Of all the ports on the north coast, Pangani has retained the most traditional Swahili character. It's a beautiful area with the mouth of the Pangani River and an amazing beach stretching off into the distance. Although it is attractive, with a number of crumbling old buildings, there is not much to do in the town itself. Heading just south of Pangani is Ushongo, where the up-market hotels and resorts are found.
Even though archaeologists have found the remains of small 15th century villages on the low hills just north of Pangani, the modern town came into existance relatively recently in the nineteenth century. The Zanzibari sultans held power and used Pangani as a major terminus of caravan routes to the deep interior. From the 1860s farmers established large plantations of sugar and coconut in Mauya, along the banks of the river to the west of town. The plantations were maintained by slaves brought from the interior. Pangani became an important hub for the slave trade, shipping captives (taken in the wars at the fall of the Shambaa kingdom in the Usambara mountains) to the plantations of Pemba and Zanzibar. After the Sultan of Zanzibar signed treaties with Great Britain banning the shipping of slaves by sea 1873, Pangani became a center for smuggling slaves across the Pemba channel to evade British warships.
In 1888 Pangani was the center of an armed resitance to the German colonial conquest of the entire mainland Tanzanian coast. The local leader of the resistance was Abushiri ibn Salim al-Harthi, a Zanzabari who owned a small estate that still has his name. Abushiri was the focus coordinating resistance to the German conquest along the coast. The Germans captured and hanged him at Pangani in December 1889.
Several historical sites in and around the town remain as reminders of the Arabic roots and the later colonial eras in Tanganyika. The district headquarters is the most significant building remaining from the period of Zanzibari rule.
The Mauya plantations no longer grow sugar, now they produce coconuts and betel-nuts. Pangani was once a center of the sisal industry. Pangani also has a fishing industry. In recent years beach resorts north and south of the town have brought some tourism.
Pangani is a pleasant place to relax by the beach at the end of a safari. For more information on staying in Pangani, please contact us.
