Son of Téwodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia. Alamayahu was orphaned when his father committed suicide during the British assault on Magdala in the war of 1868. He was brought to Britain in the care of Captain Tristram Speedy as a ward of the government. At Osborne, in the Isle of Wight, Alamayahu was introduced to Queen Victoria, who from then on took a distant interest in the young boy's welfare. While on the Isle of Wight, Alamayahu caused something of a sensation among the islanders, and he was photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron her pictures show a listless and sad looking boy Speed took the young Ethiopian prince with him to India but at the age of 10 and against his wishes and the advice of Queen Victoria he was sent to boarding school in Britain At the age of 17 Alamayahu entered the Royal Military ...
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Alamayahu, Dajazmach
David Killingray
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Mbogo, Nuhu Kyabasinga
Jonathon L. Earle
prince of Buganda, and titular head of the Muslim community in Uganda, was born around 1835, a son of Kabaka Ssuuna Kalema Kansinge II (r. c. 1830–1857). Born Omulangira (prince) Ssimbwa Ssempebwa, Mbogo’s mother was Kubina, a member of the Fumbe (Civet Cat) clan. However, at an early age, Mbogo was entrusted to the care of Muganzirwazza, mother of Kabaka Walugembe Mukaabya Muteesa I (1838–1884, invested 1857). Muteesa and Mbogo were raised together under her care. Following Ssuuna’s death, Muganzirwazza had the overwhelming majority of the princes executed, a practice not unheard of by queen mothers in earlier Ganda history. Upon learning of the planned execution of Mbogo, the new king petitioned his mother, resulting in Mbogo’s release.
According to Emin Pasha s diary Islam first reached the courts of Buganda in the person of Sheikh Ahmed bin Ibrahim a Zanzibari trader whose family migrated from Oman during ...
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Raage, Ugaas
Said M. Mohamed
poet, warrior, and political leader, was born in the early nineteenth century at Sasabane, now in the disputed Ogaden region of Ethiopia, the son of a powerful traditional Ugaas (Sultan) of the Ogaden clan. As a boy, besides tending camels, Raage joined a peripatetic Islamic school (xer) and gave evidence of his literary talent by sending his father coded messages in Somali called “hal xidhaale.”
Sometimes called the father of Somali poetry, Raage is said to have been the first poet who composed the opening lines hooyaalayeey hooyalaayey hooyalaaye hooyeey so typical of Somali classical poetry His poetry won the admiration of every Somali and quickly spread throughout Somali speaking territories He composed a wide range of poems poetry of love and lamentation poetry about power and poems of advice The rich imagery sophisticated alliteration and artful use of Somali words were hallmarks of his poems By ...
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Zubayr Rahma Mansur, al-
M. W. Daly
Sudanese merchant prince, was a Jaʾli Arab born at al-Jayli on the right bank of the main Nile about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Khartoum. He rose to prominence as a trader and virtually independent ruler in the hinterlands of Egypt’s African empire in the 1860s–1870s.
Although the northern Sudanese had engaged in long-distance trade before the Turco-Egyptian conquest of 1820–1821 the colonial regime s policies especially of taxing agriculture drove many young men from the land and into commerce Of these al Zubayr emerged as the most famous and formidable accompanying indeed preceding the Egyptian flag into the Bahr al Ghazal and beyond to dominate the trade in ivory and slaves Egypt prompted by Europe and increasingly employing European agents was never able to suppress the slave trade which matched demand from northern Sudan Egypt and beyond with supply from as far as central Africa Al Zubayr ...
