Written by Rich Pagen.

The bustle of Stone Town, Zanzibar’s main city, was absolutely contagious. The cargo continuously being loaded and offloaded in the port consisted of everything from cement to potatoes to bicycle seats. Just offshore, small wooden sailing ships called dhows plied the open waters, moving people and goods between Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania 20 miles in the distance. The voyage takes two to three days to complete, as it has for centuries, relying entirely on wind and sail to make the journey.  

We meandered the narrow alleyways of Stone Town, stopping occasionally to admire the wares for sale in the tiny storefronts or on the sidewalk itself. Young men unloaded boxes of huge tiger shrimp directly onto the ground, pausing briefly to move aside for passing pedestrians and small motorbikes attempting to make some progress in the congestion. Two bicycles passed with big metal containers of fresh milk strapped to the rack behind the seat. Meanwhile, a man in a brand new Tanzania football jersey attempted to wipe fish slime off of his shirt, after a bicycle with a huge yellowfin tuna strapped to it brushed past him.

Every street scene was remarkably even more colorful than the previous. Muslim women covered completely except for their eyes attempted to make their way across a busy street packed with daladalas, small trucks retrofitted as people-movers. A Maasai man, dressed in traditional colorful fabric and with shoes made from recycled car tires, rode by on a motorcycle while a Maasai woman, with a plethora of dangling earrings and her head shaven completely, smiled as she spoke on her cell phone. Zanzibar is truly a place of contrasts, a place of commerce, and a place of history where Arabs, Africans, and Indians (among many others) have come together to trade with one another for centuries.