209 years ago today, Britain ARMED an African king. 🇬🇧 Muskets. Gunpowder. Ten thousand gun flints. Four hundred red coats. 💂 British sergeants to train his army. A salary in gold and silver, every year. 💰 Britain wanted him to win. 👑 Valley after valley. Chief after chief. Until two-thirds of Madagascar was under his rule. 🗺️ On purpose. 👀 Why? 🤔 Because on that island, chiefs raided villages and sold the people. To French slave ships. To Arab dhows. To other African kingdoms. ⛓️ Then they bought guns with the money. To raid more villages. 🔥 Guns for people. People for guns. 🔁 Britain had banned its own slave trade in 1807. But it couldn’t guard every beach on an island nearly a thousand miles long. 🌊 So a sergeant from Cork travelled 28 days, by canoe and on foot, to reach the king. 🛶 For two months they bargained. Then he made an offer nobody had authorised. 🤝 Every gun the slave trade gave the king, Britain would give him free. If he stopped selling people. ✋ On 23 October 1817, the king signed. Selling his people abroad would be punished by death. ✍️ Then Britain helped him take the island. Port after port, every one closed to the slave ships. ⚓ They teach you Britain profited from slavery. 📚 They never teach you how we got them to stop selling their own people. 🤫 Britain armed an African king. On purpose. 🇬🇧 Be part of us. ☝️🇬🇧 Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧