Charles Lavigerie mentions extensive ivory holdings in East Africa.
Charles Lavigerie, Oration of Cardinal Lavigerie at a Meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society, held in Prince's Hall, London, July 31, 1888 (London: British Anti-Slavery Society, 1888), in Robert Harms, Land of Tears: The Exploration and Exploitation of Equatorial Africa (New York: Basic Books, 2019), 329
Ivory . . . was abundant in the extreme [in East Africa], for no one had ever come to seek it so far. In certain provinces, such as Manyema, they found it in such enormous quantities that they used elephant tusks to fence in their gardens and make supports for their primitive huts. It was through ivory that the ruin of this unfortunate country began