Buying Time. Thomas F. McDow
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EXILE, 1859 TO 1862
In early 1859, while Thuwayni schemed his invasion of Zanzibar, Barghash and the Harthi chiefs conspired to overthrown Majid. The cloak and dagger maneuvers, related in breathless detail by a surprising narrator, were not successful and resulted in a scattering of the conspirators into exile, from the ivory depots of central Africa to cosmopolitan, industrial Bombay. Barghash’s machination aligned with the plot in Muscat, attracted allies of questionable character, and split the royal family. In 1859, Barghash was only in his early twenties and aside from some loyal young relatives, did not have a natural base of support in Zanzibar. He was more client than patron. The British consul called him “a morose discontented man.”32 The consul noted in 1858 that, while Barghash had few followers in Zanzibar, his alliance with Thuwayni put him among the leaders of a group in Muscat that planned to dispossess Majid.33 In these circumstances, with few funds of his own to attract allies, Barghash encouraged others to bet on the future, promising influential positions when his plot succeeded. He invited them to meetings, held in the darkest part of the night, based on when the moon was rising or setting.34
These meetings, according to the memoirs of Salme bint Said, Barghash’s younger sister, were steeped in secrecy, and the conspiracy played out with delicious intrigues. Salme, who had a falling out with Barghash decades later, lends a suspenseful narration to the events of the rebellion. At fifteen years of age she was the youngest female member of the conspiracy and served as the “secretary-general” of the alliance, due, in part, to her literacy, unusual for this era.35 She supervised correspondence with the chiefs and ordered the bullets, powder, and muskets that were to be used in the rebellion.36
Given Barghash’s approach, it is not surprising that the brewing rebellion attracted diverse opportunists. People that Salme considered more reputable—including the majority of her half-siblings—distanced themselves from Barghash’s faction. The followers were “ambitious and important people who feel grieved and overlooked,” seeking revenge for perceived injustices. “Dozens of discontented saw themselves already as Barghash’s ministers or in other high places; hundreds reckoned undoubtedly with property and titles, of which they would not even have dreamed before.” These strivers came from far and wide to join the conspiracy, “apparently to serve Barghash, but in reality to serve themselves.” In hindsight, Salme noted that, when building the coalition of rebels, “the most miserable were also received with open arms.”37
Yet, as the conspiracy grew, secrecy was more difficult to maintain. Hotheaded Barghash no longer feigned loyalty to his brother the sultan. He stopped attending Majid’s regular baraza (court and public reception), and his imprudent behavior raised suspicions across society. Majid took action to block the conspiracy in Oman and in Zanzibar. He sent MT$30,000, two large iron guns, and two hundred barrels of gunpowder to Turki in Suhar so that Turki could challenge Thuwayni in Oman.38 In Zanzibar, before the conspirators could finalize their rebellion, Majid put Barghash under house arrest, essentially laying a siege against his house. Most houses in Zanzibar did not have wells, and a lack of fresh water would have forced concessions from Barghash. But the tempestuous young lord communicated with his sisters from the high balconies on the narrow lanes of Zanzibar, and one sister sewed a canvas hose to deliver freshwater surreptitiously.
Meanwhile, Salme corresponded with the Harthi leaders, key confederates of the plotters who had escaped house arrest. Salme does not name “the influential, energetic chief” of the al-Harthi with whom she cooperated, but she notes that he remained free to recruit soldiers to the rebellion.39 While this possibly could have been Salih bin Ali, a young man of the sheikhly line of the Harthi, who was in Zanzibar at the time, it is more likely, that her correspondent was Abdullah bin Salim al-Harthi. Abdullah bin Salim was one of Zanzibar’s wealthiest men, with immense holdings of both land and ships and command of a retinue of 1,500 armed slaves. Majid had tried to win Abdullah bin Salim’s loyalty by paying him an annual allowance of $1,200 and permitting him to import his goods duty-free.40 Abdullah bin Salim, however, chose Barghash over Majid, and brought most of the Harthi with him.
With Barghash and his close allies under house arrest, the conspirators altered and accelerated their plan. They hatched a scheme to spring Barghash from house arrest to rendezvous with the conspirators on a plantation in the countryside. The guards at Barghash’s house turned back the women when they arrived, but Salme and her sister Khole stepped forward and addressed the soldiers and their commanding officer directly. These elite women conversing with nonkin “conflicted with customs and usages,” and the men were, in their bewilderment, unable to formulate a reply. “When they regained their composure a little,” she reported, “they launched forth in so many excuses that I, conscious of our evil intentions, felt deeply ashamed.” The two women insisted, indignantly, that they should be able to visit their brothers. The guards—armed with muskets and fixed bayonets—relented.41
Inside the house, the women had to convince their proud brother of their plan: to dress him like a woman and to smuggle him out of the house. He initially resisted on grounds of masculinity.42 He agreed, however, armed himself, and was wrapped in a large, black silken shawl with a gold border. Only his eyes were uncovered. His twelve-year-old brother Abdulaziz bin Said did the same. The tallest women walked beside the men and they exited nonchalantly, engaging in idle chatter. To their surprise and relief, the guards moved aside respectfully.43 The party of women moved carefully to the outskirts of the city, and then they ran as fast as they could through the countryside, “totally unconcerned” about their fine urban dress and gold embroidered slippers. At the meeting point, Barghash and Abdulaziz proceeded to the plantation headquarters, and Salme and the other women slipped back to town.
Despite the Harthi strength and supporters who flocked to Barghash’s side, Majid’s forces—reportedly numbering in the thousands—advanced on the semifortified plantation. They pummeled the rebels. Hundreds of people were killed, although Barghash and the other leaders escaped back to town. Barghash barricaded himself and his closest supporters in his house and refused to negotiate. In response, Majid and Rigby, the British Consul, summoned a troop of Royal Marines from the harbor. The British force launched an assault on Barghash’s house, briefly turning the neighborhood into an urban war zone. As bullets whizzed by, Salme’s household members ran for cover, some falling into prayer amid the confusion.44 When Barghash surrendered, his sister Khole ran to Rigby’s house to report the news. He was not at home, but the people in Barghash’s house were calling out for peace, so the marines stopped firing. The rebellion had been defeated before Thuwayni’s forces could arrive from Muscat.
Although Majid agreed to Barghash’s exile, he did not treat him as harshly as their father had treated their brother Hilal. Barghash received a monthly allowance of 700 crowns after the rebellion, and Majid asked the customs master, Ladha Damji, to pay Barghash a total of 14,000 crowns, one part (4,000 crowns) as his inheritance and the balance (10,000) to support him in exile.45 On his way into exile in Bombay aboard the steamer H.M.S. Assaye, Barghash stopped briefly in Muscat.46 Whether he saw Thuwayni, whose naval support may have turned the battle against Majid, is unclear. Their father’s era of mobile governance had ended, but the ambit of the western Indian Ocean expanded. As a result of the uprising and British intervention, one son of Said who was not allowed to move (Thuwayni) and another who was forced across the Indian Ocean to Bombay (Barghash). Meanwhile, Barghash’s array of followers and Harthi allies fled to the African mainland and settled in the new towns of the caravan trails. The Harthi ringleaders were imprisoned in Lamu where they died under suspicious circumstances.47 The defeat of Barghash’s rebellion further enhanced the separation of Muscat and Zanzibar and marked growing British influence. Majid retained control of Zanzibar, Thuwayni held Muscat, and Barghash, like his brother Hilal before him, was exiled.
Barghash lived in Bombay for two years. This modernizing, industrial city of the mid-nineteenth century was what historian Nile Green has called “the cosmopolis of the Indian Ocean.” 48 With a population of more than five hundred thousand (about a fifth of whom were Muslim), the city was experiencing a second wave of urbanization. A professional class of city planners emerged who oversaw elaborate public works. In early 1860, Barghash wrote a beseeching letter to Lord Elphinstone,