The first time we are introduced to Wazari is in The Return Of Tarzan, at the end of chapter fourteen. The jungle lord makes mainland Portuguese Angola after being thrown overboard from a passing ocean steamship. Amazingly, the French government secret agent finds himself at his father's cabin—where he was born twenty-two years earlier.
Shortly afterward, while hunting, the jungle lord rescues a native warrior named Busli from a lion just outside his village. The astonished tribesmen took in the white stranger showing him much gratitude. There the jungle lord was introduced to the very old Chieftain, whose name was also Waziri. His new acquaintances turned out to be fierce warriors and elephant hunters who collected and sold ivory.
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| Neal Adams |
In the early chapters of The Return of Tarzan, we learn that the ape-man has become a different person since leaving the jungle in 1892. The jungle lord left as a wild man and returned two years later as partially civilized. Now the half-civilized ape-man was aware of government law and the consequences of your actions. Before leaving the jungle when he saw a black native it was kill or be killed. It was that way because a native hunter killed Kala his foster ape mother. He was at war with the cannibal tribe of Mbonga from that day until the tribe was destroyed two years later by French soldiers.
Edgar Rice Burroughs described the Waziri as the greatest of African warriors, though their modern-day population was small. In times of old, they were feared by Arabic ivory and slave traders and cannibal tribes, and they were known from western to eastern Africa. All sounds good, but when one researches African native origins there is no such tribe as the Waziri in East or West Africa, If the Wazari is a fictitious tribe, where did Burroughs come up with the name?
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| Zdenek Burian |
It is of course possible that ERB simply made up the word, but that was not his normal way. The author had a humorous side and loved playing tricks like mixing reality and family genealogy into his fiction stories. Using the native tribe name Manyuema shows Henry Morton Stanley's, Through the Dark Continent, as a source. This and several other library books signed out by ERB in Chicago were believed to be used as a reference for the Tarzan series. Most likely Waziri is a wordplay from Stanley's book.
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| Thomas Yates |
For example, ERB informs us in his story that the native tribe Manyuema are cannibals and slavers. “About a year ago a small party of Arabs and Manyuema stumbled upon us, but we drove them off, killing many." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. In reality, the Manyuema are from East Africa but are neither cannibals nor slavers.
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| Thomas Yeates |
Many think ERB could have created the name Wazari through wordplay. I do not disagree with, or doubt this. I have written several articles in various ERB fanzines that show the trickster side of our favorite author. ERB: The Narrator, Beyond The Narrator, Comparing Narrator Notes, and ERB: Master Trickster.
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| Edgar Rice Burroughs |
Others believe it is possible that ERB invented the word "Wazari" based on two historical, factual African tribes. From Stanley's Through the Dark Continent, we learn that the notorious slaver, Tippu-Tib, who accompanied Henry Morton Stanley on part of his journey, employed the Wangwana (the name of the inhabitants of Uganda) and Wanyamwizi (from Tanzania) to gather up slaves.
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| Henry Morton Stanley meeting David Livingstone |
The Waziri were originally located in a West African nation that ERB left unnamed. Busuli, the warrior whom he had stalked to the village, told him many of the tribal legends—how, many years before, his people had come many long marches from the north; how once they had been a great and powerful tribe; and how the slave raiders had wrought such havoc among them with their death-dealing guns that they had been reduced to a mere remnant of their former numbers and power. ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| 1872 Africa |
After years of fighting off slavers, the Waziri population over time became dissipated. The day finally came when they were forced to leave their homeland while under attack. They fled south carrying whatever they could carry. “And they did as he bid, carrying all their belongings, including many tusks of ivory. For months they wandered, suffering untold hardships and privations, for much of the way was through dense jungle, and across mighty mountains, but finally they came to this spot, and although they sent parties farther on to search for an even better location, none has ever been found.” ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| N.C. Wyeth |
Checking the political climate of West Africa, we learn that Leopold II, King of Belgium, personally purchased what he named the Belgian Congo. He was accused for years of enslaving the local natives. Leopoid's slave accusations were the reason John Clayton I, was assigned to Southern Africa. The cannibal tribe of Mbonga was also originally from the Belgian Congo and was harassed so bad by the slavers that they also fled south into Portuguese Angola. ERB leaves the countries unnamed in his stories, but the descriptions make it quite obvious.
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| King Leopard II |
The Waziri and Opar are linked by a secret history. The Waziri were the only ones who knew the location of Opar before Tarzan arrived. After moving there the Waziri discovered a decaying city a month's hike through the jungle and into the high country. Long ago, the tribe's ancestors had raided the outskirts of the lost city for the gold they used for ornaments. ERB does not provide us with a date, but it was when old Chief Waziri's father Chowambi was still a young man. “No, but some of our people were there years ago when my father was yet a young man. ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. “Waziri, our chief, was there,” replied Busuli. “He was a very young man then, but he accompanied Chowambi, who was his father.” ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Milan Fibiger |
So that night Tarzan asked the Chief about it. “It is a long march,” replied Waziri, “and I am an old man, but if you will wait until the rainy season is over and the rivers have gone down I will take some of my warriors and go with you.” ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Richard M. Powers |
For weeks Tarzan lived with his savage friends, hunting buffalo, antelope, and zebra for meat, and elephant for ivory. He quickly learned their simple speech, native customs, and the ethics of their wild, primitive tribal life. He found that they were not cannibals—that they looked with loathing and contempt upon men who ate men. ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Zdenek Burne |
Burroughs often described them as "more civilized" than Tarzan himself because they cooked their food and had strict codes of honor, whereas Tarzan still preferred his meat raw and his laws primal.
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| Tarzan |
Before the exploration was put into motion the village was attacked by Arab and Manyuema slave raiders. By description, this was the same group from the first attack but this time much larger. “They are as many as the leaves of the forest,” cried one of the women, in attempting to explain the enemy’s force. “There are many Arabs and countless Manyuema, and they all have guns. ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
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| Sparky Moore |
Tarzan quickly takes charge, and the natives successfully prevent the burning of the village. Under the jungle lord's leadership, the natives drove the Arab raiders out of their village, ambushing them unseen one at a time from cover. Earning ultimate respect from the warriors, the natives made the newcomer Chief Waziri the leader of their tribe.
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| Sal Amendola |
After many exciting adventures, the rescuing of Jane, and marriage to the American girl, the jungle lord leaves Africa and the Waziri for England. Using the dates provided in my 1872 Timeline, Tarzan and Jane were married on June 28, 1895. The following morning Captain Dufranne and his French war steam cruiser set sail for civilization.
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| Russ Manning |
In The Beasts Of Tarzan, which occurs two years later in 1897, the Waziri do not appear as a tribe. The lord of the jungle meets a native warrior, Mugambi, chief of the Wagambi of Ugambi. The ape-man is so impressed with his manner that he invites the Chief to join the Waziri. Without ERB implying directly so, Mugambi must have because he appears in later episodes.
We discover that the British couple now has a toddler who was born off-stage and has no recorded birth date. By description, John Clayton III, (Jack Clayton/Korak) was approximately one year old.
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| Igor Kardey |
There is a ten-year passage between the events of The Beasts Of Tarzan which ends on October 27, 1897, and the beginning of The Son Of Tarzan, which begins on August 18, 1904, with Jeanne/Meriem's abduction. ERB provides us with no information about what happened between the two. Indirectly the author does, however. He reveals it through Jane's current attitude.
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| Frank Frazetta |
ERB made it very clear Jane had her fill of Africa in The Beasts Of Tarzan. In the opening of The Son Of Tarzan, she is clearly anti-anything to do with her husband's wild man past. She wanted her son to have no part in it either.
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| Thomas Yates |
When the English lord rescues fifteen-year-old Meriem from Malbihn, on August 14, 1911, we learn that he has a farm in Uziri, the homeland of the Waziri. This farm is located in British East Africa just east of Lake Victoria. There, he and Jane reside part-time during the light rainy season and part-time in England during the heavy rainy season.
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| Frank Frazetta |
In an 1872 timeline, there is no indication there was ever a Greystoke estate in Portuguese Angola. By story description, we know that Greystoke's British East African plantation was built before August 14, 1911. We also learn Jane has a change of heart about Africa because she is also present. Also, Meriem's father, General Armond makes a very questionable comment at the book's close. "The man's story led the Admiral to believe that the place where the white girl the Arab supposed to be my daughter, was held in captichronicles far from your Af,rican estates, and he advised that I come at once and call upon you -." ERB-The Son Of Tarzan. Note the word he used is is "estathe author ofestate". The plural use of the word estate implies the Greystokes had more than one African location.
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| The Son Of Tarzan |
In The Son Of Tarzan, the Waziri do not appear as a tribe. Individual members of the tribe do, however. One tribesman's name was Muviri. Many researchers feel this name is a misspelling of the name Muviro who appears in many later books. The character Muviri is mentioned this once only and never again.
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| Frank Frazetta |
I also agree that the name is misspelled and should read Murvio. An incident like this also occurs in The Eternal Lover. We are introduced to a child named Dackie (magazine version). The name was later corrected to Jackie in the book version. The name Dackie was used only once and was never referred to again. Jackie is directly tied to the Greystokes lineage and is frequently used.
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| J. Allen St. John |
The events of Tarzan And The Jewels Of Opar begin shortly after The Son Of Tarzan. Money is tight and the British Lord is financially forced back to Opar for a bailout. Traveling from British East Africa west to Portuguese Angola the new King Waziri and warriors return to their old stomping grounds. If the original Greystoke plantation and Waziri village still existed logic dictates Tarzan and warriors would have visited there before raiding Opar. Once leaving the lost city the group would be burdened with heavy gold.
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| Joe Jusko |
Shortly after exiting the Greystoke plantation and Waziri village, they have conflicts with Abyssinian soldiers from the north. This description is in agreement that the lost city of Opar is located in West Africa. The Waziri play a major role in this adventure.
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| Frank Frazetta |
In the West Africa days, they lived in their own village located between the British Lord's plantation and Opar. Now they were actually living on the plantation. Their Western tradition was hunters and warriors. Now some were so civilized that they cooked, cleaned, and worked as gardeners. In West Africa, they called the jungle lord "King Of The Waziri". They now call him "Big Bwana", and he calls them his children". "...and were the heart of the Big Bwana not filled with love for his black children. ERB-Tarzan And The Jewels Of Opar.
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| Neal Adams |
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| Joe Jusko |
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| Tarzan And Jane |
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| Joe Jusko |
By the beginning of Tarzan and the Golden Lion the Waziri survivors under the leadership of "Old Muviro" have reconstructed the main bungalow and other buildings destroyed in the war. We also learn a Waziri warrior named Usula was a survivor of the second plantation raid and was sent to London as a house servent to Tarzan and Jane. There he became fluent in English. Usula makes a second appearance in Tarzan And The Ant Men.
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| Robert Abbett |
In Tarzan And The Lost Empire, Muviro is portrayed as being a sub-chief of the Waziri under the lord of the jungle. "'Something is coming, Bwana,' said Muviro, sub-chief of the Waziri." ERB-Tarzan And The Lost Empire.
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| Tarxan |
The Waziri accompany the lord of the jungle to the inner earth named Pellucidar in Tarzan At The Earth's Core. They also play a role in its sequel, Back To The Stone Age without the ape-man. The Waziri also appear in Tarzan the Invincible, Tarzan Triumphant. and Tarzan's Quest. In the latter Muviro searches for his lost daughter Buira.
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| Neal adams |
In Tarzan the Magnificent, we are introduced to another Waziri warrior named
Waranji. He also makes a second appearance in the short story "Tarzan and the Champion," published in Tarzan and the Castaways.
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| Tarzan |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Over the past forty-five years, Moody has contributed over two hun ydred articles to various ERB-related fanzines. He also manages an unauthorized Tarzan blog titled Greystoke Chronologist: James Michael Moody. There, the researcher chronologies the Tarzan books starting in May 1872 (known as the pushback theory) instead of the more accepted date, May 1888.
James Michael Moody also authorizes the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022, and Swordsman On Unium, published on July 15, 2024.
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