R & R in Zanzibar

A week away in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam gave us another perspective on life here in Tanzania. It started and ended with bus trips across the country.

It took us about 12 hours to reach Dar. We drove along the pretty Pare and Usambara Mountains, past fields of corn and sisal (a plant that looks like aloe vera & used for making rope and twine), seeing places where farmers were making charcoal, and a few places thirsty for rain.

Passing through three cities we saw a very different slice of life than in Karatu, a town of perhaps 15,000. Nearly every road in the cities is paved and every main street was packed with cars. Karatu has only the main highway through town paved, and it never seems busy in spite of all the tourists passing. In the larger cities, as in the U.S., the pace of life is faster.

The next day we ferried across to Unguja, the main island of the archipelago and what many non-Tanzanians think of as Zanzibar. Our goal was the east coast and three days on the beach. We enjoyed snorkeling each day, including a great afternoon at an atoll. However, the water near shore was too hot to be comfortable for long.

Our beach was protected by an off-shore sand reef, creating at low tide a lagoon. This is when women harvest seaweed for eventual export. The have “fields” of stakes that stick out of the water with twine between the stakes under water. The twine is for the anchorage-dependent crop, which is ready about every two weeks. At high tide the women leave, the stakes disappear, and it is time to snorkel again.

Back to the west coast of the island we stayed in Stone Town, a World Heritage Site. It is the heart of Zanzibar’s reputation as a convergence of many cultures. There ships stopped while heading east and west. There it was discovered to be an ideal place to grow spices, still today an important part of their economy. The sultanate of Oman moved there because of the riches that trade provided. From Stone Town traders moved through the mainland, selling and buying goods, and unfortunately, people.

All this activity brought about the spread of the Swahili language through east Africa. In Tanzania there are more than 120 different tribes. To facilitate communications for commerce, Swahili became the lingua franca, a common or commercial tongue among people who speak different languages. It is Bantu based, but with so many influences it has many borrowed words from other languages. By one estimate as much as 40% of the vocabulary is Arabic based. Swahili is now an official language or widely spoken in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, parts of Congo and small portions of Somalia, Mozambique, Madagascar and Comoros.

As traders from different parts of the world came, some started families, creating a rich rainbow of influences and colors. Islam is dominant, but Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism are present along with influences from the original indigenous faiths.

With attacks from the Portuguese and later the British, the sultanate was slplit between the islands and Oman. In Zanzibar the sultans were “guided” by the British until independence and then a revolution overthrew the sultan in 1964.

As a result of its interesting history, the architecture of Stone Town is a mix of Arab, Persian, Indian and European influences, with a maze of streets and alleys that are fun to wander. The government has struggled to maintain Stone Town. Unfortunately most of the buildings are in poor condition, which made the experience a bit depressing. There is an obvious effort to save and rehab, but to us it will require an enormous amount of money and careful work.

Back to the mainland we spent time in Dar es Salaam, the economic center of the country. Dar bursts with activity. It doesn’t have the character of Zanzibar, but was fun for us to wander none the less. We spent time in an outdoor Village Museum, where we could see the variety of village housing used even to this day.

We took the bus part way back, then met Jolene and rode the rest of the way with her. We had to be careful because of the ostriches hanging around on the side of the road, and the crossing by several zebras. A little different than Minnesota. The evening light and scenery were gorgeous.

We are back in Karatu, back in the wonderful weather here, back with the great people of the area. It was a good week away but great to be “home”. The coast is hot and humid, and this ideal weather has refreshed us.