The struggle for the control of Mombasa by different empires in the 17th century was fueled by the desire to control major trade routes. The strategic location of this coastal town on the East African seaboard made it an important gateway to the entire continent.
Mombasa’s maritime operations had flourished since the town came under Portuguese rule in 1593. As trade was all the Portuguese cared about, they did little to interfere with local administration in the hinterland. This however changed in December 1698 when the Portuguese were expelled from Mombasa by another seafaring empire: the Omani Arabs. The Omani wanted to establish themselves beyond the coast and as such, they pushed trading routes into the interior, seeking up-country commodities for onward sale to Zanzibar and Oman. Coastal traders exchanged seaborne goods for items such as gold and ivory, with the most valuable of their commodities being slaves.
In 1807, the British empire outlawed slave trade. While this law only applied to its dominions, its impact had a ripple effect on other empires. During this same period, Britain was also conducting hydrographical surveys to map out some of the world’s largest water bodies. In 1821 Captain William Fitzwilliam Owen was appointed to command a survey expedition to chart the coast of Africa. Owen was a keen advocate of abolition and so when Her Majesty’s Ship: Leven – which he captained – docked at the port of Mombasa to restock supplies in 1824, the ongoing slave trade displeased him. Fortunately, infighting among the Omani Arabs gave Owen an opportunity to end this trade.
At the time that Captain Owen docked at Mombasa, the city state’s local Mazrui rulers were in a power struggle with Seyyid Said, the Busaidi Sultan of Zanzibar. The Mazrui and the Busaidi were both Omani clans that lay claim and fought over sovereignty of Mombasa. Said’s establishment of authority over Zanzibar had been secured through the assistance of the British. He in turn helped the British to safeguard their trade route to India through the Persian Gulf.
With the Busaidi’s growing authority over the Swahili Coast, the Mazrui appealed to the British for assistance. Though their application had been formally denied two years prior, Captain Owen, on his own initiative raised a British flag of protection over Mombasa in February 1824. Without admiralty permission, Owen agreed to the Mazrui request for a protectorate, thereby helping the locals fend off Zanzibari control, and extracted in return a promise from local leaders to end the slave trade.
Once this treaty was agreed upon, some of the crew members of the H.M.S. Leven set up an anti-slavery blockade while others continued the hydrological survey that had brought them to the East Coast to begin with. One of the crew members aboard this British naval survey ship was a midshipman called Owen E. Tudor. Not much is known about him, save for his expertise in the field of geology that earned him a spot on this expedition. Owen Tudor led a survey on a creek located just beyond the Old Port, which was the busiest port in East Africa at the time. Once the survey of this area was completed, this creek as well was named Tudor, after the midshipman. This name spread beyond the water feature to encompass a road that ran a few metres away from the creek, making it Tudor Road.
Since the British had no desire formally to extend their authority to East Africa at this time, let alone to break with their ally Seyyid Said, Captain Owen’s treaty with the Mazrui was hauled down in 1826.
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A key event in 1969 shook the Kenyan political sphere and led to a change of name for this road. On 5th July, Tom Mboya, a prominent politician, was assassinated.
Mboya rose through the ranks steadily from his humble beginnings working as a sanitary inspector in Nairobi. He was a key figure during the independence struggle and was also an agitator of labour-policy reforms through the trade-union movement. He won the 1957 legislative council elections as a workers’ candidate, becoming one of only eight elected African members on the council. After independence, Mboya was appointed as the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, before serving as the Minister for Economic Planning and Development from 1964 until his death.
Mombasa’s Tudor Road was renamed Tom Mboya Avenue to honour the legacy of this Kenyan nationalist.
