HISTORY BOOKS, JOURNALS AND MUSEUMS document chilling accounts of millions of Africans who were shipped to the Middle East, India, Iran and the West as slaves.

In the Indian Ocean slave trade, Bagamoyo was a significant staging post. Its historical significance to both the slave trade and liberation struggle — it was also, much later, a staging port for freedom fighters from Southern African countries including the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo) — notwithstanding, Bagamoyo has no dedicated website or guidebook.

But that is set to change after Tanzania hosts the the fifth international African Diaspora Heritage Trail in October.

Bagamoyo (or Bwagamoyo — “leave your heart”) northeast of Dar es Salaam, was the last stop on the mainland for Arab slave traders and their human cargo where they were sorted into various units before being shipped to the Zanzibar slave market and then to their final destination in the West, Asia and the Middle East.

According to Noel Laswai, the curator of Caravan Serai, there are still two groups in Bagamoyo who do not agree on the consequences of the slave trade: Descendants of the slave owners and descendants of the slaves.

Mohamed Selemani, a descendant of slave owners, says that the trade was good as slave masters had to provide the slaves with houses, land, clothing and even had to arrange marriages for them.

On the other hand, Xavier Petro Sembamba, a descendant of slaves, says that to be a slave was a wretched existence.

“You could be sold at any time to anyone,” said Sembamba.

Many of the slaves who were set free were settled in six “Freedom Villages,” whose site now occupied by the Catholic Church, Catholic Museum and the famous secondary school, Marian Girls High School.

This was one of the self-governing communities that sprang up and now offers visitors a chance to experience a completely different side of the coastal town.

“Back in the 19th century, this used to be the main route of the slave trade,” said Said Jafferi Mchoro, whose house is close to the just renovated multiracial school Mwambao Shule donated to the town by one Sewa Haji.

THE GROUND FLOOR WAS used to educate Africans, the first floor used for Asians and Arabs and the second floor was for European only,” he said.
President Jakaya Kikwete is the most famous product of the school.

The coastal town is among the highlights of the official launch of Tanzania’s new heritage trail, “The Ivory and Slave Route.”

This route provides a first-ever journey to sites, towns and terrain retracing the Arab slave trade in Tanzania and East Africa where more than five million Africans were captured, enslaved and shipped out, many perishing before reaching their final destination.

Kaole, just south of Bagamoyo, earlier known as Pumbuji, was the first settlement of the Arabs in the 13th century. The ruins at Kaole include two mosques and 22 tombs. The tombs were built from coral stones.

Also to be found at Bagamoyo are the tower of the red-brick 1868 cathedral of the Roman Catholic Mission, the oldest in East and Central Africa dating back to 1868.

Indeed, Dr Livingstone’s body stayed at the Catholic Mission in 1874 before it was sent to England for burial. It passed through the Anglican Church, that stands today as a landmark. In the 1800s, Christian missionaries established a “Freedom Village” at the mission to protect freed slaves.

This small town has played various historical roles in Tanzania. Besides being a slave and ivory port, it was also the first capital of German East Africa in 1891. Explorers such as Henry Burton, Speke, Grant Livingstone and Stanley all passed through this town.

At the Mwembe Kinyongo, freedom fighters against the German colonialism in Tanganyika used to be hanged.

IT IS DUE TO THESE SIGNIFICANT historical sites that Tanzania decided to host the fifth international African Diaspora Heritage Trail in October in Dar es Salaam. This is the first time the conference will be convened in Africa.

The event, with the theme: “An African Homecoming: Exploring Origins of the Diaspora and Transforming Cultural Heritage Assets into Tourism Destinations,” will bring together people from all over the world in order to conserve, document and preserve the global presence and cultural influence of people of African descent, and contribute this knowledge to the world stage of history, culture and contemporary affairs.