Tippu Tip
Tippu Tip | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi c. 1837 |
| Died | June 14, 1905 (aged 68) |
| Other names | Tippu Tib |
| Occupation(s) | Slave trader, ivory merchant, explorer, governor |
| Children | Sefu bin Hamid |
| Signature | |
Tippu Tip, or Tippu Tib (c. 1837– June 14, 1905), real name Ḥamad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jumʿah ibn Rajab ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al Murjabī (Arabic: حمد بن محمد بن جمعة بن رجب بن محمد بن سعيد المرجبي), was an Afro-Omani ivory and slave owner and trader, explorer, governor and plantation owner. He worked for a succession of sultans of Zanzibar and was the Sultan of Uterera, a short-lived state in Kasongo, Maniema ruled by himself and his son Sefu.
Tippu Tip traded in slaves for Zanzibar's clove plantations. As part of the large and lucrative trade, he led many trading expeditions into Central Africa, constructing profitable trading posts deep into the Congo Basin region and thus becoming the best-known slave and ivory trader in Africa, supplying much of the world with ivory from enslaved Africans.