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Bagamoyo World Heritage Site

According to W. T. Brown, Bagamoyo An Historical Introduction (1970), destructive forces ruined Bagamoyo on several occasions. A hurricane destroyed most of the homes and the entire fishing fleet in 1872. The warfare between the Germans and the Bushiri ruined the town in 1889. Every time the town showed a remarkable rebuilding capacity. Once the wave of destruction was over the town's inhabitants returned to rebuild their homes. It was the tradition of Bagamoyo, to rebuild what had been destroyed.

W. T. Brown also describes how new town plans were drawn up in the late 1800's, and how the Germans erected a dozen new stone buildings. The main part of these was to be used as storage places, soldiers' quarters or administrative buildings.

A number of public buildings were constructed as well. At the National Archives in Dar es Salaam, plans of the old Market, which was built in 1897, and of the old Fish-market and the slaughterhouse from 1905 can be found. Tanganyika's first post office was opened in India Street in the late 19th century and it was still in use in 1995 when it was relocated to the southern outskirts of town. Bagamoyo kept on hoping for the future and in the late 19th century a group of Greek immigrants established the first European hotel. It was nicknamed the Grand Hotel.

In the late 1800's Bagamoyo hosted close to 10 000 permanent residents. Some 35 years later the population of Bagamoyo was, according to the Annual report of 1924, down to 4 000 people. Derelict and ruinous houses were torn down to make the appearance of the town less abandoned and to fight the malarial mosquitoes that flourished in the ruins

 

Bagamoyo eyes place on Unesco list

 

Bagamoyo District authorities in Coast Region say they are committed to ensuring that the former Bagamoyo slave trading post is listed as a world heritage site. Bagamoyo District Executive Director Peter Kamtunda said plans to have historic areas in the town recognised as world heritage sites were on despite the transfer of a number of government officials who were spearheading the campaign.

 

Speaking through the District Lands Officer, Juliet Mtobesya, Kamtunda said the Department of Antiquities of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in collaboration with the University College of Lands and Architectural Studies (UCLAS) were working to revitalize Bagamoyo and maintain dozens of ruins in and around the historic town. He said the department was charged with the task of following up the former slave trade route leading from Ujiji near Kigoma to Bagamoyo and maintenance of Bagamoyo ruins before a nomination file is sent to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) for listing at the heritage site.

 

Construction of a new bus terminus with the financial assistance of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) would begin in September this year, according to Kamtunda. He said his office was going through applications from four contractors who had applied to undertake the construction work. Plans to list Bagamoyo as a Unesco World Heritage Site came up at an international meeting held in the town recently and sponsored by Sida. Bagamoyo was the major slave trading post in East Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. The name Bagamoyo was derived from the Kiswahili words bwaga moyo, which can be loosely translated into â??lay down your heartâ?, and was given to the town because it was the last place slaves would stay in Tanzania before being shipped off to foreign lands, according to legend. Early this month, the ruins of the great sea-ports of Kilwa Kisiwani and of Songo Mnara situated off the coast of Lindi Region were inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger by the 21-member World Heritage Committee.

 

 The committee took this decision in response to threats directed to the integrity of the site, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981. The ruins, which date from the 13th to the 16th century and testify to the portsâ?? position as a hub of the Indian Ocean trade in gold, silver, pearls, perfumes, arabian crockery, Persian earthenware and Chinese porcelain, are particularly affected by sea erosion, lack of maintenance that is leading to the collapse of buildings, inadequate management and demographic pressure.  

 

Source: The Guardian· "In the heart of Bagamoyo: The decoding of coastal town in Tanzania" By Anna Areskough and Helena Persson  · "Number of tourists will increase if..."By Thorsten Bothe (Guardian)