Ian's Tanzania Blog: Powerful Tour - Tanzania Slave Trade

Sunday started with morning meeting with Theophilus Mlaki (DOT, Senior Advisor) sharing more detail on our hosts, Tanzania and expected work products. We were given about 10 days perdiem in Tanzanian shillings and at 1500 to $1 Cdn dollar... that is a lot of shillings! The fellow on the bike/cart happened to pull up just as I snapped the picture of a local fast food restaurant. We also stopped at a mall to load up the cell phones we were given for use during our stay with cell phones.

Some interesting sights from the bus on the road to the town of Bagamoyo our main destination. Many many markets, some vehicle mishaps, and accommodation.

Bagamoyo ... the original capital of German East Africa and one of the most important slave trading ports along the East African coast. We visited remnants of mosques and tombs dating back to the 13th century, showing the importance of Islam in early Bagamoyo times. Bagamoyo is being considered as a world heritage site. It's history has been influenced by Indian and Arab traders, by the German colonial government and by Christian missionaries. We saw a prison used during the slave trade and colonialism... and visited the ocean port where slaves were boarded, sailed first to Zanzibar and then to India, South African, other coastal locations and beyond. Bagamoyo means "Lay Down Your Heart" .. and after a visit it is very apparent why. Sad... powerful and sad.

Today's "working" boat hauling potatoes... strong strong men carrying those 100 Kilo pound bag of potatoes off to Zanzibar.

I took along a few nominal items to give to my new friends along the way ... including this little guy with his new red balloon.

I suspect Phillip Mogendi, DOTs Programme Manager, and the IBM teams coordinator on the ground, was happy to see jam packed day of looking after 15 IBMers come end.