True Colours of “Slavers”: The Reality of the Slave Trade in the Nineteenth-Century Western Part of the Indian Ocean

We have already various studies discussing the size or the route of the Indian Ocean slave trade. However, not many studies have investigated yet the actual conditions of slave trade in this region. The aim of this paper is to reveal this and clarify the true characters of the people who are often called “slaver” in this region by various contemporary observers and also modern scholars. In other words, this paper examines experiences of slave trade while focusing on traders.For this purpose, this paper examines two cases. One is so called “Northern Arabs,” who were traders from Oman coast and they are frequently pointed out as the typical “slavers” in the western part of the Indian Ocean. In fact, they engaged this trade; however, the number of slaves conveyed on each ship is relatively smaller than the number expected from the term “slaver”. Moreover, from various sources, it is clarified that they conveyed staple food-stuffs or construction materials which are quite essential aspects of the trade between east African coast and gulf region. Second example will be brought from the accounts taken from Indian young females enslaved and released around the mid-nineteenth century. From these accounts, it is clearly understood that so various actors played roles in their transport. Thus, this paper does not only reveal the true colours of “slavers,” but also takes us to slave trade and slavery issue into new stage.