The Enchanted Dagger

Tippu Tib was a real, actual person!  He lived in the later part of the 19th century and played an integral role in the colonialist politics of East Africa as a governor, plantation owner, Ivory collector and – pertinent to our little story – a slave trader.  He got his name from the sound that his machine guns made (tippu-tib-tippu-tib-tippu-tib)!!  Tib wasn’t a part of the original “Enchanted Dagger” story, of course.  I’ve never read the very first episode of “The Enchanted Dagger” from way back in 1940 something, but I know that Roger Chalmers’ father Henry had some sort of doings in Africa that earned him claim to the mystical blade.  Elaborating on this story and drawing upon the sordid history of colonization, it seemed like Tib would fit in there somewhere as a good regional partner who could assist the elder Chalmers in the accumulation of vast wealth by means of the exploitation of human and natural resources.