In the 1890s, the
British Empire gained control over the area. However, the British did not interfere with the inner policy of the state, but was content with keeping peace with the indigenous power holders, protecting British citizens, and managing the contacts with the international community, in which they assured that Kuwait obeyed the same international treaties signed by the British themselves.
Slave trade During the
Omani Empire (1692–1856), Oman was a center of the
Zanzibar slave trade. Slaves were trafficked from the
Swahili coast of East Africa via Zanzibar to Oman. From Oman, the slaves were exported to the rest of the
Arabian Peninsula and
Persia, including the
Trucial States,
Qatar,
Bahrain and
Kuwait. The Omani slave trade from Africa started to shrink in the late 19th century. A second route of slave trade existed, with people from both Africa and East Asia, who were smuggled to
Jeddah in the Arabian Peninsula in connection to the
Muslim pilgrimage,
Hajj, to
Mecca and
Medina. Victims were tricked to perform the journey willingly in the belief that they were going on the Hajj pilgrimage or employed as servants and then sold upon arrival. The method of kidnapping was also used. These slaves were then exported from the
Hejaz to Oman, the Trucial States, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. In the 1940s, a third slave trade route was noted, in which
Balochis from
Balochistan were shipped across the Persian Gulf, many of whom had sold themselves or their children to escape poverty. In 1943, it was reported that Baloch girls were shipped via
Oman and the Trucial States to Mecca, where they were popular as concubines, since Caucasian girls were no longer available, and were sold for $350–450. The price of slaves was higher in Kuwait than the rest of the Gulf, and slaves used to be kidnapped to Kuwait. Children were kidnapped from Yemen, and girls from Armenia, Georgia and Iraqi Kurdistan where trafficked to the slave market to be sold for marriage. After 1924, when the import of white slave girls was prohibited, Kuwaiti people who wanted to purchase a white slave (white slaves were normally girls), defined the cost as a "dowry" in order to avoid any charge brought against them by the British, and made it possible for them to get their money back in case the girl applied for a manumission, which had become a possibility by that point. In the 1920s, white slave girls in Kuwait were often brought to Kuwait from Iraqi Kurdistan by Kurdish merchants, who bribed the custom officials and sold the girls to Kuwaiti slave-brokers.
Function and conditions Female slaves were primarily used as either domestic servants, or as
concubines (sex slaves), while male slaves were primarily used within the pearl industry as
pearl divers. Slave servants were called often
cammí (uncle) and
cammat (aunt). In 1904, there were about 4,000 Africans in Kuwait out of a total population of 35,000, two-thirds of whom were slaves and the rest former slaves. There were estimated to have been twice as many female as male slaves in Kuwait. Non-African female slaves were sold in the Persian Gulf where they were bought for marriage; these were fewer and often Armenian, Georgian, or from Baluchistan and India. In the 19th century, Indian girls from the Malabar coast were trafficked for sexual services to the Gulf coast. Non-African female slaves were sold in the Persian Gulf where they were bought for marriage; these were fewer and often Armenian, Georgian, or from Baluchistan and India. In 1924, the law prohibited the enslavement of white girls (normally Armenian or Georgian) on Kuwaiti territory, but in 1928 at least 60 white slave girls were discovered. Female slaves were often used for sexual services as concubines for a period of time, and then sold or married off to other slaves; the slave owners would arranged both marriages and divorce for their slaves, and the offspring of two slaves would become slaves in turn. It was common for slave owners to claim sexual services of married female slaves when the slave husband was away for long periods of time, to hunt for pearls or fish or similar labor, and sexual abuse was a common reason given when female slaves applied for manumission at the British Agency. The number of female slaves in the Gulf was as high or higher than that of male slaves, but the number of female slaves who made applications for manumission at the British Agencies in the Gulf was significantly lower (only 280 of 950 documented cases in 1921–1946), likely because in the Islamic society of the Gulf, were women were excluded from wage labour and public life, it was impossible for a freedwoman to survive without a male protector. In 1924, the law prohibited the enslavement of white girls (normally Armenian or Georgian) on Kuwaiti territory, but in 1928 at least 60 white slave girls were discovered. ==Activism against slave trade==