BAGAMOYO, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of. — In East Africa; established in 1906 from the Vicariate of Sudan, it is administered by the Fathers of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit of the Dutch province. It is the mother mission of all the others in Tanganyika. Its area is 65,000 sq. km., and its population numbers 323,317, of whom 98,000 are Arabs along the coast, the remainder belonging to various Bantu peoples. The city of B. was an important slave market, and the missionaries’ activity began precisely in 1867, with a group of young slaves who had been ransomed and trained to work in an agricultural colony, founded with the support of the Sultan of Zanzibar and admired by everyone. During the war of 1914–18 the vicariate was occupied by the Allied troops, who brought the war into German East Africa; the Cathedral was bombarded, several stations destroyed, the German missionaries deported to India and placed under supervision. This brought the work of evangelization to a halt and encouraged the spread of Islam even in areas that had until then been resistant, such as among the Sandawe of Kurio.
After the war, the Apostolic Vicar, Msgr. Vogt, was replaced by Msgr. Wilson, who organized the school according to the new British government program, securing its recognition and a subsidy, and opened a central normal school at Morogoro for the training of catechists from the various vicariates of Tanganyika. Islam remains the great obstacle; nevertheless, the mission is making progress. Today it numbers 76,561 Catholics and 6,791 catechumens. There are 62 priests, 22 Brothers, and 66 sisters; the catechists employed in the mission number 510, and the teachers 148. The primary schools (64) educate 8,152 boys and girls, the vocational schools (3) 63 young men, and the three normal schools prepare 100 women teachers and 210 male teachers.