December 14, 1866. Tanga region.
Under the blazing sun, East African colony administrators in straw hats supervised the natives working on the construction site with whips.
The natives worked in groups of four, carrying enormous stones with their bare hands and slowly stacking them along the shore.
Immigrants used wheelbarrows to transport sand, gravel, and cement to the shore, added water and mixed it evenly, then used it to fill the gaps between the laid stones.
This was a newly built pier, constructed entirely from stone blocks that had been polished smooth and solid.
Not far away, immigrants and natives used shovels, pickaxes, and other tools to widen the bay along the coastline. Several thousand people worked at once, creating a rather spectacular scene.
This construction site lay in what would later be Tanga City, Tanzania, and the colony was building Tanga Port.
Tanga Port had originally been a military port of the German East Africa colony in 1889. After Tanzania gained independence, it would become the country's northernmost seaport, its second-largest port, and a center for sisal processing and trade.
At present, this land had been leased by the East African colony from the Sultanate of Zanzibar for the construction of a port for the colony's own use.
Before this, it had been nothing more than a desolate bay of the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
Tanga Port faced Tanga Bay to the east. Its coastline was relatively winding, with fine bays clustered closely together. Its average depth was seventeen meters, and Pemba Island formed a maritime barrier in the eastern waters, keeping the sea free of strong winds and towering waves.
The Tanga region saw southeast winds from December to February of the following year and southwest winds from April to October. The highest average temperature was 32 degrees in