Shimoni Caves tell the dark and painful story of slavery

Tourists at the Shimoni Caves in Kwale County. The caves were used as a waiting pen for captured slaves. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Shimoni Caves were used as a waiting pen for captured slaves from the hinterland.
  • The caves are located in a sleepy seafront village some 70km south of Mombasa on the Mombasa-Lunga Lunga road.
  • A few metres from the site stands the Shimoni Slave Museum that is managed by the National Museums of Kenya.

  • The caves are five kilometres long.

The awesome coral caves of Shimoni in Kwale County are a living testimony of the dark days of slavery on the East African coast.

Before anti-slavery crusaders put a halt to human trafficking some two centuries ago, Shimoni Caves, located in a sleepy seafront village some 70km south of Mombasa on the Mombasa-Lunga Lunga road, were used as a waiting pen for captured slaves from the hinterland.

A few metres from the site stands the Shimoni Slave Museum that is managed by the National Museums of Kenya.

CULTURAL ARTIFACTS

In 2010, the US Embassy sponsored the restoration of an old colonial district commissioner’s residence built in 1885 and abandoned in the 1980s, with the aim of attracting tourists from America.

The museum has collections of the local Digo people’s cultural artifacts and others collected from the East African coastal areas like Pemba and Zanzibar, that were centres of the infamous Arab Slave Trade stretching from the 8th to the 19th centuries.

Historians estimate that at least  eight million slaves from Africa were shipped away in that time.

Local folklore has it that people trying to escape the marauding slave hunters initially used the natural formations to hide.

The caves were also a sacred site used by Kaya elders for prayers and to offer sacrifices long before the invasion of slave traders.

Old iron shackles, wooden crates, rusted chains and metal  studs that are well preserved in the caves tell the sorry tale of the African slave trade victims.

The caves are five kilometres long.

This historical site is managed by a community-based organisation and opens doors to tourists from 8am to 6pm every day at an affordable fee.

Tour guides vividly explain to visitors the sad story of their ancestors, pointing out how the slave masters piled their victims into waiting dhows before they were ferried away.

“Arab slave caravans colluded with their African counterparts to capture and drive slaves from the interior before being brought here awaiting transportation. Many died while being tortured or castrated,” says Ayub Masumbuko, a tour guide operating from the site.

Captured slaves from the local communities were first taken to the main slave markets in Mombasa, Bagamoyo, Kilwa, Zanzibar and Pemba, from where they were shipped to places that are now Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, India, China and Iran.

The slaves were also used as porters to ferry ivory and other goods from the hinterland for shipment.

For those who crave a flashback of our country’s history from the seafront, this site is an amazing invitation.