Living in Zanzibar–The Pros & Cons!
are you thinking of moving to the island of zanba and make a living there then this video is for you I spent a lot of time on the island of zanba I've been traveling back and forth since 2008 and I will give you my honest opinion welcome to plan B back to Africa my name is wayy I studied cultural anthropology and African studies in Germany I'm a diaspora kid with Ethiopian and Eritrean roots and since my first visit on the island of zanba in 20 8 the island has basically become my second home I left Europe in January 2024 and I've been traveling throughout eastan and southern Africa to find out what is the best place to live and settle for the diaspora as I am looking for a new home as well for me and for my two children but before I start giving you the pros and cons of living on the island of zanba I want to explain further my relation to the island of zanba I first visited the island in 2008 when I was still studying cultural anthropology and African studies to volunteer on the island so I went there for a couple of months and I was basically volunteering in a newly opened Resort I know it has nothing to do with my studies the goal was to master the language Swahili the local language spoken in Zanzibar and across many countries in East Africa and back then in 2008 the island was more destination for Honeymooners it was a very exclusive Island very expensive you would not see any Backpackers there no hostels only Resorts and luxury hotels and if it wasn't for my volunteering assignment I could have never afforded staying that long on the island of zanba a year later I visited the island of zanba again to prepare for my bachelor thesis which was entirely in suah hel and that time I really stayed in a local Village because I wanted to stay in a place where the people don't speak English at all uh a place that forces me to speak swah to improve my swah and it was really worth it back then I was really a fluent speaker now I still speak swah but nothing compared to my SW speaking skills back then fast forward the third time that I visited zanba was during Co in 2021 and when I first touched foot on the island after 13 years during covid in zanba I couldn't recognize the island anymore Backpackers everywhere hosts were popping out like mushrooms uh in every corner of the island so many digital Nomads so many new investment projects because of the lose restrictions that the island and the country in general Tanzania had during the covid pandemic right uh there was no need for a covid test to enter the island the flights were still cheap as far as I know there were only two countries in the world which were still open for tourism which was Mexico and Tanzania so you can imagine the island was really like flooded with tourists from all around the world and I even met people investors who shut down their businesses in Indonesia southeast Asia in the Caribbean and so that properties there to invest in zansa and accordingly there was a big boom in land sale like it was ridiculous you could get land as cheap as $2,000 I mean where in the world can you get this on such a beautiful island I mean the beaches are picture perfect and one of the most beautiful beaches on the entire African continent I spent around 4 month on the island and saw that now it's the time to invest so I partnered up with a former friend who I met for the first time in 2008 and he owned many properties across the entire Island so we partnered up I did some Investments here and there I bought two pieces of land and since then I traveled to the island of zanba at least twice per year spending there a couple of months the last time I was there was from June to August and as much as I love the island as I said it's like my second home I couldn't wait to leave leave for Nairobi that's where I am right now uh where I settled for good where I'm trying to make a living and it was just the situation in zanba was unbearable in the end I was just frustrated and depressed and over the past years many many people friends followers on my Instagram where I share my journey through the African continent and what I do in zanba have repeatedly asked me oh wayy what is it like living in zanba uh I want to move to the island with my family and I would appreciate if you give us further insights so that's why I decided to make this episode where I will share with you the pros and the cons of living on the island of zansa I'm going to be bloody honest with you this will be as real as it gets and I hope that you will find some value in it and that this video will help you with your decision whether zanzi is the right place for you or not so let's dive straight into it let's start with the pros number one the island is so beautiful I mean as I said the beaches are Picture Perfect I've seen many many islands on the Caribbean more than 15 to be precise but the beaches that I've seen in the island of Zanzibar are truly one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen in the world and what I also like about the beaches in Zanzibar most of them the majority I would say 90% are public beaches so no one can stop you to go to the beach and just enjoy a nice swim there I find that the beaches in the Southeast coast are way more beautiful than the North I feel the north is so overhyped uh especially the nungu area and this is mainly because you find the big Resorts there the massive Resorts like the Hilton for example the northern part of the island was the first place on the island of zanba that experienced a tourism boom and this is mainly because and also how the northw advertised was because there are no Tides or let's say the tides are not as Extreme as in other parts in Zanzibar like in the Southeast coast you can really swim the whole day because the water doesn't get as shallow during low tide As It Gets in the east coast but let me tell you something there is nothing more beautiful in seeing how when the tides change and turns that the colors change and you be able during low tide to take a walk out into the ocean for an hour at least it's so beautiful you will see beautiful shallow ponds and it's just so beautiful to take a walk in the middle of the Indian Ocean this is something that you cannot get in the north and also the north because of the tourism boom looks very artificial they are almost no palm trees except of those that have been planted by the resorts and hotels and in contrast when you go to the Southeast coast and the entire East Coast in general you will see a large tropical forest with thousands of palm trees it's so beautiful the coast looks much more wild and untouched especially in areas like Buu and michamvi and in the southern part of the island like makunduchi which is the most traditional Village and what I also like is that along the southern east coast you have the traditional fishermen Villages um right at the beach so you can experience both a beautiful tropical beach and village life experience authentic local way of living of the zanzibari people which is a beautiful experience you get the chance to immerse yourself much much more into the culture and this is so beautiful in my opinion but overall the entire island is so beautiful you have the Josan Forest you have stone town which is a UNESCO world heritage site and when you walk through the alleys of St toown you feel like you're walking through hundreds of years of History you will see the cultural diversity because zanba is culturally very diverse you have the Indian Community you see the Persian influence you see the African influence and you will also see Omani influence the second Pro is that it's a very safe area I mean relatively safe there is no gun violence there's only like petty theft but in general the crime rate is very low another Pro is that the people are very very welcoming they are very friendly and during the entire time that I have been in zanba since more than 15 years I have never ever experienced a single fight on the island except during makaa but that's a whole different story that's basically a festival which happens every July in makunduchi and south of zanba as I said makunduchi is the most traditional Village on the island of zanba and there is this festival called makaka Koga where people can release all their anger during this Festival there it's literally like a massive fight it's a chance to settle your issues to let go of past grievances culturally the people there celebrate the beginning of the Persian New Year according to the shirazi calendar so you can really see the Persian influence there but the funny part about this Festival is seeing the most peaceful people on the planet fighting with banana sticks and beating each other up it was a real culture shock for me but one of the best experiences I've ever made on the island and you shouldn't miss this if you want to learn more about this I even recorded a whole episode on that I will link it in the end of this video you have to see this to believe another Pro of living on the the island of Zanzibar is the location it is located just a few kilometers off the coast of Dar Salam and it's basically just a one hour ride with the ferry to the mainland so it's so close to the mainland that when you feel like Island life is really um too boring you can get on a ferry and experience big city life within an hour Dar Salam is a big Metropol where you can find everything like shopping malls where you can buy Goods many people who have a business on the island of zanba import their goods from Dar Salam where manufacturing and products in general are much much more cheaper uh because of course on the island everything has to be imported and accordingly is also way more expensive than the products that you get in Dar Salam on the mainland what I also love is that the diversity of the country Tanzania in general you can hop from the island within an hour to the mainland drive a few hours and experience erience a breathtaking Safari safaris in Tanzania are one of the most beautiful ones that I've ever experienced I enjoyed them much much more than the safaris in Kenya for instance because there is much less tourism it's not like in Kenya where have been on safaris and 20 Jeeps were hunting one leopard or one group of lions we sometimes had the entire national park for ourselves this was very very special so you can have safaris you can have a big city life you can have a picture perfect Beach all within a few hours and also if you want to fly to Nairobi it takes just an hour to fly to Nairobi and boom you reach another big popular city on the African continent with the perfect infrastructure so that's what I really like about the island of zanba location wise another big Pro is the cheap cost of living you can get a beautiful and spacious one bedroom house with a living room kitchen bathroom Garden swimming pool AC WiFi you name it for as little as $500 per month you have a security guard you could never get the same quality of housing in Western European cities or in cities in the US you can get a nice secondhand SUV from Toyota or other brands for as little as $3,000 that's really cheap compared to what you pay for forr in other countries and a side note when you're on the island of zanba whether you live there I mean when you want to live there is a no-brain but even as a tourist a rental car is a must because the prices for transportation like taxis is extremely high unless you use Local transportation like the local dala dalas or the b b which are the mini buses or the motor bikes I don't recommend taking the motor bikes though but yeah these prices are cheap but when you you want to take a regular taxi service be ready to pay so much like for instance from the airport to the east coast you will pay at least one way $40 us and then also groceries are very cheap I mean if you buy local if you buy local fruits if you buy local rice vegetables seafood fish it's all very reasonable however if you want to buy imported goods that's a whole another story be prepared to pay three times four times as much as what you have spent for these products in Europe or in America butter for instance cheese oh don't let let's not talk about cheese or let's say wine or Liquors it's super expensive the good thing is most imported goods are also unhealthy so it's very easy to stay away from these the next Pro is that there are so many investment opportunities because zanba in Tanzania in general is a developing country plus as I said tourism is on the rise every time that I visit the island of zanba I see new investment projects infrastructure is improving new hotels new restaurants New shops are opening up there is so much potential there though mainly in the tourism sector so there's unfortunately not so much diversity in business opportunities however also zanba is a hub for import export you can import goods from Dubai China very cheap to the island of Zanzibar because they have a port that is also the reason why Goods like cars electronics are relatively cheap they compared to countries like Ethiopia Uganda who don't have an access to a port so there are a lot of investment opportunities though I see biggest potential in the tourism sector another Pro about zanba and what I really really appreciate is the freshness of the food the fresh seafood the fresh exotic fruits that you can get fresh vegetables so you can really follow a very healthy lifestyle without breaking the bank I mean in Germany nowadays to buy an avocado you have to spend at least two to3 EUR while on the island of zanba especially when it's the season you can get a big tasty avocado for as cheap as 40 50 cents or my favorite fruit passion fruit you can get a kilo of passion fruit for as little as $150 while in Europe you pay easily 56 us for 1 kg of passion fruit same goes with the abundance of spices that you can get on the island for very little price compared to Europe for instance the second most expensive spice in the world which is vanilla you can get a whole bunch of vanilla fresh vanilla for as little as $20 while in Germany you would pay easily $150 for the same amount and in general zanba is called The Spice Island for a reason there are so many spices available fresh spices which make your food more flavorful which are very healthy and that's what I love about the island I love to cook I love to use fresh ingredients fresh spices so if you love to cook like I do then you will be in heaven last but not least another big Pro of moving to the island of zanba is that the process of registering a company and getting the residence and work permit is very easy of course there are cases where people get scammed but in average just to give an idea if you are able to find a good and trustworthy lawyer who can take you through the entire process you will pay around4 to 6,000 to get your company registered to get a work and residence permit valid for 2 years and I know there are so many foreigners who moved to the island of zanba without legal documents who leave the island every 3 months and return or who even bribe and pay a loyer or somebody from the immigration to get their visas extended but let me tell you something don't do this this is so dangerous the last time I was on the island I heard that there was a German couple who stayed on the island of zanba for over a year and paid a lawyer to get their visas extended several times right and they got into trouble when they were trying to leave the country the immigration officers noticed that something was off and they were turned back and they have to pay a penalty of €6,000 per person that's a lot unless they pay this money they're not allowed to leave the island and also you can get banned from entering the country again so if you plan to move to zanba do yourself a favor and do it in a legal and safe way now let's talk about the cons and I have to start with the worst part of living on the island of zanba which is the Wi-Fi situation it is horrible it is really draining frustrating you you get mad especially when you are a content creator or work online like I do be prepared for some big headache I have friends who work as social media manager for some resorts or other businesses like restaurants and for them to upload a single real on Instagram can take up a whole day can you imagine that and that was also frustrating for me because I was trying to share my journey and produce more reals but it was really draining and so horrible like who has the time to wait three hours for a simple real to be uploaded on your Instagram or a short on YouTube and that was also the main reason why I was not consistent with posting my YouTube episode during my time in zans but it's just not possible I don't know how people who really live their long term on the island and run an online business how they survive of course there are some co-working spaces but mainly located in ston toown where the Wi-Fi situation is much better than on the East Coast or on other parts of the island but overall the Wi-Fi situation is horrible I've heard that uh there are plans to introduce Starling soon but until this happens if you're a content creator a digital Nomad and however they call people who work online and travel stay away from zanba or you will have trouble big time another big con is the electricity situation there are power Cuts sometimes every day for several hours and this is horrible especially when you run a small hotel an Airbnb and let me tell you something generators are so expensive it's a joke you will pay at least $10,000 for a generator I think these high prices are due to the extremely high demands and I remember last year president Samia suhulu who is originally from the island of zanba kizim Kazi to be precise sacked the entire electricity board because the last High season in December was horrible it scared away so many tourists people who came to zanba to celebrate the Christmas holidays there left the island in masses and probably not going to return anytime soon right so that put a very bad reputation on the island and in general um the power Cuts sometimes are getting out of hand so I really hope that the government works on that but in a way it was expected because imagine the infrastructure for the electricity supply of the island is very outdated right and needs to be renewed from scratch and now imagine every season new hotels and businesses are popping up like mushrooms installing ACS uh swimming pools the outdated infrastructure of the electricity is simply overwhelmed so this is something that the government hopefully will work on because otherwise it will only get worse not better another very big con and which was also one of the main reasons why I decided I'm not going to live here on the island of zanba is that there are not many international schools and also no good international schools let's say for instance on the east coast of zanba where there is the center of the tourism in places like paj Buu jambiani there is only one international school called the Southeast coast International School in jambiani and it's so overpriced you pay minimum 500 per month per child and compared to the education they offer the extracurricular activities it almost feels like a scam I have friends who send their children there and uh I heard from other people who send their children there for a longer period of time they don't even learn how to speak Swahili and that is a big no for me like you can be in International School following a Cambridge curriculum right which is all fine but at least teach the children the local language especially Swahili is not just a local language it's an international language it became one of the officially recognized working languages in the African Union and even in Zanzibar town the capital of the island of zanba there are no many good international schools so you will be better off if you move to darus Salam let's say when education is a priority for you another big big con for me another reason why I said this is not the right place for us is that when you have children that are above the age of six I feel like um there are not many opportunities to really support your children with their talents to help them grow when it comes to physical activities zanba is a nice place to grow up for babies toddlers little children before they start primary school and before they start joining a soccer team or a basketball team and yeah I feel like there's not much to do for children above the age of six um you can go to the ocean the ocean is for free you can swim but zanba cannot really help developing like real skills there is a lack of sports schools as I said and when I compare it to Nairobi right now my children will join a school now an international school where there is chess in their curriculum where there is it in their curriculum where they will join a basketball team a school that has their own tennis court swimming pool basketball court my son has a big talent for basketball so there is so many opportunities in supporting him in developing his basketball skills things that are totally absent on the island of zanba which is why this is a big con for me as a mother another big con for me is that it can get boring real quick on the island of zanba you will live typical Island life you know the life cyle on the island of zanba is po pole which means slow slow this can be very rewarding when you want to take a vacation when you need a time out from busy big city life but when you really live on the island of Zanzibar that was at least how it felt like for me I needed to get out I needed to see something different you know believe me or not but even though the beach looks beautiful you will have enough of this after a couple of weeks in the four month that I spent on the island of zanba I went to take a swim maybe four times it's not part of your daily life it's not the same when you are on vacation when you go and take a swim every day when you really live there and have duties and have to make money you don't have time to swim and the most beautiful beach becomes normal for you after a while so and this is something that I feel people who visit the island for the first time and then all of a sudden decide oh I want to move here I want to live here that they are not really aware of the realities you know the realities that you are confronted when you actually live on the island it's a whole different reality trust me and I know this from so many of my friends who moved to the island of zanba they haven't been in the ocean for 6 months can you imagine that I know it's hard to imagine when you've never been on the Island and only see the beautiful videos on Instagram and Tik Tok and you name it right but trust me once you live there you will have enough you will have enough there you want to do other things and I feel like there is not many things to do there are a lot of parties going on almost every day especially on the east coast and even worse in uh the North in nungu but I'm not a party girl I don't like to party another very big con for me that is so annoying is the corruption on the island among police officers they have roadblocks literally everywhere on the island and no matter how long you stay on the island and you have your own car or you drive a rental car they will call you out they will see you from far and there is this trick that they use you think you just have to drive to the side but many people including me I made the same mistake and fall for this trick I didn't put the blink how do you call this this indication that you are parking right on the side of the road and they will use this as an excuse to find you they said when I sto you why didn't you put the indication and then you they will rip you off you know unless you are very skilled me I always manag to get out of the situation in case there's something because my best friend is a police officer so knowing the right people is key right having a good network but also because of my Swahili skills they see Okay this not the right person to play with today today there's enough foreigners who are here that we can't scam but still even if you live there right you get constantly stopped constantly and this can be very annoying last but not least one of the biggest cons that you should be aware of is that while there are many business opportunities actually doing business is very very rough as I said there are many scammers the construction workers especially when you're in the tourism industry and trying to build a hotel or just simply want to build your house or renovate your house the local name for these construction workers is fundi so let me refer to them as the fundies they will give you a hard time really be ready if you want to succeed on the island of zanba with establishing a business you need patience and a lot of patience strong resilience and you need to build yourself a very strong and trustworthy Network without that it's very very hard to succeed besides that you have to unlearn many things that you learned uh growing up in Europe or in America things will not go as planned and you need to be ready for this you need to adapt to their way of doing things they have the mentality that things are being done poorly poly right slowly slowly and there is also uh another saying which is one of my favorite saying actually because there is a lot of Truth in ITA which means fast fast doesn't bring any blessing however they take it too slow sometimes you really have to be on the ground if you want to succeed if you want to build something otherwise forget it forget it if you are not on the ground people will play you they will scam you they will steal from you because after all I mean always keep in mind that you are coming from a position of power and privilege entering a new country a developing country where people don't have the means to do the things that you do right so yeah you have to be very mindful about that and careful who you trust and have a strong Network where people support each other I know that there are groups like of African-Americans who support each other when one of them opens a business has a grand opening I find that very beautiful they all join to show support but sometimes also many foreigners whether the African amans or the Germans or the Italians I've noticed that most of them are all moving within their own bubble and there's not much interaction with the locals just in very few cases and that is equally important you have to earn the respect the support and the trust of the locals because after all you are going to their land starting a business there it doesn't matter if it's with your money or not it's their land right and so you need to include them you need to include them if you want to be successful in the long term and this can be very difficult this can be a big challenge if you don't understand their culture if you don't even care to learn their language right which is a basic minimum in my opinion I know people who live on the island since 34 years besides Mambo po they don't nothing they only say hello and bye and uh Rafiki you know that's lowkey embarrassing to be honest so educate yourself it's a win-win situation people will appreciate it and it will take you much much further that's it for today these are my pros and cons on living in the island of zanba I hope you enjoyed this episode and that you found some value in it let me know if you want to see more content related to moving to the African continent living in Zanzibar or Nairobi I'm happy to share more insights with you if you have any questions or thoughts please feel free to share them in the comments below and I look forward to see you next week bye
2024-11-17 18:48
