Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Zanzibar Slave Market.

Srone town in Zanzibar was home to the last remaining slave market in East Africa.  It is now a museum, but as you walk into the small, dank slave chambers, you can imagine how horrible it must have been for the 75 adults plus children to be kept there.  It had a dug out parthway in the middle that would have been the toilet, and it would be washed away in high tide as the current swept into the chamber.  Many slaves died of stravation or suffication.  If they did survive, they were sold in the market place above.  Slaves would have been tied to the whipping tree and whipped to see if they cried out.  The longer they lasted without crying, the more valuable they were - and the more likey that they would be sold and not have to return to the gruesome slave chambers.
The slaves would have been captured from all over East Africa, except Zanzibar, and sold to countries in the Indian Ocean.  When explorer Dr David Livingstone visited Zanzibar, he was horrified by the salve markets, and returned to England to get support to stop the slave trade.  It took 9 years to convince the Sultan of Zanzibar to abolish the slave market in 1873, but sadly Livingstone died just 1 month before the agreement.  After the end of the market, an Anglican Cathedral was built on the exact spot where the market had stood, and the whipping tree post became the alter - a gruesome reminder of days gone by.  There is also a crucifix hanging in the cathedral which is made of wood from a tree in Zimbabwe, under which Livingstone's heart was buried.

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