Tippu Tip

Tippu Tip
Born
Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi

c. 1832
DiedJune 14, 1905 (aged 73)
Other namesTippu Tib
Occupation(s)Slave trader, ivory merchant, explorer, governor
ChildrenSefu bin Hamid
Signature
Portrait of Tippu Tip, House of Wonders Museum, Stone Town, Zanzibar.

Tippu Tip, or Tippu Tib (c. 1832 – June 14, 1905), real name Ḥamad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jumʿah ibn Rajab ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al Murjabī (Arabic: حمد بن محمد بن جمعة بن رجب بن محمد بن سعيد المرجبي), was an Afro-Omani ivory and slave owner and trader, explorer, governor and plantation owner. He worked for a succession of sultans of Zanzibar and was the Sultan of Uterera, a short-lived state in Kasongo, Maniema ruled by himself and his son Sefu who was an emir of the local WaManyema.

Tippu Tip traded in slaves for Zanzibar's clove plantations. As part of the large and lucrative trade, he led many trading expeditions into Central Africa, constructing profitable trading posts deep into the Congo Basin region and thus becoming the best-known slave trader in Africa, supplying much of the world with enslaved Africans.

He also bought ivory from WaManyema suppliers in Kasongo, the capital of the Sultanate of Utetera and resold it at coastal ports.


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