Bagamoyo

(Post from June 12, 2019)

Okay. Enough of the pleasantries.

We were dragging today.

We said goodbye to Reguli last night and left Morogoro with George this morning at 4am to beat the traffic. We arrived in Bagamoyo (a historic coastal town an hour or so north of Dar) just after sunrise and napped in the car until the sun baked us out of our sleep and into a little cafe for breakfast.

Right off the bat, I exercised very poor judgment in ordering coffee and hot peanut porridge—so was already sweating and still hungry just after breakfast—and things only went downhill from there.

(This was salt in the wound after watching Sam expertly order a 6-course breakfast complete with a mango-passion fruit smoothie, fresh tropical fruit cup, pancakes, a Vienna sausage (aka hotdog on a stick), a veggie omelette, potatoes and a spicy veggie medley, tea, and a Nutella iced coffee. So extra 💁🏻‍♀️)

We went to three different historical monuments around Bagamoyo, paying 3 separate entrance and guide fees. Frustration built as we began to see much of the same information repeated in each place and found ourselves paying for guides whose English we struggled to understand as we marched from site to site in the thick heat.

At one point, George intervened and even feigned extreme active listening, reflecting back almost every sentence the guide said in the form of a question so we could catch more of the content— a valiant face saving attempt for the guide, mostly for our benefit!

We were only one tour in when I sweated through my money belt and embarrassingly had to hand over damp bills to our various guides for the rest of the afternoon. It was that kind of day.

Raabble rabble.

First world problems.

Everything just seems worse when you’re hot. And sleep deprived.

But!

Before I continue to moan about the heat and lack of sleep, let me stop and acknowledge that the whole purpose of our visit to Bagamoyo was to learn about the city’s history—primarily, its central role as a main port in the East African slave trade.

Nothing like a little perspective to shut you up right quick!

We discovered we actually unknowingly traced the Central African ivory and slave trade routes in our travels. Many of the slaves were taken from the region of Tanga (the Usambara Mountains and Lushoto, where we first stopped) and also from Morogoro (along with ivory—those beautiful elephants we saw!), then brought to Bagamoyo. The town’s original name was Bwagamoyo, Swahili for lay down your hearts, signifying the place where slaves could abandon all hope.

From Bagamoyo, slaves were brought to Zanzibar (also our next stop on the trip!) to either work on the island’s coconut and clove plantations or be sold at the slave market in Zanzibar. They may be shipped on to Arabia, Persia, India, South Africa, Mauritius, or French-occupied Reunion Island (ring a bell?) for slave labor. The whole trade was first orchestrated by the Arabs, with the help of slave poachers who were mainly from different tribes around (what is present-day) Tanzania.

One of the museums included some pretty haunting artifacts—original chains and shackles that were used on slaves.

I know we learn about the slave trade a lot in school, but to me it always seems in somewhat abstract terms; we don’t seem to emphasize the human experience of it as much as we do, say, the holocaust. Seems like we are in the right places to learn more.

It was a heavy day, but I think it was the perfect precursor to our next stop: Zanzibar!

It was hard saying goodbye to both George and Reguli — their hospitality has been overwhelming, and their thoughtful planning, generous attention, and anticipation of our every need has left us jaw-dropped and grateful beyond words.

The training wheels are off for the next 12 hours as we stay in an AirBNB (that we booked ourselves like big girls!!) and make our way to the ferry from Dar to Zanzibar… then rendezvous with our next Mandela fellow friend, Francis!! We’ve been so coddled the last week, we’ve had to remind ourselves we are seasoned travelers who are quite capable of navigating foreign countries on our own. Game face. We got this!

P.S. My serious lack of photos taken today may also be an indicator of my energy level… so I’ll leave you with a few uplifting pics of breakfast and our hike to a waterfall our last day in Morogoro!