The ‘bright’ side of slavery and slave trade in Mombasa

By Ngumbao KithiSlave trade ended but its ugly scars remain etched in parts of Mombasa and other coastal towns.Driving on the Mombasa-Malindi highway at Kisimani, one passes by the famous Freretown.It was a settlement established for freed slaves and named after Sir Bartle Frere, the man who played a significant role in stopping slave trade.The people, who were called Wa Frere (People of Frere), are the descendants of freed slaves.According to Mr Fredrick Uledi, 75, closely associated with Freretown is the Anglican Church in Kenya, Kengeleni, built in 1889 and the Kengeleni (tower bell), near the Mombasa-Malindi highway.St Emmanuel’s Church at Kiengeleni, Mombasa, was built for freed slaves. Photo: Omondi Onyango/Standard"The church and Freretown were built exclusively for freed slaves, who were rescued by Sir Frere from ships," Uledi said. He says his forefathers settled at Kengeleni, named after the bell that hangs there.The National Museums of Kenya has since fenced off the bell and declared the site a protected national monument.Uledi says the bell was significant to the descendants of freed slaves because it was used to warn of attacks from slave raiders."It also reminded them when it was time to do certain things, including going to church. Every ring sent a different message. It depended on how the ring sounded," he said. He says the original inhabitants of Freretown, built in 1875, were freed slaves from Nyasaland (Malawi), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and (Southern Tanganyika) Tanzania. Some of their well-known descendants include journalists Mambo Mbotela and his uncle Walter Mbotela, the late Francis Khamisi, father of former Bahari MP Joe Khamisi, and Banjo music maestro Joseph Ngala, popularly known as Ngala Mwenyewe.Mombasa Deputy Mayor John Mcharo is also a Freretowner. When the Freretown population increased, the Church Missionary Society built a makeshift school, where the freed slaves were taught Kiswahili and English."The church outlawed speaking mother tongue in the various villages we came from and all of us adopted Kiswahili and English," Uledi said.Came to coastBy the time Dr Johann Ludwig Krapf arrived at the Coast in 1844, plans to build a church had been worked out.It was agreed that the first church be at Rabai instead of Freetown. Krapf walked to Rabai and helped build the first church in East Africa. It was known as St Paul’s Church, Rabai, and was completed in 1887. The second project was the Emmanuel, built in 1889."Rabai and St Emmanuel church are important to the descendants of freed slaves and the history of us as a people," Uledi said. At the time St Emanuel was being built, there was a ‘tsunami’ near Japan and huge sea plants were washed to the Kenyan shores by tidal waves. The freed slaves collected enough of the plants, which they later used to make the church’s floor. "If you visit Emmanuel Church today, you will realise that the floor is made of unique material. It was brought to the shores by huge sea waves," Uledi said. Originally, Freetown sat on 600 acres of land among Kengeleni, Mkomani, Nyali and Junda in Mishomoroni.However, in 1830, there was a row between missionaries and the freed slaves, which resulted in the sale of the land to a company known as Nyali.Freed slavesThe descendants of freed slaves were later resettled on 50 acres at the new Freretown in Kisimani, now near the Malindi-Mombasa highway. During the colonial days, the British government used to give the community Sh5,200 a month for maintenance of Freetown, but the grant was stopped after Kenya gained independence. CMC missionary Canon Harry Kerr Binns, who served at the church from January 10, 1876 to April 2, 1922, built the ACK Emmanuel Parish.The church was completed through funds from the United Kingdom and consecrated in July 1889.Freretown is unique in many ways. "It is not easy to find somebody from Freretown who is illiterate. Everybody here went to school, thanks to the church," Uledi says.Freretown residents do not identify with their tribes."In effect, we are proud to be referred to as Freretowners. These are facts and not fiction," Uledi said.As time went by, Freretowners intermarried with others.Revisiting the controversial slave trade, Uledi said slaves were driven from their villages and loaded into ships destined for Zanzibar, East Africa’s main slave market until 1873. Freretown captives were, however, lucky.After they were bought and put on transit to work in plantations, their ship was intercepted by the British Royal Navy, which was patrolling the Indian Ocean slave routes to enforce the UK ban on the slave trade, adopted in 1807. For close to 50 years after the abolition, the trade continued to flourish on the East African Coast. Other lucky slaves, aboard intercepted ships, found themselves relocated to Freretown. The faces of the Freretown settlement may be gone, but its story still lingers in Mombasa and a few physical features remain prominent. Transit pointThere was not much slave raiding along the Kenyan coast, but it was a vital transit point for slaves captured inland, due to its proximity to the main market in Zanzibar. But Arab slave traders established a smuggling port to the south of Mombasa, in Shimoni, meaning ‘inside a hole’ in Kiswahili. For the traders, the natural limestone caves in Shimoni provided the perfect warehouse for the slaves before they were shipped off to Zanzibar. The caves, which are now a historical site, are eerie, damp and dark with the ravages of time. The exit to the sea has silted up and colonies of bats now line the inner chambers, while lit pathways make for easier access for many tourists visiting the caves. Rusty chains and hooks are still embedded on the walls of the caves.

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