Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History class a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B.
Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye.
Speaker 2: A couple of weeks ago, we had a Saturday Classic
Speaker 2: about had shepsuit in the voyage to punt I always
Speaker 2: re listened to our perspective Saturday Classics before I put
Speaker 2: them on the calendar, just so I make sure we
Speaker 2: haven't messed anything up. And I was pre listening to
Speaker 2: this one while taking a walk through the middle of Boston.
Speaker 2: And at the beginning of that original episode, I mentioned
Speaker 2: that it had been a bit since we had talked
Speaker 2: about any African history, and as I was on this
Speaker 2: little walk, I was like, Oh, that's true again right now.
Speaker 2: So today we are going to talk about Sidi Mubarak Bombay,
Speaker 2: who was sort of a combined guide, translator and nurse
Speaker 2: and often the supervisor of the African porters and other
Speaker 2: laborers who were part of expeditions through Eastern and Equatorial
Speaker 2: Africa in the nineteenth century. He worked for people like
Speaker 2: Richard Francis Burton and Henry Morton Stanley, people who became
Speaker 2: really well known as explorers and over about twenty years
Speaker 2: he traveled more than nine thousand miles around the interior
Speaker 2: of Africa. In a lot of ways, these explorers really
Speaker 2: would not have made it without him. One thing that
Speaker 2: I do want to note at the beginning is that
Speaker 2: these expeditions were purportedly about exploration and discovery, but they
Speaker 2: also lay some of the groundwork for the Scramble for
Speaker 2: Africa and the atrocities that followed that. This largely happened
Speaker 2: after Sidi Mubarak Bombay's lifetime. When he returned from his
Speaker 2: last expedition in eighteen seventy six, only about ten percent
Speaker 2: of the African continent had been claimed by European colonial powers,
Speaker 2: but by nineteen fourteen that had jumped to about ninety percent.
Speaker 2: This is not something he necessarily could have foreseen at all,
Speaker 2: but some of the people that he worked with on
Speaker 2: these expeditions, like Henry Morton Stanley, were directly involved with it.
Speaker 2: We talked more about this in our episode on George
Speaker 2: Washington Williams from February of twenty twenty four, and this
Speaker 2: episode really isn't about that, but I did want to
Speaker 2: acknowledge it before we got started. Sidi Mubarak Bombay was
Speaker 2: born around eighteen twenty. He narrated the story of his
Speaker 2: early years to English explorer and army officer John Hanning Speake,
Speaker 2: who included it in his book What Led to the
Speaker 2: Discovery of the Source of the Nile that was published
Speaker 2: in eighteen sixty four, and at the time there was
Speaker 2: a lot of discourse around the role the knowledge of
Speaker 2: Africans should play in European geographical writing. So periodical writer
Speaker 2: who covered these expeditions for a general audience in Britain
Speaker 2: and elsewhere in Europe, they usually dismissed the knowledge of
Speaker 2: local people and of African guides entirely. They would characterize
Speaker 2: them as just ignorant or lying explorers themselves a lot
Speaker 2: of the time were more likely to acknowledge the local
Speaker 2: people's contributions as essential to their work and even to
Speaker 2: their survival, But at the same time their writing was
Speaker 2: often full of really insulting language and slurs. All of
Speaker 2: these books you can read on the Internet, and there
Speaker 2: is a lot of the in word in them. There's
Speaker 2: also a lot of stereotypes. These accounts sometimes minimized or
Speaker 2: glossed over the contributions of African people when writing for
Speaker 2: the European general public. When presenting Bombay's account of his
Speaker 2: own life, Speak sort of countered this by vouching for
Speaker 2: it as quote, a good characteristic account of the manner
Speaker 2: in which slave hunts are planned and carried into execution.
Speaker 2: It must be truthful, for I have witnessed tragedies of
Speaker 2: a similar nature. Here is how Bombay started this narrative,
Speaker 2: including a bit of geographical context from Speak, quote, I
Speaker 2: am Miao. My father lived in a village in the
Speaker 2: country of Uyao, a large district situated between the east
Speaker 2: coast and the Niasa Lake, in latitude eleven degrees south
Speaker 2: of my mother. I have but the faintest recollection. She
Speaker 2: died whilst I was in my infancy. This lake is
Speaker 2: also called Lake Malawi, and it's along the borders of
Speaker 2: what's now the nations of Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique in
Speaker 2: eastern Africa, south of the equator. The Yao people of
Speaker 2: which he was a part, are a predominantly Muslim Bantu
Speaker 2: ethnic group whose homeland is around the southern end of.
Speaker 1: The Da Lake. As documented by Speak, Bombay's account continues, quote,
Speaker 1: our village was living in happy contentment until the Faded year,
Speaker 1: when I was about the age of twelve. At that period,
Speaker 1: a large body of Waswa'ili merchants and their slaves, all
Speaker 1: equipped with sword and gun, came suddenly and surrounding our village,
Speaker 1: demanded of the inhabitants instant liquidation of their debts, cloths
Speaker 1: and beads advanced in former times of pinching dearth, or
Speaker 1: else to stand the consequences of refusal. As all the
Speaker 1: residents had at different times contracted debts to different members
Speaker 1: of the body present, there was no appeal against the
Speaker 1: equity of this sudden demand, but no one had the
Speaker 1: means of payment. They knew fighting against firearms would be hopeless,
Speaker 1: so after a few stratagems, looking for a good opportunity
Speaker 1: to bolt, the whole village took to precipitate flight. Most
Speaker 1: of the villagers were captured like myself, but of my
Speaker 1: father or any other relatives I never more gained any intelligence.
Speaker 1: He was either shot in endeavoring to defend himself, or
Speaker 1: still more probably gave leg bail and so escaped.
Speaker 2: After being captured by Swahili people, Bombay was sold into slavery.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 2: Quoting from his account in Speak's work quote. As soon
Speaker 2: as this Foray was over all, the captives were grouped
Speaker 2: together and tethered with chains or ropes and marched off
Speaker 2: to Kilwa on the east coast. Arrived there, the whole
Speaker 2: party embarked in dows which setting sails soon arrived in Zanzibar.
Speaker 2: We were then driven to the slave market, where I
Speaker 2: was bought by an Arab merchant and taken off to India.
Speaker 2: I served with this master for several years till by
Speaker 2: his death I obtained my liberation. My next destination was Zanzibar,
Speaker 2: where I took service in the late Umam's army and
Speaker 2: passed my days and half starved inactivity.
Speaker 1: Although this isn't spelled out in his account to John
Speaker 1: Hanning Speak, Sidi Mubarak Bombay's name, or at least the
Speaker 1: name he is known by today, comes from this experience
Speaker 1: of abduction and enslavement. Sidi was a term coined in
Speaker 1: India for Africans and people of African descent. Today, the
Speaker 1: city or Shidi are an ethnic group in both India
Speaker 1: and Pakistan, descended from Bantu peoples who were enslaved and
Speaker 1: taken to India as well. As from Africans who made
Speaker 1: their way to the Indian subcontinent as migrants or traders.
Speaker 1: Mubarak is most likely a name given to him by
Speaker 1: his Arab enslaver. It's an Arabic name meaning blessed or fortunate.
Speaker 2: There are a couple of different ideas around where the
Speaker 2: name Bombay came from. In his book Zanzibar, City, Island
Speaker 2: and Coast, Sir Richard Burton describes this as a name
Speaker 2: Mubarak took for himself. According to historian Sarah long Air
Speaker 2: in a chapter she contributed to the book being a
Speaker 2: Slave Histories and Legacies of European Slavery in the Indian Ocean,
Speaker 2: the name Bombay indicates that after his emancipation, he was
Speaker 2: educated in the Bombay Presidency. That's the western portion of
Speaker 2: the Indian subcontinent that had come under British control in
Speaker 2: eighteen forty three. Another possibility is that after slavery was
Speaker 2: abolished in India, people who had been trafficked there from
Speaker 2: Africa and their descendants became known as Bombay Africans. This
Speaker 2: name was also used for people the British Navy liberated
Speaker 2: after capturing slave ships that were operating in the waters
Speaker 2: between eastern Africa and western India. After the abolition of
Speaker 2: slavery in India, many of these people returned to Africa
Speaker 2: aboard British ships, and a number of British explorers intentionally
Speaker 2: recruited Bombay Africans for their expeditions because of their time
Speaker 2: in parts of India that were under British control. They
Speaker 2: often spoke English, Hindi or both, and some had been
Speaker 2: educated by British missionaries while still having language and cultural
Speaker 2: connections to parts of Africa. Over the mid to late
Speaker 2: nineteenth century, hundreds of Bombay Africans were part of expeditions
Speaker 2: led by explorers from the UK. So it's also possible
Speaker 2: that this Bombay moniker was a reference to his having
Speaker 2: been enslaved in India. This is just conjecture, though, since
Speaker 2: he was by no means the only person on these
Speaker 2: expeditions that this moniker could have been applied to. There
Speaker 2: doesn't seem to be a record of Cidi Mubarak Bombay's
Speaker 2: name from before all of this, but he's mentioned repeatedly
Speaker 2: in the accounts of all the explorers that were talking
Speaker 2: about today, and they generally all call him some version
Speaker 2: of that name. Like Cdi Bombay or Mubarak Bombay or
Speaker 2: just Bombay. Henry Morton Stanley calls him Cidi Barak Mombay,
Speaker 2: spelling Cidi with the y like seeds in the ground,
Speaker 2: Mbarak without the U, and Mambay with an M. But
Speaker 2: then he says that he's known as Bombay. Vernie Lovett
Speaker 2: Cameron included the name Barak Bombay in parentheses and his
Speaker 2: book Across Africa, But it does seem like the name
Speaker 2: Bombay was what he chose to use during his lifetime.
Speaker 2: So that is what we will go with today, and
Speaker 2: we'll get to his time doing expeditions after we pause
Speaker 2: for a sponsor break. As he mentioned in the passage
Speaker 2: that we read from before the break, after about twenty
Speaker 2: years of enslavement in India, Sidi Mubarak Bombay was liberated
Speaker 2: on the death of his enslaver and he returned to
Speaker 2: Zanzibar off the eastern coast of Africa. That is where
Speaker 2: he met Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning speak in
Speaker 2: February of eighteen fifty seven. They were on an expedition
Speaker 2: funded by the Royal Geographical Society and Burton was trying
Speaker 2: to find the source of the White Nile.
Speaker 1: The source of the Nile was a huge source of
Speaker 1: fascination in Europe at this point. The Nile is the
Speaker 1: longest river in the world, and its two main tributaries
Speaker 1: are the White and Blue Nile. Europeans already knew the
Speaker 1: source of the Blue Nile, but not the White The
Speaker 1: search for the source of the Nile was interconnected with
Speaker 1: a fascination for the ancient Egyptian cultures that lived along
Speaker 1: the northern portion of the river, and the perception of
Speaker 1: the interior of Africa, where the source had to be located,
Speaker 1: as a nearly impenetrable mystery. Burton and Speke were returning
Speaker 1: to Africa after a failed attempt at an expedition in
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty five. On this earlier expedition, they'd been attacked
Speaker 1: in Somaliland and seriously injured, and one of the British
Speaker 1: officers with them had been killed. After they had recovered
Speaker 1: from their injuries and then served in the Crimean War,
Speaker 1: they had regrouped to try again once again, with Burton
Speaker 1: leading the expedition and Speak his second in command. Burton
Speaker 1: had already undertaken numerous expeditions, including disguising himself to enter
Speaker 1: Mecca during the Hajj, and he had published several books.
Speaker 1: Speak had not published any books yet, but he was
Speaker 1: an avid hunter and had also traveled, including into the
Speaker 1: Himalayan mountains and Tibet. Burton and Speak both described Sidi
Speaker 1: Bubarik Bombay as someone they immediately recognized as necessary to
Speaker 1: have on their expedition. Burton called him quote the gem
Speaker 1: of the party, and his description of him went on
Speaker 1: to say, quote, he works on principle, and he works
Speaker 1: like a horse, candidly declaring that not love us, but
Speaker 1: his duty to his belly made him work with a
Speaker 1: sprained ankle and a load quite disproportioned to his chatif body.
Speaker 1: He insists upon carrying two guns, and after a thirty
Speaker 1: miles walk he is as fresh as before it began.
Speaker 1: He attends us everywhere, manages our purchases, carries all our messages,
Speaker 1: and when not employed by us, he is at every
Speaker 1: man's beck and call. Speak's account of him was pretty similar.
Speaker 1: At one point, Speak also described a misunderstanding between the
Speaker 1: two of them in which Bombay asked for some cloth,
Speaker 1: which was part of his pay, but he had already
Speaker 1: been given cloth Speak originally thought this was Bombay's quote
Speaker 1: seedy nature coming through, but in Speaks words quote. Had
Speaker 1: Bombay only opened his heart, this matter would have been
Speaker 1: settled at once, for his motives were of a superior order.
Speaker 1: He had bought to be his adopted brother, a slave
Speaker 1: of the Waha tribe, a tall, athletic, fine looking man,
Speaker 1: whose figure was of such excellent proportions that he would
Speaker 1: have been remarkable in any society. And it was for
Speaker 1: this youth, and not himself, that he had made such
Speaker 1: a fuss and used so many devices to obtain the cloths. Indeed,
Speaker 1: he is a very singular character, not caring one bit
Speaker 1: about himself, how he dressed, or what he ate ever contented,
Speaker 1: and doing everybody's work in preference to his own, and
Speaker 1: of such exemplary honesty, he stands a solitary marvel in
Speaker 1: the land.
Speaker 2: He would do no wrong to benefit himself, to please
Speaker 2: anybody else. There is nothing he would stick at. Over time,
Speaker 2: Bombay became a servant and interpreter to John Hanning speak.
Speaker 2: Both of them spoke Hindi and that was the language
Speaker 2: they conversed in. Burton spoke Hindi as well, but he
Speaker 2: also spoke a number of other languages, and he was
Speaker 2: prone to having conversations in languages that Speak did not know.
Speaker 2: Later on, David Livingstone described Bombay as having quote lifted
Speaker 2: Speak out of the disagreeable position of being a silent
Speaker 2: onlooker in all of Burton's conversations. Over time, Bombay also
Speaker 2: learned to speak English, Arabic, and Kishwahili. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: if Burton was doing this on purpose to exclude Speak.
Speaker 1: They had some personality conflicts and other conflicts.
Speaker 2: This expedition was arduous, and many of the people who
Speaker 2: were part of it became injured and ill along the way. Bombay, Burton,
Speaker 2: and Speak all developed malaria, although not all at the
Speaker 2: same time. At one point Bombay was well, but Burton
Speaker 2: and Speake were both almost too sick to walk. The
Speaker 2: party only had one donkey to spare, so Speak would
Speaker 2: ride it and Burton would just kind of struggle along
Speaker 2: until he had to stop, and eventually Bombay would loop
Speaker 2: back with the donkey to pick him up. Burton wrote
Speaker 2: about the huge relief that he felt when he saw
Speaker 2: quote ceed Bombay coming back with the donkey and some
Speaker 2: scones and hard boiled eggs. For him.
Speaker 1: Bombay was knowledgeable about local plants and medicines, and he
Speaker 1: helped care for the sick and injured during these expeditions.
Speaker 1: He also became a messenger and negotiator, the person who
Speaker 1: would be sent ahead to arrange passage with the chieftains
Speaker 1: and kings whose territory they were trying to pass through.
Speaker 1: On top of all of that, he increasingly managed the
Speaker 1: large crews of African porters, rowers, and other laborers that
Speaker 1: the expedition relied on to get where they were going.
Speaker 2: This party eventually arrived at Kase in the Tabora region
Speaker 2: of what's now Tanzania on November seventh, eighteen fifty seven,
Speaker 2: and they stayed there for more than a month while
Speaker 2: Burton and Speak and some of the others and their
Speaker 2: party recovered. They left on December fifteenth, looking for a
Speaker 2: large lake that had been described in the accounts of
Speaker 2: local people and missionaries. This turned out to be Lake Tanganyika,
Speaker 2: which they first cited on February thirteenth, eighteen fifty eight.
Speaker 2: They thought this lake might be the source of the Nile,
Speaker 2: but it turned out that there was a large river
Speaker 2: that was flowing into it, not out of it.
Speaker 1: Also, it wasn't.
Speaker 2: Completely clear until later, but that large river was not
Speaker 2: connected to the White Nile. It was a different river.
Speaker 2: After the expedition returned to Kasei, Burton stayed behind because
Speaker 2: he was ill, so sick that he had become partially paralyzed,
Speaker 2: but Bombay and Speak went out again, hoping to press on.
Speaker 2: While Burton recovered. To be clear, Speak was also sick.
Speaker 2: Among other things, he had an eye inflammation that had
Speaker 2: seriously impacted his vision. Speak also had another mishap on
Speaker 2: this leg of the journey, in which he was swarmed
Speaker 2: by beatles in the night and one of them crawled
Speaker 2: into his ear and he permanently injured himself while trying
Speaker 2: to kill it. This gave me both the hebes and
Speaker 2: the geebses. That's way more graphic in the accounts of
Speaker 2: the trip than what I put in here. Somehow, though
Speaker 2: his blindness largely resolved after this, Speak Bombay and company
Speaker 2: eventually reached a lake known in Swahili as Lake Yukurewe.
Speaker 2: That was on July twenty eighth. Speak dub this lake
Speaker 2: Lake Victoria after Queen Victoria. This is one of the
Speaker 2: largest lakes in the world and they arrived at the
Speaker 2: southern part of it, where they could not possibly see
Speaker 2: the other ends or any other waterway that was connected
Speaker 2: to it. Based on what they had heard from local people, though,
Speaker 2: Speak concluded that the White Nile emerged from the northern
Speaker 2: end of this lake. When Speak and Bombay reconnect with
Speaker 2: Burton and told him what they'd found, he was not
Speaker 2: happy about it at all.
Speaker 1: He concluded that Speak just had to be mistaken and
Speaker 1: that Bombay was part of that mistake. He wrote, quote Bombay,
Speaker 1: after misunderstanding his master's ill expressed Hindustani probably mistranslated the
Speaker 1: words into Kishwaili to some traveled African, who in turn
Speaker 1: passed on the question in a wilder dialect to the
Speaker 1: barbarian or barbarians under examination during such a journey to
Speaker 1: and fro words must be liable to severe accidents.
Speaker 2: That's pretty dismissive and insulting with the words barbarian, But
Speaker 2: it didn't come completely out of nowhere. When first approaching
Speaker 2: Lake Tanganyika and talking to the locals about it, Bombay
Speaker 2: apparently really had flipped some things around, and his translations
Speaker 2: of what an Arab trader told him about the river
Speaker 2: that was connect did to the lake, but beyond that,
Speaker 2: Burton was furious that Speke was claiming credit for this
Speaker 2: discovery and that Speak had gotten to this immense lake
Speaker 2: without him. This added to some lingering discomfort between the
Speaker 2: two of them that traced all the way back to
Speaker 2: that very first failed expedition, when Speke thought Burton was
Speaker 2: calling him a coward for how he behaved when they
Speaker 2: were attacked. There was just an increasing sense of resentment
Speaker 2: between these two men. After this point, the party returned
Speaker 2: to Zanzibar, and from there Burton and Speke returned to England,
Speaker 2: where their dispute over the source of the Nile became
Speaker 2: public and quite ugly. Among other things, Speak got back
Speaker 2: to London before Burton did, and he told the Royal
Speaker 2: Geographic Society all about the expedition and his conclusions about
Speaker 2: the source of the Nile before Burton had a chance
Speaker 2: to tell them that he thought Speak was wrong. Burton
Speaker 2: was also less complimentary of Bombay than he had been
Speaker 2: in some of his earlier descriptions. In his book The
Speaker 2: Lake Regions of Central Africa, for example, he describes Bombay
Speaker 2: this way quote, though he did nothing well, rarely did
Speaker 2: anything very badly. In eighteen sixty the Royal Geographic Society
Speaker 2: sent Speak back to Africa to confirm that he really
Speaker 2: had found the source of the White Nile. He and
Speaker 2: Scottish explorer James Augustus Grant arrived in Zanzibar that August.
Speaker 2: Speak and Grant already knew each other. They were friends
Speaker 2: from their military service in India. Bombay was waiting for
Speaker 2: them at the dock, and once again they hired him.
Speaker 2: Grant's account of this expedition is called a Walk Across
Speaker 2: Africa or Domestic Scenes from My Nile Journal, and in
Speaker 2: it he describes Bombay as their factotum and interpreter. When
Speaker 2: they set out, it was with a party of British
Speaker 2: officers and soldiers, local interpreters and guides, sixty four cedy
Speaker 2: boys or Bombay Africans, one hundred and fifteen locally hired porters,
Speaker 2: eleven mules, and perhaps not wanting a repeat of that
Speaker 2: situation where Bombay was having to ferry one available donkey
Speaker 2: between two sick men five donkeys to carry the sick.
Speaker 2: On July twenty first, eighteen sixty two, Speak reached the
Speaker 2: place where the Nile River actually exits the lake that
Speaker 2: he had named Lake Victoria. He named this Ripon falls
Speaker 2: after George Robinson, first marquessov Rippon, who had served as
Speaker 2: president of the Royal Geographic Society. Grant was not with
Speaker 2: Speak when this happened. Grant had a leg injury and
Speaker 2: had stayed behind along with most of their company. There's
Speaker 2: also some speculation that maybe he stayed by Hindes because
Speaker 2: Speak was kind of arrogant and did not want anybody
Speaker 2: else's claiming credit for this. Bombay, though was with Speak
Speaker 2: when he was there. He had led about a dozen
Speaker 2: Bombay Africans who supported Speak on this part of the
Speaker 2: journey to Speak. This was conclusive confirmation that this lake
Speaker 2: was the source of the Nile.
Speaker 1: By this point, Bombay had been promoted to command the
Speaker 1: expedition's African porters, and he had been entrusted with a
Speaker 1: series of independent missions to do things like hire more
Speaker 1: porters when an expected group of reinforcements didn't arrive. He
Speaker 1: had also served as the expedition's envoy to two different
Speaker 1: Banu kingdoms they needed to pass through, Karaguay and Buganda.
Speaker 1: After they were finished at Lake Victoria, Speak and Grant
Speaker 1: wanted to continue westward, which would take them through the
Speaker 1: Kingdom of Bunuro. King Kuamassi of Bunuro refused their passage, though,
Speaker 1: and Bombay was the one who negotiated a different route
Speaker 1: that took them northward through Sudan instead. They ultimately ended
Speaker 1: this expedition in Cairo, that was thousands of miles away
Speaker 1: from where they had started. Speak talked about what happened
Speaker 1: to the Africans he had hired after this. In his
Speaker 1: book The Discovery of the Source of the Nile. He
Speaker 1: described them as his quote faithful children, and they became
Speaker 1: known as Speaks faithfuls quote. I next appointed Bombay captain
Speaker 1: of the Faithfuls and gave him three photographs of all
Speaker 1: the eighteen men and three more of the four women,
Speaker 1: to give one of each to our consuls at Suez
Speaker 1: Aiden and Zanzibar, by which they might be recognized. I
Speaker 1: also gave them increased wages equal to three years pay
Speaker 1: each by orders on Zanzibar, which was one in addition
Speaker 1: to their time of service, and an order for a
Speaker 1: grand freeman's garden to be purchased for them at Za Zanzibar,
Speaker 1: and in order that each one should receive ten dollars
Speaker 1: dowry money. As soon as he could find a wife.
Speaker 1: With these letters in their hands, I made arrangements with
Speaker 1: our consul, mister Drummond Hay to frank them through Suez,
Speaker 1: Aiden and the Seychelles to Zanzibar.
Speaker 2: John Hanning speak described Bombay as quote the life and
Speaker 2: success of the expedition in a letter to Christopher Palmer Rigby,
Speaker 2: British consul in Zanzibar. He praised both Bombay and the
Speaker 2: African porters who had made the trip possible. Quote, it
Speaker 2: is to these singular negroes acting as hired servants that
Speaker 2: I have been chiefly indebted for opening this large section
Speaker 2: of Africa. Would that I had listened to Bombay when
Speaker 2: at Zanzibar and had engaged double the number of his
Speaker 2: free men, for they do all the work, and do
Speaker 2: it as an enlightened and disciplined people. After returning to Zanzibar,
Speaker 2: Bombay settled on the island of Pemba.
Speaker 1: He was married. By this point he had multiple wives,
Speaker 1: some of whom traveled with the expedition and worked as
Speaker 1: cooks or laundresses. At least two of his children had
Speaker 1: been born during this expedition. Although both of them had.
Speaker 2: Died, Speke and Grant returned to England in eighteen ninety three,
Speaker 2: and sadly, Speke did not live for very.
Speaker 1: Long after that. Richard Burton had continued to challenge his
Speaker 1: findings about the source of the nile, and the two
Speaker 1: men were supposed to have a public debate about it.
Speaker 1: But on September fifteenth, eighteen sixty four, the day before
Speaker 1: that debate was supposed to happen, Speke was killed by
Speaker 1: a shot from his own gun while out hunting. The
Speaker 1: coroner ruled this death to be accidental, but some people,
Speaker 1: including Burton, believed that it was suicide, and there were
Speaker 1: also people who put the blame on Burton for purportedly
Speaker 1: driving Speak to it. Bombay was re heartbroken when he learned.
Speaker 2: About speaks death, and he talked about wanting to go
Speaker 2: to England to visit his grave.
Speaker 1: We're going to get to more expeditions after we pause
Speaker 1: for a sponsor break. Although John Hanning Speak believed that
Speaker 1: he had found the source of the White Nile, after
Speaker 1: his death, the matter was still not considered fully settled
Speaker 1: among British geographers. Today, It's considered to be kind of
Speaker 1: a little more complicated than that.
Speaker 2: The White Nile does flow out of that lake, and
Speaker 2: the lake gets a lot of its water from rainfall,
Speaker 2: but it is also fed by some other waterways. Burton
Speaker 2: felt like he had never been able to publicly lay
Speaker 2: out his arguments against Speaks findings the way that he
Speaker 2: wanted to, but then after speaks death, he mostly moved
Speaker 2: on to other things. One of the people who embarked
Speaker 2: on an expedition to try to conclusively determine the source
Speaker 2: of the nile was Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone,
Speaker 2: who was also an abolitionist whose work was connected to
Speaker 2: both spreading Christianity and trying to abolish slavery in Africa.
Speaker 1: Livingstone had already undertaken several expeditions when he set off
Speaker 1: in search of the source of the nile in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty six. He eventually reached Lake Tanganyika, but he became
Speaker 1: seriously ill. People back in the UK didn't know where
Speaker 1: he was or what had happened to him, and by
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one, multiple search parties had been sent to
Speaker 1: look for him. One of these was led by Henry
Speaker 1: Morton Stanley, who arrived in Zanzibar on January sixth, eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy one, and he hired CD Mubarak Bombay as his
Speaker 1: chief of caravan. Stanley wanted to hire some of the
Speaker 1: so called Speaks Faithfuls, and specifically to hire Bombay. He wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: the idea had struck me before that if I could
Speaker 1: obtain the services of a few men acquainted with the
Speaker 1: ways of white men, and who could induce other good
Speaker 1: men to join the expedition I was organizing, I might
Speaker 1: consider myself fortunate. More especially, I had thought of Sidium
Speaker 1: Barak Bombay, commonly called Bombay, who, though his head was
Speaker 1: woodennee and his hands clumsy, was considered to be the
Speaker 1: faithfullest of the Faithfuls. They followed a similar route to
Speaker 1: the one that Bombay had followed with Burton and Speak,
Speaker 1: and just like on that expedition, Stanley's convoy had its
Speaker 1: share of challenges, including all kinds of illnesses and injuries
Speaker 1: and delays. Initially, Stanley described Bombay as honest and trustworthy,
Speaker 1: but sometimes slow to act, but over the course of
Speaker 1: the expedition Stanley became frustrated with him. At one point
Speaker 1: they stopped at a village for almost a month because
Speaker 1: Stanley was ill and Bombay met a woman while they
Speaker 1: were there and didn't want to leave, so Stanley flogged
Speaker 1: him with his cane. Later on, Stanley had Bombay put
Speaker 1: in chains for failing to keep discipline among the porters
Speaker 1: after a mutiny. But in spite of all of this,
Speaker 1: on November tenth, eighteen seventy one, the party reached Lake
Speaker 1: Tanganyika and they met up with David Livingstone. There is
Speaker 1: an episode on this reunion from previous hosts of the show,
Speaker 1: which we ran as a Saturday Classic on September twenty third,
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. The expedition returned to Zanzibar on May seventh,
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy two, and had some issues on this leg
Speaker 1: of the route as well, including one in which Bombay
Speaker 1: and one of the rowers got drunk and fell asleep,
Speaker 1: and while they were out cold, someone stole the gear
Speaker 1: from a canoe that they were supposed to be guarding.
Speaker 1: So they had gone out there to try to find Livingstone,
Speaker 1: but Livingstone did not come back with them. He wanted
Speaker 1: to stay in Africa and continue his work, so a
Speaker 1: couple of years later, Vernie Lovett Cameron embarked on an
Speaker 1: expedition to try to bring Livingstone back. Like all the
Speaker 1: other people we've been talking about, Cameron thought cidium of
Speaker 1: Barak Bombay would be necessary to the expedition's success because
Speaker 1: of his previous experience and his status as chief among
Speaker 1: speaks faithfuls, But Cameron did not retain that opinion over
Speaker 1: the course of the expedition. Bombay was about fifty three
Speaker 1: years old when they left, and Cameron wrote in his
Speaker 1: book Across Africa quote, he rather presumed on our ignorance,
Speaker 1: And we soon learned that, however useful he might have
Speaker 1: been in days gone by, he was not the best
Speaker 1: man to consult in fitting out an expedition, not having
Speaker 1: sufficient readiness and knowledge to advise us as to the
Speaker 1: most serviceable things with which to supply ourselves. He had, besides,
Speaker 1: lost much of the energy he displayed in his journeys
Speaker 1: with our predecessors in African travel, and was much inclined
Speaker 1: to trade upon his previous reputation. But the high opinion
Speaker 1: we had formed of him at first blinded us to
Speaker 1: his many failings.
Speaker 2: Bombay was once again the person who recruited and hired
Speaker 2: all of the expedition's porters, servants, and drivers, and this
Speaker 2: group Cameron later described as a motley crew. Cameron's account
Speaker 2: of their expedition describes a range of frustrations with Bombay,
Speaker 2: including his guiding them through a swamp where they had
Speaker 2: to stay overnight when a different path would have gotten
Speaker 2: them back to the camp they'd already established, and opening
Speaker 2: loads of goods in front of a chieftain who then
Speaker 2: wanted some expensive cloth from those goods that Cameron did
Speaker 2: not want to trade with him.
Speaker 1: Sometimes this seems more like a difference of opinion than
Speaker 1: Bombay actually doing anything wrong. Cameron had issues with his
Speaker 1: legs and feet during a lot of this expedition, including
Speaker 1: Boyle's abscesses and swelling. At one point, he was really
Speaker 1: having trouble walking, and Bombay convinced him to stay where
Speaker 1: they were. Another day, Cameron wrote quote, I could not
Speaker 1: understand the economy of remaining an extra day in a
Speaker 1: place doing nothing, simply to save about one sixth of
Speaker 1: our ordinary daily expenses. It seems like Bombay might have
Speaker 1: thought access to cheaper food might make it a good
Speaker 1: time for Cameron to try to recover a little before
Speaker 1: they moved on. Also, While they were on the way
Speaker 1: to Lake Tanganyika to try to find livingstone, they learned
Speaker 1: that he had died. In spite of that, Cameron decided
Speaker 1: to press on and to explore the lake. This then
Speaker 1: turned into a trek all the way across Equatorial Africa,
Speaker 1: all the way from Zanzibar to Angola. This took two years,
Speaker 1: and it made them the first party known to have
Speaker 1: ever done that. While Cameron seemed annoyed by the quote
Speaker 1: motley crew that Bombay had assembled for this, forty nine
Speaker 1: of the fifty four people who got to the Atlantic
Speaker 1: Ocean with them were people he had recruited and managed
Speaker 1: that whole way. On February eighth, eighteen seventy six, Bombay
Speaker 1: and the rest of the retinue were sent back to
Speaker 1: zanzibard abort a schooner. A few months later, Bombay received
Speaker 1: a visit from the Reverend W. Salter Price, who approached
Speaker 1: him about an expedition to Uganda to establish a Christian
Speaker 1: mission for the Church Missionary Society. They embarked on a
Speaker 1: preliminary trip, but in eighteen seventy six Bombay was awarded
Speaker 1: a silver medal by the Royal Geographic Society. A number
Speaker 1: of the porters and other laborers who were part of
Speaker 1: these expeditions were also awarded bronze medals.
Speaker 2: Although Bombay was not invited to London to receive this medal,
Speaker 2: it did come along with a pension, and at this
Speaker 2: point it seems like he essentially retired as a guide.
Speaker 2: It does seem like he continued to travel and work
Speaker 2: with the Church Missionary Society, but he kind of did
Speaker 2: it on his own terms. I found the writing about
Speaker 2: the later years of his life.
Speaker 1: To be kind of vague.
Speaker 2: Some of the accounts of him describe him as Muslim.
Speaker 2: It's not clear if he converted to Christianity and was
Speaker 2: doing Christian missionary work at this point. I tried to
Speaker 2: get more clarity on exactly what was happening here and
Speaker 2: was not successful.
Speaker 1: Sidi Mubarik Bombay died in Zanzibar on October twelfth, eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty five, at the age of about sixty five. Over
Speaker 1: the course of all these expeditions, he had traveled more
Speaker 1: than nine thousand miles, most of it on foot. He
Speaker 1: was probably the most widely traveled person of his era.
Speaker 1: By the time he returned from crossing the continent with
Speaker 1: Vernie Lovett Cameron. And while these more well known exts
Speaker 1: floorers expressed a range of frustrations and foibles, it's pretty
Speaker 1: clear that they could not have done what they did
Speaker 1: without him, and without the porters, rowers and soldiers who
Speaker 1: he hired and managed. After learning of his death, Henry
Speaker 1: Morton Stanley wrote a letter to James Augustus Grant in
Speaker 1: which he said of Bombay quote, he had his failings,
Speaker 1: but he had also virtues. He was brave and manly,
Speaker 1: He was faithful, and was incorruptible in a sense. He
Speaker 1: was a fine old gossip, delighted to talk of past
Speaker 1: days and old times seen at such a time. Bombay
Speaker 1: was a dear and even lovable man. And as I
Speaker 1: recall them, romance leads a charm to them and softens
Speaker 1: many asperities of my journey. Peace be to his old head.
Speaker 1: May his failings be forgotten and only his virtues remembered.
Speaker 1: And that is Ceedee Mubarak Bombay. Do you have listener mail?
Speaker 2: I do I have listener mail that I hope I
Speaker 2: didn't read already. I almost picked one that I definitely
Speaker 2: did read. I confirmed that I had read it already
Speaker 2: and went to get a different one. This is from Kathleen.
Speaker 2: Kathleen wrote to say thank you for the Dorothy Arsener episode,
Speaker 2: and this email says, HI, There, Like many listeners, I've
Speaker 2: thought about writing to you in response to an episode
Speaker 2: I love, but would never actually commit. However, this time
Speaker 2: I am sending this from my phone, so I don't
Speaker 2: chicken out. I just want to say thank you for
Speaker 2: the Dorothy Arsener episode. I'm always learning about fascinating people
Speaker 2: that I've never heard of from this podcast, but I
Speaker 2: wanted to send an email about this episode specifically because
Speaker 2: I work in the film industry. I grew up learning
Speaker 2: what I could about film history, and I went to
Speaker 2: school for film, but never heard of Dorothy Arsner, which
Speaker 2: is a travesty. After learning about all of her contributions filmmaking,
Speaker 2: directing and teaching, even though she never received an award,
Speaker 2: and to learn that she taught Francis Ford Cope and
Speaker 2: with such an influence is amazing. I guess my very
Speaker 2: minuscule connection is that a friend of mine was able
Speaker 2: to work on his film Megalopolis that came out last year.
Speaker 2: So thank you Dorothy Osner for teaching Coppola. So my
Speaker 2: friends could work on his films. I don't want to
Speaker 2: make this email too long, so I'll go ahead and
Speaker 2: wrap it up by paying the pet tax with some
Speaker 2: pictures of my cats. I have a black and white
Speaker 2: tuxedo cat named Dinah and a mixed Siamese cat named Olive.
Speaker 1: If you can believe it, Dinah is Olive's mom.
Speaker 2: I don't know enough about genetics to tell you how
Speaker 2: a black and white cat popped out of a Siamese cat.
Speaker 2: One day, I'll do a genetics test again. Thank you
Speaker 2: for all you do. I was able to see you
Speaker 2: live last year at the Indiana Historical Society, and it
Speaker 2: was such a fun treat for me and my mom.
Speaker 2: I've been listening for years since college, and you've helped
Speaker 2: me get through work, chores, and the monotonousness of a
Speaker 2: long drive. Cheers, Katie. I might have said Kathleen and
Speaker 2: I kicked off the email, but Katie signed it Katie
Speaker 2: at the bottom. So thank you so much, Katie. Let's
Speaker 2: look at Oh my goodness, there's a kitty cat.
Speaker 1: Cat. Genetics are super fascinating. They are. They are very,
Speaker 1: very fascinating. My cats, who are almost entirely all black,
Speaker 1: They've got a couple of little white toes, little patches
Speaker 1: of white on their bodies, had one sibling in their
Speaker 1: litter who was an orange tabby. It was all black
Speaker 1: cats and an orange tabby. There are so many fascinating
Speaker 1: things about colors that cats turn out with and how
Speaker 1: they relate to their behavior in later life. You know
Speaker 1: how people say like, oh, torties have attitude, and you know, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: which sometimes hold true and sometimes don't. But like, there
Speaker 1: are also interesting things that happen in terms of their
Speaker 1: position in the womb and how that impacts the receptors
Speaker 1: that do all of that. I'm talking kind of from memory,
Speaker 1: so hopefully I don't screw anything up. But you know,
Speaker 1: we have the example, we just adopted three sisters from
Speaker 1: the same litter. They don't look alike.
Speaker 2: They don't look anything alike. One is a very puffy
Speaker 2: black cat. One is a giant tabby who is very
Speaker 2: very big and has kind of like I would have
Speaker 2: thought she was a male cat if I hadn't been
Speaker 2: told otherwise, because she has kind of the features you
Speaker 2: associate with male cats, like her head has kind of
Speaker 2: that fist shape, and she's got very big muscles.
Speaker 1: And then they have a teeny tiny baby sister who
Speaker 1: is shaped the same way as Marva the black cat,
Speaker 1: but like in shrinkulated version, and she's more petite than
Speaker 1: the other two. And she's kind of got torty color
Speaker 1: like the same color ways as the big tabby, but
Speaker 1: in a more of a torty thing with one white
Speaker 1: toe on each foot. They may all have different dads,
Speaker 1: so that's part of it possible. The father, as a
Speaker 1: contribut of the genetics, is often why litters look real different. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because a litter can have all different ads, all kinds.
Speaker 1: So Katie has sent a number of pictures of these
Speaker 1: adorable cats, and there are two different ones in which
Speaker 1: they are curled up together, and I super would not
Speaker 1: have guessed these cats were related to each other, not
Speaker 1: knowing this ahead of time. Incredibly cute. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Katie. I am glad that you
Speaker 1: liked the episode. Folks can email us anytime to say
Speaker 1: just hello. That is also totally fine, but I love
Speaker 1: the idea of sending the email on your phone so
Speaker 1: that you don't check it out. I have done similar
Speaker 1: things to make sure that I do a thing immediately,
Speaker 1: so if you would like to send us a note
Speaker 1: about this or any other podcast where at History podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe to our
Speaker 1: show on the I heart radio app and anywhere else
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Speaker 1: History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
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