Ismailis In East Africa

By Author: Ibrahim Machiwala Lodhi
Total Articles: 396
Comment this article

"The drought and water shortage had remained the buzzwords in Kutchh and Kathiawar and weather condition had taken a heavy toll onto the economy of the entire region. The people therefore moved elsewhere in search of subsistence. The Ismaili migrants left their Indian homeland and arrived in East Africa. The early reported arrivals took place in 1815 in Tanganyika. In fact, the Indian Ismailis came to Africa with entrepreneurial skills in their blood, mercantile nature in their brains and immense calibre to labour in their muscles, but with empty pockets. The first Jamatkhana was built in Zanzibar in 1838. The new Jamatkhana at Nairobi was opened on January 29, 1920, whose foundation was laid by Sir Charles Bawaring, the acting governor and commander-in-chief. Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah for the first time paid the visit of Zanzibar between June 28, 1899 and September 18, 1899, Bagamoyo between September 20, 1899 and September 22, 1899 and Dar-es-Salam between September 26, 1899 and September 29, 1899.

The Ismailis scattered in almost 550 centers in East Africa. In 1955, the Imam called these Ismailis as a "Nation of Shopkeepers" ...
... and went on to say, "I am proud that my spiritual children are a nation of shopkeepers, just as England was proud and flattered when Napoleon described the English as a nation of shopkeepers." Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar are the four territories that go to constitute what was known as British East Africa. In Kenya, the Ismailis reside in Mombasa, Nairobi and Kisumu. In Uganda, most of them live in Jinja and Kampala. In Tanganyika, now Tanzania, most of the Ismaili are populated in Dar-es-Salaam, Tabora, Tanga, Mwanza, Dadoma and M'baya. In Zanzibar, the Ismailis also live in Pemba etc.