Meanwhile, Bargash bin Said, with great power firmly in his grasp, began his first experience in administration.
He declared himself First Regent of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, acting with full authority on behalf of Sultan Majid bin Said in handling all national affairs.
"Slavery is evil. His Majesty Sultan Majid bin Said was beguiled by treacherous men into implementing this backward institution, despised by the civilized world, in Zanzibar. It will inevitably hinder the Sultanate of Zanzibar from joining the civilized world and obstruct Zanzibar's development..."
In short, according to Bargash bin Said, the Sultanate of Zanzibar's practice of slavery was a great reversal of history, an evil too vast for all the bamboo slips in the world to record.
"In view of the above, I hereby declare that, effective immediately, the Sultanate of Zanzibar shall abolish slavery and prohibit all slave trading within its territory."
The moment Bargash bin Said finished speaking, the Zanzibari ministers below immediately grew anxious.
"Your Excellency the Regent, this must absolutely not be done! This would shake the very foundations of the Sultanate of Zanzibar."
"Your Excellency the Regent, Zanzibar's prosperity depends entirely on the slave trade. If slave trading is prohibited, Zanzibar's economy will suffer a devastating blow."
"Zanzibar is a poor, small country. If we abandon the slave trade, we will be binding our own hands and feet. This so-called civilized world is nothing but a fantasy. We hope Your Excellency will place the national interest first and not tear down the Great Wall with your own hands."
The ministers all spoke at once in defense of slavery. Zanzibar had risen through the slave trade, and these ministers were themselves major slaveholders who had reaped enormous profits from it.
Although Majid bin Said had become rather muddle-headed in his later years,