エピソード

  • The Busaidi Dynasty's Quiet Bookkeeper: How Jairam Sewji Shaped Zanzibar

    The Busaidi Dynasty's Quiet Bookkeeper: How Jairam Sewji Shaped Zanzibar
    2026/06/08
    This episode turns the spotlight on Jairam Sewji, the Gujarati Hindu merchant who effectively ran Zanzibar's economy from the 1830s to the 1870s. As the head of the customs farm, Sewji managed the sultanate's revenue, controlled the flow of ivory, cloves, and enslaved people, and built the stone mansions that still line Stone Town. Lucas and Luna explore how a man who never held a political title became the real power behind the Busaidi throne — brokering loans, negotiating with British consuls, and quietly shaping the island's transformation into an Indian Ocean trading hub. They discuss Sewji's partnership with Sultan Said bin Sultan, his rivalry with Tharia Topan, and the family networks that stretched from Zanzibar to Kutch. Along the way, they touch on the 1859 succession crisis, the abolition of the slave trade, and the slow decline of the customs farm system. A story of money, influence, and the invisible hands that built an empire. #JairamSewji #Zanzibar #BusaidiDynasty #CustomsFarm #IndianOceanTrade #GujaratiMerchants #StoneTown #SultanSaidBinSultan #ThariaTopan #Kutch #Bhatia #Khoja #CloveTrade #IvoryTrade #SlaveTrade #Abolition #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
    続きを読む 一部表示
    8 分
  • The Slave Markets of Zanzibar: Life Under the Sultanate

    The Slave Markets of Zanzibar: Life Under the Sultanate
    2026/06/07
    In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the daily reality of Zanzibar's slave markets, focusing on the 19th century when the island was the epicenter of East African slave trade. They discuss the infamous Stone Town market, where captives from the interior were auctioned, the role of Indian financiers like Jairam Sewji, and the British abolitionist pressure that led to the Moresby Treaty of 1822 and the Frere Treaty of 1873. Lucas explains the hierarchy of enslaved people, from field hands on clove shambas to domestic servants in Omani palaces, and describes the harrowing journey from the mainland via Bagamoyo. The episode also covers the rise of the watoro (runaway communities) and the eventual closure of the market under Sultan Barghash. A nuanced look at a painful history that shaped modern Zanzibar. #Zanzibar #SlaveTrade #StoneTown #BarghashBinSaid #JairamSewji #MoresbyTreaty #FrereTreaty #Watoro #CloveShambas #Bagamoyo #IndianOceanHistory #EastAfricanHistory #OmaniEmpire #Busaidi #Abolition #19thCentury #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
    続きを読む 一部表示
    7 分
  • Zanzibar's 1890 Customs Farm: How a Gujarati Merchant Ran the Sultanate

    Zanzibar's 1890 Customs Farm: How a Gujarati Merchant Ran the Sultanate
    2026/06/07
    In 1890, as Zanzibar's sovereignty crumbled under European pressure, the collection of its customs duties was handed to a single Gujarati merchant: Nasser bin Juma. This episode traces how the 'customs farm' system — a tax auction won by private Indian financiers — effectively outsourced the sultanate's fiscal policy for decades. We follow Nasser's rise from a Khoja trader in Stone Town to the man who controlled Zanzibar's ports, and explore how this arrangement drained revenue, fueled corruption, and hastened British control. Along the way, we meet the competing Bhatia and Khoja merchant networks, the vanishing clove trade, and the quiet crisis of a state that didn't collect its own taxes. #Zanzibar #CustomsFarm #NasserBinJuma #KhojaMerchants #GujaratiDiaspora #StoneTown #SultanAliBinSaid #BritishProtectorate #CloveTrade #TaxFarming #IndianOcean #19thCentury #SwahiliCoast #ColonialEconomy #Bhatia #JairamSewji #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
    続きを読む 一部表示
    6 分
  • The Zanzibar Porters Who Crossed Africa

    The Zanzibar Porters Who Crossed Africa
    2026/06/06
    In this episode of The History of Zanzibar, Lucas and Luna explore the forgotten world of the Nyamwezi porters—the men who carried ivory, cloth, and guns across the interior of East Africa to supply Zanzibar's markets. They trace the overland routes from the Swahili coast to Lake Tanganyika, describe the brutal economics of porterage (where a porter might carry 60 pounds for months only to earn a few yards of cloth), and explain how Zanzibar-based Indian merchants like Jairam Sewji and Tharia Topan financed these caravans. The episode also covers the role of Tabora as a staging post, the Nyamwezi chief Fundikira, and the impact of the porters' labor on both the slave trade and the ivory trade. Along the way, Lucas and Luna discuss the cultural exchanges that happened in caravan towns, where Swahili spread inland and inland goods reached the coast. It's a nuanced look at the human engine behind Zanzibar's commercial empire. #Nyamwezi #Zanzibar #Porterage #IvoryTrade #SlaveTrade #Tabora #LakeTanganyika #JairamSewji #ThariaTopan #Fundikira #SwahiliCoast #Caravan #EastAfrica #IndianOcean #19thCentury #History #FexingoHistory #ColonialTrade Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
    続きを読む 一部表示
    7 分
  • Princess Salme: Zanzibar Royalty in Exile

    Princess Salme: Zanzibar Royalty in Exile
    2026/06/06
    In 1866, Princess Salme of Zanzibar — a daughter of Sultan Said bin Sultan and a Circassian slave — fled the island under cover of darkness, pregnant with the child of a German merchant. She left behind a world of clove plantations, Indian Ocean dhows, and Busaidi palace intrigue for a life of exile in Hamburg and later Berlin. This episode traces her extraordinary journey from Stone Town to Europe, her conversion to Christianity, her marriage to Heinrich Ruete, and the memoir she wrote decades later — 'Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar' — that remains one of the only first-person accounts of 19th-century Swahili court life. We talk about what her story reveals about the fluid boundaries of race, status, and gender in Zanzibar's Indian Ocean world, and how her writings challenge colonial narratives. Along the way, we explore the 1859 succession crisis that tore her family apart, her brother Barghash's rise to power, and the impossible choices faced by a woman who belonged neither to Europe nor to the Busaidi dynasty by the time of her death in 1924. #PrincessSalme #EmilyRuete #ZanzibarHistory #BusaidiDynasty #IndianOceanWorld #SwahiliCoast #SaidbinSultan #BarghashbinSaid #Memoir #19thCentury #Exile #GermanEastAfrica #WomensHistory #Slavery #Conversion #StoneTown #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
    続きを読む 一部表示
    8 分
  • Zanzibar's 1859 Succession Crisis and the Busaidi Civil War

    Zanzibar's 1859 Succession Crisis and the Busaidi Civil War
    2026/06/05
    In 1859, the death of Sultan Said bin Sultan triggered a bitter succession war between his sons Majid and Barghash that nearly tore the Omani Empire apart. This episode unpacks the year-long conflict, the British naval intervention, and the lasting split between Oman and Zanzibar. We explore the roles of Princess Salme, who defied her brothers and fled to Aden, and the Indian financiers who bankrolled both sides. Listen for the story of the HMS Punjabi, the bombardment of Mtoni Palace, and how this crisis reshaped Indian Ocean power. #Zanzibar #Busaidi #SultanSaid #MajidbinSaid #BarghashbinSaid #PrincessSalme #Oman #IndianOcean #1859 #SuccessionCrisis #HMSPunjabi #MtoniPalace #StoneTown #Watoro #BritishEmpire #History #FexingoHistory #CivilWar Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
    続きを読む 一部表示
    8 分
  • Zanzibar's Indian Ocean Copper Revolution of 1882

    Zanzibar's Indian Ocean Copper Revolution of 1882
    2026/06/05
    In 1882, Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar launched a bold monetary experiment: minting his own copper pysa coins to replace the chaotic mix of currencies flooding his island. This episode unpacks how the Sultan, advised by his Indian merchant allies Jairam Sewji and Tharia Topan, contracted the Bombay Mint to strike millions of copper coins—each featuring the Sultan's name in Arabic script and a regnal year. We trace the coins' journey from Bombay's dies to Stone Town's markets, where they clinked alongside Maria Theresa thalers and Indian rupees. But the pysa wasn't just economic reform; it was a statement of sovereignty in an era of creeping European influence. Why did Barghash feel the need to mint his own money? How did Indian merchants—especially the Khoja and Bhatia communities—drive the project? And why did the pysa ultimately fail to unify Zanzibar's economy? This is the story of a copper coin that tried to bind an Indian Ocean empire. #Zanzibar #SultanBarghash #CopperCoin #Pysa #IndianOcean #BombayMint #JairamSewji #ThariaTopan #StoneTown #MariaTheresaThaler #MonetaryHistory #Sovereignty #Khoja #Bhatia #19thCentury #EconomicHistory #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
    続きを読む 一部表示
    5 分
  • The Zanzibar Porters Who Crossed Africa

    The Zanzibar Porters Who Crossed Africa
    2026/06/04
    In this episode, Lucas and Luna follow the footsteps of the Zanzibar-based porters who, from the 1820s to the 1880s, carried ivory, cloth, and guns across the African interior. They focus on the Nyamwezi porters from what is now Tanzania, who organized themselves into caravans of hundreds, traveling thousands of miles from the Great Lakes to the coast. The episode explores the economics of the caravan trade—how porters were paid, fed, and managed—and the cultural exchanges they enabled. It also looks at the role of Zanzibar's Indian financiers, like Jairam Sewji and Tharia Topan, who supplied the trade goods, and the British consul John Kirk's attempts to regulate it. The episode highlights the porters' skill, endurance, and the harsh conditions they faced, including disease, hunger, and violence. It ends with the decline of the caravan system as railways and European colonial rule reshaped East Africa. #Nyamwezi #Zanzibar #CaravanTrade #Ivory #IndianOceanHistory #EastAfrica #SultanBarghash #ThariaTopan #JairamSewji #JohnKirk #SwahiliCoast #AfricanPorters #19thCentury #TradeRoutes #AfricanHistory #Slavery #Colonialism #History Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
    続きを読む 一部表示
    9 分