Tippu Tip: An Empire-Building Slave Trader in the Congo

Abstract

The conquest of African territories and the establishment of empires are most often associated with the European colonisers and their perceptions of Africa, both in scholarly literature and popular culture. Contrary to this, the article discusses the construction of the empire of Tippu Tip, a Zanzibari slave trader, focusing on how he secured an institutionalised colonial position by ceding a vast territory to Belgium, which raised the Zanzibari trader to the status of a respected citizen, whose memoirs represent an indispensable source for understanding the period.