Tippu Tip

A biography by Stuart Laing of Tippu Tip, the legendary Arab trader in ivory and slaves whose story illuminates the seamy underside of the Scramble for Eastern Africa. Laing shows that the Scramble was as much an Arab, Indian, and indeed African scramble, based on the island market of Zanzibar, as European. White explorers, soldiers, and officials were the foam on the top of this multicultural tide. Praised by Adam Hochschild (author of King Leopold’s Ghost), John Lonsdale (Emeritus Professor of Modern African History at Cambridge), and Alexander Maitland (author of Speke and the Discovery of the Source of the Nile), the book combines meticulous scholarship with anecdotal richness. Laing uses his extensive first-hand knowledge of the Arab world to open up the exotic world and travels of a legendary Arab trader in East Africa. Stuart Laing had a first career in the British diplomatic service as Ambassador to Oman and Kuwait; since 2008 he has been Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.