Zanzibar, the Spice Island

When you hear the word Zanzibar, what comes to mind?  Exotic spices, slave ships, Arab nights and African music?  The romance of the past no longer present, there is still something very appealing about Zanzibar in a rather tarnished and worn out kind of way.  Having spent the past month on this island (looking for a place to ply my volunteer skills), I have come to feel somewhat kindly towards this island off the coast of Dar es Saalam.  Perhaps like one does towards an elder person with rheumy eyes and dried egg on their chin, or an old dog with a smelly coat.  The streets of Stone Town, the port and capital, are a maze lined with ancient buildings of Arabic architecture and elaborate wooden doors.   It reminds me of Morocco more than anywhere I’ve been.  

 

A colleague of mine met a young Brit who had come to the island to write the story of his cycling journey from Morocco to the Cape.  She said to me, “this place seems to attract writers and artists”.  Mmmm.  Perhaps that is true but it also attracts tourists from Europe by the planeload, NGO’s, and kind hearted people wanting to improve the quality of life for the resident islanders (while improving their own with sun and sea). The beaches here are all white sand and stretch out for miles uninterupted.  The water is soupy warm and the snorkelling and diving fantastic.  Who wouldn't want to visit?

 

As is often the case, there is a juxtaposition between the tourism and all it brings, plus the lives of the locals.  I was saddened and not surprised to learn that the majority of the crafts and all of the commercial foods are imported to the island.   From the beaded Maasai sandals, to the baskets woven in Iringa, to the Khangas (brightly coloured and patterned cloth) from Morogoro, you will be hard-pressed to find Zanzibari crafts.   There are however, a few grass-roots enterprises working on changing this. 

At least two women’s collectives with storefronts are selling handmade clothing from the Khangas and Katangas (bigger pieces of cloth often batikked or tie-dyed).  In the back rooms of these shops I found women working on several sewing machines, or sitting on the ground, hand sewing, amidst the dancing colours, chatter and giggles. What I also discovered is that the products (clothing and pillow covers) were triple the price of the Indian and Thai imports in the other shops.  In the winding alleys and streets, there are countless vendors selling shawls (mostly identical stock) again imported from India and Thailand, competing with the sellers of the Khangas and Katangas (at least they are Tanzanian). 

On a bigger scale of support, there is the project ZEST which stands for Zanzibar Enterprise and Sustainable Tourism.  For the past 5 years, funded and resourced by VSO, CIDA, USAID, UKaid,  CORDAID, and others, ZEST has aimed at decreasing  the percentage of people living beneath the basic needs poverty line (currently 55%).  The program has been aimed at 3 sectors to try and link local people to the tourism trade: market linkage of farmers (who are mostly women) and fishers; marketing for local crafters (who are also women, children and handicapped); and tourism training (youth).  As with any initiative of such a size and duration, there are only some sustainable and lasting changes as the funding comes to an end.  Ideally, initiatives like this need to focus on capacity building and self-sustainability.

 The Jambiani Tourism Training Institute (JTTI) is incidentally one such enterprise www.handsacrossborderssociety.com.  Run by expats (from Victoria Canada), and coupled with a Chiropractic Health Clinic, the centre offers free training for anyone in Tanzania, if they pass the admissions criteria.  Besides offering a 2 Year Diploma in Tourism Training including culinary arts, front service, and bar tending, and marketing, they also offer short term courses on language training (English, German, Italian, and soon to be Russian), HIV and sexual health, IT, to name but a few.  Those latter courses are all open, gratis to the local villagers.  They are also piloting a Train the Trainer program (for capacity building). One of the next steps for this ever-growing endeavour is the need for direct linkage with job opportunities in the various communities (not just Zanzibar). 

Unfortunately, the funding for ZEST as a combined project has finished.  Hopefully there will still be skilled people (e.g. Agronomist) to help the farmer’s challenges with lack of water and storage for produce, or Life Skills Trainers and career counsellors to facilitate mentoring and linking the youth with jobs.

The education system on Zanzibar is extremely poor.  Some of my volunteer colleagues tell me the following situations are typical:

-           Class sizes of 60,70,80 or even 90 children!!  Two shifts, 0730-1pm and 130-6 alternating wkly

-          No desks or chairs, no books, no chalk (there are often chalk boards)...

-          No teacher in sight is common, one time he was asleep on the floor in the classroom, another one was drunk

-          No or outdated resources for the teachers

-          At the secondary school level, all classes are taught in English...the teacher’s themselves have a very poor grasp of the language and pass along their ignorance to the students

-          3% of the total population pass the National Form 4 exams (Grade 10)

-          Girls rarely graduate past Standard 6 or 7, being pulled out for marriage or home tasks.

I discovered that there are at least 10 International or Private Schools on the island, making this the norm for expats and wealthy families.  The best school I have seen is at SOS (an internationally run orphanage).   Here is a picture of some public school teachers at workshop hosted by the VSO volunteers to help them build their teaching skills. 

 More to come about SOS, the medical system and mental health on this island.  Also more to come about the music and arts, such as the traditional Tarab music (as I poli poli discover them).