by LaurelC-19, 31 March 2010

Zanzibar is a beautiful island off the coast of Tanzania. Every bit as magical and mythical as it sounds, it is a place rich in history and culture with a past as a former trading port where ships from all corners of the globe crossed paths.

I was in Stone Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, visiting the Anglican Cathedral and Slave Market – a seemingly oxymoronic string of words. A former slave market had been converted by missionaries into an Anglican Cathedral, which in my opinion had the one-stone, two-bird effect of being both a symbolic and practical move. The cherry on top of this moral makeover was that the main altar of the Cathedral was in fact the exact structure that had formerly been the primary whipping post, where traders showed off the health and rigor of the slaves to potential buyers by lashing them. The cathedral was still in use, but it retained the eerie air of once being a place of great suffering and anguish – a somber reminder of what humans are capable of inflicting on one another. The very same chains were left in the catatomb-like chambers where slaves were crammed while they awaited the next turn in their fate. It was suffocating, cold and damp with no hint of natural light. I could not imagine what they had gone through.

Absorbed in the guide’s retelling of the history of the site, I was soon engaged in a rather embarrassing conversation in front of other a small crowd of other tourists.

Tour Guide explained: "So here, slaves were sold for around 5 dollars each."

Curious about the economic equivalent in today’s currency, I made an innocent query: "So how much would that be today?"

The tour guide looked straight into my eyes, and with an expression of what can only be described as pure revulsion, he replied: "This is the 21st century and you cannot buy a human being, so I cannot tell you. We know today that all men are equal. You cannot own another person."

I was immediately flustered and my face, already reddened by the glare of the sun, grew even hotter under the glare of the guide. I tried to reiterate my original meaning: "No, no, no. I mean, what would the value of that be today?"

This time he sternly answered with thinly veiled disdain: "I cannot tell you, because a human being's life is priceless. If someone wanted to buy my son, a trillion dollars would not be enough! It is impossible! You cannot buy a slave in our time."

Now, I was just frustrated. "NO! I don't want to BUY a SLAVE! I just want to... Nevermind.”

And that is how I was once mistaken as an interested slave buyer on Zanzibar.

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