Note 96 — Chapter XI · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA.

A notable exception is the propagandist activity of the Arab traders who were admitted into Uganda in the first half of the nineteenth century; they probably recognised that the sturdy independence of the Baganda made slave-raiding among them impossible, so they sought to gain their confidence by winning them over to their own faith. Many of the Baganda became Muhammadans during the reign of King Mutesa, but Stanley’s visit to this monarch in 1875 led to the introduction of Christian missions in the following year, and the power of the Muhammadans in the state declined with the rapid increase in the numbers of the Christian converts and the establishment of a British Protectorate.96 But a number of Muhammadans still hold important positions in Uganda, and it is stated that there is a possibility of the Eastern Province becoming Muslim. In the rich tributary country of Busoga, to the north of Uganda, a large number of those in authority were said, in 1906, to be Muhammadans.97 But with this exception Islam in East Equatorial Africa was up to the latter part of the nineteenth century confined to the coast-lands and the immediately adjoining country. The explanation would appear to be that it was not to the interests of the slave-dealers to spread Islam among the heathen tribes from among whom they obtained their unhappy victims; for, once converted to Islam, the native tribes would enter into the brotherhood of the faith and could not be raided and carried off as slaves.98