Bagamoyo

Of all the towns of Tanzania’s coast, Bagamoyo is the most atmospheric. This ancient Swahili trading post was the last point reached by the expeditions of the slave trade, returning from regions as distant as Lakes Tanganyika or Victoria with their trains of miserable captives, chained together at the neck and dying along the wayside. The name of the town is said to mean ‘lay down your heart’, a reference to the despair of the slaves who were about to set sail from their homeland, never to return. Today’s Bagamoyo is a sleepy fishing village boasting some attractive old buildings, a church and some 13th century temple ruins, the legacy of the Omani slave traders who made the town their home.