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BAGAMOYO
BAGAMOYO
THE HISTORICAL TOWN PART 2
Moiz Husein
ATTRACTIONS CONT...
THE OLD POST OFFICE
The old post office in the stone town was the first post office and telegraph station in the former Tanganyika. It was built by Sewa Haji, an influential Indian businessman, in the late 1800s as a tailor shop and shortly after rebuilt to house and then post office. It maintained that function for almost hundred years until a new post office was built. Today the building is a residential.
THE CUSTOM HOUSE
The northern symmetrical wing was built between 1888-1889 and later was built the southern symmetrical wing in 1895 and collapsed to remain only a ruin. This building was built by the Germans to facilitate commercial transactions and tax collection. This building just sitting on the sand bay of Bagamoyo is a real representative of the German architecture towards the end of nineteenth century. It is the only building, which can be used to relocate the last point of the trade mode on the mainland. It is a building, which symbolizes the location of the historical harbour. Infront of Custom house there is German storehouse which was built in 1888 to 1889 by the Usagara company used to store goods brought from the interior and ready to transport to Zanzibar
SEWA HAJI SCHOOL / MWAMBAO SCHOOL
In 1896 Sewa Haji, an influential businessman, built this three storey interracial school in the heart of Bagamoyo. The school is one of the many social facilities provided by Sewa Haji in the late 1800. The building was expanded in three different stages, and the entrance was moved to the opposite side but the use of the building has not changed since the start. Today parts of the building are not in use because of the poor condition. The School Square in front of the building is an urban mode remaining in stone town. Here several roads intersect and the various public function bring people to meet
THE CROSS-BY THE SEA
It marks the sport where Father Antoine Horner of the French Holy Ghost Fathers first stepped ashore from Zanzibar in 17th June 1868 to establish the first Roman Catholic church on the East African mainland. Monument is in green marble surmounted by a cross.
CATHOLIC PARISH OF BAGAMOYO
Christianity came to East Coast of sub-Sahara Africa with the Portuguese in the 16th century but it was soon lost over a 400 years period of Arab domination. It has not until 1863 that Christian missionaries came again to this part of Africa in the persons of Spiritans from Alsace Lorranie.
Five years later they were on the mainland, having been given land by the Sultan of Zanzibar.
Spiritan missionaries established the first Catholic Parish in East African mainland on 17th July 1868.
Honored by the Roman Catholic Church as the mother of all parishes in east Africa. The historic catholic parish of Bagamoyo was a focal point both in the late 19th century drive to abolish the African slave trade and the European exploration of the African interior, including the celebrated search of the Nile.
Missionaries sent by Bishop Armand Maupoint from St. Denis / Reunion island east of Madagascar to fight slavery led by Father Superior Anthony Horner, the missionaries began to ransom the slaves and resettling them in village in which they could live in some human decency, carrying on the efforts began by the RC order initially on the islands of St Denis / Reunion and, in 1860, on the neighboring island of Zanzibar. The village was called " Christian Freedom Village". During a decade the church saw at least half a million slaves pass through the town after capture in the interior.
At the village the freed slaves received elementary school tuition as well as vocational training in area such as carpentry, blacksmithing and farming. These freed slaves became the first Christians and as the Spiritans moved inland, so did the Christians, other missionary order followed all coming through mission.
THE BAOBAB TREE
The Baobab tree is an old as the mission itself. The tree was planted in 1868 and has therefore a remarkable history.
Many stories are told about the tree but many more about the chain found below the tree near roots.
The only true story is: very soon the missionary sisters had started to take care of the sick, a hospital was built just behind the tree. The French nurse Madama de Chevalier, who was running a dispensary in Zanzibar from 1884 to 1895, came to Bagamoyo to help the sisters. She used to come to work riding a donkey. She fixed a chain to the tree to tie her donkey on it. When the tree grew thicker it swallowed more and more the chain.
Below is a chart showing how the tree grew, measures taken by German forest expert who was interested in the growth of the tree.
YEARS CIRCUMFERENCE IN METRES
1912 5.44
1927 6.80
1955 7.84
1991 10.20
2000 12.50
THE FIRST CHURCH / LlVINGSTONE MEMORIAL CHURCH
This is the tower of the very first Roman Catholic Church in East African mainland built in 1872. Originally intended to house children rescued from slavery, it quickly expanded to become a church school and a collection of workshop and farming projects.
The Missionaries used this building as a base to a camp of about 680 freed slaves, the base infrastructure used for the humanitarian function can still be seen at the perish. The architecture of this church is an Almagamated German Gothic with traces of strong medieval volumetric architectural composition. The church was later dismantled but the tower was kept.
On February 24th 1874 a group of African porter entered the compound of the mission. At the door of this tower all stood in reverent silence until one of the missionary showed up one of the porter told him “Mwili wa David”- The Body of David…
…At four on the morning of 1st may 1873, Dr David Livingstone, a famous British explorer and missionary was found kneeling by Abdullah Susi his servant by his bed. His body stretched forward and his head buried in his hands upon the pillow having died in prayer. Livingstone men behaved admirably. They made an inventory effects and packed them in tin boxes. There was general mourning and the servants fired volleys. They roughly embalmed the body, burying the heart. Jacob Wainwright, a Nassick boy read the burial service. The body then enclosed in a cylinder of bark and was enveloped in sailcloth and lashed to a pole, to be carried by two men. Abdullah Susi, James Chuma, Jacob Wainwright and others set out on a remarkable journey, which ultimately brought them to the coast carrying the body of their master spending nine months and travelling 1500km from Ujiji.
The Catholic fathers sent messages to the British authorities in Zanzibar and prepared a coffin. The body of Dr.Livingstone was kept in the church for one night of 24th to 25th February in the presence of about 700 ransomed slaves to whom Dr. Livingstone had devoted his life. The following morning the body was transported to Zanzibar and reached England on board the steamer HMS vulture on 18th April 1874 – a day of national mourning - Dr. Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Speke, Burton, Grant, Stanley, Peter and Wissmann all visited this church at one time or another.
THE FATHERS HOUSE
The ground floor of the Fathers house was built in 1873, close to the mother of all churches in East Africa.The first and second storey were built later in 1877 and 1903, with its cloistered verandah and arches. It has also fallen victim to the corrosive effects of the coast region relentlessly humid climate. The statue of the sacred heart was erected in 1887 in front of the Fathers house.
SISTERS HOUSE / MISSION MUSEUM
The mission museum s housed in the formerly known the Sisters house, ground floor having built in 1876, the first storey was built in 1896 and later verandah was added in 1916. It is a small museum, which displays history in relation to its contact with foreigners; it has old photographs, documents and relics from slave trade period. One intriguing exhibit is the uniform presented by H.A Schimit in 1965 and another is a beautifully written register of slaves freed by the mission with the names of each and the date of his baptism.
GROTTO
A small chapel also called Grotto of the blessed virgin was built in 1876 by the ex-slaves as a memorial or the expression of gratitude to the missionaries who had saved them in the center of the Christian freedom village with sign “Saumnus Maria picked out flowers”
MANTEP
Roman Catholic seminary 1870-1969
The statue of St. Joseph marks the site of the first catholic altar on the East African Mainland
THE NEW CHURCH
A new church was found in the mission in 1910 and completed in 1914. It was built of fine coral bricks. In 1919 a big cross was erected on the tower of the church with a weathercock on top. However in 1969 the cross fell down and is now erected at the main entrance of the church. The weathercock got a place in the museum.
THE CARAVAN SERAI
A courtyard, which has a single building at front and square two-storey building. This building stands as an evidence of foreign trade supremacy and commercial activities in Bagamoyo.Apart from accommodating travelers who engaged in the overseas to interior trading, there is evidence that this building was used by Arabs to accommodate slaves on transit, as bagamoyo had no specific slave market. It is from this building that overseas travelers and merchants either exchanged goods with their counterpart from the interior or made arrangements for porter and guides to take them to the interior’s trade center.
It is suggested that travellers found Caravan Serai very homely and peaceful to warrant them to nick named the town “Bwagamoyo” the place where one’s heart came to rest and relax after a long and tiring journey.
THE GERMAN / DUNDA BLOCK HOUSE
The German blockhouse was built in 1888 by Herman Wissman during Bushiri Uprising as an observation or guardhouse at the main crossroads that led from the coast to the interior and from south to north. Bushiri caught the main builder fundi Dundir, cut off his right arm and sent him back to Bagamoyo. This building is popularly known as Kwa N’gomera after the name of the ex- slave widow called N’gomera who was given the building by the German for residential purposes. Relating this building to the war between Germans and Arabs for control of Bagamoyo is again an important segment in the history of Bagamoyo.The construction techniques of this tiny but magnificent monument is the typical construction of that time along the East African Coast of using coral stones, lime and brilliant white wash. It has mangrove pole, coral stone roof and an outside ladder, which enables the troops to fire. Regrettably there is little application of this construction technique in Bagamoyo and many coastal towns today.
KAOLE RUINS
These are located 5 km south of Bagamoyo, on the coastal side of the present day village of Kaole. It consists of the ruins of two mosques and a series of about fifteen tombs set among palm trees. Some of the tombs have stone pillars of up to 5m in height. These were built in the 13th and 15th centuries and it is thought to mark one of the earliest contacts of Islam with Africa. Construction from coral with lime, water, there are faint traces of inscriptions on the vaulting.
The early mosque dates from the thirteenth century whilst the later one was probably built sometime in the fifteenth century. The early mosque has several unusual features not found later. It consists of a rectangular hall approximately 4 by 6 m north south. Originally there was a set of masonry columns running down the center of the structure, which would have supported a flat roof. Access to the flat roof is by means of a staircase at the south end of the building. Either side of the central prayer hall was narrow side aisles (about 1 m wide), which were later, enlarged. Architecturally the most interesting feature of the building is the mihrab. The mihrab arch consists of a plain border approximately 20 cm wide with a round arch containing a pointed niche at the apex. The paneled apse of the mihrab which projects out of the wall is probably a later fourteenth-century addition and it is likely that the original mihrab was set within the thickness of the wall. The mihrab arch is built out of roughly squared blocks covered with plaster to produce a smooth finish. This is an unusual technique, which is not found in later mosques where the mihrab is usually made out of dressed coral blocks. The ablution area of the mosque is situated to the south of the prayer hall rather than to the east, which became more usual later. The ablution area consists of a square well next to a rectangular tank covered with a barrel vault and a rectangular foot scraping area. Both the barrel vault and the footscraper consist of raw blocks of coral set in mortar, features, which are unusual and may be a sign of early mosques.
The later mosque of Kaole is larger than its earlier neighbor and consisted of a central prayer hall supported by two rows of wooden columns. Each column was sunk deep into the ground and was encased in an octagonal masonry collar where it met the plastered floor of the mosque. Like the early mosque, the ablution area is at the south end of the building, which is unusual in mosques of this date and may well result from the influence of the earlier structure.
Back to Bagamoyo Part 1
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