Stone Town & around
Why go?
There is only one town of any size on Zanzibar, and that’s
Stone Town (also called Zanzibar town).
The Arabs made it their capital, the Africans settled around it,
and the whole world traded there – most infamously for slaves
in the Grand Market which flourished in the 19th century. It was
the seat of the Sultan – who moved here from Oman – and
came to dominate other Arab city-states such as Mombasa, Lamu and
Kilwa. The British took it over in 1890, dredged the harbour;
electricity and telephone arrived, and eventually an international
airport. In 1963 it became the capital of the newly-independent
socialist state of Zanzibar, attracting east German and Chinese
support, and Freddie Mercury's parents (he was born here).
Today, protected by UNESCO, it is a bustling town of lively colours
and faded grandeur. Elegant Arab state buildings and traders'
houses, weathered by years of sea-breeze, are now used as courts,
schools and government offices. Its narrow alleys are lined with
stalls selling shells and handicrafts, kids playing football with a
coconut, irritating papaasi offering you a guided tour,
schoolboys playing draughts with bottletops on a cardboard box,
veiled women in colourful kikoys, dapper men on scooters carrying a
broken computer screen under one arm. Local ‘spice
tour’ offices jostle with internet cafés for the prime
spots, while down the backstreets you stumble upon primary schools,
mosques, Hindu temples and timber workshops. Wherever you go,
ornate balconies and studded wooden doors – the idea brought
from India, where they kept elephants at bay – catch the
eye.
Finally, no trip to Zanzibar is complete without a spice
tour through the orchards and gardens inland, where all manner
of tropical fruit abound. Touristy though it may be, it is a real
eye-opener.