Zanzibar's 1886 Anglo-German Boundary Commission

In 1886, a commission of British and German surveyors, accompanied by Zanzibari guides and porters, set out to draw a line across East Africa that would split the Sultanate of Zanzibar's mainland possessions into spheres of influence. This episode follows the team's journey from Dar es Salaam inland to Mount Kilimanjaro, the negotiations between Sir John Kirk and German consul Gerhard Rohlfs, and the cartographic sleight-of-hand that gave Germany a 'right of first refusal' on the mountain's summit. We explore how the commission used local knowledge from Swahili caravans and the disputed boundary markers that still stand today. The line they drew became the border between modern Tanzania and Kenya, and it redrew the map of the Indian Ocean world. #Zanzibar #AngloGermanBoundary #SirJohnKirk #GerhardRohlfs #Kilimanjaro #1886 #ScrambleForAfrica #Busaidisultanate #SaidBinSultan #BarghashBinSaid #EastAfrica #Surveying #ColonialBoundaries #SwahiliCoast #DarEsSalaam #Tanzania #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo