Zanzibar
Trip Start
Jun 29, 2006
1
2
11
Trip End
Jun 29, 2007
Zanzibar,
Tanzania
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
I arrived with the Greenforce team on a ferry from Dar in the early evening. We had been looking forward to swimming in the beautiful Indian Ocean for what seemed like the entire 10 weeks. The first evening we stayed in Stone Town before heading to the beautiful beach of Kendwa on the north-coast. White sand, palm trees, turquoise water, and a bar on the beach. You get the picture ;) We took one day out for a snorkeling trip on a dhow, to a coral island just off the Unguja coast. The chef was dropped on the beach and while we viewed (what was left of), some fine coral and an unbelievable abundance of tropical fish, our chefs cooked up a huge tuna BBQ with local spices
1. Old Customs House
. The afternoon we spend under sail, relaxing on desk as the island sights drifted past. The remainder of our final 3 days with Greenforce, we chilled out - most of the group were hoping to go back to England with a tan (what for I am not sure considering they would have had to cover up as soon as they arrived back considering Autumn has arrived!), and once gone it was just Liz and I left on the island.Liz stayed on for another two days so we frequented cafes and watched the sunset from the favourite Mzungu hangout of Africa House Hotel. Once she had gone I set about finding a teacher of Kiswahili. I arranged for daily lessons of 2 hours with my teacher Mwanampate at $4/hr and spent the following 2 weeks immersed in study.
Kiswahili lessons have been challenging to say the least ;) My grammar is fantastic, just my vocabulary is still less than desirable. I was extremely fortunate to be introduced to a local Musical student who took some time to show me Stone Town and its people. I spent many an evening drinking kahawa (coffee) with his friends who all tried their best to help me with my Kiswahili. Most of the time I just sat and listened and from time to time I would understand something of what they were discussing. We would then walk back through the streets of Stone Town and observe the locals out and about playing boa or as Ramadan began, often on their way to the local mosque for prayer. Mahsin also introduced me to Taarab music which combines African, Arabic and Indian influences. As the music academy to which he attends held their graduation concert at the Old For (an open air theatre for music and dance), I was able to attend the concert and see some of the best performers in Zanzibar. Some of them are highly accomplished musicians that teach at the academy and often tour in Europe
11. Old Building
.As a study break, I spent a relaxing weekend on the east coast of the island at a place called Bwejuu. The palm fringed beach is amazing; ruined only where the villagers come to dump their rubbish on the beach. Yes....straight down to the water and into the ocean. Refuse is a major issue on the island. There does not seem to be any effective collection, made worse by the lack of education of the local people on this issue. I did meet a gentleman who is in the process of creating a refuse / recycle business to deal with such an issue. It does not seem like a sound idea to wait for the local municipality to deal with the problems!
Stone Town itself has been declared a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. There are some challenges the Stone Town residents face. To understand this I have to tell you a little history.....
Zanzibar gained its independence in 1963 and in 1964 there was a revolution whereby Abeid Kaume assumed power. His government nationalised most of the housing and many of the clove plantations of the day. This caused many of the merchants and landowners to move to the mainland. So many left that the population of Stone Town actually declined by 15% up to 2002
12. Stone Town Beach
. Today 50% of the urban housing is state owned and divided in to multi-family dwellings and densely occupied, often with entire families living in a single room. Overcrowding in these building leads o problems further degradation of the buildings. Low revenue on rent (tenants pay around $3/ month), ensures that there is no money for repairs. Rental contracts offer very little security (often only a few months). All this ensures that no one invests in the buildings, which has lead to the decay and collapse of many. Repairs are often of poor quality and use inferior building products so do more damage than good. Over 80% of 1709 buildings are of poor or deteriorating condition, 85 of these collapsed between 1982 and 1992. There are a number of programmes and organisations working to solve these problems:
ˇZanzibar Stone Town Heritage Society - NGO Project
ˇConservation Centre
ˇUrban Village Project - working to improve living conditions through design of buildings.
ˇTenant Project - Landowners and tenants have joint signatory accounts, 30% of the rent must go back to maintenance of the property.
ˇMedia Resource Centre
ˇTraining
I hope that the combined determination of peoples obtain the results required to save Stone Town from deteriorating much further.
13. Sunset at Africa House
On a typically beautiful Tuesday morning in Stone Town, I left for the mainland with a head full of questions on what I could do to improve the island should I one day have the opportunity to return. It really is a fantastic place!
I leave you with a couple of typical Swahili sayings direct from the back of a kanga...
"Usisafire nyota ya mwenzio"
Don't set sail using somebody else's star
"Mama nipe radhi kuishi ana watu kazi"
Mother, give me your blessings; living with people is really tough
"Hasidi Itana Sababu"
An envious person requires no reason to practice envy
Comments
Sounds rubbish
Only kiddin!! Wow I was in Stone Town in 88 and it doesn't look like it's changed at all. It is good to see the pictures as they give such a good impression as to the tranquility and splendour of Zanzibar. Did you know this place is the sight of the worlds shortest war. It lasted aprox from 9am to 9.30 on the same day...yup 30 minutes.