British Perceptions of Concubinage and the Patriarchal Arab Household: The Reluctant Abolition of Slavery in Zanzibar, 1890s–1900s

Abstract

This article explores the reluctant manumission of concubines in the British protectorate of Zanzibar. Informed by the sultan and the Arab oligarchy, the British regarded concubinage as a most common practice and concubines as central figures in the Arab household. Considering concubines who gave birth to children by their owners as wives, they surmised that the patriarchal Muslim family would disintegrate if concubines left their owners and children. The legal status of slavery was abolished in 1897, yet the colonial government postponed the inclusion of concubines in the abolition decree until 1909 because of concerns about social stability and the ambiguous legal status of freed concubines and their children.