ON our 16th day in Tanzania, we visited Bagamoyo – a town of great history that will give the visitors an idea of how it must have been to live during colonial rule and during the slave trade in Africa.
This town and the people that used to live here experienced many hardships, but most of all must be the slavery that took place under the watchful eye of the colonialists, not so long ago.
And during the trip to this place of history, we saw many things that could teach us much of the colonial times.
In Bagamoyo, we met with our guide for the day, Tobias, a knowledgable and talkative man that could teach us much about the history of Bagamoyo.
Together with him, we first visited the museum and the town, which held much wisdom, history and artifacts from the colonial era; then we visited the great coralstone church in which we could see old windowpanes and a metal rooster adorning the highest tower imported from France.
We also visited Livingstone Tower, which once held the body of the missionary Livingstone, but even more exciting is that this tower was once the first church in mainland East Africa. Having such a building still standing gives great credit to the historicality of Bagamoyo.
We learned many things while in the old quarters of Bagamoyo, both of the hardships the colonialists put on the people living in Africa but also of the occupation by German and British colonialists.
Just to be able to read up on the place even more, I even bought three books to learn more about Bagamoyo and its history.
After seeing the great town and the old quarters, we went to the beach and the fishmarke, a very lively place where a plethora of fish was being sold – Red snapper, Kingfish, Barracuda and more. We even bought some small fried Barracudas that tasted most excellent.
Visiting the town of Bagamoyo was of great informal and historical value and a truly exciting experience.
