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Bagamoyo is a wonderful place with a
rich heritage and present day artist
community rivalling that of any town in
East Africa. The whole town has a
population of about 30,000, a small
proportion of which live within the
remaining stone town area, which runs
along the beach front looking out east
into the Indian Ocean.
The main attraction to the town today is
the College of Arts, where students come
from all over East Africa (and
internationally) to advance their skills
and knowledge in a variety of artistic
mediums. As well as the College, there
is a well-known sculpture school and
several art-school establishments run by
prominent Tanzanian artists, the Baobab
Studio being one.
Tourism exists as a staple of the
Bagamoyo economy. The artistic community
acts a a pull to tourist and the
tourists provide income to the artistic
community. This reciprocal relation is
crucial to the success of Bagamoyo and
its thriving arts culture, as defined by
the creative people at the heart of the
town.
HISTORY
Bagamoyo has a colourful and at times
turbulent past: of fishermen and
farmers; of traders, explorers and
travellers; of slaves, their captors and
owners, and of the succeeding waves of
colonialists that preceded the founding
of the independent African nation of
Tanzania in 1961. The etymology of the
name 'Bagamoyo' is somewhat disputed,
but it is said the caravan porters
praised the town as Bwagamoyo— “to throw
off melancholy", while slaves lamented
it as Bagamoyo, Kiswahili for "crush
down your heart".
A small fishing village on the Tanzanian
coast some 70-km north of the capital,
Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo first gained
commercial prominence and its
multi-cultural nature during the late
18th- and early 19th centuries. The
Omani Arabs and Indian merchants
established Bagamoyo as a trade centre
on Africa's east coast. The Germans
subsequently made their presence felt,
establishing it as their commercial
centre and the administrative capitol of
German East Africa.
In addition to the Arab and German
trading centre for ivory, ebony, copra
and other natural resources, Bagamoyo
served as the mainland terminus for the
lucrative and brutal slave trade. At its
peak, an estimated 50,000 slaves per
year were taken from the African
interior to Bagamoyo for transhipment to
the slave markets and spice and clove
plantations of Zanzibar.
Numerous sites and buildings dating back
to these periods remain, remnants of a
troubled, yet rich, past, a history
peopled by Africans, Arabs, Indians and
Europeans.
Buildings in Bagamoyo’s Old Town with
beautiful, hand-carved wooden door
frames of Arabian and Indian design--
such as that of the Old Bagamoyo Tea
House-- offer glimpses of the town’s
former splendour...and the relative
luxury the traders’ were able to afford.
Remains of Bagamoyo’s past also include
the Old Fort, the first stone structure
built in the region. The fort was built
by A.S. Marhabi – most probably a
Shirazi arab - and was originally
fortified by the Omani Arab Sultan
Bargash. The Germans subsequently took
control of it, using it to defend the
East African coast during their tenure
as 19th-century colonial
rulers of German East Africa.
Other historical sites of interest are
the German Boma (see picture on left),
which was built in 1897 as the German
colony's central administrative office
and the residence of the German Colonial
Administrator.
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TANZANIA