Page 49 - SoMJ Vol 74 - No 1, 2021

The Mwasi Expedition 1895 39

Alfred J. Swann, the other main (European) protagonist in the Mwasi
campaign, was formerly a Master Mariner and officer in the P & O Company.
Swann had arrived at the south end of Lake Tanganyika in 1883 as a LMS
(London Missionary Society) missionary and, principally, master of the LMS lake
steamer. He is perhaps best known for his book: Fighting the Slave-Hunters in
Central Africa: A Record of Twenty-Six Years of Travel & Adventure Round the
Great Lakes and of the Overthrow of Tip-Pu-Tib, Rumazila and other Great Slave-
Traders. London. Seeley, Service & Co Ltd. 1910. Subsequent academic research,
the examination of his correspondence and a mid-20 century interview with his
th
daughter have led to doubts being aired as to the complete trustworthiness of his
testimony as well as highlighting a clear penchant in his narrative for the purple
prose of self-promotion. He appears to have had little or no appetite for
evangelising nor the pastoral care of his African flock. Allegedly, he even
indulged in a little ivory trading on his own account, strictly against LMS
regulations. Swann was persuaded by the visiting Commissioner, Harry Johnston,
to travel to the north end of Lake Tanganyika negotiating treaties of dubious
probity with local chiefs along the way. Meanwhile, Johnston returned South
poste-haste upon hearing news of imminent trouble brewing with the Portuguese.
In the event, none of these questionable treaties was ever ratified by parliament,
although Swann received the thanks of Lord Salisbury for his efforts.
Swann resigned from the LMS and joined Johnston’s administration. By
1895 Swann was serving as the Collector Kota Kota, which was described by
Johnston as ‘a considerable Arab settlement under the sway of the Jumbe, a coast
Arab, who was the wali, or representative, of the Sultan of Zanzibar’.
It is entirely possible that Swann’s lack of apparent empathy with
Africans exacerbated, if not escalated, the problems which led to the assault on
Mwasi’s town. Although Swann often went to great pains in his book to describe
his success both in interviews and in concluding successful, if not lasting, treaties
with African chiefs and Swahili Arab traders, I suggest it is not difficult to discern
an underlying contempt in his correspondence. As a small instance in writing of
his part in the Mwasi campaign he refers to the indigenous troops under his
command as ‘armed rabble’, a sentiment that would be unlikely to have gone
unnoticed by his subordinates. That said, his self-perceived superiority and sense
of entitlement over those he superintended was unfortunately far from uncommon
at that period.
Swann returned to England on furlough shortly after Lieutenant Alston’s
death in 1897. Upon arrival, he lost no time in writing to Sir Francis Alston
pleading that the latter used his influence to have the CMG gazetted to his late son
awarded to him in his son’s stead. Sir Francis wrote back understandably declining
to pursue the proposal. Both these telling, unpublished, letters are in the collection
of the writer. Swann retired as a Senior Resident Magistrate of the Nyasaland