What do you know about Fort Jesus?

By the time Fort Jesus was designated as a historical monument in 1958, its walls had seen the rise and fall of more eras than most. Built in 1593 by the Portuguese on orders from king Philip I, fort Jesus was built to be the line of defense for old town Mombasa and the Portuguese interests along the Kenyan coast in EastAfrican. During this time (in the 16th century), slave trade was at an all-time high in EastAfrican and the coastal towns of the region hosted the largest slave markets and most profitable trade at the time. With Portuguese controlling the Indian ocean trade at the time, the construction of fort Jesus gave them an advantage over the Omani Arabs that desired control over the coastal towns.

Constructed on a massive coral reef, the walls and slabs made of clay and lime, windows and doors of iron carry so many victory celebrations, lies, tears and strengths from every individual that had the opportunity to interact with this fort both positively and negatively. The individuals include soldiers, slaves, construction worker(natives) and each of these experienced the fort in a different light. Construction workers who were working to build and curve out this fort from a large coral reef were select 4000 natives of Mombasa and this construction process took them three years. Despite their hard work, they were only rewarded in kind through food and spices but no other wages were given to them by their Portuguese masters.

On the other hand, slaves acquired from the interior of East Africa only saw the dark side of this fort and this was in a literal sense. The prisoners were kept in the dark dungeons under the fort until they were sold to the Zanzibar Arabs. Evidence of this is seen in the still present deep dark dungeons curved out of the coral and in these dungeons, we also see the escape attempts made by slaves to escape by digging through the coral. The attempts were to no avail due to the thickness and toughness of the coral material. When it was time to sell off the slaves, secret ways were used to smuggle them in and out of the fort because slave trade had become illegal to the public but was still being practiced secretly by the Portuguese.

With time, the Omani Arabs realized that “he who controlled Fort Jesus, controlled the Indian ocean trade and the trade at Mombasa port”. So, in the year 1698 after multiple raids and attempts to capture the fort from 1696, the Arabs finally over took the Portuguese and seized Fort Jesus. The siege of Fort Jesus left many parts of the fort destroyed. Walls brought down by canon fire and the church that was within the fort reduced to rubble. Fort Jesus had fallen at the cost of more than 100 lives, leaving the remaining occupants, the Portuguese fleeing for lives. Watch out for the next post, as we explore more of Fort Jesus and its rise from the ashes.