Sidi Mubarak Bombay - From History Dispatches

The Explorers Podcast

Matt Breen

Society & Culture, History, Education

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is an ad-free, bonus episode from History Dispatches. Sidi Mubarak Bombay grew up a slave - taken from his home in Africa to India. But that didn't stop him from being one of the most accomplished explorers and travelers of Central Africa. Over a period of 20 years, Bombay traveled with some of the most famous African explorers, including Richard Francis Burton, Henry Morton Stanley, David Livingston, and Richard Speke. This a look at his extraordinary his life. This episode does not replace the regular schedule of Explorers Podcast episodes. A new regular episode will be out next week. History Dispatches is a new daily history show hosted by Explorers Podcast creator Matt Breen and his son, McKinley Breen. The show covers people, places, events and even objects from throughout history. The show offers short, fun and easily digestible bits of history goodness. History Dispatches comes out every weekday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:07.2	Hello everyone, this is Matt. I have a little ad-free bonus episode for you. I was working on a
0:13.3	story for my new show History Dispatches, and after I finished this, I thought it would be a
0:17.8	great thing to share with fans of the Explorers podcast.
0:23.1	The story is about City Mubarak Bombay.
0:26.5	You may remember him from my series on Richard Francis Burton.
0:30.6	Bombay was the caravan guy who helped Burton and John Hannings speak,
0:34.2	find Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile.
0:36.2	He was a rather amazing man.
0:38.3	He had been taken into slavery as a boy and sent to India. He had been freed after 20 years and returned to Africa, where he became a
0:44.1	master at running a caravan. Richard Francis Burton called him a jewel. Bombay would go on to be a part
0:50.3	of four major expeditions in Central Africa and was a part of the team that did the first
0:54.9	documented expedition across the continent. It is not an exaggeration to say that he, perhaps more than
1:00.5	anyone, was critical to the mapping of Central Africa. Anyhow, this is a short fun episode where I tell
1:06.5	you the story of City Mubarak Bombay's life. I thought you would like it, and to be honest,
1:12.6	it's a great way to show off my new podcast.
1:17.4	So please give it a listen, and I hope you check out other episodes of History Dispatches.
1:18.7	So thank you again.
1:23.0	Now, here is the story of African explorer City Mubarak Bombay. Many of you probably recognize the great explorers of Africa,
1:32.0	Richard Francis Burton, Henry Morton Stanley, David Livingston, Richard Speak.
1:36.8	Yet there is one man who traveled with all of these people,
1:40.0	a man who grew up a slave and went on to become one of the most accomplished explorers and travelers of the African continent.
	...

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