Zanzibar - Feb 22nd

Zanzibar is an island 20 miles off the Sultan Coast that was for centuries the center of the East African slave trade. Arab dhows carried slaves into and then out of Zanzibar to plantations all over Africa and Asia, including Madagascar and Mauritius, to work on sugar cane, spice, cocoa and other plantations. And to all over the Middle East as well.

Artist Clara Sornas created this slave memorial on the site of the slave market:

This dungeon held 75 slaves at a time packed so closely some suffocated due to lack of air from the small windows. The slaves were chained closely together by the neck, as our guide demonstrated.

Stone Town is the major city, so named for the construction of the buildings from “stones” that are actually chunks of coral held together with a limestone cement:

The Sultan of Zanzibar, though independent, was always a member of the Omani Royal Family. The Sultan fought the shortest war in history when he resisted British efforts to impose a protectorate. The Royal Navy lobbed a few shells into the Royal Palace and he capitulated. It is known as "The 45-minute War." A few years after independence, the Sultan was deposed and Zanzibar elected to merge with Tanganyika and form Tanzania.

We visited the Sultan's palace, now a national museum. For years it was known locally as the “House of Wonder” because it had electricity, hot water and flush toilets. Here is the Sultan's sitting room, complete with a throne chair for receiving visitors and supplicants informally.

Note that the coffee table height dates back to the pre-Western sit-on-pillows-on-the-floor times. The Sultan didn't buy his first Western-style dining room set of table and chairs until the mid-20th century,

Tomorrow: Diving in the Seychelles