16th February to 18th February = Zanzibar Island – somewhere in the Indian Ocean
Known as the slave capital of the world and spice island, Zanzibar has a long and chequered history, as well as the birthplace of the famous Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen. (something I didn’t know prior to coming here). Zanzibar people don’t experience the horrific poverty we see around here due to the plentiful supply of fish, and small island with much, much tourism to see ‘stone town’ and experience the magnificent beaches. Our stay here was too short I have to say. Upon arrival at the ‘hotel’ we both looked at each other and thought “!!@@%%$$” what have we done. I stayed in the taxi while Lesley took the driver down this long alleyway to find the hotel. The driver had just pointed and there was no way I was going down there not knowing what was down there.
Looked like a dirty alleyway with buildings hundreds of years old and stained with mould and dirt. He laughed but went with Lesley. About 15 minutes later she returned with a big smile on her face and said the hotel was beautiful.. I still didn’t believe her. I had been melting in the car clutching my bag for grim death as people walked past. Well, true to her word it was indeed beautiful! So lovely and Moroccan style inside. Our room was really lovely and we had a view out over the ocean, but no drinkies as it is a Muslim owned hotel. Zanzibar is mostly Muslim. We had a sleep for an hour or so as we were so tired, then walked down to the ocean front to where the food sellers were all out and about with their stalls set up and an abundance of seafood freshly cooked for you there. Was a lovely atmosphere. We walked down a few alleyways and ended up having dinner on the beach at a restaurant. Our first ‘fatty’ meal since being in Africa. Battered fish, calamari, vegetables etc. I felt quite sick after it as not having anything remotely fatty for weeks, it certainly hits your stomach. Was just beautiful sitting on the beach eating dinner with the sand under your feet.
Next day we got up early and meandered around stone down buying this and that for Umoja’s stall at the Rotary Convention coming up in May. Zanzibar people are extremely friendly and not as pushy as the beach boys and shop owners in Diani Beach in Kenya, and it is very safe to walk around here at night.
They rely on the tourists for their income so everyone looks out for the tourists. How can I describe Zanzibar? Well having travelled to many countries in my life, I have to say it is a mixture of Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and English architecture heavily influenced by the Arabs and Islam. Walking through the alleyways reminded me of Barcelona and Granada. All the buildings in stone town are heritage listed so can’t be pulled down. Zanzibar was where the slaves were kept until the ships came into port here and they were transported to America and the West Indies, and many other countries. The biggest slave market in Africa was here in stone town. Having seen at Fort Jesus in Mombasa where they were kept to be transported to Zanzibar was bad enough but just had to experience where it all happened. No wonder the white man thought Africans could work all day in the hot sun, and a series of torturous ‘tests’ were done (which I won’t go into here) to make sure the fittest got the highest price. I don’t know if any white man could stand up to the relentless heat without a hat on all day and little water. It was just lovely walking up and down the tiny streets, getting lost in the higgledy piggledy alleys. The smell of spices always wafting past your nose tempting you to come closer for a smell of the vastly different coloured spices. Totally different to the spice markets in Istanbul. Breakfast on the terrace overlooking the port was hard to take each morning…and I got up early each day to sit up there and watch the sun rise.
We overlooked an ancient graveyard and I wondered who was buried there with the grey and black covered huge headstones that once would have been stark white. No slave would have been buried here, but obviously some rich and important Spanish, Portugese or English slave traders perhaps. We had dinner at ‘Mercury’s (named after Freddie Mercury), restaurant overlooking the ocean after we had walked past and seen a ‘traditional’ Zanzibar music troup advertised as performing for 1 hour so we thought we’d pop in for a look and watch them perform in the ‘arts centre.’ Wasn’t exactly what we were expecting – it was more belly dance music, rather than tribal African, but obviously heavily influenced by Arabs. The muslim women who were singing were dressed so colourfully and beautifully and moved so sensually it was lovely to watch, as was the bongo drummer’s playing. We were getting eaten alive by hoards of mosquitoes. We cover ourselves with rid everywhere we go in Africa, but still they were horrendous.
Before we left we headed to the slave market. I felt the air so heavy as we looked where slaves were kept chained down in the dark in areas (you couldn’t call them rooms) with 60+ grown men kept in an area smaller than my office at work with the height only about 5 foot 4 inches. I “feel” death and people’s pain, my shoulders began to hurt and my legs, where awful things have happened. I felt it in Rwanda when we went to the churches where mass slaughter of men, women and children were murdered by machetes and shot where they thought they would be safe. I really can’t explain how it makes you feel. African’s have had their rights taken away from them for so long it just makes me want to scream when you see what the ‘white man’ has done to them.
We busily purchased another bag for me – mine which I had purchased on the Gold Coast awhile back which was supposed to be genuine leather obviously wasn’t and it began peeling and I can understand that in this heat, however I wasn’t happy as I purchased it as leather. Never mind shit happens – you even get ripped off at home so nothing to complain about. Could have easily stayed much longer in Zanzibar as it was a lovely place and we didn’t get to see all we would have liked to culturally either. We will return. The plane trip back to Mombasa with East African airlines was great. Got food and drink on the 40 minute flight, and gulped it down. Our driver had got the times wrong to collect us. He had us on his list to pick up at 3:30pm – the time we arrived in Zanzibar 2 days before, and we arrived here at 1:20pm, so we rang and waited till he got over the backlog at the ferry and got to collect us. Once again the driver wanted a wife – but this time a Kenyan one – did we know any? I am going to give him Aunty Rachel’s number and she was very keen when I told her about him. Africans think so differently to us – where do I begin? Being immersed in the culture here we are so, so different culturally. I need to be as much aware as I can about as much as I can and I am loving it. Such a short time in Tanzania, but very informative and we enjoyed it very much, even watching a man clean his teeth with bucket and toothbrush in the graveyard below us while we ate breakfast one morning, for I kid you not – 15 minutes!!!!!!!!!!! We were pissing ourselves laughing at it. I didn’t think there would be any teeth left…
