Christine and Keith's Travels: Zanzibar, Tanzania, Thursday October 16th

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We had arranged to meet Fared for our tour of Stone Town at nine o’clock at the House of Wonders. It was such a wonderful name that I was in love with this place even before we had really seen it. First we had breakfast on the roof terrace of our hotel, with a whole little loaf of bread each, a Spanish omelette, fruit and tea. We sat with Anna, a young German woman, who had just been on mainland Tanzania helping to build a desalination plant at a remote fishing village. An engineer friend of hers had designed it and then gathered up a group to help build it. She planned to return the following year to work on further with the project.

We allowed plenty of time to find the ‘House of Wonders’, but even so we took the longest route possible and had to ask for directions. We looked about for someone holding a ‘Zanzibar’ bag, and realised that we had no idea what one was. There was a man in long robes wearing a kufi, and when he turned we saw that he was holding a woven bag. We walked tentatively towards him, and he towards us. It was indeed Fared, and he had many volumes of the newspaper that he used to edit in his bag. They had articles about the history of Zanzibar in them, with photos that he showed us as we went along on our tour. He was a charming and knowledgeable guide, whose main job was running a cultural centre for the preservation of the culture and history of Zanzibar. The tours brought in needed money to continue the centre. After asking if I could take notes, not because I was a journalist or an author, but simply because I was old and forgetful, we started off with Keith taking photos and me jotting an occasional word that I hoped would mean something in the future. The notes dropped off after a street or so, I was so busy asking questions.

During the tour, Fared explained the social and historical changes that were evident in the buildings that we passed. Zanzibar was a very important part of the trading group which included Arabia, India and Indonesia as well as the East coast of Africa. The Romans were using Zanzibar as a stage on their trade with China. As such, the culture was, and is, an amalgam of many and is cosmopolitan. Bantu people moved in around 400 AD. In about 700 AD Persians and Arabs, fleeing wars, settled along the coast of East Africa and in Zanzibar, introducing Islam. The Portugese took over Zanzibar and held it between the 15^th and 17^th Centuries when they conquered Oman, and introduced Christianity fairly unsuccessfully to the Muslim island, as well as an adaptation of their handkerchiefs that became the basis for the kanga so widely worn today. Their stay was not long and their influence not great. It was ruled from Oman after the defeat of the Portugese, with the Sultan Said Said moving his capital to Zanzibar in 1841. The sultans continued their rule of Zanzibar and the first fifteen or so miles of the Eastern coast of Africa, during the German colonisation of Tanganyika. More recently, it was a British protectorate, as was the rest of Tanganyika, and it joined with the mainland to become Tanzania in 1964, following a bloody revolution. Elections have continued to be dangerous times up to the most recent one in 2005.

With that potted history, we learnt that the House of Wonders had been built as a ceremonial building and eventually became the seat of government. Now it is a museum. The ‘wonder’ part relates to it being one of the first buildings in East Africa to have running water inside, electricity and a lift. The grand building next door was the palace during Omani rule, with a further palace building having been destroyed in 1896 during the 'shortest war in history,' lasting 45 minutes. When, after the death of the Sultan Said Said, one of his younger sons, Khalid Bin Barghash, plotted a takeover from his brother, who was supported by the British. So it was British bombardment from the bay which destroyed the palace where Barghash had his headquarters. Barghash was exiled to the Seychelles Islands but made a comeback as Sultan when his brother eventually died.

Doors featured on our tour, since there are so many very special ones and they are an important aspect of history and culture. Carved in wood, often teak, mahogany, jackfruit and even coconut palm, they tell about the people who live in a building. The door was often the first item to be made for a new house, and on leaving a home, it was usual for the door and surrounds to be taken by the family. Along the top, the carvings tell how many live there, and of their importance. The patterns down the sides relate to power, affluence, and a fish at the bottom is a left over symbol from African pagan times. Ironically, a Christian door does not have a fish, even though a fish is a Christian symbol. Verses from the Koran meant that the family was very religious, while no verses meant that they took their religion more lightly. The doors open as doubles around a central pole, with women entering through the left door and men, the right. Very important people have a further carved part above the door, which tells of their deeds. Recent doors are varnished rather than oiled, and apparently not usually to the same standards as the old ones.It is said that the doors with spikes were introduced by Indians, and designed to prevent attacks by elephants, but Fared doubts this, thinking that the Indian elephants are able to be domesticated and that it is more likely that the exchange went the other way, given that the African elephant is wild and can damage houses. There certainly were elephants on Zanzibar in the past.Doors owned by African families are usually painted.Unfortunately many doors have been illegally exported from Zanzibar in recent years, robbing this country of a priceless part of its heritage.

French missionaries came to convert people, and in 1862 St Joseph’s Catholic Cathedral was built. It was behind a locked grill gate and we were never to see inside it, but on another occasion we saw a wedding there, with the bride in a western style gown and lots of make up, giving her sad and happy father a kiss before she entered to walk down the aisle

The language, Swahili, evolved here and includes words from many of the languages of the peoples who have lived and traded here. The spread of the language and of Islam was by trade contacts, rather than by force, and was consequently not resisted in the same way that the Portuguese were. We saw a square, once called Japanese Square because of the many Japanese people who lived around it, but now Lebanon Brothers Square. The Japanese Zanzibari nationals were sent to a prison island by the British Protectorate during the Second World War. Another square was called Jaws Corner, after the movie, and because people gather here to talk. Politics was in evidence with the lower stone work painted in red, blue and white for the opposition party, and photos of the National Opposition Leader on the walls.

Stone Town was called that simply because stone was used for all the buildings. Many of the buildings had been royal palaces. A tunnel connected two others which allowed people to hide and escape when they were being watched by members of the Portuguese garrison that was stationed here.There were lots of mosques, and we heard who built them and what had become of them. One mosque was built by a woman to show and celebrate that her son had reformed from being a drunkard. The Hamman was a bath house but also a leisure centre, since it was not regular for women to appear at the nearby beaches. The graveyard seemed so small and only had a few monuments, but Fared explained that for Muslims, the ordinary people are simply buried in white shrouds with a hole beside the right ear, to allow the body to rot, so that in thirty years, the site could be reused. A different cemetery had been for the sultan’s family, concubines and slaves. Many of the concubines were slaves, and if they had a child by the sultan, the child had regular prince or princess status in the family and could succeed as sultan, and the mother was freed, but remained a mistress of the sultan.

One house, now for abused animals, had once been the first ice house, prior to the days of power and refrigeration. Another was the first house to belong to an ordinary woman; the midwife for the sultan’s family. Inheritance was more for a son than a daughter, but a parent could nominate that property not go to his children, but to the mosque for use for the poor. Houses that had been designated in this way had a W on the front doors.

We visited a Hindu temple, which was an absolute riot of colour, with yellow and orange flags, red and green edged mirrors, flowers and fruit offerings, and many highly decorated little temples with various gods in them. A sprig of mango leaves above the temple entry was for protection.

Prior to the 1980s there had been a lot of religious tolerance; missionaries were given permission to build churches, schools and missions, Indians built temples and people could attend each other’s services without comment. Now religious 'tolerance' is reduced to attendance at weddings and funerals, but social mixing in the community continues. At one time in the 1980s there were sixty-two newspapers, but now there are two, both initiated by the government. Many of the glorious buildings are crumbling, with trees growing in the gaps in walls and jarring modern buildings replacing ones that perhaps could have been saved. There is an organisation now that oversees the conservation and development of Stone Town. We saw photos of women in the 1940s wearing fashionable western clothes, with head scarves for their faith, but since September 11, apparently more women are wearing traditional and covered up clothing to show their pride in being Muslim. We did see many women in traditional clothing and even in burkhas, but we also saw many younger ones in modern western clothing. We had not thought of the burkha as having any advantages, but it is sometimes handy to be unrecognisable when you want to have a good time away from your husband. Christians used to be more covered up than Muslims, but now the situation is reversed.

A cringing monkey, tied to a railing by a short string, was a sad reminder of the times when monkeys were regular pets that were tamed and not confined.

We called at the culture centre, and heard the sad story of a husband who would not let his new bride have the wedding kanga that she fancied, because the traditional crosses on part of the border resembled Christian crosses, and would in fact have been originally that in Portuguese times. He said that they represented death. Very angry, she waited until he slept then cut off his penis and he later died. In the court case that followed, the cause was said to be a kanga, and the method, a knife. Ever since, all brides have been presented with a kanga in that design by nervous grooms.

Colours also used to be significant, with red and black for the wedding kanga, orange for a second marriage, blue for someone who is not honest (but if that was the case you would not be honest enough to wear it – this colour seems to have been reserved for gifts!) and white for happiness.

The manner of wearing a Kufi could also give coded meaning in a society where, in theory, and prior to the mobile phone, direct contact between males and females who were unrelated was restricted.

Chillis carved into bed heads meant that the women who slept there would be hot, although sex beads could be hung up and used as well for insurance – maybe wishful thinking and, to me, a relic of the more raunchy African approach to life compared to the Muslim. Two kangas draped on the bedhead meant that all was well, one meant that your wife had left you but would consider coming back, and none meant, ‘Forget it!’ There was a rule that you didn’t enter another person’s bedroom without permission, and no wonder, there was so much to learn in just a quick glance.

Culturally there was lots of negotiation over marriage, and while it might be discussed within the two families, the bride had to be willing for it to go ahead. However, sometimes parents chose partners for their children. In a love match, the sister would approach the other family and see how it was perceived before the mother and father became involved. In a forced marriage, such as when someone’s honour was compromised, about fifteen people would go to see the other family. After a divorce, the wife doesn’t leave for four months, and if they sleep together during that time, the divorce is off. There was a special kanga for people who did not want to marry, so everyone must have been very clear about what was happening with whom all the time.

We finished our tour back near the palace, under a certain tree, the leaves of which are used to wash dead bodies. Because of that connection, it is a safe tree to do business or wait under, since no-one would cheat you or rape you with the smell of death around. That seemed pretty extreme, but Keith paid more for our tour than we had agreed and, although there was validity in his reason (which was that Fared had been excellent), he was no doubt influenced by the tree! Fared said that it would be his pleasure to meet with us again on a social basis another day, to answer any more questions that we might have during our stay. What an interesting few hours we had spent, and how much the town had been brought alive for us. Long after our time in Zanzibar, I looked at some of the photos, and I couldn’t believe how down at heel it looked. Now I realise that from this point on, I was not only seeing what was in front of me, but the glorious past as well, with my imagination making 'corrections' to reality.

Back at our hotel, we met Terry, a sculptor from Sydney, and after chatting for about an hour on the stairs, we went to the café for lunch together. Terry was excellent company, and had just returned from climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, then learning to scuba dive and doing it for several days. As a sculptor, he had exhibited in Norway and Jordan, meeting the Queen of Jordan at his exhibition in Norway. Very high powered networking indeed! He is a conceptual artist, and we were fascinated to hear the ideas behind his Masters exhibition about body building, and his PhD exhibition about men’s perceptions of body and masculinity.

After lunch I read and had a sleep – I was so tired suddenly – and when I woke up I typed up one day for the blog. Keith was at the internet café. We looked for another dinner venue, but the ones for tourists were all too expensive for us and had such ordinary food at them. In the end we settled for a coffee shop with a teapot made from a coconut shell and two dishes that we had never heard of before. At the cheap prices we even had desserts, so it was a bit disappointing to read the bill and find that everything cost more in the evening. We didn’t argue, after all ‘cheap’ was all relative.

I just had to read on, and reached a very sad and horrifying part in my book. The little Jewish girl had escaped from the prison camp and was being looked after by kind farmers. They take her back to her old flat in Paris, at considerable risk to them all, and when she unlocks the cupboard where she had hidden her three year old brother, to keep him safe from the French police who were rounding up the rest of their family, he was dead. Sometimes I think my head will burst with all the emotions and revelations that reading and visiting other countries have thrown me into. Certainly many of the things that I am learning about are immensely sad.