Sun, Spices and Slaves - welcome to Zanzibar!

At the airport, after landing in

JAMBO (Hello) Zanzibar! 

A view of the Indian Ocean - a play of green!

When I first heard of Zanzibar, I could only remember it as the Spice capital, having read something in school history about this being an island nation having a flourishing spice trade. But ofcourse, I found out there is more to this island than just what I recalled.

We flew in to Zanzibar from Arusha in northern Tanzania; the flight was a small 40-seater plane run by a private airline called Flight 540.  The view from 20,000 ft. above, as we approached Zanzibar, was spectacular - clear green waters of the Indian Ocean, dotted with small land masses filled with lush green vegetation.  As the plane descended, it seemed as though we would touch down on water but magically, a land mass appeared and we landed into Zanzibar.  The moist, slightly cool breeze welcomed us as we stepped onto terra firma and made our way past the Customs officials.  

We found a taxi and headed into town.  The driver was a friendly chap and went by the name of Ronaldo. He further explained that his real name was Mohammed Naroor but took the pseudonym of Ronaldo after his favourite football player to ensure that European and American tourists find it easy to pronounce and remember his name!  His car had a sun roof and my daughters were happy opening and closing it.  The island was green, and beautiful; it reminded me instantly of Kerala and Goa. We could catch glimpses of the sea through the trees as we drove through the town.  Most of the women wore a head-dress, a shawl-like cloth that covered their heads and neck and fell down to the shoulders.  We passed through a road called Bu-Bu-Bu Road, named so after the train that used to run there in earlier times.  The area sported a Bu Bu Bu Police Station, and a school named, - yes, you guessed it right - Bu Bu Bu School!  My girls kept on rolling the name on their tongues and found it very funny!

Habib, pointing out the vanilla pods

Walking through the plantation

The Spice Girls, with their crowns!

Our first stop was at a Spice plantation - it definitely felt like we were in Kerala.  The guide there named Habib, spoke decent English and took us on a tour of the estate and pointed out various spices.  We played a Guessing game, look at the plant and identify the spice.  Our Guide was impressed by our knowledge of spices -  turmeric, ginger, pepper (called pili pili manga in Swahili), vanilla, cardamom.  He twisted  a few strands of leaves and made them into lovely objects - tapioca leaves (called cassawa, locally) became a necklace, the pineapple plant leaves transformed into glasses while he made crowns from coconut leaves.  My girls were mighty impressed and laughed gleefully when he placed mini crowns on their heads; we gave them nice titles to go with the crowns - "the Spice Girls"!     He then showed us the lipstick plant - it had a pod that gave a reddish orange colour gel when squeezed.  My younger daughter loved it!  She coloured her lips orange and enjoyed the natural lipstick. Habib also wanted to show us how to climb the coconut tree - but of course, coming from India, we were quite familiar with that as well, much to his disappointment!  We also got to see the cinnamon tree - the leaves are used as bay leaves, while the bark of the tree is the cinnamon.  Amazingly, the root smells of menthol and is used for medicinal purposes.

A view of the beach

After the tour, we headed to our hotel in the northern part of Zanzibar called Amaan Bungalows. Our room had a wonderful view of the beach.  In fact, the balcony stood on four wooden pillars erected right on the beach.  A white sandy beach, whitish water on the edge,  light green waters forming the next layer and dark green waters extending till the horizon - it was a truly spectacular sight!  I have never seen such green waters before - finally understood the meaning of turquoise!  We had a very pleasant dinner in the restaurant which was also situated right above the beach - hearing the movement of the waves and listening to the waters gently lapping against the pillars!  Ah, that was heavenly!
 

Gently moving with the sails unfurled

Enjoying a swim!

Beautiful sunset over the Indian Ocean

The next day, April 15th, was my elder daughter's birthday - it dawned bright and beautiful.  Her younger sister kept wishing her every few minutes, much to her annoyance!  We made the day extra special for her by playing in the waves and then going on a Snorkeling and sunset cruise.  One of the locals introduced himself as Captain and offered to take us on the cruise.  He asked, "you from India?".  When we answered "Yes", he immediately commented heartily with a funny accent, "Mujhe kuchchu kuchchu hota hay"!  We were all amused and admired his PR skills!  So, we went along with the Captain in his dhow, plunged into the middle of the Indian Ocean wearing life jackets and snorkeling gear and  explored the colourful  fish and coral of the sea.  My younger daughter jumped in too and had a whale of a time! After a good hour of this, we got back to the boat and sailed with the sails unfurled.  It was wonderful especially when the wind caught the sails and we swayed gently.  The sunset was spectacular!  The western sky turned  red, and orange  in varying degrees until the sun submerged into the sea, leaving us all clapping and sighing at the magical and breathtaking beauty we had just witnessed.

Walking down towards the Slave Cave

Inside the dark cavern

The next day, after a morning run on the beach and a nice, hearty breakfast, we checked out of our hotel.  Ronaldo,our friendly cab driver was waiting for us - he took us to see the sights of Zanzibar. First stop was the Slave Cave.  When we got down, we were not sure if we were at the right place.  There was no one around except for a young jeans-clad boy in his late teens. The place looked deserted and we did not see any rocky caves around.  Ronaldo then introduced the boy as our guide and asked us to proceed on the Cave tour while he waited in the car.  We hesitantly followed our young guide who spoke haltingly in English. He took us down a few steps and that was when we saw the cave.  The rugged steps reached down into a dark hollow cavern; we needed to use torches to light our way down.  The story was that while slave trading was being abolished, the Arab kings continued to deal with them.  They used to house the slaves - nearly 100 or more - in the cave.  This had a secret exit that opened  close to the sea - the slaves would be made to exit from the cave through this secret opening and board onto waiting ships to carry them away.  We wanted to walk through this entrance but our guide said the path was not big enough to go now.  We would have to crouch really low in some places to make it to the other side.  After spending a few minutes inside and listening to his story, we then went out and followed him across a path with shrubs growing on either side.  After a brief time, he stopped and showed the exit of the cave from where the slaves were forced to come out.  The sea was some distance away from there, but we vividly imagined how it would have been in those days - the poor men and women chained at the hands and legs and made to slowly walk the path in the dark, their heads bowed in pain and agony, forced to leave their homes to board ships to take them to far away lands where they would live a life of bonded labour and slavery!  

Our guide, inside the Slave chamber

The narrow lanes of  the old Stone Town

The outside view of Christ Church Cathedral

After the Slave Cave tour, Ronaldo then took us to the Old Stone Town - the lanes here are extraordinarily narrow; we could only walk or ride a cycle/two wheeler. We stopped at the most visited place - the erstwhile slave market which now houses the Christ Church Cathedral in its premises.  We climbed down to the dungeons of the old building after carefully minding our heads - this led to the chamber where the slaves were detained before they were auctioned.  It was a hideous place - small and narrow with no windows.  It had a raised platform where people were forced to sit and wait their fate.  There were 2 rooms on either side - one for the men slaves and the other to keep the women and children. Small square openings in the wall acted as ventilators - the room was otherwise dark and dingy.  There were hooks laid in the walls - presumably to chain the slaves.  Seeing the place sent shivers of revulsion down our spine.  What agony those people must have endured to be treated worse than cattle!  Thanks to the relentless efforts of the missionary David Livingstone, who travelled to and stayed in Zanzibar,  slavery was finally abolished in Africa.  We then proceeded towards the citadel that was constructed to commemorate the abolition of slavery. On the way, we passed by the place where the actual slave auctions used to be conducted.  In its place, a pit has been constructed which has clay figurines of slaves - their hands tied behind their backs and chains around their necks! The sight was stomach-wrenching.

In memory of the slaves - a heart wrenching sight!

The altar of the church is supposedly built right on the spot where the whipping staff used to be!  This church has a tall spire but is still a little shorter than the Palace's tower. The story goes that the local king, while providing approval for building the church, insisted that the spire should not be taller than the tower of his palace.

Inside the House of Wonders!

We then visited the Palace which is situated a few meters from  the pier.  This has now been converted into a museum and is called the House of Wonders as it was the first building in the area to have electricity and an elevator.  It has one of the biggest door frames at the entrance.  A big sized sail boat is laid out in the middle of the front room.  We hurriedly went around the rooms, glancing at exhibits as we were running late.  Apparently, the shortest war in history took place here between the British and the Arab King and it lasted about 38 minutes; the Arab king surrendered quickly to the British forces.  A part of his palace,the stables and other neighbouring buildings were ruined in the bomb attack but the same were renovated subsequently.

The white buildings of the palace as seen from the ferry.

Prior to reaching the Palace, we walked through the narrow lanes, looking at the architectural design of the buildings.  We could find some examples of the Indian style as quite a few Indians - mostly Gujaratis- came down to Zanzibar in the 1800s. We stopped at a couple of shops to pick up T-shirts featuring Zanzibar and other knick-knacks.   After the Palace tour, we stopped at an Indian restaurant for a quick and simple lunch of  rotis, dal and sabji.  It was served hot and was very delicious.  After lunch, Ronaldo dropped us at the jetty point and we took the last ferry back to Dar-es-Salaam.  Aboard the ferry, as we started sailing slowly away from Zanzibar, we could see the white buildings of the palace clearly, as they stood silently and solemnly, looking out to the sea - a mute witness to history!  Kwaheri (Goodbye) Zanzibar!