The Slave Tree is one of Ndola's most significant historic sites — a large, ancient fig tree in the city centre that served as a meeting and trading point for Arab and Swahili slave traders in the 18th and 19th centuries. The tree has been declared a national monument and is surrounded by a small park. An interpretive display explains the history of the East African slave trade in the Copperbelt region.
It is a sobering site: a living tree with direct connections to one of history's most brutal trades, still standing in the middle of a modern city. The monument makes no attempt to minimise what happened here.