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The Oromo Slaves
In September
1888 the British warship H.M.S. Osprey was cruising in
the Red Sea. Private information came to the captain
that Arab dhows laden with slaves were expected to leave
the African coast bound for Mocha, of coffee celebrity,
where there was an immediate market for slaves. One
evening the dhows set out for Tajurrah and made good progress in the night, but in morning were
becalmed. They were spotted by the man-o’-war, and
after an attempt to escape were captured though not
without the loss of some lives, both of slavers and
their poor victims.
Thirty-three Arab slavers were found on the dhows with
213 victims from Oromoland, near Abyssinia. With the
exception of four men, all the slaves were women and
children, and all in pitiable condition, particularly
the young boys. Nearly all had to be lifted on board the
Osprey, their limbs having been
so cramped by confinement that they could not function.
In addition, the children were terror-stricken, as their
Arab masters had said that if they fell into the hands
of white men they would be eaten.
The dhows were towed into Aden harbour and children
landed and housed by the Government authorities there.
The Keith-Falconer Mission of the Free Church of
Scotland, situated at Sheikh Othman, an oasis near Aden,
was communicated with and asked to take part or all of
them. Thirty nine boys and
twenty-three girls, were subsequently brought to the
mission.
Soon after their
arrival, sickness broke out among them and one-fifth of the number died. In the summer of 1889 the
roll was augmented by others who were rescued in small
parties. By this time it had become necessary to seek a
new and more healthy home for them, and some time later Lovedale in South Africa was decided upon. When the
party sailed out of Aden for South Africa to the south,
it numbered sixty-four, twenty-two girls and forty-two
boys.
See also
Slave Island
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