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.
