Revisiting a colonial landmark: caravanserais as tools of urban transformation in early colonial Tanzania

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article uncovers the colonial past of the Bagamoyo Caravanserai, a historic site in the Tanzanian town of Bagamoyo. Situating the origin of the building, as well as that of a similar structure in Dar es Salaam, within the context of both German colonial rule around 1900 and the wider history of colonial camps in Africa, it argues that the colonial authorities conceptualised caravanserais as spatial tools of demobilising and concentrating the non-sedentary group of porters working in the East African caravan trade. Based on primary sources from Tanzanian and German archives, the analysis contends that it was the aim of these tools to disentangle the thousands of transport workers, staying in the towns during the annual trade season, from the urban population for the purpose of social and sanitary control. The analysis also discusses the limitations of this regime, revealing the struggles over space and the ways in which African workers subverted colonial urban transformation.