Loango Bay

Old slave-trade port north of the city, with one of the more haunting beaches on the coast

Loango, about 25 kilometres north of Pointe-Noire, was the capital of the Kingdom of Loango and one of the most important slave-trade embarkation points on the Atlantic coast of Africa for some three hundred years. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, more than two million enslaved Africans were marched here from the interior and shipped across the Atlantic, mostly to Brazil and the French Caribbean.

What survives today is a wide sandy beach backed by dunes and a ruined factor's house, with an enormous baobab traditionally said to mark the point from which the captives were embarked. There are no formal museum facilities; a few local guides offer to walk you through the history. It is a haunting place to spend a couple of hours.

things to do sight beach
A story
From the late 16th century, the Vili Kingdom of Loango ran one of the largest slave-export ports on the Atlantic coast of Africa. It is estimated that more than two million enslaved Africans were embarked from this short stretch of beach across the next two centuries. A baobab tree at the back of the beach, traditionally said to mark the embarkation point, still stands.