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THE ATMOSPHERE OF BAGAMOYO
The sleepy atmosphere of Bagamoyo hides a history of prosperity, wealth and wonderful tales, but also sufferings and tragedy.

In a way, all this is expressed in the name Bagamoyo, which means something like "lay down the burden of your heart" or "be quiet my heart". This can both be interpreted as the forlorn cry of the slaves leaving their home country and the exclamation of the relived caravan porters reaching their destination.

Bagamoyo gained its name in the caravan days when the streets where dense with people and merchandise. Then it was only possible to move in the streets with difficulty and now and then caravan porters tripled the town population. Ships from distant ports where a common sight in the harbour and the shops were filled with exotic goods.

A MIX OF CULTURES AND PEOPLE
Bagamoyo has always been a town of mixed cultures and people. Although the cultures did not blend, they did exercise a strong influence on each other. This is noticeable in the eclecticism of the stone town buildings.

Arabs and Indians were businessmen while the African population worked at the plantations and salt mines or as fishermen. Many different African tribes came to Bagamoyo because of the caravans. First as porters and later, at the abolishment of the slave trade, the freed slaves choose not to return inland.

For the immigrants, Bagamoyo was a town of possibilities. The resourceful could create wealth and consequence for themselves. The buildings of the stone town with their elaborately carved wooden doors give evidence to this.

The person who made the greatest impact on the town was Sewa Haji. He was a shrewd Indian businessman with enterprises in both Zanzibar and Bagamoyo. He owned many estates along India Street, and in Bagamoyo as a whole. These were donated to the German government in 1896. His greatest contribution to the township was his donation of the first multi-racial school in Tanganyika. He also donated a number of public wells to the town.

THE SLAVE TRADE JUNCTION
Bagamoyo was the ending point of a major slave trade route that began in the Lake Tanganyika area. It was mainly Arabs who participated in the eastern slave trade, which continued long after the official abolition in 1873.

Livingstone wrote about the slave trade that "to overdraw its evils is simply not possible". Slaves were obtained by kidnapping, incitement of tribal conflicts and by purchasing prisoners of war or tribal members from the chiefs.

Villages were regularly destroyed and crops burnt. Bagamoyo gained twice from the slave trade; the town expanded not only because of its commercial magnetism but also from the African tribes that fled famine and conflicts along the slave trade route.

The sight of slaves was shocking. In Bagamoyo, lines of several hundreds of people chained together from neck to neck were probably not uncommon. Sometimes they were also gagged by a piece of wood. When reaching the coastal towns they were herded into pens. Many were a poor sight after three months of ill treatment and abuse along the slave trade routes. Livingstone calculated that for every slave who reached the coast, ten did not.