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Kirk and the Egyptian Invasion of East Africa in 1875: A Reassessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

E. R. Turton
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Extract

This paper attempts to reassess the importance of the McKillop expedition of 1875 and also to re-examine Kirk's role in securing its withdrawal, which, according to the thesis associated with Coupland, was thought to have been crucial. This paper shows that Kirk did not secure McKillop's return, but that he played an important part in the formation of the policy that was adopted towards the expansion of Egypt in Africa, which was a direct result of the Egyptian invasion down the east coast. This invasion is placed not merely within the context of Ismail's designs in the Interlacustrine area but also of his designs in Somalia as well. The impact of the expedition is also considered, its effect on the slave-trade, on the religious attitudes of Muslims on the coast, and as a final factor stimulating the attempted formation of an East African Company.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , July 1970 , pp. 355 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

1 Coupland, R., The Exploitation of East Africa 1856–1890 (London, 1939), chap. xiii, ‘The Egyptian invasion, 1875–1876’, 293.Google Scholar

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3 Ismail to McKillop, 17 September 1875; Ismail to Gordon, 17 September 1875, translated from the French by Col., E. A. Stanton in ‘Secret letters from the Khedive Ismail in connection with an occupation of the East Coast of Africa’, J. Roy. Afr. Soc., XXXIV (1935), 271, 279.Google Scholar

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5 Gordon was certainly thinking along these lines by December 1874, if not before (see his letter to Watson, C. M. of 28 12 1874Google Scholar in Lane-Poole, S., Watson Pasha (London, 1919), 61, quoted by Coupland, Exploitation of E. Africa, 274),Google Scholar and a proposal had been made in this vein to the Khedive by January 1875 (see Allen, B. M., Gordon and the Sudan (London, 1931), 37; also Gordon to Derby, 20 03 1876, F.O. CP. 3090).Google Scholar

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27 I. to McK., 2910. 1875Google Scholar in Stanton, , ‘Secret Letters’, 281.Google Scholar

28 Stanton to Derby, 11 November 1875, no. 113, F.O. 78/3188.

29 Idem, footnote 27.

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36 An old friend of Said Barghash, Badger had accompanied Coghian on the Muscat–Zanzibar Arbitration Commission of 1861 and had been Secretary and Confidential Adviser to Sir Bartle Frere on his Mission to East Africa in 1873. He was a noted Arabist and had published a translation of Salil ibn Raziq, History of the Imams and Seyyids of Oman (1871). In 1881 he published an Arabic Dictionary.Google Scholar

37 Badger to Derby, 2911 1875, F.O. 84/1425.Google Scholar

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43 Viceroy of India to F.O., F.O. 84/1423.

44 Kirk to Derby, 11 November 1875, no. 158. The other dispatches were dated 15 and 17 November 1875, F.O. 84/1417.

45 There seems to be an interesting parallel here with the experiences of another British Consul at Zanzibar. In 1847 Hamerton wrote: ‘From April to December it is not possible to obtain correct information (re. the Benadir coast)’. At that time it was feared that the French admiral Guillain was ‘tampering with the chiefs’ around Brava. Hamerton to Bombay, 2 may 1847, F.O. 54/12.

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50 Cave was the Postmaster General and his Mission was a financial one.

51 Derby to Kirk, 5 December 1875, F.O. 84/1414.

52 Schneider, to Stanton, , 8 12 1875, F.O. 141/93; I.O. to F.O., 6 12 1875 and Schneider to Viceroy, 27 12 1875, F.O. 84/1423. No explanation was given by the Resident at Aden for his curious action in forwarding the telegram to McKillop. Perhaps he wished to let McKillop know that hostilities should cease, being unable to inform Kirk of this.Google Scholar

53 Derby to Kirk, 3 December 1875, F.O. 84/1414.

54 The mail steamer did not return to Aden until 30 Dec. The mail was not sent by dhow presumably because of the risk (F.O. to I.O., 29 December 1875, F.O. 84/1423).

55 The first dispatch Kirk received was Derby's no. 50 of 5 Dec. which arrived with his telegrams of 30 and 31 Dec. (F.O. 84/1414); on the same day Kirk also received Stanton's letter of 28 Dec. telling him of the withdrawal of the Egyptians.

56 Kirk to Derby, 15 and 17 November 1875, F.O. 84/1417.

57 I.O. to F.O., 3 December 1875 and Viceroy of India to F.O., 27 December 1875, F.O. 84/1423.

58 Kirk to Salisbury, 18 November 1875, I.O. Political Department/I (India Office Archives).

59 Derby to Kirk, 31 December 1875, no. 58, F.O. 84/1414.

60 Coupland, R., Exploitation of E. Africa, 280–2.Google Scholar

61 Capt. Ward's account of this trip can be found in ‘Visits to ports North of Zanzibar’, 10 December 1875, F.O. 84/1457. Kirk's can be found in Kirk to Derby, 29 November and 2 December 1875, F.O. 84/1417.

62 Founder of the C.M.S. Mission at Freretown, Mombasa, in 1874.

63 Price to Kirk, 18 December, in Kirk to Derby, 25 December 1875, F.O. 84/1417.

64 Viceroy of India to F.O., 27 December encloses message from Kirk, n.d., F.O. 84/1423.

65 Kirk to Aitchison, 10 December 1875, F.O. 84/1417.

66 Tenterden, Minute, 13 January 1876, on Kirk's no. 174 of 8 Dec.; Derby, Minute, 18 January 1876 on Kirk to Derby, 14 December 1875 F.O. 84/1417.

67 Lister, Minute, n.d. on Kirk to Derby, 14 December 1875, F.O. 84/1417.

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77 Derby to Stanton, 4 Feburary 1876, F.O. CP. 3090.

78 Stanton to Derby, 9 Januray 1876, F.O. 403/8; Cave to Derby, 5 January 1876, F.O. CP. 3090.

79 Memorandum, 6 July 1876, Frere Papers, British Museum MSS.

80 Derby to Stanton, 4 February 1876, F.O. 84/1451; Wylde, Minute, 27 December 1875, F.O. 78/3188. Also a marginal note by Tenterden on a letter from Cookson to D., 8 Aug. 1876, is revealing: ‘It is absurd to talk of taking away territory which belongs to Zanzibar in order to give it to Egypt.’

81 Kirk to Derby, 6 April 1876, F.O. 84/1453.

82 Kirk to Granville, 31 May 1873, F.O. 84/1374.

83 Wylde's Minute, and Lord Salisbury's suggestion are quoted by Richard Gray (Oxford, 1961), 182.

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89 Holmwood to Prideaux, 17 November 1874, F.O. 84/1400.

90 Kirk to Derby, 15 April 1876, F.O. 84/1453.

91 Kirk to Derby, 16 Augest 1876, F.O. 84/1454.

92 Kirk to Derby, 11 December 1876, F.O. 84/1454.

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96 Lamb, F. W., ‘History of Gobwen and adjacent country and events leading to its occupation’, 30 09 1911, DC/KISM/3/1. (District Records, Kismayu, Nairobi Archives.)Google Scholar

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98 Coupland, (1939), 301.Google Scholar

99 Coupland, (1939), 279.Google Scholar See also, Martin, B. G., ‘Muslim politics and resistance to Colonial rule: Shaykh Uways B. Muhammad Al Barawi and the Qadiriya brotherhood in East Africa’, J. Afr. Hist. X, no. 3 (1969).Google Scholar

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101 Wheeler, O. E., Somaliland (Simla, Government Central Branch Press, 1884), 16.Google Scholar

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103 Coupland (1939), 301.