Extraordinary Bombay

To celebrate UK’s Black History month here's a story of exploration you may not know.

It’s about a waYao man born in Tanzania in 1820, marched to a slave market at 12 years old, sold for cloth and taken to Gujarat where an owner named him Mubarak. After years of forced labour he was freed when his owner died and Sidi Mubarak Bombay went home to Africa. There a new life began in expeditions led by more familiar names of heroic Victorian exploration; Burton, Speke, Livingstone, Cameron and Stanley. Narratives of “great explorers” rarely acknowledge the sophisticated work of local guides who enabled their expeditions, but in truth they were almost totally reliant on the skills of men such as Sidi Mubarak Bombay.

An expedition could last years, number 200 porters, cooks, guards (also women and children) and its leader often left recruitment, logistics, motivation, supply and discipline to the local guide. Negotiation of safe passage in several languages, identifying dangers of terrain, weather or political tension were also his lot - as was caring for the sick – including the “leaders” themselves.

We only know of Sidi Mubarak Bombay through what others said of him. It’s a pity, because his own story is truly extraordinary.