“Attempts to secede, besides what must have been truly inspiring Arab Spring revolutions in the north of Africa, are based on the arrangement reached between two empires, one big and overstretched needing the smaller one (Omani) that had played a crucial role in the politics and economics of the region way before the British made their presence felt in the east coast of Africa. One of my inspirations to specialize in history and war and conflict by extension was the heroics of Saif bin Sultan, the Iman of Oman, who routed the Portuguese from the Zanj in the 1690s. It should be remembered that before this in 1862, France and Britain had agreed reciprocally and mutually “guaranteed” the integrity of Zanzibar’s domains. In the 17th century, in 1837 decided to oversee his eastern African coast territorial and trade interests more closely and thus made resplendent Zanzibar his citadel of the growing Oman Empire and influence along the coast. Zanzibar was, significantly, also the nerve center of the slave trade that exploited the hinterland of what is modern Kenya, Tanzania all the way to Zambia and DRC-Congo, which were the supply zones. There’s no gainsaying the fact that trade in African slaves increased with Omani hold on Zanj territory. But that is beside the point.”

“After the slave trade was outlawed, British ships attempted to police slave trading in the Atlantic by other nations. In the second half of the 19th century, Britain’s imperial interests in Africa were often justified by exposing indigenous slave trading there. In neither case were Britain’s actions exclusively altrustic, but it remains the case that it was British explorers and missionaries, like David Livingstone, who exposed the horrendous abuses by Afro-Arab slave traders in Central and East Africa and the brutal use of slave labour in Belgian King Leopold II’s Congo “Free” State. Anyone should be proud to swear allegiance to a Queen who represents Britain’s historic commitment to freedom.”