Slave Market in Zanzibar

Our next stop in Zanzibar was to the famous slave market. Apparently, Zanzibar was home to the 2nd largest slave trade in Africa back in the 1800s. It was also the last open slave market in the world. In this market, slaves from East and Central Africa were bought and sold. It finally closed down by decree of the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1873, thanks in large part to the efforts to abolish the slave trade by the famous missionary, David Livingstone.

The following year, in 1874, Bishop Edward Steere had this Cathedral built at the exact site of the slave market. The high altar inside the Cathedral marks the place of the old slave whipping post, and the tiles there at the altar are symbolically red, marking the blood that flowed from the backs of the slaves.

Underneath the church there is still a small old room where the slaves were packed until they were put up for sale. Many slaves died in this room from sickness and disease, while the "prize" for the survivors was being taken in a ship to a foreign land, where they would work forced labor until their deaths. Bhuti and Biggie thought it would be ironically funny if they tied the white man up in the slaves' chains. I was a good sport about it...

This piece of art depicts how the slaves where tied together by chains at the neck and made to walk hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles to the slave markets. It was a sobering reminder of an ugly time in the history of mankind.