Zanzibar Stone Town

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Zanzibar is a beautiful island with an ugly history. Stone town or Zanzibar town was fought over many times, but was primarily under the control of the Sultan of Oman who wrestled control and maintained it by moving his administrative offices from Muscat to Zanzibar.

The ugly history has to do with Slavery. Hundreds of thousands of slaves were hauled in from the African mainland and kept here before they were shipped off to Arabia or the Americas. We visited the site of the old Slave market, which is now an Anglican church. The slaves used to be held in horrible conditions in the dungeons of what is now the church.

Later on, the British banned slavery but this was not necessarily for altruistic purposes. Slavery was the source of much of Zanzibar's wealth and power, and without slavery, Zanzibar and East Africa in general became a "British protectorate" ... i.e. No longer a Swahili stronghold. It certainly suited British interests to ban slavery in order to claim a moral high ground to fight the Americans and the Arabs. This way the British were not being pirates when they raided other ships. It also gave the British effective control of Oman and thus control of the Persian Gulf shipping lanes.

Anyway, we found it difficult to visit the dungeons below the church. We felt an eerie presence and had to leave in a hurry. There are some pictures outside on the walls showing the conditions of some slaves in shackles. Of course, we are still not completely free of slavery today. The slaves are not so visible, because the chains are gone, but similar work conditions still exist around the world.

Stone town itself is full of life in narrow winding streets, wide enough for donkey carts, but not cars. But, motorcycles do roar through these narrow streets, as do cyclists. W.. was asking why we couldn't ride around on bicycles? Mostly because no one rents bicycles around the old town.

The town is famous for the massive wooden doorways all over the place. Many are decorated with brass studs. These were a functional requirement in India, where the studs defended against war elephants that would batter down fort gates. But, since there are no elephants on Zanzibar, these serve a purely decorative purpose. Many of the old Arab house have an imposing exterior to maintain privacy, with a large open garden on the inside. The old Indian buildings have ornate balconies with views up and down the narrow streets.

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Photos

Doorway
The studs are decorative since there were no war Elephants to deter