Zanzibar, Tanzania, Sunday October 19th

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It was lucky that Keith was having his birthday in one of his most favourite places, Zanzibar. He was really taken with it and so was I. After our breakfast on the rooftop terrace, Keith went down to see if there was a service at the Christ Church Anglican Cathedral, which was built on the site of the old slave market when slavery finally was abolished. The last service for the day was underway, with the one in English having been much earlier. The singing had not been like the choir in Farkwa, but more like that of the Anglicans in Inverleigh. I finished my book, which had kept me gripped up until the last two pages when I was disappointed that the author had gone for happy possibilities. If anyone is interested to read it, the book may be translated into English, and is called ‘Elle S’appelait Sarah’ (She was called Sarah) by Tatiana de Rosnay.

It seems strange to want to go to the internet café on your birthday, and I certainly hadn’t wanted to spend time in one on mine, but Keith was feeling quite frustrated in not having time to do everything he wanted there, so to him, time there was a gift. His real gifts of a Basque music CD and part of our Turkish carpet were already back in Australia. So off he went, and I typed more material for him to use and had a sneak look in my Princess Salme biography.

When Keith came back, we visited the old slave market and the church. We joined a tour a little belatedly, walking through the current hostel building and down under the terrace into what had once been the slave holding rooms.

The windows were very small preventing escapes but also preventing much air circulation in these incredibly overcrowded holding pens. There was the cruel practice of whipping slaves so that the potential buyers could see their calibre – those who took more whipping without crying out would bring a higher price because they showed strength of character and body. You have to remember that the slaves had been kidnapped, lured with false promises or sold by their leaders, and that the day of their sale would have been the first time that they had experienced this terrible ordeal. What sense could they possibly have made of what was happening to them and what sense of pride would have prevented them crying out when being whipped? What did they imagine would happen next? A woman was worth more if she was pregnant or had a child, since it was two for the price of one; the child being automatically the slave of the purchaser of the mother. On the other hand, babies were sometimes killed since they were seen as a hindrance to the progress of the slave caravan and later to the woman’s ability to perform work.

The slave caravans walked the people out from the interior of Africa, sometimes chained together and sometimes with a six foot forked stick with a metal pin across the fork enclosing the neck, and the stick connected to the person in front. If one person stumbled or walked too slowly, there were problems for them all.

Prior to abolition of slavery, there were many people working for its end, and documenting the inhumane practices that accompanied the ‘legitimate’ slave trade, such as vastly overcrowded boats, shackling which created unsanitary conditions, vast numbers of children sold, abuse and high death rates on the march to the coast.

The main slave traders were Arabs, who had initially traded in ivory, and had recruited people from the interior as porters. Some continued with this practice, but others realised that there was a second profit to be made selling people, and no need to feed them on the way back to the interior to find more ivory. Some Africans and Europeans were also slavers, and they and the Arabs here were operating quite separately to the slave traders who took people to the USA and the Caribbean. Slaves were purchased in Zanzibar and then about 60% of them were re-exported to Persia, Arabia, and Egypt and to other ports in the north of the Indian Ocean where slave labour was wanted. The plantations of Zanzibar were run on slave labour, and many slaves were used in wealthy households for day to day chores.

On December 4^th, 1857, David Livingston, the British explorer, made a presentation in England appealing for missionaries to go to Africa to save souls, and to assist in the ending of the slave trade which he had witnessed. Missionaries were sent, with many losing their lives to tropical diseases and being replaced by more young volunteers. After a while it was decided to move from the mainland to Zanzibar, which was a healthier environment and where much anti-slavery work could be done.

There had been several British decrees to stop slavery, but essentially it had just gone underground. Slave ships were being intercepted and slaves were being freed, with many going to the Catholic run Freedom Village at Bagamoyo, and the Anglican Freedom Village in Zanzibar. On the 6^th June, 1873, John Kirk, the British Consul General in Zanzibar, made Sultan Said Barghash sign a treaty for the abolition of slavery, offering his kingdom protection against other European powers if he did, and threatening to bombard him from the nine British war ships in the bay at Stone Town if he didn’t. Sultan Said Barghash donated a clock for the clock tower of the church, and, in an attempt at some control, insisted that the tower not be higher than the tower on his palace. He had previously encouraged the slave trade as part of Zanzibar commerce, but he decided to act pragmatically. According to our guide, most of the freed slaves stayed in Zanzibar, married and many became the foundation of the current Christian community which is about 3 – 5% of the population.

Bishop Edward Steere laid the foundation stone of the Cathedral and oversaw the progress of the building, which was completed in seven years. The altar in the Cathedral stands beside the site of the whipping post, where, on the floor, there is a small white stone circle surrounded by red and white marble to symbolise the blood spilt there. A row of columns remains upside down, put in on a day that the bishop was away, by workmen who had never seen a column before.Apparently Bishop Steere made sure that he was present for all new items of work after that. There is a window dedicated to David Livingston, whose body was brought here after he died, and was then shipped to England to be buried in Westminster Abbey. Biblical Figures in beaten red copper form a curve behind the altar.

A sculpture outside the church shows five slaves, chained together in a pit. It is as stark and very confronting reminder of the inhumane treatment that the slaves endured.

After lunch we met Fared, who had been our guide on a walking tour of Stone Town five days ago, for a pleasant hour of chatting and questions. We had learnt so much in such a short time, and a lot was confusing. We still didn’t have much of an idea of the current political situation, and we probably need to do some research to really understand it. We found that Fared was a mine of information and very willing to answer our questions and to follow our interests. He also showed a great love of and pride in his country.

That evening we had a quiet dinner together in a vegetarian restaurant, so we had lots of choices. Keith was very happy that he had published two weeks of blog, and he had received some birthday greetings. A message had come from my school asking for my preferences for my role next year, but I needed time to think and also we didn’t know what Aidan and Kathryn and the little boys would be doing as yet; whether they would be living with us or not.

As we wandered home, we experienced a very strong version of our usual regrets at leaving a place before we were really ready. On the way to buy some biscuits to eat on the boat tomorrow, I saw a rat disappear into a hole and realised why all the cats were so well tolerated here. The only dogs we had seen had been out of town, and here in Stone Town the cats lazed about all day as if they owned the place, which they did.

Keith ended his birthday with lots of praise for Zanzibar, for its complexity and appeal, for its totally different amalgam culture, for its crumbling former glory, for its natural beauty and for its cats. We set the alarm for 5 a.m. in order to be able to board the boat at 6.30.