Aspects of Colonial Tanzania History

9. Seyyida Salme’s love affair with Heinrich Ruete

9 Seyyida Salme’s love affair with Heinrich Ruete Introduction Sometime in 1877 Emily Ruete, whose maiden name was Seyyida Salme (18441924 ), decided to write down some sketches of her life for her German-born children who until that time knew little more than that she was an Arab woman and a native of Zanzibar. Her memoirs, therefore, were originally not intended for the general public. However, at the urgent request of many, she finally decided to have them published. The memoirs, first published in German in 1886 were titled Memoiren einer Arabischen Prinzessin. The first English translation titled MemoirsofanArabianPrincessfromZanzibar(hereafterMemoirs)waspublished in London in 1888. The same year another English edition was published in New York by D. Appleton. Since then there have been two other English editions published by Markus Wiener (1989) and E. J. Brill (1993). Because of the foreign languages in which they were published, the Memoirs were certainly not intended for a Swahili or Arab-speaking audience. It is not clear how Emily Ruete’s Memoirs were received in Britain and the United States of America. However, some readers in Germany doubted whether Emily Ruete actually wrote the memoirs herself or had used a ghostwriter. One of these readers was Vice-Admiral Karl August Deinhardt (1842-1892) who opined that the Memoirs unfocused, and suggested that “the heart makes the author say more than what arrests the reader’s attention.” 148 ASPECTS OF COLONIAL TANZANIA HISTORY Despite her detractors recent reviews of Emily Ruete’s Memoirs (hereafter she is referred to by her maiden name Salme), edited and introduced by Emeri J. van Donzel, are favorable. One reviewer, Billie Melman, notes that van Donzel’s “enlarged edition is useful to social historians of the Middle East, historians of colonialism and, because it is conveniently excerptable, suitable reading for students, particularly in that still thinly covered area of Middle Eastern women’s history, where primary, inside sources by women are so scarce.”544 Melman further notes that the Memoirs are “a document about cultural difference, about crosscultural representation, and comparison between cultures” which ought to be of great value to historians.545 Salme was the daughter of Seyyid Said bin Sultan Busaid, ruler of Oman and Zanzibar. Her father was born in 1791 and died in 1856. In various reports by Europeans who had the privilege of meeting Seyyid Said in person, he is described as a benevolent and venerable patriarch, a devoted ruler and parent, a sultan who lived an unpretentious lifestyle.546 The later characteristic may be explained by the fact that he belonged to the Ibadhi madhhab (denomination) of Islam which discourages the display of royal pomp and magnificence especially in dress, residential houses, and even mosques. Seyyid Said came to power in Oman after assassinating his cousin, Badr bin Seif Busaid, in 1806. Unlike previous rulers of Oman, Seyyid Said developed a keen interest on the African part of the “empire.” His predecessors had first seized Zanzibar from the Portuguese in 1699, and the first Omani governor was installed there in Zanzibar 1700.547 This was the beginning of a long and extended Omani colonialism that did not come to an end until 1964. Seyyid Said first visited Zanzibar in 1828. It was probably on this visit that, as Coupland suggests, he realized that Zanzibar had the potential of raising his political prestige as well as improving his commercial and financial position.548 Seyyid Said made a second visit to Zanzibar in 1830. According to Coupland, it was probably during this visit that he begun to build himself a sea-side palace a few miles from Zanzibar town,549 which would come to be known as Beit elMtoni . At the time when he was establishing himself at Zanzibar his authority was being contested on the mainland especially by the Mazrui Arabs at Mombasa. Eventually he was able to defeat them. After prevailing over the Mazrui dynasty Seyyid Said felt that a permanent residence at Zanzibar would help to consolidate his political influence in East Africa. Thus in 1840 Seyyid Said moved his family and court to Zanzibar, leaving his son Thuwein to administer Oman. Because very little is known about Seyyid Said’s private life we do not know the size of his family at the time when he moved to Zanzibar. What we know is that he had at the time one legal wife, Azze, with whom he had no children. All his children, thirty six in number, were by his...