Seyyid Khalid bin Barghash bin Said Sultan for Three Days

Seyyid Khalid bin Barghash bin Said Sultan for Three Days Seyyid Khalid bin Barghash was the second and only surviving son of Sultan Barghash of Zanzibar. He was born in Zanzibar in 1876 and died in Mombasa in 1927. He was a grandson of the first Sultan of Zanzibar, Seyyid Said bin Sultan, who ruled over much of East Africa as well as Muscat and Oman from 1804 -1856, and founded the present day Al Said Royal House of Oman. Khalid’s mother was a Circassian slave girl, from Southern Russia, one of six female slaves purchased by Sultan Barghash in Egypt on his way back from Europe in 1875. Sultan Barghash loved his son and made him his heir. In 1883 he offered to place Zanzibar and all his territories under British protection in return for a guarantee that his young son, then aged seven, would be appointed Sultan after his death. The British Consul Sir John Kirk sent the proposal to Whitehall, but it was rejected. The Gladstone administration had no interest in taking on more responsibilities - but had this offer been accepted, subsequent events would have taken a different course. Sultan Barghash died in 1888, when Khalid was aged just twelve. An aunt, one of the late Sultan’s many sisters took the young boy under her wing. Her name was Bi Bi Seyyida Zem Zem bint Said and like Sultan Barghash her mother had been an Ethiopian suri, or secondary wife. She was described as a practical woman, not given to extravagance and interested in farming. She married rather late in life a distant cousin and had no children of her own. It is not known what happened to Khalid’s birth mother. The final years of Sultan Barghash’s rule had been disastrous for Zanzibar as the main European nations vied for influence and colonies in East Africa and forced the hapless Sultan to hand over his territories to them. By 1890 the entire region had been divided up and put under European control. Zanzibar became a British Protectorate; Germany ruled in Tanzania; Kenya and Uganda was under British administration; the Belgians claimed the Congo, and the Italians Somalia. The Portuguese in Mozambique gained extra land by pushing their borders further north, while the French consolidated their hold of the valuable sugar islands of Madagascar and the Comoros. The Sultan in Zanzibar became a puppet prince, reliant on the good will of a foreign power for his position. After the death of Sultan Barghash two younger brothers, Khalifa I and then Ali I ruled briefly. In 1893 Khalid thought his turn had come to be sultan, when the last of his uncles died. But the British had other ideas. Their preferred candidate was Hamed bin Thuwein, the son of an elder brother of Sultan Barghash. He was aged about forty and after a chequered career had settled down in Zanzibar. He seemed responsibly minded and pro-British. Many in Zanzibar thought the young prince Khalid was the rightful heir to the Sultanate and while Sultan Ali bin Said lay dying the courtiers and officials argued over who should rule next. The British Consul, Gerald Portal, dismissed Khalid as too young and unsuitable. When asked to describe his character to the Earl of Rosebery at the Foreign Office in London, he wrote that he was a truculent youth with all the temper and cruelty of his father but without his intelligence. He is of a very sullen and very obstinate temperament, illiterate in European languages and inordinately proud. If he were Sultan he would not only be extremely difficult to control but would very likely give rise to grave scandals by reason of acts of cruelty and oppression. The British definitely did not want him! Their candidate, Hamed bin Thuwein was declared Sultan. The 16 year old prince Khalid was bitterly disappointed and tried to stage a coup. He seized the palace, when one of the ladies of the palace harem opened the back door and let him in. But General Lloyd Mathews (Chief Minister and Commander of the Sultan’s forces) had been pre-warned and was prepared for trouble. A detachment of marines marched into the palace square with a machine-gun, which was trained on the palace. The young prince was ordered to surrender, which he did. He accepted his defeat and was put under house arrest. The attempted coup was not taken seriously and within two days he was restored to his place in Sultan Hamed’s court. His next chance came in August 1896, when Sultan Hamed bin Thuwein died. Prince Khalid was now aged 20. This time he was better prepared and had been plotting behind the scenes waiting for his opportunity. He had gathered about him a large group of supporters. The German faction backed his claim and his aunt Bi Bi Sayyida Zem Zem urged him to seize the moment. But the British had not changed their opinion of him. Their favoured candidate was another of his cousins, Sayyid Hamoud bin Mohammed bin Said, a quiet and studious man, and the son of yet another of Barghash’s elder brothers. Sultan Hamed bin Thuwein died suddenly on August 25th, and Khalid moved quickly. At 4.pm that same day he unilaterally declared himself Sultan and occupied the palace. To begin with it seemed that fortune smiled upon him. The senior British Consul, Arthur Hardinge, was on home leave, leaving a young and inexperienced assistant, Basil Cave, in charge. Half of the British fleet was in Mombasa dealing with the aftermath of the Mazrui uprising. Seyyid Khalid fired the royal salute and the palace guns replied and up went the red flag of Zanzibar on all the houses and foreign consulates to proclaim the new Sultan. The British announced that Khalid was not the rightful heir and the flags were lowered again to half-mast (a sign of mourning). Zanzibar waited in suspense. General Lloyd Mathews troops hurriedly assembled and two British warships at anchor in the harbour HMS Philomel and HMS Thrush ferried marines and sailors to join the soldiers ashore, while others were sent to guard the British consulate. HMS Sparrow, a gunboat, took up a position opposite the palace. By sunset Seyyid Khalid had assembled over 2,500 armed men and deployed his artillery which consisted of two 12-pounder guns, one Gatling gun and one ancient Portuguese bronze cannon - vintage 1658. Basil Cave acting on behalf of the British Consul sent a message to Seyyid Khalid asking him to leave the palace. He refused to do so. The Foreign Office, in reply to an urgent telegraph for instructions on what to do in such a situation, gave the assistant Consul the not very helpful advice of ‘free leave to do as you think best’. The British then ceased all communication. Khalid contacted the French, American and German consuls to seek their mediation, but all refused. He asked the Americans to telegraph the following message to the British Queen: ‘Queen Victoria, London. Sultan Hamed bin Thwen bin Said is dead. I have succeeded to throne of my forefathers. I hope friendly relations will continue as before. Seyyid Khalid bin Bargash bin Said. But the American Consul replied that he was unable to send the message because Her Majesty’s Government had not verified the accession. He did not send the message. The following morning Rear Admiral Rawson arrived from Mombasa in his flagship, the cruiser HMS St George, with another gunboat HMS Racoon. He took over command. An ultimatum was sent to Seyyid Khalid that unless his flag was down by 9 am on Thursday 27 August the men-of-war would open fire. That evening the American Consul Mohun wrote how ‘the silence which hung over Zanzibar was appalling. Usually drums were beating or babies cried but that night there was absolutely not a sound’. Seyyid Khalid remained defiant. He believed the British were bluffing. He trained his own guns on the Glasgow towards the British ships in a show of bold retaliation. But he had misjudged his opponents. Just after 9am the order was given and HMS Racoon, Sparrow and Thrush opened fire on the palace. The Glasgow fired back but her out dated guns were no match for the modern firepower of the Royal Navy. Every five or ten minutes there was cessation of fire to allow Khalid to lower his flag and surrender, but he did not. The Glasgow was holed and began to sink. The front of the palace was shot away leaving the inner rooms exposed and the Sultan’s harem next door was set alight. The palace square was left in ruins covered with debris from flying shells and the bodies of dozens of Khalid’s supporters who had been killed or wounded. Khalid at last realised that all was lost. He escaped out of a back door with a few of his followers and ran through the narrow streets to the German Consulate where Baron von Richenburg gave him political asylum. At 9.45 his flag was lowered and the ceasefire order was given. So-called ‘The Shortest War in History’, hostilities had lasted less than 45 minutes. An hour later Seyyid Hamoud bin Mohammed bin Said was proclaimed Sultan of Zanzibar. For 36 days, Seyyid Khalid remained holed up in the German Consulate with his senior supporters. The British demanded his release and surrounded the consulate with their troops. Then on 2nd October he made his escape. The Germans arranged for a small boat to come alongside the sea wall of the consulate during a high tide in the early hours of the morning. Silently under cover of darkness, Khalid and his companions were rowed out to the German warship SMS Seadler, which was waiting to receive him. Khalid was taken to Dar es Salaam the capital of German East Africa. There he lived in comfort in a large property and was allowed to fly the red flag of the Sultanate of Zanzibar and call himself Sultan. His aunt Zem Zem was sad to see her nephew go and concerned about his welfare sent some of her servants to help him. She never saw him again and died in 1900. Seyyid Khalid lived on quietly in Dar es Salaam surrounded by his growing family for twenty years. But in 1916 his situation suffered an abrupt reversal when the British captured Dar es Salaam during World War I. Fearing for his life, Sayyid Khalid fled to the interior. On 27th February 1917 he was caught and arrested with two of his sons and three of his followers in the Rufiji delta 250 miles from Dar es Salaam. Four months later on 22nd June he was escorted along with family members on board the SS Ingoma into exile on the Island of St Helena. On arrival Khalid and his entourage, numbering seventeen in total (of which three were political prisoners from Kenya), were imprisoned in the Jamestown Barracks. They were kept there in military custody under strict conditions for three years. The weather did not suit Khalid nor his companions and once the war was over he asked to be moved to Oman to live with relatives or back to his property in Dar es Salaam, but permission was refused. One of his chief complaints was that there were no facilities for Muslims on the island of St Helena. Finally in 1921 his pleas were listened to. Lord Milner, the Secretary of State for the Colonies agreed that Seyyid Khalid and his entourage should be moved to the warmer climes of the Seychelles. In April 1921 they boarded SS Cawdor Castle bound for the Seychelles. En route the ship stopped in Mombasa for refuelling and the Liwali of Mombasa, the Sultan of Zanzibar’s representative and relative went on board to pay a courtesy call. Liwali Ali bin Salim was shocked to see the miserable state of a royal prince of Zanzibar and he promised to try and help him. The detainees arrived at Port Victoria on 3rd July, 1921 and were confined under house arrest at Anse Etoile on the property of Charles Mederic Savy. According to the records those who arrived in the Seychelles were as follows: Seyyid Khalid bin Barghash bin Said Al Said, 44 years old and his two wives: Bi Bi Yeka , 23 years old, and Bi Bi Panya 23 years old. Seyyid Barghash bin Khalid bin Barghash Al Said, 25 years old the eldest son of Seyyid Khalid born in Zanzibar. Bi Bi Fatuma his wife. Seyyid Said bin Khalid bin Barghash Al Said, 23 years old the second son of Seyyid Khalid born in Zanzibar. Bi Bi Sahira, his wife. Seyyid Majid bin Khalid bin Bargash Al Said, 12 years old son of Seyyid Khalid born in Dar es Salaam Tanganiyka. Seyyid Ali bin Khalid bin Barghash Al Said, 9 years old, son of Seyyid Khalid born in Dar es Salaam, Tanganiyka. Seyyid Rahib bin Khalid bin Barghash Al Said, 6 years old, son of Seyyid Khalid born in Dar es Salaam, Tanganiyka, Saleb bin Ali, 63 years old, servant Ali bin Nasser, 34 years old, servant Musa bin Athem, 36 years old, Seyyida Noblo bint Khalid bin Bargash Al Said, 16 years old daughter of Seyyid Khalid. Zobera, 33 years old wife of Musa bin Athem. Bi Bi Akbari, aged 63, aunt of Khalid. Seyyida Meya bint Khalid bin Barghash Al Said, a female infant born on St Helena. Unnamed female infant born on St Helena. Sebe bin Mbaruk al Mazrui aged 51. Ayub bin Mbaruk al Mazrui aged 53. Kizik Ziman 52 years old. Mohsin bin Hassan interpreter aged 16 (from Dar es Salaam, Tanganiyka) Seyyid Khalid and his family and entourage did not find Seychelles an improvement on St Helena. Conditions were indeed worse. There was hardly any money available to buy food and necessities and there were arguments over how their upkeep should be paid for. Money from Zanzibar was slow in coming and was not enough to support so many mouths. The government in Seychelles did not want to take on the responsibility. But help was on it way. Ali bin Salim, Liwali of Mombasa was busy petitioning the British colonial authorities on their behalf. In 1922 he wrote to the Governor of Kenya asking that Khalid might be allowed to to return to Africa, the country of his birth. He reminded the Governor of Kenya that Seyyid Khalid was the son of the famous Sultan Barghash, Sultan of Zanzibar and Dependencies (1870 – 1888) and deserved better treatment. Perhaps it was time to forgive the mistake made by a young man aged just 20 all those many years ago. The British relented. Permission to return to Dar es Salaam and retrieve his property was refused but an offer of a new home in Kenya was given on condition that he gave up his claim to the throne of Zanzibar for himself and his children. In April 1922 Khalid and his entourage, but not the three Kenyan detainees, were moved to Mombasa, Kenya. From 1922-1927 Khalid bin Barghash and family lived in Mombasa under the protection of Ali bin Salim, the Liwali of Mombasa, who acted as guarantor for their safety and good behaviour. In 1923 Ali bin Salim wrote again to the authorities asking that Khalid be allowed to visit Dar es Salaam, but this was refused once more. He and his children were to remain in Mombasa. Khalid lived out his final years in a red brick house in Makadara Road on the edge of Old Town Mombasa. When Khalid died Ali bin Salim wanted to give him an honourable burial. He buried him at the Sheikh Jundani Mosque, in the mausoleum he had built to contain the graves of his father, Liwali Salim bin Khalfan who had died in 1920, his brother Seif bin Salim and himself. Younger brother Seif agreed to this arrangement, thinking it would not affect him, but he was wrong. Seif bin Salim died a year later in 1928 and was buried outside in the general graveyard. Ali bin Salim reserved the final place in the mausoleum for himself. The children of Khalid bin Barghash were allowed to return to Dar es Salaam after the death of their father and nowadays several of his descendants are living in Oman. Sources: Kevin Patience, Zanzibar and The Shortest War in History, 1994 Peter J L Frankl, ‘Exile of Seyyid Khalid b Barghash al-Busaidi’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol 33, 2006, p 161-177 Seyyid Salme bint Said, Later Emily Reute, Memoirs of an Arabian Princess, 1886 Julien Durup,‘The Exile of Seyyid Khalid bin Barghash bin Said Al-Busaid in the Seychelles’, Seychelles Weekly, September 2008 A I Salim, Swahili speaking peoples of Kenya’s Coast, 1973 Christopher Buyers : Royal Ark Website – The Al Busaid Dynasty of Oman and Zanzibar Special acknowledments Seyyid Hamoud Khalifa Said Al Said For more information about Ali bin Salim the Liwali of Mombasa and the administration of the Al Busaidi in Mombasa please see Judy Aldrick’s biography of Sir Ali bin Salim: ‘Sir Ali bin Salim and the making of Mombasa” The Mausoleum at Sheikh Jundani Mosque where Seyyid Khalid bin Barghash, Three Day Sultan of Zanzibar is buried in Mombasa.