Combining Zanzibar's two best known commodities, spices and tourism, a Spice Tour is definitely a Zanzibarian experience. The spice plantations here seem to be (at least according to our guide) mostly family owned plots of two or three acres that intercrop a huge variety of fruits and spices to sell to middlemen. It is actually pretty incredible, you walk around from one tree to the next and one is growing peppercorns while the next is growing leeche or pineapple. The best part of the tour is that you get to taste something from every tree. Cinnamon bark next to iodine, pomello next to clove or nutmeg. Finally, the tour ended up with a local meal, delicious but predictably overspiced, in a nearby village.
The one bump in the road was the mysogynist tourguide. Becca was the only woman on the tour, and the boys (and young men) who helped pick the fruit capitalized on her welcoming spirit by annoyingly bequeathing her with a ring, necklace (in the shape of a frog), handbag, and crown, all sewn from bannana leaves. And then asking for a tip. It was unfortunate that our guide, who was obviously in cahouts with the boys, did not help us out more in refusing their "gifts." And I know it made Becca uncomfortable to be singled out--especially because she did not want to be mean--and feeling taken advantage of. Added on top of some (predictably) sexist comments about division of labor on the spice plantation--women can't harvest the coconuts because the trees are too high, for example--and it made the rest of the tour a little harder to swallow.
Otherwise, I am loving it here in Stone Town. While the decay is certainly disheartening--it is sobering to think that the Omani sultan occupied the city until the 1860's--the beauty that remains is just incredible. And, as someone who is so interested in the way that ideas, goods, and religion moved in the past, Zanzibar was certainly the center of that world. Did you know, for example, that many American whaling ships stopped here throughout the early 19th century (and especially in the 1830's)? And it's only in the second half of this century that dhows--many of which originated or stopped in Zanzibar--ceased to be the main vehicle for trade stretching from South Africa to the Persian Gulf to China. It's pretty cool.
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2 comments:
Sounds uncomfortable to say the least. It can really be upsetting especially when you thing that the whole thing might have been planned. Be careful! says the mom.
Good luck in Dar. I am glad you enjoyed Zanzibar.
Clearly I'm going to have to shift my perspective on Zanzibar. I tend to think of it as "the ends of the earth" but considering its history it is much more central and historically important. I'll have to take your lead Sam and shift my POV.
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