When Bagamoyo was one of the most significant towns along the East African coast and the end of the trade caravan route connecting Lake Tanganyika with the sea in the middle of the 19th century, strolling through its winding, unpaved streets transports you back in time. Before being transported to Zanzibar Island and other locations, slaves, ivory, salt, and copra were unloaded here. Many European explorers, including Richard Burton, Henry Morton Stanley, and David Livingstone, also started and finished their journeys here. As a refuge for ransomed slaves, French missionaries founded Freedom Village at Bagamoyo in 1868. For the rest of the century, the town served as a stopping point for missionaries heading from Zanzibar Island to the interior.

A busy colonial town, Bagamoyo was at the terminus of the slave trail two hundred years ago.

The slave market has been replaced by a fish market, and Bagamoyo is now a peaceful fishing village that is better renowned for its long stretch of white sand beach than for its colonial past.

Crabs dart back and forth along the shore as you watch the moon rise over the Indian Ocean from the beach, which serves as a base for working fishing dhows.

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