CHAPTER XXVI
POLYGAMY AMONG MODERN AFRICANS
I. ZANZIBAR AND EAST AFRICA
The Island of Zanzibar became a British Protectorate in 1890. It is still ruled by a Sultan, who owns a large harem and lives in great state and magnificence. Mrs. French Sheldon, the well-known traveller, who visited the Island in 1892, gives an excellent description of native customs in her volume "Sultan to Sultan."
From this entertaining narrative we gather that the Sultan regarded polygamous marriage as not wholly a bed of roses. He informed Mrs. French Sheldon that he would give up his costly harem were it not for the risk of losing influence with his Arab constituency. The monarch seemed overweighted with the cares of government and the conduct of his enormous household.
In her account of the harem, to which she was
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