A trip to Swahili-land - Part 1

After months of planning, looking up hotel reviews on painfully slow internet, working three jobs, waiting, thinking longingly about seafood, and approximately a hundred emails later, Alex came to visit me at the end of May.  He was a superstar (read: nutjob) and ran the Kigali half-marathon with me about 18 hours after stepping off the plane (a separate post on that later).  We took a mini-safari in eastern Rwanda and then spent a day roaming the hills of the north where I work.  And then, we set off for Zanzibar. 

Zanzibar.  A name filled with mystery and exoticism, just waiting to be culturally appropriated by white tourists from Europe and the States.  Representing the "zan" in Tanzania, Zanzibar island sits off the northern coast of mainland Tanganika (the "tan" in Tanzania).  Best known historically for its Swahili culture - a mix of African and Arabic traditions - Zanzibar has been used for many hundreds of years as a trading hub between the two worlds.  In the 1600's, the Sultan of Oman moved the capital of the empire to Zanzibar and started up a spice trade, importing plants and starting up plantations.  To this day, spices are Zanzibar's largest export.

Coconut trees on a spice farm tour

"Lipstick tree" seed pod

The juice is used as a food and lip dye.

On our requisite tourist activity Spice Tour, our guides must have shown us 25 different spices trees and fruits - cinnamon, vanilla, coffee, starfruit, cocoa, nutmeg, coconut, cloves.

Fresh mace which encases the nutmeg

 We flew from Kigali (at 3am, with a lovely early-morning layover in Nairobi) into Stone Town, the "capital" of Zanzibar and its traditional hub of trading activity.  I was immediately reminded of Venice, Italy (also a historical trade hub and cultural mixing ground), where I had visited with my mother almost exactly a year before.  Stone was by far the most common building material and whole place just had a feeling of "old".  We checked into our hotel and were immediately upgraded to their executive suite.  Sweet! At that moment, I was really glad I'd decided to book the overnight flight from Kigali, because we must have been the first couple to check in that day.

Traditional Swahili style

Open-air shower

View from our room onto the Indian Ocean

The hotel was absolutely wonderful - full of old Arabic and African items (my favorite was an old Swahili swinging crib made of dark wood) and boasted an interior open-air courtyard with pool.  We never made it into the pool, but it was nice to look at.

By far my favorite aspect of our time in Stone Town (besides the fact that people loved calling Alex "rasta man" when in his button-down shirts, he was obviously about as far from rasta as you can get) was the architecture.  Stone Town is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites (primarily for its "outstanding material manifestation of cultural fusion and harmonization"), but I was surprised at how little real preservation has gone on.  I suppose you could argue that this simply reflects the fact that Stone Town is not a relic, but a still-living, breathing, working town.  Still, I couldn't help but wonder about what the state of it will be like in 50 or 100 years. 

It was clear that in its heyday of spice and slave trading, sultan-ism, and cultural fusion-ism, Stone Town was a wonderfully fantastic site.  Wealthy men owned entire multi-story buildings and were responsible for their upkeep.  I can't tell you how many times, on our trip, I'd look into what clearly used to be a breathtaking building, only to see ruin and disrepair inside.  I suppose when you no longer have a slave trade to support massive single family dwellings and those buildings get split up between multiple families, no one is charged with keeping the place up as a whole.  I'm not sure how you could manage to restore Stone Town to it's former glory without creating Arabic Disney world and kicking out all the locals in order to revamp their houses into hotels for foreigners.

Zanz is 95% Muslim - I kept my legs and shoulders covered in Stone Town

Perhaps the most well-known architectural hallmark of Stone Town is its doors. Traditionally a sign of wealth, many of the most impressive doors have been sold to collectors around the world.  I can understand why - they're absolutely gorgeous.  I'm a sucker for Arabic and Islamic artistic influence - somehow simple and intricate at the same time.

Much of our time in Stone Town was spent wandering around, taking pictures, enjoying fresh juice smoothies, exploring down alleyways, and poking our heads into touristy shops filled with much of the same schlock you'll find anywhere in East Africa.  A particular highlight was Forodhani Gardens at night - an open air seafood market filled to the brim with fisherman and their fresh catch of the day.  That was such an amazing experience it deserves a post of its own.  So for now, I'll leave you with the rest of the best of Stone Town.

Inside the sultan's wife's private bath

I decided I didn't need a shower.

No explanation needed.  One of my faves.

On the street

And finally, just because he will kill me, I would like to present Alex in his best spice formal-wear.

Corporate spice trading-ready.

Stay tuned for posts on the seafood market at Forodhani gardens, the rest of our trip, and the half marathon!