Slave Market of Zanzibar

On return from a USAID Farmer-to-Farmer assignment near Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, on the eastern coast of Africa, I extended my journey home by staying a couple of days at the Dhow Palace Hotel on the Tanzanian Island of Zanzibar on the Indian ocean.

Zanzibar was a destination Italians on "holiday" and I shared.  I seemed to be the only white person not conversing in Italian. The reception desk arranged for one of the English-speaking guides to take me through historic Stone Town where the narrow streets and older stone buildings date back to the slave-trading days. The ninety-degree heat and gritty, broken sidewalks didn’t prevent the street merchants from getting in my face, hawking everything from bananas and live chickens to sandals and oil paintings.

The late morning walk took us past the touristy Africa House and Tembo Hotels and the Old Arab Fort with canons aimed out over the ocean, pointed above the small boats waiting on the white, sandy beach for tourists to take a Dhow Cruise to Prisoner Island. Then on to Tipu Tip’s House, once the residence of the famous Arab Slave Trader who built an empire by selling slaves from across Africa, who also owned several clove plantations before his death in 1905. We continued through the Fish Market where I was offered fresh octopus, billed as the "Catch of the Day." We visited a history museum, the Aga Khan Mosque and the Slave Market site.

The dungeons at the Slave Market were a haunting experience. The dark stairway that led down to the dungeons was lighted with candles to prevent a misstep on the wet stone stairs.

The tourists, including me, stood silently in disbelief as the guides told us how women and children were shackled together, lying in feces, urine and vomit without any food or water. Those that died from sickness or suffocation (their only air and sunshine came from the 2-inch-wide slits in the wall, every three feet apart) were unshackled by other slaves, and pushed into a small canal running through the chambers, to be washed out into the ocean.  Survivors were led to the auction scaffolding to be sold to wealthy slave traders.

As we exited the Slave Market, many tourists, including myself, tried to control our emotions while viewing the Slave Monument--life size statues of slaves chained together. The monument represents the four million slaves deported from Eastern Africa. 

While the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer programs can provide a wealth of information regarding the customs and cultures of people in foreign lands, a side trip to the likes of Stone Town can serve as a post-graduate history lesson never to be forgotten.

by Everil Quist, International Agri-business Consultant

---

Go to the next Article from Slave Market

Return to Articles from Slave Market

Return to QuistSpeaks Home from Slave Market

 

Everil Quist - President & CEO of QuistSpeaks, LLC

"Enjoy this story about the noble peoples of third world countries.  I've truly enjoyed working with them and have many heartwarming and entertaining stories to tell. 

I enjoy sharing my adventures with my audiences, where I feel I am truly 'Creating Positive Change'."

---

“Everil Quist delivers with knowledge, humor and compassion.  His trials and tribulations during his stints in Former Soviet Union countries impart the difficulties and perseverance these dynamic people have to overcome—difficulties we seldom experience here in America.”

-Virginia Dessart, N2 Area Governor, District 35, Toastmasters International