatened to attack the prince if the rightful king was not released from his captivity. According to one version of the oral history, having failed to use the king as a pawn to gain power, the prince decided to ransom his father for 7,000 piastres to increase his personal wealth. Every citizen of Imerina was obligated to contribute, and those who had no money sold their children or themselves into slavery in order to raise the necessary funds. The money was placed in seven baskets and transported by dugout canoe to the prince at Ambohidratrimo, who released the king. According to another version of the story, Prince Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana of Ambohimanga sent two hunters of the Tsimahafotsy clan to free the king by digging an escape passage under the wall of his heavily guarded enclosure. After returning to Antananarivo, Andriamasinavalona sent a messenger who announced that the king had decided to hand power to Andriantomponimerina and invited the prince to the capital to be enthroned. The prince hurried to the palace, and throughout the city he was greeted with cheers, singing and dancing. When Andriamasinavalona received him, however, he publicly condemned the prince and stripped him of his rank and power.
Resanctification.
Two stories exist around a ritual of human sacrifice that Andriamasinavalona conducted after his imprisonment. In one version of the oral history, Andriamampandry and his fellow royal advisers were concerned that the king's imprisonment had weakened his authority and could lead the population to revolt against him. They suggested the king test his people by claiming to be ill and requesting a human sacrifice; if a citizen offered his life for the king, this gesture would indicate the public was still loyal to him. Andriamasinavalona followed this recommendation and gathered the people to request a volunteer who was willing to have his throat slit with a long dagger to sanctify the king. In another version of the story, this proposal was made to sanctify the new Besakana palace that the king ordered rebuilt at the rova in Antananarivo. A man named Trimofoloalina stepped forward to sacrifice his life. In the first version of the story, royal advisers bound him with ropes and laid him on the ground to the west of the Masoandro palace within the rova compound at Antananarivo, but rather than kill the man they symbolically "sacrificed" him by pouring rooster blood mixed with water onto his throat. In the second, he was bound and hoisted to the top of the central pillar of the new building, and his ear was nicked to allow several drops of blood to fall on the top of the pillar to sanctify it. Trimofoloalina was then released and the king asked him to name a reward for his courageous gesture. The man requested that he and his descendants would forever after be exempted from the death penalty for any crime they might commit; Andriamasinavalona agreed to grant this reward.
Death and legacy.
Andriamasinavalona died in 1710 when one of his wives, Rasolomananambonitany, inadvertently pushed him from the elevated bed where they slept. He was buried in the royal tombs located at the Rova of Antananarivo. In opposition to Andriamasinavalona's intentions, after the king's death his sons forsook the concept of unity and instead fought one another in an effort to expand their realms. As a consequence of this decision, Imerina fragmented and was wracked with conflict for 77 years, until the kingdom was once again united during the reign of Andrianampoinimerina (1787–1810).
The reign of Andriamasinavalona is remembered in Madagascar as a golden age of prosperity, justice, abundance and harmony. He is described in oral histories as a talented politician and kind and just ruler. His name is often traditionally invoked in Imerina when paying tribute to the ancestors or making a binding pledge. Regarding Andriamasinavalona's legacy, Ellis (1832) remarked, "The character of this chieftain is held in the highest veneration and esteem. He is said to have exercised great care over his district, and to have introduced many important improvements. His memory, laws and customs are still held in the greatest respect, and his name is always mentioned in the public "kabarys" with a degree of reverence."


List of rulers of Bosha

The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Garo or Bosha. Bosha was one of the kingdoms on the periphery of the Gibe region of Ethiopia. It existed from 1567 to 1883.
List of Rulers of Bosha or Garo.
Source: Werner J. Lange, "History of the Southern Gonga (Southwestern Ethiopia)" (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1982), p. 64.


Kariandusi prehistoric site

Kariandusi prehistoric site is an archaeological site in Kenya. Located on the southeastern edge of the Great Rift Valley and on Lake Elmenteita, Kariandusi is an African Early Stone Age site dating to approximately 1 million years ago.
History.
This site was discovered by Louis Leakey in a 1928 expedition in the exposed Kariandusi riverbed. Leakey graduated St. John's College, Cambridge in 1926 with some of the best grades in his graduating class. Due to his success, St. John's awarded Leakey a research grant for his first East African Archaeological Expedition. Using funds for his Expedition, Leakey was able to finance three separate trips to the site (in 1928, 1931, and 1946) and several trip to his other research destinations including Olduvai Gorge and Lake Victoria. After Leakey, J.A.J. Gowlett and R.G. Crompton co-led a fourth expedition in 1974, and this was the last major excavation endeavor at the Kariandusi prehistoric site. However, there have been several research projects concerning the Kariandusi Prehistoric Site.
Early Stone Age in Africa.
 The Early Stone Age (ESA) in Africa extends from about 2.6 million years ago to 280,000 years ago. It is also synonymous with the Lower Paleolithic. This was the period when the most well-known human ancestors were evolving: "Australopithecus afarensis", "Paranthropus boisei", "Homo habilis" (the "Handy Man"), and "Homo erectus". At the time that Kariandusi was in use, 1 million years ago, "Homo erectus" was in the eastern African Rift Valley.
Besides the evolution of humans, there was the metaphorical evolution of tools. The ESA was the beginning of modern tool use, and the time period has two Modes (a way of classifying tools without designating them to certain cultural or ethnic groups). Mode 1 is primarily Oldowan "choppers," tools made from pebbles in the Olduvai Gorge area by, mostly, "Homo habilis". Mode 2 includes the Acheulean handaxes found mostly in the Turkana Basin of Kenya, which were made primarily by "Homo erectus". Kariandusi, due to its location in eastern Africa and the age of the site, was likely occupied by "Homo erectus" who produced Mode 2 technologies.
Archaeological finds.
When this site was discovered and initially researched, the finds were sent to museums all around the world (as was common at the time). However, because the finds were not wholly cataloged, there is no comprehensive list of all finds from Kariandusi. To understand the scope of the assemblage, consider that Cambridge University alone has over 250 handaxes from Kariandusi. Obsidian was the main material used in making the Acheulean handaxes, but lava-based materials like quartz-trachyte were also used.
Theories.
Several theories address the nature of the Kariandusi site, including its possible use as a "factory" site, and why wear on the edges of the handaxes there are not typical of those from surrounding sites.
Factory.
The sheer number of handaxes found at Kariandusi prompted notions that it had been a factory for Acheulean handaxes. It was also once thought of as one of the oldest "in situ" Acheulean hand axe site in the world. When it was discovered, the researchers believed it had been untouched since the last stoneworker had left. However, recent climate research has revealed that nearby Lake Elmenteita once reached further inland, and has receded in the past one million years, with the collection at Kariandusi having accumulated due to the water rushing over the land and depositing the hand axes there. The denial of this site as a factory is supported by the lack of waste found at the site i.e. no flakes or debris left over from the creation of the handaxes, which would be associated with dedicated factory.
Edge-wear.
At Kariandusi it is common to find handaxes with little to no edge wear. This also helps contribute to the idea that Kariandusi was once a factory site: if it was a factory site, these axes would be created on site and then passed out or shipped to different communities around Kariandusi. A study by evolutionary biologist Steven Mithen puts out the theory that there was no edge wear because the handaxes weren't used as axes, but as "sexual lures," ways the nearby males would attract females. The minimal edge wear, coupled with the immense number of handaxes contributes to this idea. However, Mithen proposal has received little to no support.
Handedness.
Modern handedness is the topic of many psychological research articles, one suggesting that over 10% of the world's population is left handed. A 1997 archaeological research project, led by Laura Phillipson, analyzed about 250 Kariandusi handaxes for signs of handedness. Phillipson's team focused on 54 handaxes that appeared to have been used the least, with the least amount of wear on the edges, and analyzed the hand-hold spots on each specimen. Based on how comfortable a handaxe was to hold in either the left or right, 6 of the samples were proved to be left-handed. The full results of the research are as follows:
Because 11% of the selected handaxes appeared to be left-handed axes, the conclusion is that modern human handedness was already appearing in the Early to Middle Stone Age, almost 1 million years ago.
Kariandusi Museum.
The National Museums of Kenya is a state corporation that monitors national Kenyan museums and monuments, including Kariandusi. A museum was built at Kariandusi near the prehistoric site, with a stairway going down to where the handaxes were discovered. The Kariandusi Museum also addresses several other nearby historic sites as well. The NMK - Kariandusi website advertises the following:


Tony Momoh

Prince Tony Momoh (27 April 1939 – 1 February 2021) was a Nigerian journalist and a politician who was Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture (1986–1990) during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.
Birth and Education.
Momoh was born on 27 April 1939 in Auchi, Edo state, of Edo origin.
He was the 165th child of King Momoh I of Auchi.
He attended Government School Auchi (1949–1954) and Anglican School Okpe (1954).
Momoh was Pupil Teacher at the Anglican School, Auchi (January–December 1955) and Headmaster at the Anglican School, Ubuneke, Ivbiaro, Owan Local Government (January 1958 – December 1959).
He went to the Provincial Teachers Training College, Abudu, Edo State and Government Teachers College, Abraka in Western Region (1960–1961).
Later, while working at the "Daily Times" or on sabbatical, he attended the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (September 1964 – October 1966) where he earned a degree in Mass communication, and then the University of Lagos where he studied Law.
He attended the Nigerian Law School, Lagos (October 1974 – May 1975), and was called to the bar in June 1975.
Journalist.
Momoh started his journalism career as a sub-editor at the "Daily Times" in October 1962, rising steadily through the ranks to become Editor and deputy general manager (June 1976 – May 1980).
In June 1979, during the lead-up to the transition from military to civilian rule at the start of the Second Nigerian Republic, Momoh said of the five presidential candidates: "They are all the same ... It's going to turn into a personality contest".
In 1981, the Senate of Nigeria led by Joseph Wayas summoned Momoh for contempt. This caused a major legal battle in which Momoh successfully argued that as a journalist he was empowered by the Constitution of Nigeria to hold government accountable at all times.
In "Tony Momoh v. Speaker, House of Representatives" (1982) it was held that a person had the right to refuse to disclose their source of information.
However, in "Senate v. Tony Momoh" (1983) the Court of Appeals held that the press is not a fourth arm of government. A newspaper publisher has no special immunity and the press can be ordered to disclose its sources in some cases.
Minister of Information and Culture.
Momoh was appointed Minister of Information and Culture by General Ibrahim Babangida, holding this position from September 1986 until 1990.
He was Chairman of the African Conference of Information Ministers from 1988 to 1990.
In 1983 the editor of "Newswatch", Dele Giwa, was detained for a week by police for publishing what they called "classified material". On 17 October 1986, Giwa was accused by Colonel A.K. Togun of the State Security Services (SSS) of anti-government activities including attempting to import arms to foment insurrection. On 19 October 1986, Giwa was killed by a parcel bomb. At first, Momoh pledged that there would be a government probe of the incident. He soon backed down, saying "a special probe would serve no useful purpose".
Speaking at a seminar in Lagos in 1987, Momoh said that radio, television and newspapers should be seen as tools "for the promotion of national unity and integration".
In 1988 Momoh announced that the government was trying to find radio sets that could only receive approved broadcasts from the federal and state radio stations. This was "as a means of ensuring that information about the country was adequately disseminated".
In a February 1990 interview published in "Ebony" magazine, Momoh talked about the rich and diverse Nigerian culture. He stated that British-style parliamentary democracy and the American-style presidential system had both failed in Nigeria because they were not compatible with these local cultures. He said that Nigeria was now establishing a system of grass-roots democracy in a two-party system.
In May 1990 party elections were held for local ward positions using an "open ballot", where voters showed their preference by standing in front of a photograph of the candidate. Party elections were then scheduled for the state and national elections. Momoh said the government would not interfere in the inner workings of parties. Soon after, all the National Republican Convention candidates for national offices were disqualified on the grounds that there were irregularities in their application forms.
Babangida followed a policy of donating money, vehicles, offices and so on to local governments, political parties and others on the basis that this would keep them free of influence by the rich and powerful. As Minister for Information Momoh justified the practice, saying of democracy that it "is not as expensive as people are thinking in relation to the alternative. The alternative is allowing one man to dictate to the whole Nigeria because you don't want it to be expensive. If money is not spent on democracy and a one-man dictatorship emerges ... it is the same Nigerians who are talking of expensiveness now that will shout that one man is a dictator".
Babangida was tough on the press at times, but tried to avoid open conflict. When the press began calling for Momoh's dismissal he was slow to respond, since Momoh was intelligent and reflective, and had experience from his own days as a newspaper editor. However, he finally dismissed Momoh and replaced him by Alex Akinyele, who had previously been in the customs services and had been a director at "Newswatch".
Later career.
Momoh was Chairman of the board of directors of Nigerian Airways from 1991 to 1993.
He was appointed a Member of the Edo State Economic Advisory Committee in 1991, and a member of the Nigerian Press Council in December 1992.
As of 1996 Momoh was one of the directors of the Newswatch magazine, said to have a circulation of 150,000 copies in Africa, Europe and North America.
Momoh was Director of the Alex Ekwueme Presidential Campaign Organization in 1999. He chaired the screening and conduct of Gubernatorial and State House of Assembly primaries in Kano Chapter of the P.D.P. for the 1999 General Elections together with Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila and Senator Bala Tafidan Yauri.
He was chairman, Media and Publicity of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) Campaign Organisation in the 2003 and 2007 elections.
He was also Chairman of the Political Committee of the Muhammadu Buhari Organisation.
In January 2011, Momoh was appointed Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the lead-up to the April 2011 national elections, with Buba Galadima appointed the National Secretary.
Soon after being appointed, Momoh said the CPC would bar any of its aspirants to become candidates if they were to engage in corrupt practices or thuggery during the primaries.
Following disappointing results in the April 2011 elections, Momoh asserted that massive rigging had taken place. However, he described the CPC as a mass movement that was bound to grow and achieve the high goals of its founders.
Momoh died at 5p.m. on 1 February 2021, after a brief illness.


James Calata

James Arthur Calata (1895 – 1983) was a South African priest and politician. He was the Secretary-General of the African National Congress from 1936 to 1949. He was appointed a canon of the Grahamstown Cathedral making him the first Black canon in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
Early life.
James Arthur Calata was born in Debe Nek, near King William's Town in the Eastern Cape on 22 July 1895. His father, James was an uneducated farmer and a Presbyterian. His mother Eliza, reached Standard 4, practiced as a midwife and was an Anglican. He was educated at St Matthew's College in Keiskammahoek, from 1911 to 1914 and later worked as a teacher for a number of years. He married Miltha Mary Koboka in 1918, they went on to have three daughters. He was grandfather of Fort Calata who was also a politician.
Career.
Calata became deacon in the Anglican Church in 1921, ordained priest in 1926, and worked briefly in Port Elizabeth, until he was sent to serve as a minister at St. James Mission in Cradock during 1928. During this time he served as president of the Inter-denominational African Ministers' Federation (IDAMF). He ministered in Cradock for forty years, then, after the removal of his congregation in the mid-1960s as a result of the Group Areas Act, he became the priest of the Church of the Ascension in the township of Lingelihle.
He joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1930 and was elected as the Cape President from 1930 to 1949. In 1935, contracted tuberculosis, and was given two years’ leave by the church. He became Secretary-General of the ANC from 1936 to 1949, in his capacity as Secretary-general he was a signatory of the 1949 Program of Action. In 1940 he was instrumental in persuading A.B. Xuma to stand for the presidency. He did not stand for re-election as secretary-general during the national conference of December 1949 but, he remained a member of the national executive until 1956. He had been chosen as ANC's senior chaplain in 1950 and he later also acted as Congress speaker.
He was banned during the Defiance Campaign in 1952, although he was later allowed to continue conducting services. In 1956 he was arrested at the time of the Treason trials and was imprisoned for a short while before being acquitted. His license to marry and permission to keep communion wine were withdrawn. During the 1960s he was restricted to the Cradock district.
His wife Miltha was a leader of those who defied apartheid laws and was later arrested. He also founded a choir, Congress Choir which he also composed songs for, that became prominent and allowed the choir to tour the Cape to raise funds for the ANC and for school bursaries.
He was a canon of Grahamstown cathedral from 1959, later during the 1960s he served on the council of St. Peter's, the Anglican College within the Federal Theological Seminary in Alice. He was kept under surveillance and lived under a banning order during 1968. In the 1970s, he allowed his home to be used as an underground library by the ANC and the youth of his community.


Namuggala of Buganda

Namuggala Kagali was Kabaka of the Kingdom of Buganda, between 1741 and 1750. He was the twenty-fourth (24th) Kabaka of Buganda.
Claim to the throne.
He was the second son of Prince Musanje Golooba. His mother was Nabulya Naluggwa of the Ndiga clan, the second of his father's wives. He ascended to the throne upon the death of his elder brother, Kabaka Mwanga I Sebanakitta, in 1741. He established his capital at Nansana.
Married life.
He is recorded to have married six (6) wives:
Issue.
He is recorded to have fathered three sons:
The final years.
Kabaka Namuggala abdicated in favor of his younger brother, Kyabaggu Kabinuli, around 1750. He died, following an accidental fall on Nalubugo Hill, after his abdication. He was buried at Muyomba, Busiro.


Kathu Archaeological Complex

The Kathu Archaeological Complex is a cluster of significant archaeological, principally Stone Age, exposures situated in and near Kathu, a mining town in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. The sites include a suite of sinkhole exposures, the Kathu Pan sites, north west of the town, the immensely rich spread of artefacts at what is referred to as Kathu Townlands on the eastern side of Kathu (now surrounded by urban development), and surface and subsurface horizons including handaxes on farms further eastward. These are subject to on-going archaeological research.
Kathu Pan.
At Kathu Pan, north west of the town, evidence of early hominin occupation has been observed at multiple sinkhole sites within the pan. The locality known as Kathu Pan 1 has Earlier Stone Age deposits (Stratum 4b) characterised by well-made handaxes. Above it, Stratum 4a is dated by a combination of OSL and ESR/U-series dating to circa 500 000 years Before Present. The stone artifact assemblage from Stratum 4a is characterized by a prepared core technology that produced both blades and points, and has been attributed to the Fauresmith industry.
In a paper published in "Science" in November 2012, Jayne Wilkins and colleagues reveal evidence of 500 000 year-old stone points (excavated by Peter Beaumont in 1979-1982), argued to represent the earliest stone-tipped spears yet found. This conclusion, based partly on experimental comparison of use wear, is taken to indicate that human ancestors used stone-tipped weapons for hunting 200 000 years earlier than previously thought. Wilkins is quoted as saying that "the find does more than simply extend the prehistory of stone-tipped spears – it puts those first spears firmly in the hands of "Homo heidelbergensis". Modern foragers use such tools to take down large game as part of cooperative, strategic hunts. Perhaps our ancestor did so too."


History of Zanzibar

People have lived in Zanzibar for 20,000 years. History properly starts when the islands became a base for traders voyaging between the African Great Lakes, the Somali Peninsula, the Arabian peninsula, Iran, and the Indian subcontinent. Unguja offered a protected and defensible harbor, so although the archipelago had few products of value, Omanis and Yemenis settled in what became Zanzibar City (Stone Town) as a convenient point from which to trade with towns on the Swahili Coast. They established garrisons on the islands and built the first mosques in the African Great Lakes Region.
During the Age of Exploration, the Portuguese Empire was the first European power to gain control of Zanzibar, and kept it for nearly 200 years. In 1698, Zanzibar fell under the control of the Sultanate of Oman, which developed an economy of trade and cash crops, with a ruling Arab elite and a Bantu general population. Plantations were developed to grow spices; hence, the moniker of the Spice Islands (a name also used for the Dutch colony the Moluccas, now part of Indonesia). Another major trade good was ivory, the tusks of elephants that were killed on the Tanganyika mainland - a practice that is still in place to this day. The third pillar of the economy was slaves, which gave Zanzibar an important place in the Indian Ocean slave trade, the Indian Ocean equivalent of the better-known Triangular Trade. The Omani Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the African Great Lakes coast, known as Zanj, as well as extensive inland trading routes.
Sometimes gradually, sometimes by fits and starts, control of Zanzibar came into the hands of the British Empire. In 1890, Zanzibar became a British protectorate. The death of one sultan and the succession of another of whom the British did not approve later led to the Anglo-Zanzibar War, also known as the shortest war in history.
The islands gained independence from Britain in December 1963 as a constitutional monarchy. A month later, the bloody Zanzibar Revolution, in which several thousand Arabs and Indians were killed and thousands more expelled and expropriated, led to the Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba. That April, the republic merged with the mainland Tanganyika, or more accurately, was subsumed into Tanzania, of which Zanzibar remains a semi-autonomous region. Zanzibar was most recently in the international news with a January 2001 massacre, following contested elections.
Prehistory.
Zanzibar has been inhabited, perhaps not continuously, since the Paleolithic period. A 2005 excavation at Kuumbi Cave in southeastern Zanzibar found heavy duty stone tools that showed occupation of the site at least 22,000 years ago. Archaeological discoveries of a limestone cave used radiocarbon techniques to prove more recent occupation, from around 2800 BC to the year 0 (Chami 2006). Traces of the communities include objects such as glass beads from around the Indian Ocean. It is a suggestion of early trans-oceanic trade networks, although some writers have expressed doubt about this possibility.
No cave sites on Zanzibar have revealed pottery fragments used by early and later Bantu farming and iron-working communities who lived on the islands (Zanzibar, Mafia) during the first millennium AD. On Zanzibar, the evidence for the later farming and iron-working communities dating from the mid-first millennium AD is much stronger and indicates the beginning of urbanism there when settlements were built with mud-timber structures (Juma 2004). This is somewhat earlier than the existing evidence for towns in other parts of the Swahili Coast, given as the 9th century AD. The first permanent residents of Zanzibar seem to have been the ancestors of the Hadimu and Tumbatu, who began arriving from the African Great Lakes mainland around 1000 AD. They had belonged to various Bantu ethnic groups from the mainland, and on Zanzibar they lived in small villages and failed to coalesce to form larger political units. Because they lacked central organization, they were easily subjugated by outsiders.
Early Trade Routes.
Ancient pottery demonstrates existing trade routes with Zanzibar as far back as the ancient Sumer and Assyria.
An ancient pendant discovered near Eshnunna dated ca. 2500-2400 BC. has been traced to copal imported from the Zanzibar region.
Traders from Arabia (mostly Yemen), the Persian Gulf region of Iran (especially Shiraz), and west India probably visited Zanzibar as early as the 1st century AD, followed by Somalis during the Middle Ages with the emergence of Islam. They used the monsoon winds to sail across the Indian Ocean and landed at the sheltered harbor located on the site of present-day Zanzibar Town. Although the islands had few resources of interest to the traders, they offered a good location from which to make contact and trade with the towns of the Swahili Coast. A phase of urban development associated with the introduction of stone material to the construction industry of the African Great Lakes littoral began from the 10th century AD.
Traders began to settle in small numbers on Zanzibar in the late 11th or 12th century, intermarrying with the indigenous Africans. Eventually a hereditary ruler (known as the "Mwenyi Mkuu" or "Jumbe"), emerged among the Hadimu, and a similar ruler, called the "Sheha", was set up among the Tumbatu. Neither had much power, but they helped solidify the ethnic identity of their respective peoples.
The Yemenis built the earliest mosque in the southern hemisphere in Kizimkazi, the southernmost village in Unguja. A kufic inscription on its "mihrab" bears the date AH 500, i.e. 1107 AD.
Villages were also present in which lineage groups were common.
Portuguese rule.
Vasco da Gama's visit in 1499 marked the beginning of European influence. In 1503 or 1504, Zanzibar became part of the Portuguese Empire when Captain Ruy Lourenço Ravasco Marques landed and demanded and received tribute from the sultan in exchange for peace. Zanzibar remained a possession of Portugal for almost two centuries.
Zanzibar Sultanate.
In 1698, Zanzibar became part of the overseas holdings of Oman, falling under the control of the Sultan of Oman. The Portuguese were expelled and a lucrative trade in slaves, started decades earlier by the Portuguese to supply the West Indies, and ivory thrived, along with an expanding plantation economy centring on cloves. With an excellent harbor and no shortage of fresh water, Stone Town (capital of Zanzibar) became one of the largest and wealthiest cities in East Africa. With the coming of Omani rule, there occurred a forced land redistribution as all of the most fertile land was handed over to Omani aristocrats who enslaved the African farmers who worked the land. Every year, hundreds of dhows would sail across the Indian Ocean from Arabia, Persia and India with the monsoon winds blowing in from the northeast, bringing iron, cloth, sugar and dates. When the monsoon winds shifted to the southwest in March or April, the traders would leave, with their ships packed full of tortoiseshell, copal, cloves, coir, coconuts, rice, ivory and slaves.
The Arabs established garrisons at Zanzibar, Pemba, and Kilwa. The height of Arab rule came during the reign of Sultan Seyyid Said (more fully, Sayyid Said bin Sultan al-Busaid), who in 1840 moved his capital from Muscat in Oman to Stone Town. He established a ruling Arab elite and encouraged the development of clove plantations, using the island's slave labour. Zanzibar's commerce fell increasingly into the hands of traders from the Indian subcontinent, whom Said encouraged to settle on the island. After his death in 1856, his sons struggled over the succession. On April 6, 1861, Zanzibar and Oman were divided into two separate principalities. Sayyid Majid bin Said Al-Busaid (1834/5–1870), his sixth son, became the Sultan of Zanzibar, while the third son, Sayyid Thuwaini bin Said al-Said, became the Sultan of Oman.
Accounts by visitors to Zanzibar often emphasize the outward beauty of the place. The British explorer Richard Francis Burton described Zanzibar in 1856 as: "Earth, sea and sky, all seemed wrapped in a soft and sensuous repose...The sea of purist sapphire, which had not parted with its blue rays to the atmosphere...lay looking...under a blaze of sunshine which touched every object with a dull burnish of gold". Adding to the beauty were the gleaming white minarets of mosques and the sultan's palaces in Stone Town, making the city appear from the distance to Westerners as an "Orientalist" fantasy brought to life. Those who got closer described Stone Town as an extremely foul-smelling city that reeked of human and animal excrement, garbage and rotting corpses as garbage, sewage and bodies of animals and slaves were all left out in the open to rot. The British explorer Dr. David Livingstone when living in Stone Town in 1866 wrote in his diary: "The stench arising from a mile and a half or two square miles of exposed sea beach, which is the general depository of the filth of the town is quite horrible...It might be called Stinkabar rather than Zanzibar". Besides for the pervasive foul odor of Stone Town, accounts by visitors described a city full of slaves on the brink of starvation and a place where cholera, malaria and venereal diseases all flourished.
Of all the forms of economic activity on Zanzibar, slavery was the most profitable and the vast majority of the blacks living on the island were either slaves taken from East Africa or the descendants of slaves from East Africa. The slaves were brought to Zanzibar in dhows, where many as possible were packed in with no regard for comfort or safety. Many did not survive the journey to Zanzibar. Upon reaching Zanzibar, the slaves were stripped completely naked, cleaned, had their bodies covered with coconut oil, and forced to wear gold and silver bracelets bearing the name of the slave trader. At that point, the slaves were forced to march nude in a line down the streets of Stone Town guarded by loyal slaves of the slavers carrying swords or spears until someone would show interest in the procession. A captain from a ship owned by the East India Company who visited Zanzibar in 1811 and witnessed these marches wrote about how a buyer examined the slaves: "The mouth and teeth are inspected, and afterwards every part of the body in succession, not even excepting the breasts, etc, of the girls, many of whom I have seen examined in the most indecent manner in the public market by the purchasers...The slave is then made to walk or run a little way to show that there is no defect about the feet; after which, if the price is agreed to, they are stripped of their finery and delivered over to their future master. I have frequently counted twenty or thirty of these files in the market at one time...Women with children newly born hanging at their breasts and others so old they can scarcely walk, are sometimes seen dragged about in this manner. They had in general a very dejected look; some groups appeared so ill fed that their bones seemed as if ready to penetrate the skin". Every year, about 40,000-50,000 slaves were taken to Zanzibar. About a third went to work on clove and coconut plantations of Zanzibar and Pemba while the rest were exported to Persia, Arabia, the Ottoman Empire and Egypt. Conditions on the plantations were so harsh that about 30% of the male slaves died every year, thus necessitating the need to import another batch of slaves. The Omani Arabs who ruled Zanzibar had in the words of the American diplomat Donald Petterson a "culture of violence" where brute force was the preferred solution to problems and outlandish cruelty was a virtue. The ruling al-Busaid family was characterized by fratricidal quarrels as it was common for brother to murder brother, and this was typical of the Arab aristocracy, where it was acceptable for family members to murder one another to gain land, wealth, titles and slaves. Visitors to Zanzibar often mentioned the "shocking brutality" which the Arab masters treated their African slaves, who were so cowed into submission that there was never a slave revolt attempted on Zanzibar. The cruelty which the Arab masters treated their black slaves left behind a legacy of hate, which exploded in the revolution of 1964.
The Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a large portion of the African Great Lakes Coast, known as Zanj, as well as trading routes extending much further across the continent, as far as Kindu on the Congo River. In November 1886, a German-British border commission established the Zanj as a ten-nautical mile (19 km) wide strip along most of the coast of the African Great Lakes, stretching from Cape Delgado (now in Mozambique) to Kipini (now in Kenya), including Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, and several offshore Indian Ocean islands. However, from 1887 to 1892, all of these mainland possessions were lost to the colonial powers of the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy, with Britain gaining control of Mombasa in 1963.
In the late 1800s, the Omani Sultan of Zanzibar also briefly claimed to control Mogadishu in the Horn and southern Somalia. However, power on the ground remained in the hands of the powerful Somali kingdom called Geledi Sultanate (which, also holding sway over the Jubba River and Shebelle region in Somalia's interior, was at its zenith). In 1892, Geledi ruler: Osman Ahmed leased the city to Italy. The Italians eventually purchased the executive rights in 1905, and made Mogadishu the capital of the newly established Italian Somaliland.
Zanzibar was famous worldwide for its spices and its slaves. During the 19th century, Zanzibar was known all over the world in the words of Petterson as: "A fabled land of spices, a vile center of slavery, a place of origins of expeditions into the vast, mysterious continent, the island was all these things during its heyday in the last half of the 19th century. It was the Africa Great Lakes' main slave-trading port, and in the 19th century as many as 50,000 slaves were passing through the slave markets of Zanzibar each year. (David Livingstone estimated that 80,000 Africans died each year before ever reaching the island.) Tippu Tip was the most notorious slaver, under several sultans, and also a trader, plantation owner and governor. Zanzibar's spices attracted ships from as far away as the United States, which established a consulate in 1837. The United Kingdom's early interest in Zanzibar was motivated by both commerce and the determination to end the slave trade. In 1822, the British signed the first of a series of treaties with Sultan Said to curb this trade, but not until 1876 was the sale of slaves finally prohibited. Under strong British pressure, the slave trade was officially abolished in 1876, but slavery itself remained legal in Zanzibar until 1897.
Zanzibar had the distinction of having the first steam locomotive in the African Great Lakes, when Sultan Bargash bin Said ordered a tiny 0-4-0 tank engine to haul his regal carriage from town to his summer palace at Chukwani. One of the most famous palaces built by the Sultans were the House of Wonders, which is today one of Zanzibar's most popular tourist attractions.
British influence and rule.
The British Empire gradually took over; the relationship was formalized by the 1890 Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty, in which Germany pledged, among other things, not to interfere with British interests in Zanzibar. This treaty made Zanzibar and Pemba a British protectorate (not colony), and the Caprivi Strip (in what is now Namibia) part of German South West Africa. British rule through a sultan (vizier) remained largely unchanged.
The death of Hamad bin Thuwaini on 25 August 1896 saw the Khalid bin Bargash, eldest son of the second sultan, Barghash ibn Sa'id, take over the palace and declare himself the new ruler. This was contrary to the wishes of the British government, which favoured Hamoud bin Mohammed. This led to a showdown, later called the Anglo-Zanzibar War, on the morning of 27 August, when ships of the Royal Navy destroyed the Beit al Hukum Palace, having given Khalid a one-hour ultimatum to leave. He refused, and at 9 am the ships opened fire. Khalid's troops returned fire and he fled to the German consulate. A cease fire was declared 45 minutes after the action had begun, giving the bombardment the title of The Shortest War in History. Hamoud was declared the new ruler and peace was restored once more. Acquiescing to British demands, he brought an end in 1897 to Zanzibar's role as a centre for the centuries-old eastern slave trade by banning slavery and freeing the slaves, compensating their owners. Hamoud's son and heir apparent, Ali, was educated in Britain.
From 1913 until independence in 1963, the British appointed their own residents (essentially governors). One of the more appreciated reforms brought in by the British were the establishment of a proper sewer, garbage disposal system and burial system so that the beaches of Zanzibar reeked no more of bodies, excrement and garbage, finally eliminating the foul smell of Stone Town, which had repulsed so many Western visitors.
Independence and revolution.
On 10 December 1963, Zanzibar received its independence from the United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy under the Sultan. This state of affairs was short-lived, as the Sultan and the democratically elected government were overthrown on 12 January 1964 in the Zanzibar Revolution led by John Okello, a Ugandan citizen who organized and led the revolution with his followers on the island. Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume was named president of the newly created People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba. Several thousand ethnic Arab (5,000-12,000 Zanzibaris of Arabic descent) and Indian civilians were murdered and thousands more detained or expelled, their property either confiscated or destroyed. The film "Africa Addio" documents the violence and massacre of unarmed ethnic Arab civilians.
The revolutionary government nationalized the local operations of the two foreign banks in Zanzibar, Standard Bank and National and Grindlays Bank. These nationalized operations may have provided the foundation for the newly created Peoples Bank of Zanzibar. Jetha Lila, the one locally owned bank in Zanzibar, closed. It was owned by Indians and although the revolutionary government of Zanzibar urged it to continue functioning, the loss of its customer base as Indians left the island made it impossible to continue.
One of the main impacts of the revolution in Zanzibar was to break the power of the Arab/Asian ruling class, who had held it for around 200 years. Despite the merger with Tanganyika, Zanzibar retained a Revolutionary Council and House of Representatives which was, until 1992, run on a one-party system and has power over domestic matters. The domestic government is led by the President of Zanzibar, Karume being the first holder of this office. This government used the success of the revolution to implement reforms across the island. Many of these involved the removal of power from Arabs. The Zanzibar civil service, for example, became an almost entirely African organisation, and land was redistributed from Arabs to Africans. The revolutionary government also instituted social reforms such as free healthcare and opening up the education system to African students (who had occupied only 12% of secondary school places before the revolution).
The government sought help from the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and P. R. China for funding for several projects and military advice. The failure of several GDR-led projects including the New Zanzibar Project, a 1968 urban redevelopment scheme to provide new apartments for all Zanzibaris, led to Zanzibar focussing on Chinese aid. The post-revolution Zanzibar government was accused of draconian controls on personal freedoms and travel and exercised nepotism in appointments to political and industrial offices, the new Tanzanian government being powerless to intervene. Dissatisfaction with the government came to a head with the assassination of Karume on 7 April 1972, which was followed by weeks of fighting between pro and anti-government forces. A multi-party system was eventually established in 1992, but Zanzibar remains dogged by allegations of corruption and vote-rigging, though the 2010 general election was seen to be a considerable improvement.
The revolution itself remains an event of interest for Zanzibaris and academics. Historians have analysed the revolution as having a racial and a social basis with some stating that the African revolutionaries represent the proletariat rebelling against the ruling and trading classes, represented by the Arabs and South Asians. Others discount this theory and present it as a racial revolution that was exacerbated by economic disparity between races.
Within Zanzibar, the revolution is a key cultural event, marked by the release of 545 prisoners on its tenth anniversary and by a military parade on its 40th. Zanzibar Revolution Day has been designated as a public holiday by the government of Tanzania; it is celebrated on 12 January each year.
Union with Tanganyika.
On 26 April 1964, the mainland colony of Tanganyika united with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar; this lengthy name was compressed into a portmanteau, the United Republic of Tanzania, on 29 October 1964. After unification, local affairs were controlled by President Abeid Amani Karume, while foreign affairs were handled by the United Republic in Dar es Salaam. Zanzibar remains a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania.
The autonomous status of Zanzibar is viewed as comparable to Hong Kong as suggested by some scholars, and being recognized as the "African Hong Kong".
The Zanzibar House of Representatives was established in 1980. Prior to this, the Revolutionary Council held both the executive and legislative functions for 16 years following the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964.
21st century.
There are many political parties in Zanzibar, but the most popular parties are the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the Civic United Front (CUF). Since the early 1990s, the politics of the archipelago have been marked by repeated clashes between these two parties.
The results of the past elections held under the multiparty system are as follows:
Contested elections in October 2000 led to a massacre on 27 January 2001 when, according to Human Rights Watch, the army and police shot into crowds of protestors, killing at least 35 and wounding more than 600. Those forces, accompanied by ruling party officials and militias, also went on a house-to-house rampage, indiscriminately arresting, beating, and sexually abusing residents. Approximately 2,000 temporarily fled to Kenya.
Violence erupted again after another contested election on 31 October 2005, with the CUF claiming that its rightful victory had been stolen from it. Nine people were killed.
Following 2005, negotiations between the two parties aiming at the long-term resolution of the tensions and a power-sharing accord took place, but they suffered repeated setbacks. The most notable of these took place in April 2008, when the CUF walked away from the negotiating table following a CCM call for a referendum to approve of what had been presented as a done deal on the power-sharing agreement.
In November 2009, the then-president of Zanzibar, Amani Abeid Karume, met with CUF secretary-general Seif Sharif Hamad at the State House to discuss how to save Zanzibar from future political turmoil and to end the animosity between them. This move was welcomed by many, including the United States. It was the first time since the multi-party system was introduced in Zanzibar that the CUF agreed to recognize Karume as the legitimate president of Zanzibar.
A proposal to amend Zanzibar's constitution to allow rival parties to form governments of national unity was adopted by 66.2 percent of voters on 31 July 2010.
Nowadays,The Alliance for Change and Transparency-Wazalendois (ACT-Wazalendo) is considered the main opposition political party of semi-autonomous Zanzibar. The constitution of Zanzibar requires the party that comes in second in the polls to join a coalition with the winning party. ACT-Wazalendo joined a coalition government with the islands’ ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi in December 2020 after Zanzibar disputed elections.
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