Group want slave trade route to become tourist attraction site

Bagamoyo Salve Market Ruins. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • The renewal of the central route will create social and economic opportunities for youth, women and to stimulate development in the country.

Dar es Salaam. An NGO has embarked on a campaign that seeks to turn a road used to transport slaves one of the  tourist attractions in the country.
The road, which stretches from Ujiji in Kigoma was the main slave route to Bagamoyo market through Tabora, Singida, Dodoma and Morogoro.
Actions for Prosperity in Humanity Inception (APHI) Foundation said the renewal of the central route will create social and economic opportunities for youth, women and other groups to stimulate development in the country.
“The goal of this campaign is not to remind of the pain in the era of the slave trade, but to see opportunities in this history to reduce and eliminate ignorance, disease, and poverty,” said the executive secretary of APHI Foundation, Mr Philip Ally.
Mr Ally said that if the central route is opened through “prosperity tour 2022/23” campaign, it will be a new tourist centre in the country, that will potentially generate foreign currency, preserve history and serve as a tourist attraction.
“I would like to call on young people and women to be ready at all times, authorities to open doors for this initiative and international organisations and embassies to include this in the economic diplomacy,” he said.
“The campaign will be accompanied by a voluntary walk from Kigoma to the coast towards on December 9 (Independence Day,” he added.
Mr Ally also said the campaign launched will be a continuation in remembering and preserving the country’s history and will also be accompanied by a slogan; “we add value for social happiness.”