Bagamoyo

13th Century Kaole Ruins at Bagamoyo

Last Sunday, the team went for an excursion to Bagamoyo, an old, quiet town that was once a center for slave trading. We first explored the Kaole Ruins, where still stands a mosque built in the 13th century when the Shirazi from Persia dominated the area. Among the ruins were 22 tombs. Just a few meters from the ruins was the area where Dr. Livingstone landed as he began his mission to heal the "open sore of the world," - slavery. Before we left the area, we posed for pictures under a giant baobab tree. It was said to be 500 years old so it was there way before many of the Europeans arrived in East Africa.

Driving a few kilometers north,we finally entered the center of Bagamoyo. We were welcomed by an imposing boma, a fortified structure build during the German period. The guide showed us a tiny room where 25 slaves at a time were kept with little light and ventilation. He also pointed to the long chains that were used to pull the slaves who all had a big metal chain around the neck fastened to the longer chain. We walked towards the sea and we saw a monument where once stood the gallows used by the Germans to hang dissidents. A few meters away, I saw the Indian Ocean for the first time. In the distance, we could see the dhows, fishing boats with triangular sails that have been plying this route for centuries.

A few kilometers away, we saw more pictures and artifacts about slavery at the Catholic mission in Bagamoyo. The mission acted as a refuge for rescued slaves. A plaque marks the spot where Dr Livingstone's remains where kept for one night before they were sent home to Scotland. We ended the day at the slave port. Right before the port was a fish market where we saw the vendors deep frying fish in large pans filled with boiling oil. Some of them were exasperated at tourists taking photos so we kept our cameras away. At the port itself, we saw nothing more than an enclosure and a small stone jetty.

I imagined the plight of the slaves. I saw a man thinking of his beautiful wife and two small children while busily tending his livestock when the slaver suddenly arrives with a gun. He and his friends are tied to a long chain and they march from the interior of Africa for nine months with just enough food and water to survive. At certain towns they are made to carry heavy elephant tusks to be sold as ivory. After marching for nearly a year, they are herded to the tiny room in the boma where they stay for two days. Several of them die from the ordeal. Hungry, tired, and weak, they are chained once more and dragged to the slave port where they catch a glimpse of the sea for the first time in their lives. As they stagger at the vastness of the ocean and as they see the dhows waiting to carry them to the slave market at Zanzibar, they realize this is the end of life as they know it - all hope escapes them. Many of them exclaim, "I lay down my heart," - Bwaga-Moyo. Such is the painful story of hundreds of thousands behind the name Bagamoyo.

#IBMCSC Tanzania 10

Dhows at the former slave port