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Were the Somali Bantu the Original Somalis?
Who Are the Somali Bantu? The Somali Bantu are a minority group in Somalia, numbering around 600,000 in a population of approximately 16...
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Thoughts about geopolitic analyses
Last year in my geopolitics lessons we had to study the presentation of the publishing of the book of Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos...
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Princess Salme
I've always heard about Majid and Barghash bin Saïd, but Salme was one the first sultan of Zanzibar as well and pretty much unknown....
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Unguja Ruins
Kimzimkazi - Old Slave Market - Bububu
Kizimkazi is known for the oldest archeological site in Zanzibar. It is a small village in the south west of Unguja island. A sign next to the mosque of the village explained that an: ‘archeological excavation suggests that oldest mosque still in use was rebuilt during the 18th century using the foundation of the original mosque the north wall that was still standing the latter contains an ornate prayer niche with the inscription written in kufic characters dating that original mosque by Sheikh Abu Mussa al Hassan bin Muhamad.’
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The mosque is surrounded by tombs that the pannel does not mentionned the datation. 9 of them were single tombs and a other one wilder that could eventually contained several corpses.
Close to the mosque and on the coastline there are ruins of walls apparently from the same material of the oldest north wall of the mosque. You can distinguish two sorts of walls, the portugueses types of construction and an other one, more ancient, but without radiocarbon it difficult to date stones. Moreover, coins from only a 70 years have been found on the island.
There is other interesting excavations on the island. The Old Slave market, which is located in Stone Town, Mkunazini, is a memorial for the important slave trade in Zanzibar. A reconstitution has been built, as long with a permanent exhibition on the history of the trade. It explained the role of the Arabo-Swahili traders who operated raid inside the hinterland in the Angoni people who were migrating from Southern Africa to escape the Zulu, in the Nyamezi people on the north of Lake Tanganyika and in the Yao people who worked at the north east of the Zambezi river... Hamed B. Muhammad known as Tipu Tip enriches himself by one of the largest slaves trading empire in eastern Congo in the 19th century along with Belgians contributions among other.
The slave trade were abolished on the 5th June 1873, then a treaty between Sultan Barghash and Britain banned all caravan on land. The impact of slavery accentuate the social gaps up to nowadays, and unfortunately that part of history is too often left aside. It is a memorial duty to commemorate and teach all part of History.
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Twenty minutes driven north from Stone Town, you’ll reach a village called Bububu, on a private property there is a all complex of ruins, that some part have been renovated such as a small mosque. Oliver Lange live on the property and works hard to renovate it, what he found is amazing.
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On the ground there is two mansions, one can be consider as a palace, the other is more controversial. In this one, two chimneys are facing the ocean, directly towards prison island, so when one were lighted on, one boat were sending and when two were switched on, two could be sent. Under the main floor, there is a basement, where you can see distinguished cells. And under the property a lot of tunnels have been found. Mr. Lange point out two differents level of tunnels. Under the bathtub he found four differents rooms. He also found left of chains, bullets, around a 100 cans of military food and 5000 coins. In this same questionable house, there is a room with a bathroom and a window facing an old train racks where the bridge is still visible.
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When you look at the wall you can separated two specifize layers on the wall, one made out ramned earth and small stone and one more on top more crude with bigger stone which dismantled like to the buildings in Stone Town. This crude wall is known as the omani type of architecture. But the other is never highlighted, although it seems to be the tradition way of building until nowadays. It could be interest to compare those walls with the ruins of Great Zimbabwe for exemple.
In Bububu there is 9 mosques whereas only one is in Mtoni, the palace well known. There is also a well without salty water, a very clear water system, a pool and a sugar cane mill. We supposed that the complex could have been used for the biggest slave trade of the island although Mtoni Palace and the Old Slave Market are putted in the front line. Analyses should be compulsory and samples send to lab for datation a must. We can only support the restoration project.
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