The quiet town of Kilwa Kivinje became the terminus of the southern slave caravan in the early 1800s. The mainland port of Kilwa Kivinje is a wide sandy port, which is still an ideal landing beach for wooden boats. By 1850, Kivinje had grown into a settlement of 12-15,000 inhabitants, including many wealthy families of Indian descent, and the regional center of the slave trade. Towards the end of the 19th century, Kilwa Kivinje became the German administrative center. With the abolition of the slave trade and German wartime defeats, Kilwa Kivinje’s short heyday came to an end.

Kilwa Kivinje is now a small atmospheric village with a Swahili village feel and an intriguing mix of German colonial and Omani Arab architecture, filled with ruins revealing the prosperous city it was in the 19th century. Old colonial buildings and crumbling remains of ancient Omani structures are disseminated around the city. Kivinje owed its prosperity to several trades, including slave and ivory trade.