Zanzibar Day 1... Stone Town!

Our guide, Sulaiman, met us at the hotel and started our walking tour of the city of Stone Town. It was given its name from the use of Coral Stone to build most of the buildings. In 2000 it was named a UNESCO World Heritage site. The mix of African, Arabic, Persian, Indian, and European influence make it a really interesting place to see as far as architecture and design are concerned. 

The alleys and streets are close together and lined with homes and shops and feels very maze-like. They reminded me a lot of the winding alleys in Venice. The streets are too narrow for cars but mopeds, bicycles, and foot traffic clog it up enough on their own!

Standing in front of Freddie Mercury's house! Yes, ladies and gents, for those who didn't know, THE Freddie Mercury- Stella's favorite front man, was born on Zanzibar! At the age of 8 he was sent to boarding school in India, but came back to this house to visit his family during school holidays. After school he returned to Zanzibar until his family moved to London in 1964 when he was just 17 years old. And the rest, as they say, is history! 

The center of the city. Its pretty famous for being a gathering place for men to catch up on gossip, play games, and drink coffee. (Also, that sign over the phone says "free international calls" if you can reach it...lol)

Street art

Stone Town is famous for their doors. They are incredible! They started out as a status symbol for the rich- the more ornate and decorative your door, the more money you had. There are two main styles of doors- Indian, which has a rounded top and Arabic which is squared off. Some of the Indian doors also have these crazy spikes sticking out of them because in India there were problems with people using elephants to break down doors so they could rob the home. A plain wooden door wouldn't keep an elephant out but one with spikes absolutely would! So, even though there aren't any elephants on Zanzibar, they brought the style with them. 

Arabic style door 

Catholic church built in 1862 by French missionaries. Our guide joked and said that the missionaries were too late though... there was too much influence from the Middle East, Oman specifically, and everyone was already Muslim and not inclined to change their beliefs. 

There are only two churches in Stone Town. But there are about 50 mosques. In this picture you can see the minaret from the Mosque next to this Catholic Church... and you guys know I love proof that people can live side by side in harmony no matter their religious beliefs. 

The next part of our tour was incredibly difficult. We went to the former slave market. I don't know that I will ever be able to truly convey what this was like. Difficult. Hard. Heartbreaking. Eye opening. Humbling. Painful. Horrifying. Gut-wrenching. Sad... so very, very sad. I have so many words and I'm finding that they're jumbled up and so hard to get out. I want to do this justice. The things we learned and saw and felt. But I know my words will fall short.

We all know about slavery. We are taught in school. We read books about it and write papers on it and stand in front of our classmates and give presentations about it. We know it happened and we understand it is a dark time in our history. Those of us from the American south feel the weight of those beautiful southern plantations and farms we're so famous for and the truth of who was tending them. We see the Confederate flag that dumbass rednecks some people still wear emblazoned on belt buckles and printed on t-shirts and know that racism is still real and alive (because lets face it, no one is flying that flag or wearing it proudly because of heritage or in support of the losing side of the Civil War...it no longer represents anything but white supremacy and racism and everyone knows it and anyone that wants to argue that is delusional). But we don't truly know. We are so far removed from the reality of the slave trade and what it actually meant and the horrific truth of what was done to humans by humans.

This was a reality that I never realized I would face. And it was fucking hard.

In East Africa slaves were brought to Zanzibar to be sold to the Middle East (Western Africa supplied slaves to Europe and America- which is what learned about in school. I didn't realize that East Africa was supplying slaves to the Middle East but it makes sense... slavery was a major issue all over the world... and sadly, still is today). Men and women were stolen from their homes and families all over Africa and brought to this port town to be auctioned off like animals to be used at the whims of their "owners". They were brought here to this market.

One of the first things we saw was this moment that was built in 1997. Its a stark and sobering representation of what happened on that land and what was done. The chain that is around the necks of the statues is an authentic chain from the slave trade that was found and the artist incorporated into the monument. 

In 1873 the Slave trade was abolished and the market was closed. In 1874 English Missionaries bought the market land and began construction on an Anglican Church. They created a community here in this place that had been so ugly and terrifying. And they helped the former slaves to start their lives over. A man named Edward Steere was crucial to helping abolish slavery and, according to our guide, was actually the first person to create a Swahili dictionary. He was a English Bishop of the church and a talented linguist and also translated part of the Bible into Swahili. He is buried behind the altar of the church. 

They brought in marble and windows from Italy and the church is beautiful. 

The baptismal font

This pipe organ is the original one brought into the church and its still in use today.

The altar

At the altar is a white circle of marble. It is the exact spot where the whipping post at the market was. Slave traders would whip the slaves that were up for auction to see how strong they were and what they could withstand as selling points to the buyers at the auctions. If a slave didn't cry or react he was considered strong and worth more money. The marble laced with red is representative of the blood that was spilled. 

After touring the church came the truly difficult part of the tour. Our guide took us to the main building and we descended into the cellar into two rooms they have preserved. These were holding rooms and the men and women who were brought to the market awaited the auction in these stifling rooms for days on end.

They were separated by sex and there were 50 men to a room and 75 women to another. The rooms are tiny. And stifling. There were two tiny slivers of windows cut into the room we were in and there was no air circulation whatsoever. They were weak from their perilous journeys already, and were stacked on top of each other in these oppressive room where many of them didn't survive and suffocated to death. They were let out a couple of times a day to eat and relieve themselves and then herded back to wait in the dark.

Sulaiman explained to us that he knows his ancestors were slaves. He knows that many of them lived and died as slaves and passed through and came back to Zanzibar but he has no idea where they were taken from originally so he, along with every other Zanzibarian, claims Zanzibar as their home and heritage. Its why they are so quick to welcome you "home"... because it has become their home. He spoke about being curious and wanted to do DNA testing to find out where his family originated because they just don't know. Many slaves, if they had the chance to be set free, weren't able to go back home or they changed their names so no one would know they were slaves and their true heritage was lost or forgotten.

I stood there and felt the weight of the color of my skin and my privilege settle on my shoulders. We are hearing the words "white privilege" a lot right now and I've understood but I've never truly gotten it. I got it. I totally got it standing there in that suffocating room with no connection to the atrocities that were committed there other than my humanity.

I know where I come from. Its so easy to trace and I've got family members who have done the work to trace it back generations. And I don't really care. I really don't..it has never mattered to me. But standing there in that room where our guides ancestors waited their turn for the whipping post and a life of slavery, ripped from their family and home, I realized what a privilege it is to be able to know and to not even care to know where I come from.

I will never carry the weight of those chains. I will never carry the weight of knowing that my ancestors were treated as less-than because of the color of their skin. I will never carry the weight of oppression. I will never carry the weight of a long, hard fight to freedom. I will never carry the weight of a back full of scars from a whip. I will never carry the weight of a set price on my worth that someone paid because they though they had a right to own me. But every African does. Every person of color that came from these brave, tortured, incredible people does. They carry that weight and that burden every single day and it is heavy. I could feel it in that room. I could feel the horror and death and pain and it was palpable. And I don't and can't know what that burden feels like. And that, is privilege.

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We left the slave market site and walked towards the Estella Market.  It was built in 1904 and opened in 1905 and is the first organized market in Zanzibar and it is not some gimmick market... its where the locals shop.

Grains and beans

The fish market. Every morning the fisherman haul in their catch and sell it to the market sellers. We got there about 2:30 in the afternoon and it was about...85 degrees outside? I'll let you do the math on that one, but lets just say if you're reading this you should be very happy that theres no smell-o-vision option. 

Sardines

Sting rays

Krackens! 

He offered to walk us through the meat market but we politely declined and we beelined for the fruits and vegetables!

We left the market and headed back into the winding streets of the city. We came across a local apothecary... the animal skins hanging out in front are to crush and burn to ward evil spirits away. Even though the population is predominantly Muslim and things like that are forbidden- the old ways hold strong and they do it anyway. 

I feel like Stone town would make a great setting for a cat and mouse crazy chase type movie. Think James Bond... seriously confusing and like being in a maze!  

These men were playing a game called Bao (we asked if we could take their picture). Not sure what was going on but it was like a dice game in a way? They were very into it. 

This is a gorgeous hotel in the heart of the city. It has a ton of Arabic influence and was just beautiful. 

This was the interior.. there was an open air courtyard sort of area. 

He led us out into their secret garden restaurant and it was gorgeous!! 

Another beautiful door...

The former Sultan's Palace, which is now a museum 

Its also called the House of Wonders because when built it was the largest building in East Africa and also the first building to have running water and electricity in East Africa. 

The Indian Ocean

The old fort built in the 17th Century by the Omani's to protect the city from European invasion 

So because Stone Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, they have come in and made renovations and changes to the city to help preserve it and care for it. One of the things they did was install drains every where throughout the city so that when it rains the water doesn't just sit in the alleys and not drain and therefore, they have a much lower risk of Malaria. No standing water=less mosquitos=less chance of Malaria. So these drains are all over the city on every alley or street we saw. Sulaiman said that even if theres a really heavy rain within a very short time all the water has drained away and is gone and its made a huge difference.

We finished our tour and stopped by a gelato place right next to our hotel and got some amazing passion fruit vegan gelato! I am a sucker for passion fruit anything and this was so delicious and refreshing! Especially after a two hour walking tour!

We headed upstairs to the top floor of our hotel and had some dinner. The food was okay... nothing really to write home about. I had some local caught prawns that were good and Michelle had some arabiatta pasta that lit her on fire, but the real star of the evening was something called Stoney Tangawizi. Aisha had told us if we saw it on a menu to try it so we did... its like ginger ale and ginger beer had a baby. Its delicious! We both fell in love and had a lot of it the next day...

The view from dinner....

We called it an early night after dinner. Although we would have called it earlier if we hadn't been on Africa time... read: they take their time for everything. Our waiter kept saying to us, "Polle Polle" which means slow down and enjoy. At this point in our day, we didn't want to slow down and enjoy our food. We wanted to crawl into bed and sleep!