SafariLands.org: History: History Told in Silent Walls

The town of Bagamoyo, Tanzania, was founded at the end of the 18th century. It was the original capital of German East Africa and was one of the most important trading ports along the East African coast. Today the town has about 30,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the District of Bagamoyo, recently being considered as a world heritage site.

It is here that the slave traders used to stay and from where they recruited porters before travelling to the interior to capture slaves and to obtain merchandise such as gold and horns through barter trade.

Caravans consisting of porters, slaves and the traders arrived in Bagamoyo through the central slave trade route and stopped at Caravan Serai before shipping the slaves off to the main slave market in Zanzibar. The central route started in Ujiji along the shores of Lake Tanganyika and stretched 1,000-plus km through Tabora to Bagamoyo.

Carnivorous animals would kill some of the porters while others died of hunger on the horrendous journey. But for those who made it to Bagamoyo after the yearlong trek, their arrival meant the beginning of a new life and time to forget the difficulties they had endured. Caravan Serai is where the town's original name"Bwagamoyo" was born - for it was here that the porters would "cast off heartaches" after the long, tortuous journey.

Initially the museum was situated at the Old Fort before it was transferred in early 2000 to where it now stands after the building was renovated that year. Before the government decided to buy the building because of its historical significance, Abdalla Saleh Aboud and his family owned it.

They had used it as a store for their agricultural produce before starting a milling business there.

"It was very important for the Antiquities department so they decided to buy it," explains Mkondo Shaali, a tour guide in Bagamoyo.

Upon their arrival from the interior, traders would keep their slaves outside the building together with the other goods they had collected in the interior. That is how the name Caravan Serai came about, according to Shaali.

He says"Serai" in Persian means a big building where animals and goods are kept. Arab traders used local chiefs directly or indirectly in carrying out their businesses. They paid taxes to the chiefs (Kodi Hongo) to be allowed to enter and raid their towns to capture slaves. Some chiefs sold their people to the traders in exchange of firearms.

The museum has four main rooms. The first room has information (pictures and maps) relating to the history of slave trade and the central slave route. In the second room, you will learn about the German occupation and the buildings they built in Bagamoyo as well as the cheap labour they recruited to use on their plantations. The room has the pictures of the Boma, the first German colonial government administration headquarters. There is also a"kibaba" which was used for measuring the volume of liquids in those days.

There is also a jar and pots in a glass cabinet, which Shaali says were used for keeping money. "Money would be put in the tin and the tin would be buried for safety. This shows the importance of saving which people knew even in those days."

There is a"freedom" certificate in one of the cabinets that the German colonial government used to give to the freed slaves.

This room consists of pictures of old buildings in Bagamoyo such as the Old Fort and the Catholic mission.

In room three, there are findings by Professor Chami, an archaeologist at the University of Dar es Salaam from the excavation he did at Caravan Serai in 2001 in order to find out the background of the site as a slaves store.

However, despite its resource, according to Shaali, the number of local tourists visiting the museum is still very small compared to that of international tourists.

"It is very rare to see a local tourist visiting this place but I think the reason could be that historic sites are not marketed to the locals. Some don't come because they don't see the significance," he said.

At Sh3,000 as entry fee for local tourists and Sh15,000 for a guided tour, the historic sites are priced to enable Tanzanians to visit them. On the other hand, foreign tourists are charged Sh5,000 to visit the museum and Sh20,000 as guide fees. Each site has its own cover fee but in both cases, the money paid to the guides covers a complete tour of all sites in Bagamoyo town.

It is on weekends that the museum receives some local tourists but even then these are usually pupils or students on study tours.

According to Shaali, the museum at the Catholic Mission got 45,000 visitors in 2006 while less than 11,000 tourists visited in 2001.

Just before I got into Caravan Serai, I met Japhet Mwaja who works in Bagamoyo as a prison warden. It was his second visit and he had come with his two children aged 11 and 7. He said he was delighted to have seen the things he read about in primary school. He still has to visit the National Museum in Dar es Salaam but right now, he feels pleased to have finished with the Bagamoyo sites

His eleven-year-old daughter Violet Japhet who is a standard five pupil at Mwembe Saba Primary School was looking forward to seeing where slaves were kept and what the slave trade generally entailed. It was raining but it didn't deter them.

It is not only museums that you will find in Bagamoyo. There is the Livingstone Memorial Church, the Old Fort, the Germany Cemetery, the Kaole Ruins and many other sites. So make it a date to go and see - and learn history.

If you are planning to visit the historic town of Bagamoyo this weekend, here is one place you should add on your to-do list: the Caravan Serai Museum in Stone Town.

To start with, the building in which the museum is housed is as old as Bagamoyo itself. It is here that the slave traders used to stay and from where they recruited porters before travelling to the interior to capture slaves and to obtain merchandise such as gold and horns through barter trade.

Caravans consisting of porters, slaves and the traders arrived in Bagamoyo through the central slave trade route and stopped at Caravan Serai before shipping the slaves off to the main slave market in Zanzibar. The central route started in Ujiji along the shores of Lake Tanganyika and stretched 1,000-plus km through Tabora to Bagamoyo.

Carnivorous animals would kill some of the porters while others died of hunger on the horrendous journey. But for those who made it to Bagamoyo after the yearlong trek, their arrival meant the beginning of a new life and time to forget the difficulties they had endured. Caravan Serai is where the town's original name"Bwagamoyo" was born - for it was here that the porters would "cast off heartaches" after the long, tortuous journey.

Initially the museum was situated at the Old Fort before it was transferred in early 2000 to where it now stands after the building was renovated that year. Before the government decided to buy the building because of its historical significance, Abdalla Saleh Aboud and his family owned it.

They had used it as a store for their agricultural produce before starting a milling business there.

"It was very important for the Antiquities department so they decided to buy it," explains Mkondo Shaali, a tour guide in Bagamoyo.

Upon their arrival from the interior, traders would keep their slaves outside the building together with the other goods they had collected in the interior. That is how the name Caravan Serai came about, according to Shaali.

He says"Serai" in Persian means a big building where animals and goods are kept. Arab traders used local chiefs directly or indirectly in carrying out their businesses. They paid taxes to the chiefs (Kodi Hongo) to be allowed to enter and raid their towns to capture slaves. Some chiefs sold their people to the traders in exchange of firearms.

The museum has four main rooms. The first room has information (pictures and maps) relating to the history of slave trade and the central slave route. In the second room, you will learn about the German occupation and the buildings they built in Bagamoyo as well as the cheap labour they recruited to use on their plantations. The room has the pictures of the Boma, the first German colonial government administration headquarters. There is also a"kibaba" which was used for measuring the volume of liquids in those days.

There is also a jar and pots in a glass cabinet, which Shaali says were used for keeping money. "Money would be put in the tin and the tin would be buried for safety. This shows the importance of saving which people knew even in those days."

There is a"freedom" certificate in one of the cabinets that the German colonial government used to give to the freed slaves.

This room consists of pictures of old buildings in Bagamoyo such as the Old Fort and the Catholic mission.

In room three, there are findings by Professor Chami, an archaeologist at the University of Dar es Salaam from the excavation he did at Caravan Serai in 2001 in order to find out the background of the site as a slaves store.

However, despite its resource, according to Shaali, the number of local tourists visiting the museum is still very small compared to that of international tourists.

"It is very rare to see a local tourist visiting this place but I think the reason could be that historic sites are not marketed to the locals. Some don't come because they don't see the significance," he said.

At Sh3,000 as entry fee for local tourists and Sh15,000 for a guided tour, the historic sites are priced to enable Tanzanians to visit them. On the other hand, foreign tourists are charged Sh5,000 to visit the museum and Sh20,000 as guide fees. Each site has its own cover fee but in both cases, the money paid to the guides covers a complete tour of all sites in Bagamoyo town.

It is on weekends that the museum receives some local tourists but even then these are usually pupils or students on study tours.

According to Shaali, the museum at the Catholic Mission got 45,000 visitors in 2006 while less than 11,000 tourists visited in 2001.

Just before I got into Caravan Serai, I met Japhet Mwaja who works in Bagamoyo as a prison warden. It was his second visit and he had come with his two children aged 11 and 7. He said he was delighted to have seen the things he read about in primary school. He still has to visit the National Museum in Dar es Salaam but right now, he feels pleased to have finished with the Bagamoyo sites

His eleven-year-old daughter Violet Japhet who is a standard five pupil at Mwembe Saba Primary School was looking forward to seeing where slaves were kept and what the slave trade generally entailed. It was raining but it didn't deter them.

It is not only museums that you will find in Bagamoyo. There is the Livingstone Memorial Church, the Old Fort, the Germany Cemetery, the Kaole Ruins and many other sites. So make it a date to go and see - and learn history.