29/10/2021
A traditional sailing boat, or "dhow" (also known as "Jahazi") lies at anchor off the beach of Bagamoyo in Tanzania, rolling in the swell of the tide and the rising of the full moon.
We had just arrived at the coast after a 10 hour drive inland, to be greeted by the warm sand and sea as the sun went down. Bagamoyo is a town a little north of Tanzania's main city, Dar es Salaam, and was the primary exit port for the slave trade leaving the East African coast and heading to the slave markets on the island of Zanzibar.
The name of the town can be translated as "lay down your heart", which could be a reference to the captured slaves laying down all hope as they were removed from the only continent they'd ever known, over a body of water so vast they could never have imagined it.
Now, Bagamoyo is a modest historical town, but at its pomp it was a major centre of trade and exploration into the heart of Africa. Many of the early European explorers set out from Bagamoyo into the unknown. David Livingstone's body was returned to England from Bagamoyo, although his heart was buried in Africa.
I have always found the stories of the past to be especially powerful and poignant in Bagamoyo, although for many, the daily rhythms of life go on as they always have — triangular sails rising at dawn, boats filling with cargo and passengers clamouring on the beaches; or heading out to fish, and later in the day, returning to sell their catch.
