The Issue of Slavery: Relations between the CMS and the State on the East African Coast Prior to 1895

Abstract

The work of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) was started on the East African coast by Krapf and Rebmann in the 1840's. At that time, the missionaries operated by permission of the Sultan of Zanzibar, the Sultan himself being influenced by the British consuls there. Although the work of the CMS was not directed to freed slaves, in time the mission came to realise that the success of its work depended on freed slaves. Freed slave centres were established on the coast by the CMS with direct assistance from the British navy and consul, who delivered captured slaves to the missions' settlements. At the same time, however, the consuls had reason to view with concern the growing freed-slave centres because of the potential they possessed for generating friction with the Arab slave owners. The development of these centres had deep repercussions on the consul's diplomatic relations with the Sultan. Prior to the establishment of freed-slave-Christianity, Missionary work on the coast had made little progress. It was the diplomatic mission of Sir Bartle Frere in 1873, aimed at persuading the Sultan to put an end to the slave trade which altered the situation. Before coming to East Africa, Frere had made a tentative agreement with the CMS in London regarding the establishment of a CMS centre for freed slaves on the coast.2 Prior to the arrival