Tippu Tip

Tippu Tip (1837 - 1905), real name Hamed bin Mohammed el Marjebi, was a Zanzibari trader, plantation owner and governor. Working for a succession of sultans of Zanzibar, he led many trading expeditions into east-central Africa, sometimes involving slave trade.

Tippu Tip met and helped several famous western explorers of the African continent, including Henry Morton Stanley. Between 1884 and 1887 Tip claimed the Eastern Congo. In 1887, he was named governor of Stanley Falls District in the Congo Free State.

He died in 1905 in his home in Stone Town, the main town on the island of Zanzibar.