Summary

Hamad bin Muhammad al-Murjabi, usually known by his nickname Tippu Tip, was an ivory and slave trader based in Zanzibar, who in the second half of the 19th century, built up wide influence and a strong trading empire in the “Arab Zone” west of Lake Tanganyika. He accompanied and assisted a number of European explorers in the region and was recruited by Leopold II, king of the Belgians, to be governor of Stanley Falls, supervising the area that became the eastern province of the Congo Free State. He was contracted by Stanley to supply men and guns for the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition but had a falling out with him when the expedition ran into difficulties. In his closing years, having accumulated wealth from his ivory trading, he lived in comfort in Zanzibar but had to watch from the sidelines in retirement, as the sultan was deprived of his mainland possessions by the British and the Germans, Zanzibar itself became a British protectorate, and the Arabs were ejected from their Zone by the acquisitive (Belgian) Congo Free State.

Tippu Tip’s life covered a period witnessing huge changes in East and Central Africa, as well as touching on aspects of East African and Indian ocean trading (notably, the ivory, slave, and cloves trades), and of exploration and discovery.