You are here > Home > Towns  > Bagamoyo > Activities and Sites

Activities and Sites of Interest

 

The Kaole Ruins, located about five kilometers south of Bagamoyo, date back to the thirteenth century. The ruins comprise remnants of two mosques and several tombs, showing the importance of Islam in early Bagamoyo. All of the structures were built with coral stones. There is a small museum at Kaole Ruins.

 

The Roman Catholic Mission is a picturesque mission, and the oldest Roman Catholic Church in East and Central Africa. The first Catholic church was built in 1868. In 1874, Dr. Livingstone’s body stayed at the Catholic mission before being sent to England for burial. In the 1800s, Christian missionaries established a ‘Freedom Village’ at the mission to protect freed slaves.

 

Bagamoyo Art College (Chuo cha Sanaa) is the most famous art institute in Tanzania. Students come from all over the world to learn traditional Tanzanian drumming, sculpture, carving and painting. You can arrange to take a class or hear an African drumming performance at the college.

 

The official residence of the colonial governor was the German Boma. During German colonial rule, Bagamoyo was the capital of Tanzania. Although you cannot enter the building, you can walk around the outside.

 

Additional historical sites include the German Hanging Place, the site where the German colonial government hanged Africans who rebelled against the German colonial government in the late 1800s. The Mwanamakuka Cemetery's oldest tomb dates from 1793, representing the first evidence of a permanent settlement in Bagamoyo. Many colonial soldiers who were casualties in the Maji Maji Rebellion are buried in the German Cemetery. The cemetary is one hundred meters from the beach and is worth seeing if you are visiting the older Arab tombs or the Bagamoyo Art College.

 

 

Beach and Water Activities

 

From Bagamoyo it is possible to take boat trips to the Ruvu River Delta. From the boat you will see several species of mangroves and water birds. Hippos also swim in the Ruvu water and you'll catch glimpses of them along the shore and in the water.

 

The Bagamoyo Beaches are pristine, white sand beaches. All of the lodges are on the beach and Duma Explorer recommends viewing historical sites in the mornings, returning to the lodge for lunch, and relaxing on the beach during the afternoons.

 

Duma Explorer can arrange dhow trips to offshore sandbars. On the sandbar you will have several hours to relax or snorkel the surrounding reefs. Eat a picnic lunch before returning to the mainland.

THE BEACH

Every morning, at dawn, the beach is crowded with people engaged in the launching of the dhows, the fishermen's small sailing vessels. Because of the tide, it is sometimes a heavy work to drag the dhows through the sand and out into the water. A couple of times a week, a boat also leaves for Zanzibar. It is a long wait for its departure and the voyage is not particularly safe.

One by one the dhows leave the shore, sailing on the morning breeze, and after a while the activities lessen. The voices from the morning fade and finally die away over the ocean. The boats are visible on the horizon throughout the day and in the afternoon they return on the breeze, lying low in the water.

When the boats return, the activities increase again. In the small restaurants near the Fish Market, the fish is fried and the smell is spreading over the area. The commerce at the Fish Market is intense. Later, when the fishermen walk through town after a hard day's work, they are overloaded with equipment hanging on their shoulders. Some of them stay mending their boats on the beach. Other people sit in the shade at the Customs House chatting.

All through the day, the beach is used for transports. Women with heavy loads on their heads walk in water up to their knees. The beach seems to be a communication structure used almost to the same extent as the streets of the town. The tidal movements are large and during low tide the beach is several hundred meters wide while at high tide it is sometimes not more than a metre or two.

Sometimes people pass by on a bike and it happens that a tourist comes jogging. Men in suits are on their way from one historical monument to the next. At one occasion the entire beach was filled with dressed up children and parents. It must have been some sort of field day.


The information in Bagamoyo today is mainly gathered from the following sources:
Watson, T.N. Conservation of Bagamoyo. UNESCO. 1979.
Bagamoyo Development Proposal. University of Technology Delft. Erasmus University, Rotterdam. 1981.
Bagamoyo Township plan 1992-2012. Ardhi Institute. 1991.
East Africa. Lonely Planet Publications. 1997.
Kamamba, D.M.K. Bagamoyo Conservation and Development Plan. 1991.
Tanzania

The German colonial era in Tanganyika continued until the end of World War I, after which the League of Nations mandated Tanganyika to the British. After a period of neglect under the British protectorate, Tanganyika gained its independence in 1961 and Julius Nyerere became the country's first president. In 1963, Tanganyika and Zanzibar became Tanzania. Today's president, Benjamin Mkapa, was declared in 1995, and he is from the socialist party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM or "Party of the Revolution"), which has been ruling the country since 1961.

The official capital is Dodoma, but the government is seated in Dar es Salaam. The population is about 29 million and the population growth rate 3.1%. There are more than 100 tribal groups and minorities with Asian or European origin.
Tanganyika was always the poor cousin of the British colonial Kenya-Uganda-Tanganyika trio. The economy is still overwhelmingly agricultural. Sisal, a fibre plant used for cordage, is the leading export. Other cash crops are cloves, coffee, cotton, coconuts, tea, cashew nuts, and timber. Diamonds, gold, tin and mica are mined.

Even though Tanzania is a poor country, most children go to school for eight years and literacy is high. Introduction is in Swahili, English is second language, and they are both official languages.

The three biggest religions are Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism. The majority of the Muslims are concentrated along the coast and on the islands. Christianity is more widespread in the inland.