Omertà in Zanzibar. A Catalan slave trader in the Indian Ocean, between slave trade and imperial dynamics

  • Gustau Nerín University of Barcelona
Keywords: Keywords Bonaventura Mas i Calzada, Zanzibar, slave trade, Vidal Frères, imperialism
Agencies: Este artículo ha sido realizado en el marco del proyecto «Memoria y lugares de memoria de la esclavitud y el comercio de esclavos en la España contemporánea» (PID2019-105204GB-I00)

Abstract

Between 1856 and 1860, Bonaventura Mas i Calzada, captain of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, had been trafficking slaves in Zanzibar on behalf of Vidal Frères, the Marseille company of his cousin Antoni Vidal. Yet, thanks to his connections with France and Spain, he managed to consolidate his position in a Zanzibar that was connected with the slave world of La Réunion but also with that of Cuba, in the last throes of the Atlantic trade. Through the complex relationship between Mas and the Arab slave trader Salim Jubran, the governor of Lamu, and the British and French consuls, this article aims to show how Spanish businessmen, in the second half of the 19th century, managed to establish themselves in areas that were still not colonized, but that were experiencing very intense imperial dynamics. Vidal Frères got a significant presence in a rapidly expanding Zanzibar, at a time when East Africa was still dominated by the Omani aristocracy, but was increasingly linked to global trade.

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Published
2023-06-20
How to Cite
Nerín, G. (2023). Omertà in Zanzibar. A Catalan slave trader in the Indian Ocean, between slave trade and imperial dynamics. Historia Y Política, 49, 153-183. https://doi.org/10.18042/hp.49.06