| The Beauty of Zanzibar's Stone Town |
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Traders plying the Indian Ocean in their dhows fist stopped off there some 3,ooo years ago, and evidence of early settlers is still being unearthed. Much late came the conquering Portuguese, and then the Omani sultans, who ruled Zanzibar from the early 1800s and presided over the shame of the slave trade. Livingstone, Stanley, Speke and Burton and other intrepid 19th Century explorers of the African interior set out with their caravans from Zanzibar, some of them never to return. The last of the Omani sultans fled just after independence in 1963, and Zanzibar united with mainland Tanganyika to become the independent African state of Tanzania. Zanzibar today is thus the result of many influences and cultures, and this is reflected in its way of life and in its architecture, particularly in the charming Stone Town, whose narrow streets are best explored on foot. The old town is attractive in terms of its rich history, its often crumbling but picturesque buildings and its colourful kaleidoscope of human diversity. The restrained tenets of Islam also dictate the simple Arabic style and structure of the Stone Town’s buildings. Despite their discolored walls, their roofs of rusted corrugated iron and frequent air of neglect, they have a faded Saracenic beauty, their plain arabesque facades and haphazard fenestration often relieved by patiently covered doors and lintels, overhanging balconies of fretworked stone and Islamic arches, unexpected recesses and terraces. Many houses have small courtyards with high limestone walls, shutting out as best they can the unequivocal rays of the equatorial sun. The barred lower windows of some houses recall the days of the lawless slaves and the wild “northern” Arabs, as well as providing security against more modern rogues. Zanzibar’s older buildings are constructed from mangrove poles, the lengths of which dictate the heights of the walls. The poles, impervious to termites, are still used throughout East Africa, and their export by dhow to the Gulf and elsewhere is one of the oldest, if declining, forms of trade in the area. Zanzibar Town has many more buildings of historic or architectural interest, including a few old Swahili houses with plain exteriors but often, in the past, elaborately decorated indoors, the decorations and dark intimacies increasing as one moved away from the central courtyard towards the master bedroom. Indian influences upon Zanzibar’s architectural heritage are widespread, many inspired by Guajarati tradesmen, while various places of worship enrich the cosmopolitan architecture of the Island.  |
