Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Royal Navy Gunboat added

[Digits]

They are really cool.

[Marine0846]

Very well painted unit, love them.
Really interesting background story.
I went to your blog, had a look around, it is outstanding.
Love your whole setup.
It's been a number of years since I have played a game
with my Darkest Africa stuff.
After seeing your figures and terrain,
I will try to get my guys on the table.

[FifteensAway]

The mounted guard is cool and fun.  But it is the Zanzibari foot I'm jazzed about.  I have my own Zanzibari force to paint and - while maybe not perfect - my spare Egyptian infantry will make a great stand in for Zanzibari.  Your figures have solved a challenge for me.  So, thank you.  And great painting all around.

My figures - or as I like to call them, my 'fezkari' - will be painted in varied colors and with varied colored fez for ease of telling units aport on the table.  Not an issue since my set-up is very much a non-historical zone - not fantasy or sci-fi, more 'made-up' history.

[Diablo Jon]

The mounted guard is cool and fun.  But it is the Zanzibari foot I'm jazzed about.  I have my own Zanzibari force to paint and - while maybe not perfect - my spare Egyptian infantry will make a great stand in for Zanzibari.  Your figures have solved a challenge for me.  So, thank you.  And great painting all around.

My figures - or as I like to call them, my 'fezkari' - will be painted in varied colors and with varied colored fez for ease of telling units aport on the table.  Not an issue since my set-up is very much a non-historical zone - not fantasy or sci-fi, more 'made-up' history.

Thanks. I've been doing quite a bit of research on the Zanzibari "new army" and by extension the Palace guard and different uniforms aren't that fantastical. During its short history the Zanzabari regulars started out, in 1877, with a dark blue jacket with white trousers and red fez, then moved to an all white uniform with red fez, latter they received a red dress jacket and towards the end of there service 1890s they campaigned in an all Khaki uniform. Harry Johnston mentions them in 1884 has having red and yellow fez but I don't know if he meant both colours on one fez or separate red and yellow fez on different soldiers. The palace guard infantry seem to have worn red Jackets and red fez but changed the trousers out for a skirt. Through out the officers seem to have worn Dark blue uniforms based on Royal Navy uniforms of the late 19th century with a red fez or a pillbox cap. this colourised postcard below is quite interesting taken circa 1900 it shows a lot of variation on the soldiers khaki or maybe just dirty uniforms.

[CapnJim]

Those Lancers look great - well done!

[Diablo Jon]

The British trained Zanzibari Regular army had a limited number of modern artillery pieces supplied by the British. I decided that my Zanzibari field force needed an artillery piece to accompany the infantry. Not long after its foundation in 1877 the British gifted the Zanzibari’s 500 Snider rifles and 7 Whitworth guns. Joseph Whitworth had invented, in 1853, an unusual Polygonal rifling system which he combined with a breach loading system to create a 12pdr and 3pdr cannon. His guns were considered by the British board of ordnance but in the end they went with William Armstrong’s design. Whitworth’s guns, especially the 12pdrs, did see service in the American civil war and the War of Triple Alliance.

The problem I found with the Zanzibari guns was working out which type of gun they had received. Peter Abbot in his book on Colonial Armies in Africa just states “Whitworth guns” . Chris Peers in his book on East African armies goes further and describes “Light Whitworth guns”. I haven’t managed to track down any primary source detailing the nature of the guns. The 12pdr Whitworth guns seem like a heavy piece of ordnance for an army operating on mainland Africa in the 19th century when everything had to be transported by porters. The 3pdr would fit Chris Peers description of light better (see the video below of reenactors firing a 3pdr Whitworth gun). While I was researching the two latter guns I discovered a possible third option the Whitworth muzzle loading mountain gun. In 1867 a 2pdr Whitworth gun had been on display at the Paris Universal Exhibition, where it was described as “designed to meet the want of a light field piece adapted for easy and rapid transit across mountainous or broken country, or for accompanying the evolutions of detached bodies of troops”. It seems this gun saw some limited service in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 and six of them ended up in Bulgarian service where they are described as 45mm muzzle loaders. This gun would seem ideal for an army operating in Africa especially as the 2pdr seems to have been able to be broken down into loads to be transported (see pictures below)







Miniatures wise a couple of manufacturers make a 12pdr Whitworth but 3pdrs and mountain guns are sadly non existent in 28mm. In the end I had a spare Wargames Foundry Askari gun which seems to a be a generic small mountain gun so I decided to use that for lack of anything better. I didn’t have any crew so I converted a couple of metal Copplestone Regular Zanzibari miniatures (guys with the rammer and bucket) and a couple of Plastic Perry ACW artillery crew with Plastic Perry Mahdist fez heads to crew the gun. I painted the gun barrel brass in hindsight black would have been better as all Whitworth guns were steel construction. In the end the miniature works though its maybe not historically correct as I would like.

[FifteensAway]

Very nice and animated gun scene.   . But, uh oh!  Will the gun fire with the broken lanyard!?  . 

(Maybe I'm showing my ignorance but I thought the lanyard would be attached.  I've only ever fired a 3# Russian cannon used at Sutter's Fort as acquired (replica I believe) from Ft. Ross, the Russian fort on California's coast sold to John Sutter.  It was a muzzle loader with a match firing the powder rather than a lanyard.)

[Diablo Jon]

Very nice and animated gun scene.   . But, uh oh!  Will the gun fire with the broken lanyard!?  . 

(Maybe I'm showing my ignorance but I thought the lanyard would be attached.  I've only ever fired a 3# Russian cannon used at Sutter's Fort as acquired (replica I believe) from Ft. Ross, the Russian fort on California's coast sold to John Sutter.  It was a muzzle loader with a match firing the powder rather than a lanyard.)

lanyards aren't attached to the cannon but to the friction primer that was inserted in the cannons touch hole  every time you fired the gun you would need a new friction primer. Good little video here that explains the process

 

[FifteensAway]

Thanks for the video and information on the lanyard.  I can tuck at least some of my ignorance away now!   

[Diablo Jon]

For a while now I’ve been painting up miniatures for and researching the Zanzibar Regular army of the late 19th century now I've finished I thought I'd share my research and my painted army so this is going to be a rather long post which I'm going to have to split into several mini posts.

Britain took an increasing interest in Zanzibar and its Sultan as the 19th century wore on. Largely, at first, this was due to the African slave trade, which Britain had committed to ending, on the east coast of Africa this trade was heavily influenced by the Sultan of Zanzibar and the slave markets of Stone town. By the late 19th century, the slave trade was being firmly quashed, but Zanzibar took on new importance as part of the Scramble for Africa between the competing European powers.

If you want a bit more history on Zanzibar the Arabs and the Swahili there is an old post I wrote on the subject on page 24 of this thread.

In 1870 Sayyid Sir Barghash bin Said Al-Busaid became the new sultan of Zanzibar under pressure from Britain he agreed to sign a treaty closing the slave markets and abolishing the slave trade. Unfortunately, despite technically being the ruler of a large part of the east African mainland (Known as The Zanja) in reality the Sultan’s power beyond the island of Zanzibar was tenuous. His army was mainly made up of a couple of thousand Baluchi matchlock men who acted as a police force in Zanzibar and as scattered garrisons on the mainland. Many of these mainland garrisons were small often numbering less than two dozen men. In the event of war, the Sultan could hire mercenaries, often men from the Ottoman empire, or call upon his more important subjects to provide soldiers from their households. Given that many of his most important and richest subjects were heavily invested in the slave trade themselves abolishing the slave trade on anything but paper was a problem for the Sultan. The British then stepped in and offered to train a new army for the Sultan to help project his power onto the mainland.

In August 1877, Lieutenant Lloyd Mathews of HMS London (picture below) was seconded from the royal Navy to the service of Sultan Barghash to form a European-style army which could be used to enforce Zanzibar’s control over its mainland possessions. Initially Lloyd Matthews was given 370 men to train some were conscripted from the local African population of Zanzibar, others were freed slaves or ex-prisoners of Zanzibar’s jail. It doesn’t seem like this method of recruitment was popular two years later the explorer Joseph Thomson remarked that it was easy to get porters at Zanzibar as the local idlers were eager to avoid being conscripted into the army. The initial draft was organised into four companies but at its height in 1880 it was 1300 strong in twelve companies divided in to two battalions. Company size seems to have been 100 men but varied in 1893 Sir Gerald porters 200 men were divided into four companies of 50 men. From its height in 1880 numbers seem to have slowly gone down so that by the 1890 the army numbered about 860 men.



As well as the fighting men the regiment had a band, interestingly these bandsmen seem to have come from the sizeable Portuguese Goan community on the island rather than local Africans.

While NCOs and lower ranking officers were Zanzibaris the British provided the senior officers. Lloyd Matthews, who frequently commanded the army on expeditions to the mainland, resigned his post from the Royal Navy in 1881 and became Brigadier General of the Zanzibar army. In 1890 Britain declared a protectorate over Zanzibar and by 1891 Lloyd Matthews had become Zanzibar’s First minister which at this point arguably made him more powerful than the Sultan. As the century wore on the Zanzibar regular army came more and more an instrument of the British. This led to the later Sultans building up their own palace guard as a counter to the British led regulars. These is most readily seen in the Anglo-Zanzibari war of 1896 while the Palace guard sided with the new Sultan by contrast the British trained and officered Zanzibar Regular army stayed loyal to the British. The Zanzibar regular army continued to exist until 1906 when they mutinied over their pay and were disbanded from then on, a company of the Kings African Rifles were garrisoned on the island.

[Diablo Jon]

Uniform

The uniform of the new army was based on that of the Egyptian army with a white Jacket, white trousers and a red fez though troops tended to go bare foot. Equipment was light with a black belt and cartridge box being the norm. There were variations during their short history there is some evidence of a black or dark blue jacket with short white trousers being issued early in the army’s formation, but this seems to have been replaced with the all-white uniform by the late 1870s. In the 1880s there may have been a red dress jacket issued along with a red or white pillbox type hat. In the 1890s soldiers sent to the mainland seem to have given khaki versions of the white uniform and replaced their gear with brown leather Slade Wallace equipment. Sir Gerald Portal on his Uganda expedition in 1893 states that “everyman was equipped with two serviceable suits of “Khakee” tunics and knee-breaches, puttees and two pairs of sandals each”. Generally, the Swahilis preferred to go barefoot but had taken to wearing sandals due to the presence of the Jigger parasite, that had spread from west Africa, and liked to lay its eggs into the feet of its victims causing lameness. Interestingly although Sir Gerald doesn’t state it the Zanzibari soldiers must have taken their white uniforms, as parade dress, as a photo of them at the raising of the union jack on Kampala hill in 1893 alongside ex IBEA Sudanese soldiers shows them dressed in their white uniforms. The band (see picture below) had their own uniform consisting of sun helmets and red jackets and white trousers. Zanzibar officers wore a dark blue uniform based on that worn by the Royal Navy with a frock coat and a red fez of pillbox hat. Officers rank designations are said to have followed the Royal Navy to. British officers were normally seconded from the royal navy and wore their own uniforms Lloyd Matthews is depicted in a British tropical white uniform complete with spiked sun helmet.

[Diablo Jon]

Weapons

In 1878 the British sent 500 sniders and 7 Whitworth guns, and these seem to have continued to be the main armaments for most of the Regular army’s short history. The Whitworth guns are interesting Abbot in his book on Colonial Armies of Africa gives no further description while Chris Peers in his East Africa book adds the description “light guns”. 12ppdr breech loading Whitworths had seen limited use in the American Civil war alongside a few 3pdr Whitworths. The 12pdrs seem like a heavy piece of kit for an army operating on mainland Africa so the 3pdr breech loading Whitworth guns look like the more obvious choice and fits Chris Peers description. One other option is that Whitworth seem to have made a small muzzle loading mountain gun some of which saw action in the Russo- Turkish war of 1877 (see picture below) which would seem like a good option for a force planning to operate in Africa with only porters to carry equipment. Sadly, at this point I haven’t been able to pin down any more information on which type of Whitworth gun was used by the Zanzibari Regular army.  Zanzibar island itself had several artillery pieces but most were ancient muzzle loaders described by Burton in the 1850s as two dozen mostly rusty Iron carronades and a few fine brass guns of Portuguese origin. According to Abbot some photos from the 1890s suggest that the snider rifles were replaced by Martini-Henry rifles and that would fit with British practice. In British Central Africa CAR (forerunners of the Kings African Rifles) also upgraded their sniders in the late 1890s. though for his 1893 expedition Sir Gerald portal states that each of his 200 men was equipped with a Snider rifle, sword bayonet and 40 rounds of ammunition. There is some indication that during the 1896 war the Zanzibar regulars may have had access to some maxim guns but it’s not clear whether these were manned by sailors or Zanzibaris. My gut feeling is the Maxims were part of the Royal Navy contingent that landed on Zanzibar, during the build up to the war, which include 250 sailors and marines 5 Maxims and a 7pdr gun. Only three maxim guns and the 7pdr gun were deployed with the sailors at the custom house. Meanwhile the Zanzibar regulars were deployed to the Diplomatic quarter where they are noted as having two Maxim guns and 900 men. The logical inference from this is that the two Zanzibari maxim guns were Royal Navy crewed guns, but I can find no proof that they weren’t just handed to the Zanzibaris to crew themselves.

[Diablo Jon]

Training, Morale and Combat Performance

From a training point of view Lloyd Matthews seems to have drilled the regulars well. Mr. Richard Vause, of the Natal Mercury who paid a visit to Zanzibar in 1877, recorded his impressions of the recruits in the following terms:

” Attracted by the martial sound of fife and drum, we follow its direction, and soon come upon a string of black recruits, at the run to their rendezvous. Filing with them into the police barracks, we find Lieutenant Mathews, R.N., of H.M.S. London, in the drill shed, from whom we gather that he is engaged on behalf of the Sultan in converting the raw material present into food for powder, alias soldiers, by drilling them every afternoon.

 Lieutenant Mathews has a quiet happy knack with him, drills them in English, and they take to soldiering as naturally as ducks do to water. Today he has four sections of 80 men each, and though ‘ irregulars ‘ in every sense of the word, they really do not look half amiss in their short black jackets, white trousers and jaunty red caps. They go through their exercise with excellent precision, and Lieutenant Mathews is quite sanguine they will prove very efficient. In fact, by last mail, one of our letters says they are making great strides and becoming a well drilled body of men. It was impossible, though, to restrain a smile at the wooden weapons, shaped like muskets, with which they present arms,’ possession whereof the fellows all seem not a little proud, carrying them about even when off parade. The Arab officers, who give the word of command in good English, in their gold and silver lace and blue frockcoat and trousers, look great swells. In conversation with some of the raw material,’ we find them utterly unable to understand what the motive impelling the Sultan to make soldiers of them is, or what purpose they are to serve. They evidently look upon it as connected with some strategic operation on the opposite mainland, as there is, according to their view, no conceivable use to which they can be put on the island itself.”

Several visitors to Zanzibar commentated on their parade ground appearance. The explorer Thomson witnessing them in 1881 described them as “admirably drilled and organised, while Harry Johnston (famous for his exploits with native soldiers in British Central Africa) visiting Zanzibar in 1884 described them as a “Smart looking regiment in white uniforms”. In 1893 Sir Gerald Portal said, “On parade they appeared fairly smart, they drilled in a way that would put some English militia regiments to shame and they could go through a bayonet drill faultlessly”.

Portal however changed his mind after being accompanied by 200 Zanzibari regulars on his expedition to Uganda where afterwards he had some less favourable terms for describing them. Calling them “the laziest, most hopelessly and repulsively dirty, and the most untrustworthy collection of men with whom it had ever been our misfortune to contact” and as “almost useless as fighting troops”. This damning assessment is made even worse when Portal reveals that the 200 men where handpicked by Portal and his officers from over 800 soldiers stationed at Zanzibar.

In his Uganda dairy Captain Raymond Portal (brother of Sir Gerald Portal) has an entry in his diary on parading his Zanzibar regulars alongside the new Sudanese recruited from Emin Pasha’s surviving old garrisons.

 4th of April – Parade of Zanzibari and Soudanese soldiers at 9am. Zanzibaris looked clean and did well including the useless bayonet exercise. Soudanese have some fine men but know very little drill as yet; in every sort of uniform.

In contrast to Sir Gerald Portals view of the Zanzibari Regulars after the 1881 expedition to Pemba in pursuit of the Slaver Hindi bin Khatim a report sent from Pemba by H.B.M. Consul Mr. Holmwood stated

“I cannot close this report without remarking upon the steadiness, good behaviour, and patient endurance of the Sultan’s native force. They have had to keep guard day and night over a considerable village and its approaches, also to furnish patrols and outposts; yet they have always been ready at a moment’s notice to march on the expeditions, generally occupying the whole night, which their leader has ordered. General Mathews himself has worked indefatigably; indeed, I fear he has over-exerted himself. If the remainder of his troops are equal to the small body here present, he has reason to be proud of the force under his command, and no officer could better deserve the confidence which he has inspired among his men.”

Desertion and disobeying orders seem to have been not uncommon among the Zanzibari regulars.  In 1880 Lloyd Matthews led an expedition to the mainland that was supposed to project the Sultan’s power on the mainland the goal was the building and garrisoning a fort at Unyanyembe deep in Wanyamwezi territory. The regulars at first refused to march inland and when forced to do so deserted in large numbers. Eventually the expedition built a fort Mamboya, some distance short of their original target, and garrisoned it with 60 regulars and by the mid-1880s these 60 has been reduced to a dozen or so by desertion.

In 1888 Matthews was Ironically dispatched twice to the mainland with Zanzibari soldiers to try to help the Germans secure their eastern African territories from angry subjects of the Sultan. Again, the Zanzibari Regulars, outnumbered and having more in common with the locals than the Germans, refused to obey orders and Lloyd Matthews was forced to return to Zanzibar leaving the Germans to deal with the subsequent Abushiri revolt. Despite this during the Anglo-Zanzibar conflict of 1896 Matthews still seemed confident the Regulars wouldn’t side with their compatriots and Mathews correctly asserted that ‘his’ men would follow any orders he gave them.

[Diablo Jon]

Campaigns and Actions

Over its short life the army took part in several actions and campaigns some of which I will give a brief overview below.

Matthews and Sultan’s new army’s first campaign was on the island of Pemba which is North of Zanzibar Island. According to the book Zanzibar a Contemporary History.

 The Arab chiefs of Pemba in those days did not regard the Sultan as their ruler, but only as a leader He sent Lieutenant Mathews at the head of a body of regular soldiers with authority to arrest the man who was accused of slave trading, and, without referring to Zanzibar for further instructions, to shoot down every Arab who offered resistance. Acting on this authority, Mathews speedily brought the island to submission, and the power of the Arab chiefs collapsed. The chief who had been accused of slave running quietly gave himself up, but the evidence of his guilt being insufficient he was, after a fair trial, discharged.

In August 1880 Matthews took the Sultan’s army to the mainland. The mission was meant to be a show of strength after the murder of Captain Carter and his companion Mr. Cadenhead of the Belgian expedition, protect the inhabitants from raiding, prepare routes for traffic and with his troops to occupy stations inland. The expedition was away three months and suffered from serious desertion by the Regular soldiers. Eventually the expedition occupied Mamboia, 120 miles from the coast, with a garrison of 60 regulars some distance short of its original target of Unyanyembe.

On Dec 3, 1881, Captain Charles J Brownrigg of the Royal Navy was killed along with several of his men trying to stop and search a slaver Dhow, near Pemba, flying a French flag. Matthews was dispatched with a force to apprehend the slavers responsible. An account of the expedition is given in the book Zanzibar a Contemporary History as follows.

 On the morning of December 5, 1881, General Mathews, with a force of 100 men and accompanied by H.B.M. Consul, Mr. Holmwood, and a representative of the French Consulate, which was interested in the matter, set out from Zanzibar on board the Sultan’s steamer Star for Pemba. Hindi had fled towards the eastern coast of the island. Mathews procured a guide who knew whither Hindi had gone, and tracked him to Chimba, to the house of an Arab, Saleh bin Rhabish, a slave dealer, but not one of Hindi’s crew. By that time, it was dark, and there was difficulty in effectively surrounding the house. Mathews, however, posted his men and went forward to summon those within to surrender. The slave dealers were armed with swords, and at once rushed to the attack, Saleh charging at Mathews, who was compelled to shoot him down. Two (not belonging to the dhow crew) were captured unwounded, and one managed to escape. Inside, there was still one man, and to get at him it was necessary to break down the wall. He proved to be no other than Hindi, and, when called on to surrender, he cut down the officer who summoned him. His resistance only ended when his sword-hand was shot away, and one leg was torn with two bullets. Two surgeons from the Philomel found it necessary to amputate the hand and then the leg, but he made no recovery. The shock was too great for him, and he died on the evening of December 12, glorying that he had slain so redoubtable a fighter as Captain Brownrigg who, he declared, had killed two of his men with one shot.

In 1882 Lloyd Matthews was sent to Mwele on the mainland with 1200 men to put down the rebellion of Sheikh Mbaruk of Gazi. Mbaruk was a notorious rebel and a constant thorn in the flesh of the Sultans of Zanzibari (and later the British). He was a son of the last Mazrui Governor of Mombasa who had been deposed and murdered on the orders of Seyyid Said, Sultan of Oman in 1837 and he dreamt of regaining control of Mombasa.  On arrival Lloyd Matthews found Mbaruks village was deserted. Mbaruk had taken refuge at his stronghold of El Hazem at Mwele on the summit of a hill deep in the Shimba Hills forest, 16 miles inland. Mwele was surrounded by a stockade and pits full of stakes covered with a thin layer of earth and grass. Mathews with a force of troops laid siege to Mwele for 18 days before capturing and destroying it. Mbaruk surrendered and was allowed to return to Gazi with an undertaking not to engage in hostilities against the Sultan again.

 In March 1885, General Mathews was sent by Sultan Barghash on a mission of inquiry to the country between Pangani and Kilwa, and he found abundant evidence that the slave dealers had profited from the famine inflicting the region. The Wazaramo people had particularly suffered slave raiding, even by their own tribesmen, and had been handed over to Arab agents from Southern Arabia and Oman. Mathews had the slavers arrested and sent to Zanzibar. At this point the sultan became aware of German activity in the Kilimanjaro country and sent Mathews there to investigate and deter them. Unfortunately, while Matthews was on the mainland with the army the Germans arrived in Zanzibar in August. With five German warships training their guns on Stonetown the Sultan of Zanzibar was forced to sign a treaty giving away a big area of his mainland territory to the Germans. It makes for an interesting historical “what if” to wonder how things may have turned out had Lloyd Matthews and the bulk of the regular army had been in Zanzibar when the Germans arrived.

The Sultanate of Witu was a kingdom based in Witu near Lamu that had a long history of conflict with Zanzibar. For a while they came under the influence of the Germans which helped protect them from Zanzibar but after the Helgoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1890 Witu became part of the British east African territories. When nine German traders were killed during riots in Witu Germany demanded Britian brought the Sultan to Justice. The Sultan of Zanzibar and the British government dispatched an expedition on 20 October 1890 Nine warships and three transports carrying 800 sailors and marines, 150 Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEA) Indian police, 200 Zanzibari and 50 Sudanese troops were sent. The Zanzibar Regulars were seemingly little trusted, and the bulk of the fighting was done by the Royal marines and sailors. Vice Admiral Fremantle detached Lieutenant N.A.H. Budd of the Bombay Staff Corps with 50 IBEA Company Indian Police and 50 of the Sultan of Zanzibar’s men and tasked him to use HMS Boadicea’s boats to move up the Osi River to seize Kuu.  From there he was to reconnoitre towards Witu and arrest any fugitives fleeing from the main party. The remaining Zanzibari soldiers were used to guard the base or as porters. After a successful campaign the IBEA stationed a garrison of Indian police at Witu.



 In July 1893 following threats of violence from the new Sultan of Witu, Oman, the IBEA police were withdrawn, and another expedition was dispatched to Witu. This consisted of three warships: HMS Blanche, HMS Sparrow and the Zanzibari ship HHS Barawa The latter carried Mathews with 125 Askaris and 50 Sudanese under Brigadier-General Hatch of the Zanzibar army. Mathews and an escort force went to Witu where, on 31 July, they removed the flag of the IBEA company and replaced it with the red flag of Zanzibar, before destroying several villages and causing Oman to retreat into the forests. The British troops then withdrew, having suffered heavily from malaria, but the Sudanese and Zanzibari troops remained. A further expedition was sent of 140 sailors and 85 other troops, but Oman died soon after and a more pliable sultan, Omar bin Hamid, was appointed to govern on behalf of Zanzibar, bringing the affair to a close.

In 1893 the IBEA company were preparing to pull out of Uganda due to financial reasons. Sir Gerald porter with a staff of British officers were dispatched to Uganda to report on the situation and advise the British government on whether to continue involvement in the Uganda region. As part of this expedition Portal took 200 Zanzibar regulars in four companies. The journey was tough more due to weather and conditions than military action. Rebellious Kikuyu in the region of the IBEA Fort Kikuyu, in Kenya, had been laying a loose siege to the fort picking off IBEA soldiers and employees who strayed to far from the fort however they quickly sued for peace on the arrival of Portal and his soldiers. The other main “battle” was an infamous battle against some angry bees when the caravan disturbed an area with several bee nests, but generally military activity on the march was non-existent.



1895 Lloyd Matthews returned to Mwele where Mbaruk’s nephew, Mbaruk bin Rashid, refused to acknowledge the appointment of a newly appointed Zanzabari governor. This led to open rebellion at Konjoro in February of that year when the younger Mbaruk attacked Zanzibari troops under Arthur Raikes, one of Mathews’ officers. Mathews was part of an Anglo-Zanzibari expedition sent to quell the rebellion. The expedition consisted of 310 British sailors, 50 Royal Marines, 54 Sudanese and 164 Zanzibari troops. Konjoro was destroyed and the leaders fled to Gazi where the older Mbaruk failed to turn them over. Another force, under Admiral Rawson, with 400 British marines and sailors, was sent after them This further expedition failed to capture the ringleaders and a third expedition was organised by Rawson with 220 sailors, 80 marines, 60 Sudanese and 50 Zanzibaris, which destroyed Mwele During the later action Lloyd Mathews was wounded in the shoulder.

In 1896 the infamous “Shortest War in History” the Anglo-Zanzibari war took place.  On August 25, 1896, Sultan Seyyid Hamid bin Thuwain bin Said died. Khalid bin Barghash declared himself the new Sultan with the backing of the Zanzibari elite. The British however disagreed and according to the terms of the British protectorate the British had the right to select the new Sultan. The young, headstrong and vigorous Khalid bin Barghash was not at all to the British liking. Khalid bin Barghash and his followers which included the last sultan’s bodyguard, of 900 men plus artillery, seized both Zanzibar castle and the Royal palace. The British sent a Naval squadron to Zanzibar while the British officered Zanzibar army stayed loyal to their officers after a tense few days of standoff the war was settled in 40 minutes when the Royal navy demonstrated the power of naval firepower. There were several skirmishes between the Zanzibar regulars and fleeing survivors of Barghash’s army in the aftermath of the naval bombardment.

[Diablo Jon]

The Sultan’s Palace Guard

As well as the Regular army the Sultans of Zanzibar maintained a palace guard. In the 1850s the British explorer Burton on a visit to Zanzibar describes the Sultan Sayyid Said having a slave bodyguard clothed in a variety of old British uniforms. The Sultan apparently inquired of Burton how much it would cost to cloth the guards in new uniforms but on discovering the cost declined on the basis that the guards were slaves, and the uniforms would cost more than the men in them.

The institution seems to have continued under Sultan Said Bargash and it’s probable they gained a more uniform appearance with the creation of the regular army.



There is also photographic evidence that later Sultan’s had a mounted bodyguard of lancers when exactly they were founded is uncertain. Judging from the photos their numbers were small maybe two dozen and they operated in two units one mounted on white horses and one mounted on bays. Photos of the sultan’s mounted bodyguard show men in black riding boots, white trousers a dark top possibly dark blue and then an Indian style Turban or a hat that resembles and British Glengarry cap







The British control over the regular army and slow increase in British control over Zanzibar saw the fifth Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini of Zanzibar increase the size of his personal Bodyguard, during the 1890s, to try and counterbalance the British control. Sultan Hamid increased his bodyguard to around 1200 men mostly slaves, but he also recruited ex British trained Zanzibar regulars to train and officer his bodyguard. The bodyguard’s uniform may have resembled the regular’s uniform but there is a drawing in Chris Peers East Africa book showing, what Peter Abbot postulates, is a Sultan’s guardsmen wearing a loose-fitting red shirt with white skirt and red fez and holding a bayoneted snider rifle. As well as increasing the numbers of his bodyguard Sultan Hamad hired artillerymen from Egypt, Oman and Persia. By the time of the 1896 war the Sultans Bodyguard had acquired some formidable weapons including one (some sources say several) Maxim Machine gun, 2 modern Krupp guns (a gift from Wilhelm II) a Gatling gun and several older muzzle loading cannon including at least two American civil war era Napoleon guns (see picture below).



This Bodyguard sided with Khalid bin Barghash in 1896 when he attempted to declare himself Sultan despite British objections and they fought in the Anglo Zanzibari war. The Sultans guard including the gunners fought bravely in the short one sided battle against a five Royal Navy ships mounting a total of 78 modern guns including some as large 9.2”. After 40 miniutes of this one sided Artillery duel the finally broke.

After the war the British confiscated the Palace guard’s weapons and destroyed all but a small number of rifles. These surviving rifles they allowed the next Sultan to use to equip a small honour guard the picture below shows the honour guard in 1910 still equipped with Sniders and wearing the old uniform of the Zanzibari regulars (the regulars having been disbanded by the British in 1906)