Bagamoyo

On Sunday we went up to the town of Bogamayo about 60kms north of Dar Es Salaam. We were driven by the young lad who usually drives the Papal Nuncio to Tanzania. He gave up his Sunday rest day to take two middle aged women out for the afternoon – some commitment and dedication!

Bagamayo  (according to the Bradt Guide on Tanzania) ‘ranks among the most historically  compelling towns in East Africa’.  In the 19^th century it was the main terminus for the slave trade from East Africa to Zanzibar and then on to the Middle East. We particularly went to visit the Catholic museum which is part of a compound started by the Holy Ghost fathers in the late 1860s. At first the missionaries lived side by side with the slave traders, but then when the slave trade was being abolished the missionaries ransomed slaves and allowed them to live free within the compound. In the records, that can be seen in the museum, there were children as young as 6 and 8 who had been freed as slaves.

This Catholic compound was also the place that Livingstone was brought to, in 1874 from Zambia where he died. His body was sundried (like fish!) after all the internal organs had been removed and then carried the thousands of miles to Bagamayo: this took nine months. The body was placed for one night in the tower of the church and since then it is known as Livingstone tower and although the church has long since been knocked down and rebuilt on a different site, the tower still stands in remembrance of this event. Perhaps, on my return I should  go and see his body in Westminster Abbey having never done so before?!