Our anniversary trip

For our 39th anniversary, we visited the historical town/port of Bagamoyo. It is an old port dating back to the 13th century (Arabs and Indians) and later became a major port and the German capitol of German East Africa.  It was a terminus for caravans from the interior - ivory and slaves. The local museum has a lot of information about the slave trade, but the major mainland port may have been farther south.  Slaves went from the coast to the island of Zanzibar where there was a large slave market.  I will send you photos from there is a couple of weeks.

A neck shackle  was one type of slave restraint.  The other was attaching one slave to another by tying the necks of the slaves to the fork of a branch as seen in the drawing.

This chain was used to attach to the neck shackle.

The last known survivor of slavery in TZ. Died in 1974! The slave trade was finally outlawed by the British, but existed as an underground human trafficking trade for another couple of decades.  They finally caught the last of the slave traders in the sea cave where they plied their trade.  I told you it was underground.

Sewa Haji was an Indian businessman/philanthropist who built/donated multiple community buildings including a hospital that later moved south to Dar es Salaam and is now the big national hospital, Muhimbili Hospital.

19th century German government buildings still exist.

Slave "quarters" at the toll house.

Cannon from the Portuguese era 16th to 18th centuries that were still used by the Germans as late as 1905.

This tower is all that remains of the first German Lutheran church in Bagamoyo.  Dr David Livingstone, medical missionary, explorer, slavery abolitionist and of "Dr Livingstone, I presume." fame died in present day Zambia from malaria and dysentery.  His heart was buried under a tree where he died and the rest of him was embalmed and carried by porters 1000 miles back to Bagamoyo where he laid in state in this tower then made his last expedition to Westminster Abbey where he currently resides.

19th century water purification system.  Water is placed in the stone basin, percolates through the porous stone and drips into a bucket underneath.  I use this same technology in my house in Arusha today.  The materials are newer.  Stainless steel didn't exist then.  The basic technology is the same.

There is a bustling, aromatic fish market on the beach.  Fish is sold fresh or cooked.  Here are these little fishies being deep fried.  The crunchy final product is eaten whole.  Heads, fins, bones - the whole thing. Place your orders now and I can bring some back for you.

Don