The town of Bagamoyo was one of the most important trading ports on the East African coast.

It was the penultimate stop of slave and ivory caravans travelling on foot from Lake Tanganyika on their way to Zanzibar. Once the caravans reached Bagamoyo, the slaves and ivory were shipped by dhow to Zanzibar, where they were then dispatched all over the world. Missionaries active in abolishing the slave trade made Bagamoyo, whose name means 'bury my heart' in Kiswahili, a centre of their activities.

These days, Bagamoyo is now a centre for dhow sailboat building on the Tanzanian coast. A quiet village with a few German colonial buildings still standing.