A walk to Zanzibar’s town attractions

Travel 

Monday, March 10, 2014 

BY KENAN KALAGHO, EAST AFRICAN BUSINESS WEEK, KAMPALA, UGANDA

The House of Wonders

ZANZIBAR ISLAND - A twenty minutes flight to Zanzibar from Dar es Salaam will not bring any delight especially for the first comers on board.
However, the moment you approach the island and have a glimpse through the plane windows of the white stretch dotted clean beaches of Zanzibar, you soon start to realize the beauties and fun that goes with this precious spice island.
As soon as the plane touches Zanzibar ground,  you start to be exposed to the famous stone town, the old slave market, spice plantations and many of the Zanzibar exotic tourist beaches.
My tour to Zanzibar was part of the Bioscience for Farming in Africa (B4FA) fellowship that trains journalist in agricultural science reporting in four African countries of Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda.
We toured the famous stone town that has with it 1700 houses located just at the heart of Zanzibar city centre. We made it to the famous spice plantations, some 17km north west of the city at Kizimbani area. You will be amazed to see the narrow streets of stone town that can hardly allow vehicles to negotiate through. You will have to be careful with the motorbikes and bicycles crisscrossing these narrow streets sometimes at awkward speeds.
This was my third visit to Zanzibar and each time, I have to pass by the stone town. This time, I discovered the spice farm is worth a visit too.
We were about 18 tourists from Tanzania, UK, Germany and United States. Our tour guide Abdi Kassu paraded us to the old market place which is still in use today. Here traders splash out vegetables, fruits and fish and spices among other foods. This is opposed to the old days when this market was famous for slave trade.
Kassu knows much about his work as a tour guide, he has been in this job for years. You could tell how precise he was when he begins narrating the historic events of the Island. He has the dates from years back by memory. I did a bit of history and I could tell he must have done a lot of homework too.
He says the stone town with around 1700 buildings has with it two churches, three Indian temples and about 52 mosques.
The whole of the stone town is under the protection of UNESCO as a heritage center, and many of its buildings were built in the 19th century during the reign of Sultan Barghash. These buildings still remain firm today with Zanzibari’s occupancy.
I was moved with the design of the carved wooden doors that carry the history, luck, pride and riches of the time.
Kassu says the artists of the time had in mind every design to bear a unique meaning basing on the activities of the moment. Just like in Tanzania mainland, around Mnazimoja you will find a building dating to colonial period. A building long forgotten but still standing as a testimony of the construction works of the time.
Kassu says there are ‘Indian design doors’ in Zanzibar stone town as well as Arab stylish doors. The Indian design doors are embedded with snakes, eagles and lion drawings.
Before independence, having such door designs meant such a family was wealthy and powerful. They were symbols of royalty.
The Indian doors also have squared shutters . These have smaller sections allowing the door to fold. The brass knobs on the shutters were said to prevent elephants from crushing the doors. Today with the absence of elephants on the town streets, the brass knobs are simply decorations showing the wealth of the house owners.
The ‘Arabian doors’ have Arabic inscriptions and decorations around the door frames. These houses possessed an outside chair for male visitors. Women who stayed in such homes were kept indoors . They were not permitted to come into contact with male visitors.
We were told there are almost 200 different types of doors in stone town. Bell-rings on the door-side-flame would tell the number of family members living in the home. These houses are built from coral stones locally known as ‘matumbawe’ and lime.
The most famous houses we visited around stone town included, Sultan Barghash house, known as ‘the house of wonder’. It was the first house to be connected with electricity in Zanzibar.
We also visited the old fort known as the Arab fort built between the 15th and 16th century by Busaidi group of Arabs from Oman . In Oman, Sauti Za Busara concerts are hosted every year bringing in musicians from around the world.
This old fort lies to the north of Zanzibar stone town leading to the forodhani gardens . At the gardens you will enjoy different Zanzibar cuisines including sea foods, roasted goat and meat, pizza and chapati among other foodstuffs. The meals are more delicious in the evenings. This is when you watch the sun set while watching young-stars diving in the ocean .
Our tour ended with a dinner at the ‘top tower restaurant’ where we enjoyed a combination of Zanzibaris, Indian and Arabic dishes. The top tower restaurant in Hurunzi Street in stone town was the first such restaurant built in 1870.
Here you will have a chance to view the entire stone town buildings and the entire city of Zanzibar. And upon our return at the Ocean view hotel where we could lodge, the sound of the ocean breeze at night and splash of ocean waters could kept us wishing we had more days to spend on this island.