Mr Johnston’s forces defeated the self-styled “Sultan” Mlozi in 1895, and the following year Britain compelled the Sultan of Zanzibar to end the slave trade after a conflict lasting just 45 minutes, the shortest recorded war in history.Several forts erected during this campaign, including Fort Johnston, Fort Lister, and Fort Mangochi, are now earmarked for Unesco submission as part of a proposed “slave heritage route.”The Malawian project also tackles a frequently avoided dimension of the slave trade: the central role played by African leaders themselves in capturing and selling their own people.Dr Malijani said: “There is a misconception that slavery started at the coast, like the coast of Ghana, for example, but the history of slavery did not start there at the coast,”It began much closer inland, in African communities where people were captured. What about the African leaders that were involved in slavery?”