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Bagamoyo was the most important trading entrepot port on the East African in the late 19th century. Bagamoyo's history has been influenced by Indian and Arab traders, by the German colonial government and by Christian missionaries. About 5 km south of Bagamoyo, the Kaole Ruins with remnants of two mosques and a couple of tombs can be dated back to the 13th century, showing the importance of Islam in those early Bagamoyo times. Until the middle of the 18th century, Bagamoyo was a small and insignificant trading center where most of the population were involved in fishing and farming. The main trading goods were fish, salt, and gum, among other things.
In the late 18th century Muslim families settled in Bagamoyo, all of which were relatives of Shamvi la Magimba in Oman. They made their living by enforcing taxes on the native population and by trading in salt, gathered from the Nunge coast north of Bagamoyo. In the first half of the 19th century, Bagamoyo became a trading port for ivory and the slave trade, with traders coming from the African interior, from places as far as Lake Tanganyika and Usambara on their way to Zanzibar. This explains the meaning of the word Bagamoyo ("Bwaga-Moyo") which means "Lay down your Heart" in Kiswahili. It is disputed whether this refers to the slave trade which passed through the town (i.e. "give up all hope") or to the porters who rested in Bagamoyo after carrying 35lb cargos on their shoulders from the Great Lakes region (i.e. "take the load off and rest"). Since there is little evidence to support that Bagamoyo was a major slave port (Kilwa, much further south, has earned this dubious status), and that tens of thousands of porters arrived at Bagamoyo annually in the latter half of the 19th century, suggests the name derives from the latter interpretation.
The slave trade in East Africa was officially prohibited in the year 1873, but continued surreptitiously to the end of the 19th century when the British were finally able to prohibit the Sultans of Zanzibar from continuing with the practice.
In 1868, Bagamoyo local rulers, known as majumbe, presented the Catholic "Fathers of the Holy Ghost" with land for a mission north of the town, the first mission in East Africa. This caused resistance by the native Zaramo people which was mediated by representatives of Sultan Majid and, after 1870, by Sultan Barghash. Originally the mission was intended to house children who were rescued from slavery, but it soon expanded to a church, a school, and some workshops and farming projects.
But Bagamoyo was not only a trade centre for ivory and copra; it was also a starting point for renowned European explorers. From Bagamoyo they moved out to find the source of the River Nile and explore the great lakes of East and Central Africa. Some of these early European explorers were Richard Francis Burton, John Hanning Speke, Henry Morton Stanley and James Augustus Grant. Although often believed, David Livingstone had never been to Bagamoyo in his lifetime. Only after his death was he laid out in the Old Church's tower (nowadays named Livingston Tower) to wait for the high tide to come in and ship his body back to Zanzibar.
Bagamoyo was also the headquarters of German East Africa (first under the auspices of the German East African Company and then the German Imperial Government) between 1886-1891. Dar-es-Salaam became the new capital of the colony in 1891. During World War I, in 1916, a British air attack and naval bombardment was launched on Bagamoyo, the Germans were overrun and the German garrison taken.
It was only when the German Empire decided to build a railway from Dar-es-Salaam into the interior in 1905 that Bagamoyo's importance began to decline.

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