Beat this!

Sunrise from the front porch.

Slave Market

Last week we got a guided tour of the old slave market in Stone Town (Zanzibar's biggest town). It was a great educational experience, but at the same time it was heart breaking.

From 1811 to 1873 slaves were sold here from as far away as Malawi and Congo.
Zanzibar was under Omani rule and the Arabs went inland in Africa where they bribed the chiefs of the villages and promised the people work and a better way of life if they joined them. So entire families left everything behind and voluntarily joined the Arabs, not knowing that they would be sold as slaves.
Soon after leaving for what they expected to be a new and better life, they were put in chains and forced to walk the long way to the coast. Wifes were separated from their husbands, and children from their parents. They were mixed with people from other tribes and then divided into smaller groups where no one spoke the same language. This disabled them from organizing resistance.
When they arrived on Zanzibar they were exhausted from starvation and dehydration and many were sick.
At the slave market they were kept in small cells for two days. There was about 15 cells with up to 75 people in each. Many of the slaves died in the cells from dehydration, suffocation, etc.

Being in one of these cells made the whole thing real to an uncomfortable extend. It wasn't difficult to imagine being a slave about to be sold and I got a really bad taste in my mouth.

After two days in the cells the ones who were still alive were taken out to be auctioned off. They were tied to a tree called the whipping post where they were whipped. The longer they lasted without crying, the higher the price.
Since slave trade was banned in many parts of the world the slaves sold on Zanzibar mostly went to Arab spice plantations on Zanzibar or to the French and Dutch sugar and coffee plantations on Mauritius and Reunion in the Indian Ocean.

In 1873 the shortest war in the World took place. In 45 minutes the British had forced the Sultan of Zanzibar to agree on banning the slave trade.
The slave market was closed and a church was built there.

The altar was placed where the whipping post had been and the red marble floor in front symbolizes the blood shed there.

Unfortunately the closing of the slave market did not bring an end to the slave trade. Underground slave trade continued from some caves further north on Zanzibar up until 1907... Only 100 years ago!

That some people could be so cynical and exploit other people like that is so hard for me to understand. I left the slave market feeling very frustrated about the injustice that had taken place there.
The worst part about it is that some people are still exploiting their fellow human beings. Women and children are still sold to prostitution and in Africa many children are abducted to a future as child soldiers.
Not being able to do anything about this just makes me feel so helpless and insignificant.

Maasai

Let me introduce Leimba and Lemunyo. They are two of the 15+ Maasai warriors working as guards at the school. And as you can see they look very 'authentic'.

The first time a saw one of them I was puzzled. I associated the Maasai with people living in isolated areas having only scarce contact to the rest of the world. Apparently this is not exactly the case.

Contrary to the Bantus (ca. 80% of Tanzania's population) the Maasai (ca. 5%) have maintained their precolonial ethnic identity very well. This is due to the fact that they are nomads (originally from Ethiopia), which has made it difficult for the missionaries to 'get to them'. Eventhough they consider themselves Christians they hardly represent what the Western world associates with Christianity.

They believe that by godly order all cows belong to them. Through time this has been a cause of conflict since the Maasai have taken other peoples cow's believing that they were the rightful owners. Furthermore they have constantly invaded other tribes' territories in their search for new places for their cattle to graze. This has, not surprisingly, caused endless wars and the warriors (Murani) are the pride of the Maasai.
Boys become Murani at age 15-20 when they get circumcized and go to live with the other men seperately from the women and children.
All Maasai, but men in particular, care a great deal about their appearance. Murani get their hair done in specific ways, wear jewelry etc. Leimba and Lemunyo absolutely own 'metrosexual'!

Different factors eg. the Maasai's growing population and laws preventing them from invading other peoples territories and stealing their cows and have forced the Maasai to change their way of life. They are no longer nomads, but live in villages (most of them around Arusha, Tanzania), and many Murani temporarily leave their tribes to work elsewhere. Like Leimba and Lemunyo they usually work as guards.

One might think that they'd be hesitant to interact with other people, but reality is quite the opposite. They are very outgoing and curious.

When I showed interest in Leimba's shoes (made of old tyres) he wanted me to try them on. They found this hilarious and in no time they had taken off what they could spare from their own outfits and put together one for me. To their own and my great amusement I was dressed up as Maasai.

We all had a lot of fun and what better way to meet a new culture than by laughing together?

It only took Leimba and Lemunyo a couple of hours to change my idea of the Maasai from proud and reserved warriors to a bunch of goof balls.

Jambo!

Arrived in Paje, Zanzibar. This place is amazing! Everything is absolutely fantastic. I don't even know where to start...
There's the overly friendly locals, the great school with very interesting classes, the cool Danish people that I'm here with, the house that is right on the beach, the fact that eventhough it's 33C/90F outside, no one has complained about us not having water for three days... At least the power isn't gone and showers aren't really all that necesary anyway!
In a place like this you easily start forgetting about what's important in the Western world. Something everyone should experience...