Zanzibar, Tanzania- 2 of 3- Former Slave Market

In Zanzibar, the last slave market in East Africa was closed in 1873. In 1879, British missionaries built the Christ Church Cathedral at the site.

The slave trade flourished in the Sultanate of Zanzibar for at least 1000 years until the 1880s. In the 1850s, there were 78,000 slaves in Zanzibar, captured from a vast area in Africa. When plantations became a big industry on the island, domestic slavery grew to the point that 2/3 of the population were slaves. Zanzibar was also a significant contributor to the Indian Ocean slave trade, where slaves went primarily to the Arabian Peninsula. The slave trade was a mainstay in Zanzibar’s economy.

Britain started claiming lands in the 1880s, and Zanzibar became a British protectorate from 1893 until 1965. British influence gradually ended the slave trade, which was officially abolished in 1834 and ended completely in the early 1900s.