The Bombay Africans

“In 1867, 20 African boys from Zanzibar were rescued from slavery by His Majesty’s ships of war and were brought by the government to be educated in our orphanage in Bandra.”

This account was given by a Jesuit priest in an old school bulletin of St. Stanislaus High School, Bandra. Not many people know that Bombay once provided refuge to hundreds of freed African slaves and some of them once lived and studied in Bandra in the latter half of the 19th century.

Originally captured in Africa by Arab slave traders, these slaves were later rescued at sea by the British Royal Navy as part of the enforcement of treaties to stop slave trafficking. Once rescued it was difficult to repatriate them and so these slaves were brought to the west coast of British India and dropped off at its ports in Gujarat and mainly Bombay, which is why they came to be known as Bombay Africans.

So, what became of the Bombay Africans?

Many of the rescued slaves were sent to Christian missionary institutions and orphanages

In India and one such orphanage was right here in Bandra and is today St. Stanislaus High School. The school, which was founded in 1863, first began as an orphanage by Jesuit missionaries, offering tuition in English and Hindi as well as some technical skills to its inmates.

At the time, Africa was widely known as the ‘Dark Continent’ by Europeans who were drawn to its wild and unexplored reaches. It was Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of the Bombay Presidency and President of the Royal Geographical Society, who proposed that British explorers at the time should recruit Bombay Africans for their expeditions. And so it was that among the many British explorers who sought assistance from the Bombay Africans, one such man was none other than Dr. David Livingstone, the well-known Scottish explorer of Africa. Not many know that Dr. Livingstone embarked on his final Africa expedition from Bombay and with him travelled some seventy odd staff, chief among them were three Bombay Africans; James Chuma, Wikitani and Abdullah Susi. Having received a basic education in India, these men not only played a critical role as guides and interlocutors, but, later, were also instrumental in establishing communities back home in Africa for liberated Africans.