The first stage of the slave trade (1441 - 1640)

The export of slaves from Africa to the American coast began to be carried out from the beginning of the 16th century. Until that time, the Europeans had not yet begun the full exploitation of American territory. Therefore, the slave trade first went from Africa to Europe, to certain areas of Africa itself and to the islands adjacent to the western coast of the mainland, on which the Portuguese had already established plantation farms. The Cape Verde Islands, colonized by Portugal by 1469, became the first base of the slave trade in the West African region.

In 1441, the first batch of 10 Africans was delivered to Portugal. From the 40s of the XV century. Lisbon began to regularly equip special expeditions for live goods. The sale of African slaves began in the country's slave markets. They were used as domestic servants in the city and for work in agriculture. As the colonization of the islands in the Atlantic Ocean - Sao Tome, the Cape Verde archipelago, the Azores and Fernando Po - the Portuguese began to create sugar cane plantations on them. Labor was required. The main source of it at that time was Benin, which had the opportunity to sell prisoners of war captured during constant wars with the small tribes of the Niger Delta.

From the beginning of the XVI century. The importation of slaves from Africa to the New World begins. The first batch of slaves from Africa in the amount of 250 people was delivered to the mines of Hispaniola (Haiti) by the Spaniards in 1510. During the period from 1551 to 1640, Spain used 1222 ships to transport slaves, placing up to one million slaves in their colonial possessions in America . Not far behind Spain and Portugal. Having received its possession of Brazil under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), from 1530 to 1600, it imported 900 thousand African slaves into the colony.

The main areas for the export of slaves from Africa were the Gold Coast, the Congo and Angola. Trading forts on the West African coast turned into points of sale for slaves. The main consumer of living goods in the XVI-XVII centuries. was Spain. The supply of slaves to the Spanish colonial possessions in America was carried out on the basis of special agreements - asiento. In form, it was a contract to provide the colonies with labor - slaves. A contract was concluded between the so-called intermediary and the Spanish royal power, according to which the former assumed the obligation to supply labor to the royal colonies. The “crown” received income from this system and at the same time kept “clean hands”, since it itself did not take a direct part in the acquisition of slaves on the Guinean coast. Others did this for Spain, and above all Portugal, which concluded a similar contract with it.

The monopoly on the dominant position in the world, granted to Spain and Portugal by the Pope, over time began to cause sharp displeasure among other European powers. As Holland, France, England and other countries acquired colonies in the New World and created plantation slavery in them, a struggle began for the possession of slave markets. The first of the former "outsiders" who turned their eyes towards the western coast of Africa was England. In 1554 John Locke's trading expedition reached the Portuguese possession of El Mina, and in 1557 another expedition reached the shores of Benin. The first three cereals nye English expeditions for African slaves in 1559-1567. under the leadership of J. Hawkins, they were partially financed by the English queen herself, and he himself was subsequently elevated to knighthood. The English government believed that "the slave trade contributes to the welfare of the nation", and took the English slave traders under its protection. In 1618, a special English company of London entrepreneurs was created in Great Britain to trade in Guinea and Benin.

France also began to establish its trade relations with the western coast of Africa. From 1571 to 1610, 228 ships were sent to the “Guinean coasts” (Sierra Leone, El Mina, Benin, Sao Tome) and its ports. The final destination of many of them was "Peruvian India" or Brazil.

Most seriously, the Dutch set their sights on undermining the Portuguese monopoly in the slave trade. Since 1610, they have been in sharp competition with Portugal. The advantage of Holland became especially clear with the formation in 1621 of the Dutch West India Company, which began to seize Portuguese trading posts on the coast of West Africa. By 1642, the ports of El Mina, Arguin, Gori, Sao Tome were already in the hands of the Dutch. They also captured all the Portuguese trading posts on the Gold Coast. Holland became in the first half of the XVII century. the main supplier of African slaves to the Spanish and other colonies in America. In 1619, the Dutch delivered the first batch of 19 slaves to the New Amsterdam (future New York) they founded, which laid the foundation for the formation of the Negro community in the territory of the future United States. France delivered the first slaves to America in the 40s of the 17th century.

With the loss of El Mina and other possessions, the Portuguese were nevertheless not driven from the coast. The Dutch failed to win the monopoly position previously occupied by Portugal. The west coast of Africa was open to European competition. The struggle for the monopoly of the slave trade became the core of fierce competition between the main European powers in the second half of the 17th century. and throughout most of the 18th century. England and France were the main ones in this struggle.

Second stage of the slave trade (1640 - 1807)

From the second half of the XVII century. The slave trade grew and its organization improved. The first manifestations of the organized system of trade in African slaves across the Atlantic were associated with the activities of large commercial companies and their affiliates, clearly striving for a monopoly position. Holland, England and France organized large trading companies, which were granted the right to monopoly trade in African slaves. Such were the already mentioned Dutch West India Company, the English Royal African Company (since 1664), the French West India Company (since 1672). Despite the official ban, private entrepreneurs were also involved in the slave trade.

One of the goals of the companies is to win the right to "asientpo" from the Spaniards (it ceased to exist only from 1789). This right was with the Portuguese, then passed to the Dutch, again returned to the Portuguese. France had the right of asiento from 1701 to 1712, having lost it under the Treaty of Utrecht in favor of the British, who received a monopoly on the supply of African slaves to America for 30 years (1713-1743).

However, the flourishing of the slave trade in the XVIII century. was not associated more with monopoly companies, but was the result of free private enterprise. So, in the years 1680-1700. The Royal African Company exported 140,000 slaves from West Africa, and private entrepreneurs - 160,000.

On the scope and scale of the European slave trade in the 18th century. say these numbers. From 1707 to 1793, the French equipped expeditions for slaves 3342 times. At the same time, one third of such expeditions falls on the first 11 years after the end of the American War of Independence. However, the first place in the number of expeditions for slaves remained with England, the second - with Portugal. The English city of Bristol in the 18th century. sent about 2,700 ships to Africa, and Liverpool over 70 years - more than 5,000. In total, more than 15,000 expeditions for slaves were organized over the century. By the 70s of the XVIII century. the export of slaves to the New World reached 100 thousand people a year. If in the 17th century 2,750,000 slaves were imported into America, then by the beginning of the 19th century. about 5 million African slaves worked in the colonies of the New World and in the USA.

The slave trade brought considerable income to slave traders and merchants. Its profitability was obvious to them: if one of the three ships with slaves reached the shores of America, then even then the owner would not lose it. According to data for 1786, the price of a slave in West Africa was 20-22l. Art., in the West Indies - about 75-80 f. Art. For the Europeans, the slave trade also had another, more important, "rational" side. In general, it contributed to the development of the economies of European countries and the preparation of industrial revolutions in them.

The slave trade required the construction and equipping of ships, increasing their number. The labor of numerous people was involved within a single European country and outside it. The scale of employment of people who became specialists in their field was impressive. So, in 1788, 180,000 workers were employed in the production of goods for the slave trade (which, as a rule, was of an exchange nature) in Manchester alone. The scope of the slave trade by the end of the XVIII century. was such that in the event of its termination on the Guinean coast, about 6 million Frenchmen alone could go bankrupt and impoverish. It was the slave trade that at that time gave a powerful impetus to the rapid development of the textile industry in Europe. Fabrics accounted for 2 / 3 of the cargo of ships that went to the exchange of slaves.

In the XVIII century. more than 200 ships with slaves were sent from the coast of Africa every year. The movement of such a huge mass of people became possible not only because in Western Europe, in cooperation with American slave owners, the organization of the slave trade was formed, but also because in Africa itself appropriate systems for its provision arose. The demand of the West has found a supply of slaves among the Africans.

"Slave Africa"

In Africa itself, especially in its eastern regions, the slave trade began long ago. From the first centuries of our reckoning, black slaves and female slaves were highly valued in Asian bazaars. But these slaves and female slaves were bought in Asian countries not as carriers of labor, but as luxury items for the palaces and harems of the eastern rulers in North Africa, Arabia, Persia, and India. Their black African slaves, as a rule, were made warriors by the rulers of the countries of the East, who replenished the ranks of their armies. This also determined the size of the East African slave trade, which was smaller than the European one.

Until 1795, the Europeans could not yet move into the Black Continent. For the same reason, they could not capture slaves themselves. The same Africans were engaged in the extraction of "living goods", and the size of its receipt on the coast was determined by demand from outside.

In the slave-trading regions of Upper Guinea, slaves were mined and then sold mainly by mulattos, closely associated with the local population. Muslim Africans also showed significant activity in the supply of slaves for Europeans. In areas colonized south of the equator, the Portuguese also participated directly in the extraction of "goods" for slave ships. They organized special “slave-trading” military campaigns in the interior of the continent or sent caravans deep into the mainland, at the head of which they put their trade agents - “pombeiros”. The latter were sometimes among the slaves themselves. "Pombeiros" made distant expeditions and brought many slaves.

The slave trade of previous centuries led to a complete and widespread degradation of the legal, sometimes very harsh, norms that regulated the activities of traditional societies in the past. The ruling strata of African states and societies, drawn into the slave trade for the purpose of profit, also morally degraded. The demands of new slaves, constantly inspired by Europeans, led to internecine wars with the aim of capturing prisoners by each side in order to sell them into slavery. The activity of the slave trade became over time something common for Africans. People have made the slave trade their profession. The most profitable was not production work, but hunting for people, capturing prisoners for sale. Of course, no one wanted to be a victim, everyone wanted to become hunters. The conversion of people into deportable slaves also took place within African societies themselves. Among them were those who disobeyed the local authorities, did not follow the prescribed instructions, were convicted of violence and robbery, adultery, in a word, were a violator of certain social norms that guided society.

Over the 150 years of growing demand for African labor in European countries, its satisfaction, that is, the supply of the slave market, had a different impact on the social organization of Africa participating in the slave trade. In the kingdom of Loango, on the West African coast, the supreme ruler created a special administration to manage the slave trade with Europeans. It was headed by "mafuk" - the third most important person in the kingdom. The administration controlled the entire course of trade operations at each point of exchange. Mafuk determined taxes and prices in the slave trade, acted as an arbitrator in disputes, ensured the maintenance of order in the markets, and paid an annual fee to the royal treasury. Any inhabitant of Loango could bring slaves to the market - whether the local leader; just free people and even their servants, as long as everything was in accordance with the established rules of sale. Any deviation from the established system of slave trade led to the cancellation of the transaction, whether he was an African or a European. Such centralization provided the state and a small layer of intermediaries with the growth of their wealth. Strict control over the sale of slaves for export did not violate the internal order of the kingdom, since the slaves sold to Europeans never originated from the kingdom, but were delivered from outside Loang. Thus, the local population was not afraid of the slave trade and was traditionally engaged in agriculture and fishing.

The example of the kingdom of Dah-hom (Dahomey-Benin) demonstrates the dependence of European slave traders on the orders established in the African states themselves in the 18th century: in terms of regulating the slave trade in the economic and cultural interests of the state. The sale of Dahomey subjects for export was strictly prohibited. The influx of slaves occurred only from the territories adjacent to Dahomey. There was a strict and mandatory regulation of trade imposed on European merchants. All slave trading operations in the kingdom were under the strict control of a special person "jowogan" and an extensive network of his full-time spies. Yovagan was at the same time, as it were, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Trade, often his own; received as Viceroy. In the case of Dahomey, the indicator is: but that demand did not always give rise to supply. Yovagan has created such a situation in his own country for European traders in living goods that for some time now it has become unprofitable for them to purchase it in Dahomey.

One of the reservoirs from which slaves were constantly drawn, and in large numbers, was the eastern part of the populous Niger Delta. Mini-states of the Ari, Igbo, Efik and other peoples were formed here. The structure of these states and the nature of their customs differed from the models of Loango and Dahomey. The capture of slaves, as a rule, was carried out in their own territories. The main "producer" of slaves was the oracle Aro-Chuku, who was revered throughout the Niger Delta. He, in his own way, demanded sacrifices - he “devoured” objectionable residents. This "devouring" meant the sale of people objectionable to the oracle as slaves for export. But since it was impossible to ensure the demand for slaves in one such way, the armed detachments of the Ari, who were under the command of the oracle, landed on the banks of the Niger and raided the surrounding areas. The captured were taken to the coast. The regularity of this trade flow was ensured by the "secret society" Ek-pe, which united the local trade elite. In 1711-1810. as a result of this Ekpe activity, the eastern Niger Delta supplied up to a million slaves to European slave traders. The slave trade here continued on the same scale until 1840.

The Europeans, in their first anchorages on the west coast of Africa, could only govern those who lived in the forts themselves. In total, on the entire coast of West Africa, excluding Angola, there were by the end of the 18th century. about three thousand people. Everywhere the real power still belonged to the Africans and manifested itself in necessary cases as a force capable of eliminating the too bold claims of the Europeans. Thus, the forts in Loango and Accra were burned, and the kingdom of Benin, for example, simply refused all contacts with Europeans and had trade relations with them only through a formation specially created for this purpose - the "kingdom" of Ode-Itsekiri.

Slave resistance to European slave traders and slave owners

Faced with manifestations of the cruelty of European slave traders towards slaves, the prospect of leaving their habitual habitats forever, the unbearable conditions of navigation across the Atlantic, which caused high mortality among slaves, many Africans were ready to resist. It was active on land when an African's life was in danger of being invaded, and generally assumed a passive form during the crossing of the Atlantic.

On land, the Africans showed the Europeans a constant, everyday hostility. If there was the slightest opportunity for an attack, it was used. Surprise attacks, poisoned arrows - Europeans often encountered this. Unable to sometimes resist in open battle, the Africans used the tactic of attacking individuals, luring small detachments of slave traders into the forests, where they were destroyed. As the Africans learned to use firearms, they began to attack forts and trading posts. Already in the second half of the XVII century. this was not uncommon.

The policy of the European slave traders in the spirit of "divide and conquer" also influenced Africans of various nationalities. There were cases when they, together, for example, with the British attacked their rivals, the Portuguese, with the Portuguese - on the British and French, etc.

The peak of activity in the fight against the European slave trade falls mainly on the period before the beginning of the 18th century. The life of Africans in the conditions of the corrupting chaos of the slave trade in the following time changed their psychology. The slave trade did not unite - it separated, isolated people. Everyone saved himself, his family, not thinking about others. Resistance to the slave trade became a matter of desperate courage of individuals and separate groups. During the entire era of the slave trade, the African continent did not know a single major organized uprising or uprising against it.

Nevertheless, from the moment they were captured into slavery until the end of their life on the plantations, the slaves did not stop fighting for the return of their freedom. If they saw that there was no hope of liberation, they preferred death to slavery. Frequent were the escapes of slaves from slave ships, which were in coastal navigation along the coast of Africa. During the passage across the Atlantic, entire parties of slaves on separate ships declared a death hunger strike. Slave riots on ships were also frequent, although they realized that, having killed the crew, they doomed themselves to death, because they themselves could not control the ship.

The whole history of slavery in America is the history of the secret and open struggle of the slaves against the slave-owning planters. In 1791, in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), the liberation struggle of Negro slaves began under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture. It ended with the formation in 1804 of the Negro Republic of Haiti and the abolition of slavery. In 1808 an uprising broke out in British Guiana. In 1816 - in Barbados, in 1823 - again in British Guiana. This time, 12,000 slaves took part in the uprising. In 1824 and 1831 There were slave uprisings in Jamaica. These were uprisings prepared in advance, led by people authoritative among the slaves. The slaves were determined to achieve freedom.

Movement of the European public. Abolitionism

The movement to ban the slave trade in Europe and the United States began in the second half of the 18th century. The ideas of abolitionism (“prohibition”) were developed by Grenville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberson, C. Fox in Great Britain; the abbots Reynal and Grégoire in France; E. Benezet, B. Franklin, B. Rush in the USA. The views of the first abolitionists were shared by Diderot, Condorcet, Brissot and others.

The doctrine of abolitionism, the essence of which was formulated by the Quaker Benezet even before the proclamation of US independence, was based on a number of economic and humanitarian provisions. The abolitionists argued that the slave trade was by no means a profitable, but a very expensive enterprise. It causes direct damage to the state budget of European countries due to the "bonuses" paid for slaves. The slave trade costs the lives of many sailors who perish on "inhospitable shores." It hinders the development of manufactories due to the fact that it does not require high quality products. Leaving Africa as slaves means for Europe the loss of millions of potential buyers of European goods. From the point of view of morality, the abolitionists came up with a revelation, revolutionary by the standards and views of that era - "black is also a man."

The abolitionist movement increased its activity. In 1787, the "Society for the Prohibition of the African Slave Trade" was created in Great Britain. In 1788, the Friends of the Blacks society was founded in France. Numerous societies to combat slavery and the slave trade were created in the United States. The abolitionist movement gained momentum and expanded. In England, its mass nature was characterized by the collection of tens of thousands of signatures on petitions demanding a ban on the slave trade. In France, these demands were colored by the general mood of the revolution of 1789.

At the beginning of the XIX century. there have been new trends in relations between European countries and Africa. The slave trade played an important role in the genesis of the capitalist system. It was an essential element in the process of primitive accumulation, which paved the way for the emergence and victory of capitalism. Industrial revolutions, which began in England in the 60s of the 18th century, swept through the 19th century. and other European countries, including the United States after the end of the civil war of 1861 - 1865.

The ever-growing production of industrial and consumer goods required new and permanent markets for their sale. Additional sources of raw materials began to gain in importance. At the height of the industrial boom, the Western world felt, for example, an acute shortage of oils for machine production, household lighting, and perfumes. Such oils have long been produced in the interior of the West African coast: peanuts in the Senegambia region, oil palm in the strip from northern Sierra Leone to southern Angola. The emerging needs of the West determined the nature of the new economic interest in Africa - to produce oilseeds in it, to obtain fats and oils on an industrial scale. If in 1790 132 tons of palm oil were delivered to England, then in 1844 it imported more than 21 thousand tons of it, and in 1851-1860. this import doubled. Similar proportions were observed for other African traditional commodities. Calculations showed that in monetary terms, its trade for merchants became more profitable than the income from the slave trade. Industrialists, on the other hand, faced the extremely important task of preserving the labor force on the ground in order to increase the scale of African raw material production and expand the consumer market.

England, the first to embark on the path of industrial capitalist development, was also the first to advocate the abolition of the slave trade. In 1772, the use of slave labor within Great Britain itself was prohibited. In 1806-1807. The British Parliament passed two acts to ban the trade in black slaves. In 1833, a law was passed abolishing slavery in all possessions of the British Empire. Similar legislative acts under the pressure of the industrial bourgeoisie and its ideologists began to be adopted in other countries: the USA (1808), Sweden (1813), Holland (1818), France (1818), Spain (1820), Portugal (1830). The slave trade was declared a crime against humanity and qualified as a criminal act. However, from the moment the laws on the prohibition of the slave trade and slavery were adopted and until their actual implementation, a long distance lay.

Third stage. The fight against the "smuggling slave trade" (1807 - 1870)

In the first half of the XIX century. slave labor in the plantations and mines of the New World was still profitable, allowing planters and entrepreneurs to make high profits. In the United States, after the invention of cotton gins, cotton plantations expanded rapidly. Sugarcane plantings increased in Cuba. In Brazil, new diamond deposits were discovered and the area of ​​coffee plantations was increased. The preservation of slavery in the New World after the prohibition of the slave trade predetermined the widespread development of the smuggling trade in Africans. The main areas of export by smuggling of slaves were: in West Africa - the Upper Guinean coast, Congo, Angola, in East Africa - Zanzibar and Mozambique. Delivering slaves mainly to Brazil, Cuba, from where a large number of slaves were re-exported to the United States. According to the British parliamentary commission, in 1819-1824. an average of 103 thousand slaves were exported from Africa annually, in 1825-1839. - 125 thousand. In total, in fifty years of the illegal slave trade, more than three million slaves were taken out of Africa. Of these, in the United States, from 1808 to 1860, 500 thousand were delivered.

The defeat of Napoleon brought the fight against the slave trade to the international level. In the Paris Peace Treaty, for the first time, the need for joint action was declared. consolidated fight against this phenomenon. The issue of stopping the slave trade was also discussed at other international meetings and conferences: the Congress of Vienna (1815), the Achaean (1818), Verona (1822) and others. used its international influence to fight against it.

The prohibition of the slave trade required not only the adoption of legal measures, but also the availability of an instrument for their implementation - joint military, especially naval, forces to suppress the smuggling of the slave trade. Proposals to create "supranational" forces failed. Then England took the path of concluding bilateral agreements. Such agreements included two main points: 1) the right of mutual control and inspection by a warship of one signatory power of merchant ships of another country - a party to the agreement, if black slaves are transported on them; 2) the creation of mixed legal commissions with the right to judge the captured slave traders.

Such agreements in 1817-1818. were concluded by England with Portugal, Spain and Holland. Great Britain achieved agreements with Spain and Portugal only thanks to monetary compensation - more than a million pounds sterling - for the material damage suffered from repressive measures. At the same time, the Portuguese retained the right to legally continue the trade in slaves exported to Brazil south of the equator. It was not until 1850 that the Brazilian Parliament passed a law abolishing the slave trade completely. Spain introduced an effective law abolishing slavery only in 1870.

The abolitionist law in the United States was adopted as early as 1808, but only in 1819 did the American Congress begin to consider two options for its application in practice. In 1824, Congress passed a new law that equated the slave trade with piracy, and the perpetrators of it were sentenced to death. Nevertheless, until 1842, American coastal cruising was sporadic, and at times non-existent.

France adopted laws on the prohibition of the slave trade and the fight against it three times (1818, 1827, 1831), until, finally, in the last one it fixed tough measures against slave traders. In 1814 - 1831. it was the largest trading power among the countries involved in the sale of slaves. Of the 729 ships involved in the trade, 404 were frankly slaves. The French naval blockade of the African coast proved ineffective. Three of the four slave ships passed freely through the international anti-slavery network spread out on the sea.

During the period from 1814 to 1860, about 3,300 slave voyages were made. The total number of flags captured during the punitive cruise (primarily by the British) amounted to about 2000. The repressive actions against the slave trade led to the liberation of approximately 160 thousand Africans, and even to the deliverance from slavery of about 200 thousand people in America. The "production of slaves" in Africa itself decreased by 600 thousand people.

Brussels Conference 1889 - 1890

In the second half of the XIX century. on the entire coast of Africa, large traditional slave trading centers continued their open activity. The exception was the Gold Coast, where the English forts were located (the Dutch forts here were bought by the British in 1850-1870). The official repressive measures taken did not cause significant damage to the slave trade. The demand for slaves and the competition of buyers continued to be strong, as was the supply of slaves from African slave traders. The European powers decided to take advantage of the latter circumstance. A plausible pretext appeared for intervening in intra-African affairs in order to establish a policy of expansionism in Africa.

From November 1889 to July 1890, the Brussels Conference was held, in which 17 countries took part. Its main participants were Belgium, Great Britain, Portugal, the USA, Zanzibar, the "Independent State of the Congo", etc. The conference discussed the main issue - the elimination of the slave trade in Africa itself. In the adopted General Act to combat it, measures were defined, including such as restricting the import of firearms and ammunition into the slave trade territories. The Brussels Conference marked the end of the general slave trade.

According to the United Nations (UN), the population of Africa from 1650 to 1850 remained at the same level and amounted to 100 million people. An unprecedented case in history, when the population of an entire continent did not grow for 200 years, despite the traditionally high birth rate. The slave trade not only slowed down the natural development of the peoples of Africa, but also directed it along an ugly path that had not previously had significant prerequisites in self-developing African societies.

The slave trade contributed to property stratification, social differentiation, the breakdown of communal ties, undermined the intra-tribal social organization of Africans, and created a collaborationist stratum from part of the tribal nobility. The slave trade led to the isolation of the African peoples, to aggressiveness and distrust towards each other. It everywhere led to a deterioration in the position of "domestic" slaves. By threatening to sell the slaves to the Europeans for the slightest disobedience, the African slave owners intensified their exploitation on the ground.

The slave trade also had economic and political sides. In one case, it hampered the development of local traditional crafts (weaving, weaving, jewelry) and at the same time drew Africa into the world trade market. In another, it served as an obstacle to the development of African statehood (Benin, Congo, etc. collapsed) while simultaneously contributing to the emergence of new state entities, such as Vida, Ardra, etc., which grew rich as a result of mediation between Europeans and African slave traders of the interior regions . Bloodless Africa, the slave trade contributed to the economic prosperity of Europe and America.

The most severe consequences of the slave trade for Africa were psychological moments: the depreciation of human life, the degradation of both slave owners and slaves.

Its most inhuman manifestation was racism. For four centuries, in the minds of many, especially a significant part of European society, the word slave has become associated with the name of an African, that is, a black person. For many generations, people have known Africa through the prism of the slave trade, not knowing about the original civilizations of Ghana, Songhai, Vanina, Monomotapa and others. A mythological political precedent was set in justifying their actions to take Africa and divide it into colonies.



In March 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that slaves were incapable of being citizens because they were property. Who were they, North American slaves?

At the beginning of the 16th century, the British founded the first settlement in North America, and after some ten years ships began to massively deliver slaves to the colonists. Hundreds of thousands of men and women arrived. They were brought individually and by whole families with small children. The settlers needed labor. Especially in the South of the continent, where there were many agricultural enterprises.

The slaves who worked on the plantations had no rights. The owners could do whatever they wanted with them. In case of disobedience to the owner, any indignation, attempts to rebel, they were severely punished. It was not uncommon to see a slave hung up by his hands, with his feet set on fire. Or a slave receiving blows with a whip. But this was an easy punishment. Especially cruel masters could burn a slave alive for any wrongdoing. It was common practice to display the severed heads of slaves in the town square as a deterrent, putting them on stakes.

Although the word slave most people represent a black African, often among the punished slaves were Europeans. This is not surprising. Slaves were imported not only from Africa.

Under King James VI, England began selling Irish prisoners to America. The Royal Proclamation of 1625 explicitly stated the need for the expulsion of political prisoners overseas with their subsequent sale into slavery. Charles I, Cromwell, also continued to make slaves out of the Irish.

By the middle of the 16th century, in Antigua and Monsterrat, among the slaves, there were most of all immigrants from Ireland. Two-thirds of the population of Monsterrat at that time were Irish slaves.

The British knew no pity. Ships with holds full of Irishmen, fathers, brothers, sons, cruised non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean. Wives and children were not allowed to be taken with them. They were then sold separately.

In the fifties of the 16th century, more than one hundred thousand of these children, aged 10 to 14, were sold to overseas colonies.

From 1641 to 1651 alone, three hundred thousand Irish were taken into slavery, and more than half a million were killed by the British. In ten years, the population of Ireland has more than halved. From one and a half million to six hundred thousand people.

Some sources try to call the Irish "contracted workers", but this is not true. In fact, they were white slaves and differed from slaves from the "black" continent only in skin color.

It was not uncommon for African slaves to be treated better than those from Ireland. Religious intolerance affected, hatred for the Catholic faith of the Irish was manifested. White people mocked white people. They were treated like cheap property.

African slaves were valued at that time more than their European comrades in misfortune. Therefore, they were protected. After all, the Irishman was valued at less than five pounds sterling. For an African, you had to pay ten times more. If a dark-skinned slave dies, it is necessary to spend well to make up for the loss. You can not particularly feel sorry for the Irish, and to intimidate the rest of the slaves, for a small offense, they can be chained to death.

Therefore, they were also engaged in the reproduction of slaves. Children born from a slave automatically became slaves, increasing the wealth of the owner with their labor. You can also sell them. In addition, a woman was tied to the estate. If the Irish woman somehow managed to get freedom, she could not go anywhere. She remained to serve the owner. She remained next to a child who, having been born in captivity, was doomed to a slave fate.

Later, the planters came up with a more sophisticated way to get even more benefits from this. Crossing African slaves with Irish women made it possible to get a good income, became an additional source of profit. It was possible to plan in advance which slave to get. Born children completely replaced purebred African slaves, saving the money of enterprising colonists. After all, these were ready-made slaves, acquired almost for nothing. They do not need to buy, pay for shipping from overseas.

Crossbreeding was widely practiced until a special law was passed in 1681 prohibiting such a business. They did not accept him out of sympathy for the slaves. They weren't thought about. Such "breeding" of slaves has become so strong that it began to cause damage to one influential company engaged in the transportation of slaves. Lost hundreds of thousands of pounds. To please the slave traders, the government issued a prohibition decree.

For more than a century, the British sent the Irish into slavery. Thousands, tens of thousands of white-skinned slaves were sold in the slave markets of the New World. White slaves worked on many island and mainland plantations in North America. To make it easier to distinguish such slaves from free whites, in the event of, for example, an escape, the Irish were branded. The master's initials were burned on the body of the slave.

If men worked mainly on plantations, doing agricultural work, then women, in addition to such work and serving the owners on estates as servants, were sold in brothels.

Often African slaves were placed as overseers of white slaves, encouraging their cruelty towards the Irish.

In 1798, the Irish, with the support of the French, rebelled against the hated English rule. However, the attempt was unsuccessful. The rebels were defeated by British troops. This caused another surge in the slave trade. The British did not spare the defeated opponents. Thousands of new Irish slaves were sent overseas, to Australia and America.

It was only in 1839 that civilized England stopped trading in human beings. But for many years after the official ban, pirates continued to engage in the slave trade.

The attitude towards the inhabitants of Ireland did not change either. So, in 1899, a racist article against the Irish was published in the political magazine Harper's Weekly. The publication described a theory of origin that humiliates this people, that is, justifies their oppression.

The topic of the Irish trade, of the terrible fate of hundreds of thousands of white slaves in America, is rarely raised, almost never discussed. After all, these unfortunate people disappeared without a trace. None of them returned home to their homeland and did not tell about the horrors that were happening in the colonies. People were dying, the death rate among the Irish was the highest. In addition, the mixing with African slaves, implanted by the slave owners, also had an effect. History therefore forgets about them. No evidence, do not remember the crimes.

The coastal slave trade soon became a threat that accompanied colonial success. Consequences of human trafficking

are felt even today.

Early African Civilizations

The colonization of Africa has a long history. The oldest civilization here originated in Nubia, modern Sudan. Its development went in parallel with the development of Ancient Egypt. And although both cultures benefited from mutual contact, such as trade exchange or the spread of ideas, their relationship was too burdened by conflict. So Nubia around 2800 BC. e. was occupied by Egypt for 500 years, and the Nubian kingdom of Kush, which 70 years earlier united the scattered parts of Nubia, was until about 770 BC. occupied by Egypt. After gaining independence, the development and flourishing of the Nubian kingdom began. This continued until the 4th century AD. e. and only the growing Christianization and the strengthening of the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum finally predetermined the decline of the Nubian kingdom.

Similar traditions inherent in major civilizations existed in West Africa. In the IV century AD. The king of Ghana ruled over a society in which street systems were already built and there was a code of laws, and the number of soldiers carrying out defense exceeded 20 thousand people. From 1200, the kingdom was replaced by the empire of Mali, and Timbuktu became the center of trade and education.

Further south, on the high plateaus of Zimbabwe, there was also a highly developed culture that acquired its wealth through trade with countries along the coast of East Africa. The capital was the city of Great Zimbabwe, which historians believe was founded around 1250. It was a relatively large city with stone buildings and conical towers. It is believed that about 18 thousand people lived in the city.

Abyssinian slaves in iron chains. Left: Illustration from 1835; before boarding the ship's hold, slaves are shackled.

Start of the slave trade

Trade relations between Europe and the countries of North Africa, located on the Mediterranean coast, have existed for a long time.

Already in ancient Greece, relations were maintained with some African cultures, and the Romans had close ties with the African continent, especially with Egypt. Until the 15th century, European knowledge of Africa was a mixture of fragmentary knowledge borrowed from classical education, myths and stories, as well as isolated facts set forth in the Bible.

One by one, European expeditions went to the Black Continent. In 1482, the Portuguese founded a seaport at Elmina on the coast of what is now Ghana. In 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed the entire continent, and from that moment on, Europeans began to explore Africa with an increasing degree of activity. They exported raw building materials, gold and ivory.

However, the slave trade turned out to be a much more profitable occupation. On the west coast from Senegal to Angola, so-called trading posts were built, and already at this early stage, human trafficking was extremely cruel. For Europeans, human trafficking was at first something new, but slaves have long been traded in Africa - East African rulers sold them to each other and to their Arab neighbors. When the Europeans joined them, they initially relied on tribal leaders who rounded up the captives and sold them to the Europeans. At first, African slaves were supposed to work in the island colonies in front of the continental coast; some were taken to Europe. The first slave ship bound for America - where the center of the slave trade later moved - set sail from Lisbon in 1518. Since then, human trafficking has taken on a grand scale. Echoes of this phenomenon are felt today in politics, economics and demography.

Development of slavery

For merchants, slaves were as much a commodity as any other, and transatlantic transportation by water is recorded in history as the "Triangle Trade." Slaves were the main component of this trade. European goods were transported by ship to Africa and exchanged for slaves, who were then delivered by water to South, Central and North America. From these places, export goods were again brought to Europe. For many merchants, the transport of slaves was an opportunity to avoid sailing from Europe to America with an empty hold and earn extra money. From a commercial point of view, this type of trade acquired exceptional importance: it was possible to derive significant benefits from it. This fact, and the fact that slaves were not seen as people, but as cargo, led to the fact that when transporting slaves by sea, they were in appalling conditions. For this reason, many slave ships became hotbeds of disease, and the highest death rate was almost the norm.

In addition, if the slave trader got into any serious situations with his ship, the “cargo” was simply thrown overboard.

The subject of the slave trade caused extensive discussion in diplomatic circles. The high profits received from the slave trade led to diplomatic scandals, and in some cases to wars and power struggles, since many countries wanted to control this market and make money on it. The wealth of many colonies and states that later emerged in their place is based on the slave trade. Between 1518 and 1650, the Spanish and Portuguese brought about half a million slaves into their colonies, and after 1650 there was a boom in the illegal slave trade. In the colonies, slaves were often used to work on sugar plantations. Spanish slaves were required to work in the Mexican silver mines. However, most of the slaves went to Colombia, Venezuela and Cuba, regions where Spain experienced economic difficulties. The Portuguese expanded their plantations in Brazil and from 1700 brought more and more slaves to their South American colonies to fully exploit the silver mines in Minas Gerais. Dutch, British and French slaves had to work in the Caribbean and Guiana colonies, as well as in the lands of North America, where a small number of slaves from Africa, among other things, were employed to work on tobacco plantations in Virginia and Maryland.

In the colonies, riots broke out every now and then, which in the late 18th and early 19th centuries escalated into slave uprisings. However, these uprisings were immediately suppressed. This continued until the beginning of the liberation struggle in 1791 in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, led by Toussaint Louverture ("Black Napoleon"). The result of this liberation struggle was the emergence of the state of Haiti.

abolition of slavery

In Europe, voices calling for the abolition of slavery have always been heard. These were the voices of people protesting against human trafficking. But the real movement to abolish slavery did not begin until 1770. It began in England, when a certain Grenville Sharp submitted a petition to the Supreme Court of Justice for the granting of freedom to a fugitive slave from America, James Somerset, who had been re-arrested in England. Despite the initial success, little has changed in the beginning. So in the 1880s, a group of evangelical Christians launched a campaign to demand the complete abolition of slavery. After this action, a social movement developed in the country, during which information was collected, which was later made public and transferred to the Parliament.

William Wilberforce was the most influential lawyer who worked tirelessly on this case and turned the public consciousness towards the issues of slavery, because against the backdrop of the ideals of the industrial revolution regarding free trade and the ideals of the French revolution, slavery began to seem more and more exclusively a barbaric anachronism.

In 1808, the English Parliament declared it illegal to buy, sell, and transport slaves. In 1834, slave ownership was also outlawed. In the same year, in the islands of Western India, all children of slaves under 6 years of age were granted freedom, and the slaves themselves were guaranteed six years of free education. However, these prescriptions had the same connotation of exploitation as the former slavery, although there were deadlines for their execution. Slavery was finally abolished in 1838. Meanwhile, British opponents of slavery launched a campaign to abolish slavery in America. A particularly active and stable movement against slavery unfolded in the northern regions of North America. Fugitive or freed slaves, such as Frederick Douglass, made speeches throughout the country. Many writers supported the abolition of slavery. Thus, the book of the writer Harriet Beecher Stowe "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had some influence on the public consciousness. With the end of the Civil War in 1865, slavery also ended in America.

The abolition of slavery in America and Europe was made possible by several factors: the abolition movement, economic difficulties, and the political events of the time. However, in Africa, until the end of the 19th century, traditional forms of slavery were still widespread in many territories. Slavery was abolished in Nigeria in 1936. And to this day, slavery can be found in some remote places of the African continent, and its opponents continue to fight for its abolition.

Effects

One side problem of the slave trade in Africa was population decline. In the valley of the Niger River, almost all the indigenous tribes were exterminated during the hunt for slaves. This resulted in hunger and disease.

But perhaps the most devastating effect of the slave trade was the recognition of the primacy of power and the creation of a social climate in which white people felt superior to blacks. These effects can still be seen today.

345 years ago, on September 27, 1672, King Charles II of England granted the Royal African Company a monopoly on trading in live goods. Over the next 80 years, this company transported about a million African "tourists" across the Atlantic to the New World. It was the golden age of the slave trade.

This worthy business for several hundred years was engaged in almost all countries of Europe that had access to the sea. Of course, no one kept generalized statistics, so estimates of the volume of the slave trade are very vague. According to various sources, from 8 to 14 million slaves were taken from Africa to the American continent, of which 2 to 4 million died on the way. And the rest greatly changed the ethnic picture of the Western Hemisphere and no less strongly influenced its culture.

It should be noted that Russia was one of the few European states whose merchants did not trade in "ebony". Moreover, since 1845, the sea slave trade in the Russian Penal Code was equated with piracy and was punishable by eight years of hard labor. However, we had our own “log in the eye”, because until 1861 the internal trade in serf souls, which in principle was not much different from the slave trade, was carried out on completely legal grounds.

Buying up slaves on the African coast and sending them to a slave ship. Painting by 19th-century French artist François-Auguste Bayard.

A typical scheme for placing slaves on a ship and means of calming them down.

Scheme of placement of live goods on the English slave ship "Brukis". It is not surprising that with this arrangement, an average of 10 to 20% of "passengers" died during the voyage across the Atlantic.

Section of a 17th century Dutch slave ship. Blacks were placed in the space between the hold and the upper deck.

Cross sections of English and Dutch slave ships. A plank wall blocking the deck (on the "Dutchman" it has spikes) separates the team's territory from the platform on which the slaves were allowed to walk. This precaution was far from superfluous, since slaves sometimes started uprisings.

Suppression of a riot on an English slave ship.

Deck plans of a French merchant ship, for which slaves were one of the varieties of commercial cargo.

A small but well-armed slave ship, in which the “goods” are packed especially tightly. Surprisingly, even in such hellish conditions, most of the slaves, as a rule, survived a sea voyage that could last several weeks.

The main routes for the export of slaves from Central Africa in the XVII-XIX centuries

The coast of the Indian Ocean is located in the east of Tanzania. It is also called the Swahili Coast. Swahili is a unique ethnic group that arose as a result of the assimilation of Arabs from Shiraz among the local black population. In past centuries, the Swahili became famous throughout the world as enterprising merchants. To this day, the Swahili Coast is the global face of Tanzanian commerce. In ancient times, ships sailed from numerous ports filled with ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shells, iron, salt, textiles, mangrove wood, fish and gold from all over Africa. But it was not ivory or gold that was the highlight of successful African entrepreneurs. One of the most profitable areas of the Swahili economy was the slave trade. And even after the slave trade was officially banned throughout the world, commercial slave routes across the Swahili coast continued to operate illegally for a long time.

Sadani National Park and about city ​​of Bagamoyo

The slave trading system developed in the 15th century and proved to be a highly lucrative business. Slaves were sold for money, they were exchanged for products of other colonies. The main slave markets in East Africa were on the Swahili coast, where special caravans arrived daily. The journey to the Indian Ocean from the depths of the Black Continent took from three to six months. Slaves walked on foot with wooden blocks tied around their necks. Those who, due to exhaustion, illness, or some kind of injury, could not move on, were killed on the spot. Further, in the coastal markets of slaves, Europeans, Arabs, Americans bought these unfortunates for next to nothing and sorted them into ships. A huge number of slaves died in the holds from crowding, darkness, disease, and poor nutrition. As a result of such thoughtful transportation, one out of five slaves reached their destination alive. The price of a slave at each link in the trade chain increased several times, not only covering the costs, but also giving an excellent profit from the slave trade. The slave trade was so lucrative that entire states fought for the monopoly on it.

On the Swahili coast, the most famous center of the slave trade was the port city of Bagamoyo. Bwaga moyo means "here I leave my heart" in Swahili. This figurative name reflects the despair of the unfortunate who were waiting for the slave market in Bagamoyo, and then the journey into the unknown, far from their native continent. At first, there was a small settlement on the site of Bagamoyo. But since the world market demand for slaves was great, and the local natural harbor was ideal for shipping and seafaring, as a result, an entire city developed here, a giant transshipment point for supplies between Africa and the rest of the world. Through this port alone on the Swahili coast, 50,000 slaves passed each year. Basically, these were slaves from Mozambique, Lake Nyasa, Uganda, and the eastern regions of the Congo.

Already at the end of the 18th century, the slave trade had opponents. They were passionate people who sincerely believed in the idea of ​​freedom for all mankind. And first of all, these freedom-loving people rushed with their sermons to where the most famous slave markets flourished on the planet. So, in Bagamoyo there were spiritual fathers from the French Missionary Brotherhood, who founded the Freedom Village and the Catholic Mission. One of the main precepts of the Brotherhood was: "Fight against slavery and the slave trade, redeeming as many slaves as possible." And the missionaries redeemed the slaves, and then gave them freedom. As a rule, they ransomed children because they were cheaper. As a result of this cheapness, it was possible to save more human souls. The redeemed slaves could stay in the Village of Freedom, or they could go wherever they wished. Most remained. Soon, 300 children and about 30 adult married couples lived in the Freedom Village. The missionaries taught Swahili, as in an ordinary church school, to read, write, pray in a Christian way, as well as the basics of all kinds of useful professions. The inhabitants of Liberty Village were farmers, gardeners, tailors, carpenters, builders and painters. They had their own administrative structure and their own set of laws. It cannot be said that life in the wonderful Liberty Village was unclouded. Outbreaks of cholera and malaria, as well as terrible cyclones, regularly claimed the lives of both those freed from slavery and the liberators themselves. But, despite all these hardships, the Village of Freedom was the first sign of hope on the Swahili coast, indicating the advent of new times.

Attention! Under this article, read practical information - what, as well as about Sadani National Park and about city ​​of Bagamoyo, the ancient center of the slave trade.

In the 19th century, the slave trade began to be banned at the legislative level, one after another, by the civilized countries of the world. In 1807, such a law was passed by the English Parliament. In 1865, in the United States, one of the main consumer markets for the slave trade, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted, abolishing slavery throughout the state. In 1886, the slave trade was banned in Cuba. In 1888 - in Brazil. The convention for the complete prohibition of slavery and the slave trade throughout the world was adopted by the League of Nations only in 1926.

Officially, the slave trade has sunk into oblivion. However, in Bagamoyo, children are still frightened in the evenings with tales of evil uncles who illegally earn money by trading slaves from the Swahili coast. It is easy to believe in such evil uncles even in the 21st century, since the whole atmosphere of the city is imbued with the spirit of the slave trade. We can say that in none of the settlements of Tanzania it is so clearly in the air as in Bagamoyo. Ancient shackles soldered into stones.. Arab fort, in the underground tunnels of which crowds of slaves were waiting for their fate.. Cemeteries of the untimely dead.. However, are children's horror stories really just fairy tales? The slave trade was banned in the last century, but this did not work. The brutal exploitation of people continues to flourish today. There is even a special term “trafficking”, which means human trafficking. Most often, children, adolescents and women are trafficked. The CIA estimates that only 2% of traffickers are men. This gender and age preference in the modern slave trade is associated with the requirements for passivity and weakness of slaves. Children and women are more easily turned into disenfranchised victims in a foreign country. You can apply physical violence and psychological pressure to them and not meet resistance. The modern slave trade supplies living human material for sweatshops, for agricultural work, for domestic slavery, for organ donation and transplantation, for forced marriage, for forced pregnancy and childbearing, for sham adoption, for drug trafficking, for free work in the field of intimate services.

Transnational networks of slave traders spread widely. All countries of the world are divided into "suppliers of slaves" and "recipients of slaves". Unfortunately, as in past centuries, African countries belong to the first category. According to the UN, 12 million people in the world live in slavery. However, some sources consider this information to be just the tip of the iceberg. They claim that more than 200 million people living on the planet have become victims of the modern slave trade. For comparison: the total demographic losses of Africa from the slave trade for the 15th-19th centuries are estimated at 48-80 million people. Europol (the police organization of the EU) claims that the slave trade generates $19 billion in profits for transnational crime every year.

The problem of combating the slave trade has not been resolved to this day. And it is not known how the intense struggle with it will end. A weak legal framework allows many criminals to evade responsibility. But the law is not the only solution to the problem. The slave trade also becomes possible due to the low cultural level of the planet's population. The ministries of tourism in many African countries create special tours to terrible places, one way or another connected with the slave trade that flourished several centuries ago, including excursions to such abandoned and now forgotten slave markets as Bagamoyo. And the more such educational work is done, the more conscious will be the horror experienced by a human being who has lost freedom. The more compassionate and more attentive to any manifestations of enslavement will become all of humanity as a whole.

How to get to Bagamoyo

Bagamoyo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located 75 km north of Dar es Salaam, almost opposite the island of Zanzibar. The cities are connected by a good paved road. Minibuses and buses run daily. Can be reached by rented transport.

Attractions Bagamoyo.

For a long time, almost until the 70s of the 20th century, Bagamoyo was one of the most famous places in East Africa, and now it is resting from the glory of past centuries, abandoned and forgotten. This sleepy provincial town can be recommended for those who are looking for solitude and wilderness. Bagamoyo these days is more like a village than a city. Time flows very slowly here. Sometimes there is an illusion that it has completely stopped. After all, each era left its mark on Bagamoyo:

1. For the first time, Arabs from Shiraz settled on this part of the coast. In 1300 they founded the flourishing city of Caole. After being attacked by cannibals from the Zimba tribe, Kaole fell into disrepair and was never able to recover. The ruins of Kaole can be seen on the coast in the village of the same name near modern Bagamoyo. These are two mosques and about 30 graves. On some graves, pillars up to 5 meters high are stacked.



Then, in the 16th century, the Portuguese came here and left small Portuguese cannons on the streets of Bagamoyo.

2. After the Portuguese, settlers from the Sultanate of Oman encroached on the territory. They left the Arab fort, the first stone building in Bagamoyo, which was used for different purposes in different centuries. At one time, this fort was a slave prison, where crowds of slaves awaited their fate in underground tunnels. It was also used as a military garrison and as a police station. It now houses the local branch of the Tanzania Department of Antiquities. Also, about 14 mosques testify to the dominance of Arab culture. The oldest ones are the Jamaat Khana an Ismaili Mosque, the Mosque on Gongoni Street and the Friday Mosque at the northern exit.



Many African explorers started and ended their expeditions in Bagamoyo. This was especially true for those African explorers who were looking for the origins of the Nile. Among them are David Livingston, Henry Morton Stanley, James Grant, Richard Burton, John Speke. In this regard, it is interesting to look at the 150-year-old baobab in the Catholic Mission. African explorers tied their horses to a chain at the base of a tree during church visits. You can visit the secluded beach house where Henry Morton Stanley lived. In Bagamoyo there is the Church of David Livingstone, where the remains of the famous explorer of Africa were kept before they were sent to London, Westminster Abbey. The same church also bore the name of the Mother of all Churches in East Africa for a long time, as it was the first Catholic church on the Swahili coast. David Livingstone's heart was buried under a tree in northern Zambia where he died. But his body, soaked in salt, was carried by slaves for 9 months to Bagamoyo. About 700 Swahili came to say goodbye to the body of David Livingston.



Bagamoyo is the cradle of all Catholicism in East Africa. The Catholic Mission was built here in 1868 and is an open-air museum. Here it is recommended to visit the cross on the ocean (the first Christian cross in Africa), the old residence of missionaries, the Church of David Livingston, a 150-year-old baobab, a cemetery with the graves of missionaries who died at a very young age from tropical diseases, the grotto of the Blessed Virgin Mary. By the way, the Grotto of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a place of pilgrimage from all over Africa, as well as from other parts of the world. The redeemed slaves erected it, as thanksgiving to the Lord for their liberation. Pope Leo XIII consecrated this Grotto and served a blessed liturgy in it. You can also see the first St. Peter's Catholic Seminary in Africa. For a long time, almost all African priests received church education in Bagamoyo. Up to 160 people graduated per year. In later years the seminary was moved to Morogoro.

3. During German East Africa, Bagamoyo became the capital. However, the port of the city did not meet the requirements of the Germans and was considered inconvenient, so the capital was moved to Dar es Salaam. Several ruined German buildings remain from the German colonial era in Bagamoyo. Recommended for the study of customs (Custom House) and warehouse. On the ruins of the warehouse, you can still see the bowls that were filled with kerosene so that the rats did not penetrate the food bins. Also of interest is the Liku-House, which housed the first German headquarters. This is one of the oldest buildings in Bagamoyo.
4. Not far from Bagamoyo is a crocodile farm where visitors are allowed.

Other sights of the Swahili coast.

The Swahili Coast is a coastal plain 16 km wide and 800 km long, formed on coral reefs and covered with mangrove forests. In general, this is a wild impregnable coast, on which there are only a few bays that are convenient for sailing and navigation. There are now located either the major ports of Tanzania - for example, Tanga (Tanga), Dar-es-Salam (Dar-es-Salam) and Mtwara (Mtwara) - or the remnants of past civilizations. If you look at the map of Tanzania from north to south, then on the Swahili coast it is recommended to visit:

Semi-colonial town of Tanga. The second largest modern seaport in Tanzania. Located in the northeast of the country, on the Swahili coast. From Tanga you can go on an excursion to the Amboni Caves. The caves are located 7 km from the center of the town, on the road between Tanga and Khorohoro. Their total area is 234 km. There are 10 caves in total, some up to 13 meters high. You can hire a boat at the Tangi pier and go fishing or go to the islands of Totem or Pemba. You can hire a guide and visit the Ruins Tongoni. Or take a walk in Jampuri Park with a picturesque view of the harbor.

1. The old colonial outpost of Pangani, 50 km south of Tanga along the Swahili coast. In the 14th century, Persians and Arabs set up quite a few beautiful buildings on the left bank of the Pangani River. On this river, ships could go far deep into the African continent. In the late 19th century, Pangani became an important Swahili trading port, through which ivory and the slave trade were exported. Now it is a charming provincial town, located away from the traditional tourist routes. Therefore, the traveler is provided with a sweet solitude in the bosom of nature. You can go to the waterfall, walk through the ruins, and lie on the beach.
2. Further south along the Swahili coast is Saadani National Park. This is a rather wild place where not every traveler dares to go. However, only here in all of East Africa can you see elephants bathing in the ocean.



The Ruins of Kilwa are located in the southeast of Tanzania. This is one of the most historically significant buildings on the entire Swahili coast. Dating from the 12th to 19th centuries, the ruins have largely decayed and decayed, but there are occasional surprises as well. For example, the 800-year-old swimming pool is perfectly preserved. The ruins of Kilwa are under the protection of UNESCO. The ruins cover three modern cities in Tanzania: Kivinje, Masoko and Kisiwani. “The seaside cities of Africa did not differ in beauty and comfort from most seaside cities in Europe or India. They stood just as proudly on the shores of the sparkling ocean, their houses were just as high, their walls were just as strong, their embankments were paved with stone. The tops of the hills were built up with fortresses and palaces. It seemed that these cities were strong enough to last forever. And, nevertheless, nothing remained of them .. Almost all of them disappeared from the face of the earth. Only a few scientists now know about their existence. Their ruins, lost in the coastal jungle or among the desert hills, are only a subject of riddles for lovers of antiquity. An excerpt from Thea Buttner's book "History of Africa since ancient times", M, 1981, translated from the German edition of 1976.

3. The very south of the Swahili coast in Tanzania is the modern port city of Mtwara and next to it is the historic town of Mikindani. Mikindani was also once a major center of the slave trade. Today you can go fishing here. Barracuda, mackerel, tuna, etc. are caught. The bay is a real reef paradise for diving and snorkeling. White sandy beaches stretch for miles. From Mikindani, you can go on a photo hunt south to the Ruvuna River, the home of hippos and crocodiles, or to the Lukwila-Lumesule reservation in the southwest. There you can shoot excellent scenes from the life of lions, leopards, and antelopes. Cruises along the entire east coast of Tanzania from Mtwara to Tanga are also delightful. Especially if you go to sea in the evening, when the moon lies on its back in the velvet sky, and the clouds hang over the mountains like tsunami waves..

Sadani National Park.

How to get to Sadani National Park.

Sadani National Park is 100 km north of Dar es Salaam, 50 km north of Bagamoyo and not far south of Tanga. Sadani National Park is considered ideal for a day trip from Dar es Salaam. You can order a charter flight from Dar es Salaam or from Zanzibar. Twice a week, there is a shuttle bus from Dar es Salaam to the Sadani National Park, the journey takes 4 hours. But it is best to get there by rented transport, preferably an off-road vehicle. There is no road that runs from Dar es Salaam along the coast to the north. Therefore, you must first go along the Moshi road for about 160 km, then turn off and follow the dirt road for another 60 km. The road to Sadani National Park from the towns of Tanga and Pangani (turn from Chalinze along Tanga road to Miono) is impassable during the rainy season.

Adventures in Sadani National Park.

Seasonality of rest in Sadani National Park.

In general, Sadani National Park is open for visits all year round. Restrictions are imposed only by the ways of communication. The best time (when the roads can be driven) is from April to May. January-February, June-August are best suited for photography. You can spend the night in a tent camp on the territory of the Sadani National Park. There is a small inn in Sadani village.