Mangapwani Slave Chamber

This guide to the Mangapwani Slave Chamber near Zanzibar City follows Mohammed bin Nassor Al-Alwi, who cut this cell from coral rock around 1880, seven years after Sultan Barghash had signed a treaty with Britain banning the island's slave trade. It traces how this manmade chamber and the older natural cave beside it, once used for drawing fresh water, were pressed into hiding captives who had no way to write their own names down, waiting for boats to Zanzibar Town or across the sea. Notice how the passage narrows as you move through it, built to force anyone inside into single file.