Historical Island Once Centre of Slave Trade in East Africa S7 EP.15 | Pakistan to South Africa
The name Zanjibar came here with the Persian people... When they came here to Zanzibar. Behind me, you can see a very powerful monument. It shows how slaves would be... People would be brought for sale in chains... Beef of goat...? Yeah,
these are from chicken. I have different kind of fish. Assalam Alekum and Good Morning from the beautiful island of Zanzibar. It's another rainy morning for us. It rains here almost everyday. In fact...
It rains for 25 minutes or so after every 2 to 3 hours. This way, we get a safe window to travel. Today we plan to explore the historical old town. And share it with you all. So far, all the historical cities that I have visited in Africa...
For instance, I really liked Lamu in Kenya. However, my most favorite of them so far is Stone Town. I walked here yesterday. That gave us a good first impression of this area. I have hired a tour guide for today. We are meeting him after breakfast.
Together with the tour guide and you guys, we are gonna explore this area. And after that, if the weather is still favorable, we may go for some sea related activity. There's an island, not far from here, by the name of Prison Island. We'd like to visit that island as well. Thank you.
So, this is Tanzanian coffee? Thank you very much. So, we have got coffee... Fresh juice... of...
Mango... Some fruits... Some more food to come.
The fruits here are really amazing. Very exotic We'll show you when we visit the local market today. We are in Stone Town now. And with me, is Abu Bakr.
But shortly, you can call me Abu. You are not from Stone Town? A little bit out of Stone Town. This is my work place. Today, you will not just be helping me explore the old town...
But also, everyone who is watching us. Let's do it. So, we have Stone Town...
We have Zanzibar... but also Tanzania... Tanzania is a combination of two free countries. Zanzibar and Tanganyika. When we say Tanganyika, we just mean Tanzanian mainland. Tanzania mainland along with Zanzibar...
That's why we call it... Tan... Zan... ia... We took the 'Tan' from Tanganyika. And 'Zan' from Zanzibar.
We mix them together and make it... TanZan. And finish with the word 'Nia'. 'Nia' comes from Arabic and it means the will to do something. That's how we get the word Tanzania. In Tanzania, we got two governments and two presidents.
We have the Government of the Republic of Tanzania. At the same time we have Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar So there is one president in Tanganyika, who is responsible for Tanganyika and a little bit of Zanzibar. And the one in Zanzibar is only responsible for Zanzibar.
We have another name for Zanzibar... Zanji-bar. The name Zanjibar came here with the Persian people, when they came here. 'Zanj' means 'black'. And 'bar' means 'coast'.
So you are welcome at the Black Coast. Thank you so much. That was some interesting information. I'll try to explain some of this in Urdu as well.
But he explained it really well. I hope you must have understood it already. We are here at the Zanzibar port. As I already explained in my vlogs from Mombasa and Lamu... Portuguese were among the first rulers here who ruled for about 2 centuries.
And after that, it was Omanis for a rather long period. Under the Omani rule, Zanzibar was made the capital of Oman. It was the center of all trade through East Africa. No matter you wanted to trade, the treaty for that would be signed here. And the goods would land here and then from it would be transported to their destination. There's a monument at the port where the Sultan would sit and treaties would get signed.
This area is called Forodhani Park. Right opposite to it, is a very historical building. It's known by the name of House of Wonders. Unfortunately, that building collapsed some time ago. It was built during the Omani rule.
We cannot visit it at the moment. Back when it was constructed, it was the largest building in East Africa. It had a really beautiful tower. Hopefully its renovation will be completed in the near future.
You may be able to visit it when you come here. We are now at the fort. Let's explore this Portuguese fort. Although constructed during the Portuguese rule, but many additions were made during the Omani rule. Right now, we are standing in its theater.
Really beautiful. Even to this day, the Zanzibar film festival is organized at this venue. Right behind the theater, you can see a part of the building of House of Wonders. You can see that it's under renovation.
I have been told that there used to be a market as well as a prison here during the Omani period. But they were moved, later. We'll definitely go see the market. The small tourist souvenir shops here are temporary shops.
These structures are being developed as there is a rise in tourism. Stone Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And you can see some really beautiful historical buildings here.
The streets are generally quite narrow. Except for this one, that I think is the widest one here. It has really beautiful shops for tourists along its sides.
All the buildings here are constructed with coral limestone. So they have to use the same material to renovate these buildings in this day. Secondly, most of the buildings are white in color. It's called Stone Town due to the fact that it's made from coral limestone.
Behind me, is another historical building. The house of Freddie Mercury. It has been converted into rentable apartments for tourists. I'm sure most of you already know about Freddie Mercury. He was a singer of the band Queen.
I'm sure everyone knows him. Born here, he is among the most famous celebrities of Zanzibar. Anyways, we'll keep on sharing with you whatever we see here. Some buildings are freshly painted.
But there are many that appear to have not been painted in years. You will see a very interesting mixture here. And in these narrow streets... Almost every other shop is a souvenir shop for tourists. So their economy is mainly reliant on tourism, these days.
The main population of Zanzibar is Muslim. You see a lot of mosques here in the old town. There are around 52 mosques in this tiny island.
Behind me you can see a church. And right next to the church is a mosque. The church was built by the French in 1863. You can feel a religious harmony here. People of different faiths live peacefully with each other.
There haven't been any religion related problems here. There are 4 Hindu temples here as well. Unfortunately, the church is closed at the moment. It's only opened on Sundays during prayer time. Otherwise, we would have visited that for sure. This is the center of Stone Town.
People play board games here in the evening. There's a TV as well. We hope that it will be more lively here when we come back in the evening.
The place is called Jaws Corner. You can see a painting about that as well. We are now here to visit the Angelican Church. The local population is 98% Muslim. The remaining 2% includes Christians and Hindus. It's a really beautiful church.
It's an active church with Sunday service. However, this place is actually famous for slave trade. There used to be a slave market here. Behind me, you can have a very powerful monument. It depicts how people were put in chains when they were brought here to be sold. Since the slave trade took place here, there is also an underground chamber.
It's rather suffocating, even to go there. People would be put in chains and locked there, a few days before they were sold. Right on top of this chamber, is an exhibition center. Different steps in the slave trade have been portrayed there. And how someone who would resist would be punished. The slaves to be sold included women and children as well.
On the one hand, you can say that Zanzibar is a beautiful, paradise like island. On the other hand, it used to be a hell for people, not very long ago. Very powerful imagery. Heart moving Such a horribly these people had been treated. We are now visiting different local markets. We start with the fish market.
Hello my friend Captain Sameer, you are late. You said 5 minutes. We have Captain Sameer with us now. And we are going to Prison Island. It's a good place? Yeah.
What will we see there? So we will see some of the biggest turtles in Zanzibar. Lets show you guys. I have been told that Prison Island is a must visit place. It's right next across the Prison Island, just a short ride away. And we have paid 40 thousand shillings for this boat. That's about 15 USD.
It's really windy and that's why the sea was quite rough. I was actually having second thoughts about this ride. And I have very basic swimming skills. But anyway... we made it.
Let's see if we find any turtles today. As the name suggests, Prison Island used to be a prison. Just outside the Stone Town.
Normally, prisons on islands are due to the fact that it makes it difficult to escape. Here are the turtles... And there are so many of them. Looks like all of them are asleep at the moment. Almost zero movement. No one is moving at all.
Captain Sameer there is trying to feed them. He's just trying to make them move. We have been told that some turtles here are over 200 years old. They have their ages written on them. But I can hardly read them as they are faded. This one just moved... a little.
Anyways, these are really massive turtles. I haven't seen a bigger turtle before. I'm gonna try and feed it. These innocent creatures don't really move. And they don't mind. Look at the wonderful color of water.
Let's go... That's my name. And you are a chef? I'm a chef. I'm selling many many things. I'm selling vegetables and seafood.
This one is beef of goat. Beef of goat? Yeah, these are from chicken. Here I have different kinds of fish. And it's a nice fish. This is meat of crab.
These are mussels. These are really good for your joints. This one has lots of spices. This is king prawn.
That's chicken. Beef of cow. Chicken masala tandoori. Octopus. White snapper. That's sweet potato.
And fries. When you choose everyday, every time... If you want to eat here... good.
For takeaways, I have this special pack. So...Mr. Max... Give me your best item; single person serving. Take the plate and choose what you want. You choose for me. Just give me your best one.
Best one.. I give you beef of goat. Then I give you chicken masala tandoori.
And try mussels. Okay. I think that's enough. I'm gonna grill lit now. Chef Max has prepared our order. This is passion fruit? Look at that. I have not tried this fruit before. This is a huge area, right beside the beach.
As soon as you come out of the old town, you see many people standing here at their food stalls. They are selling food and fruit juices. You can say that it's the fruit juice market. I haven't tried street food in this tour so far. I have been wanting to try it for some time.
But I was a bit sacred that it could be unhygienic. Don't want to get an upset stomach while I'm traveling. But here I can see that they are taking care of hygiene. It's a good opportunity to try local food.
Because, normally I only eat at tourist places. Let me show you my order. They have ordered some fries to our order. Other than that, hopefully, the food will be good. I have no idea what's that. What does that mean? Sometimes it's really hard for me to understand their accent.
But I do try to... play along. I mean I just play along even if I don't understand something. For this food, we paid 50 thousand shillings. That's quite expensive. I did have an idea when he was putting everything in the plate.
But then I thought that I asked him to do it for me. So let him do that. Only lobster cost 20 thousand shillings. But it was really tasty for sure. If you convert the bill, it's almost 20 USD. Overall, our street food experience was good.
But it was relatively on the expensive side. And I think that it's because it's a tourist place. And Zanzibar is the place where I have seen the highest number of tourists in Africa, so far. It's a much livelier place in the evening. Zanzibar is a relatively safe place with a high number of tourists.
So one can really enjoy their evening walk here. It's 8:15 pm right now. Normally, I tend to go back to my hotel room by 8 pm in this tour so far. But here, there's a lot of hustle and bustle even now. People are having a good time.
Secondly, it's a very touristy place. And sometimes, some people try to take advantage of this situation. So I felt that I need to be a little careful here.
Do check the quality of anything that you want to buy. Even food items are more expensive for tourists. So, you have to be careful. Overall, we had a great day. Do remember us in your prayers.
Hopefully you must have enjoyed this vlog. If that's the case, don't forget to Like, Subscribe and Share. See you in the next one. Allah Hafiz
2023-12-12 15:10
