JAHAZI issue 05 - Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries, AZAM Marine

Issue 5 Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries

Msonge Organic Family Farm Growing fruit and veg the wild way Abdulrazak Gurnah Tanzanian wins Nobel prize in literature

Sounds of the stage Marafiki Music Festival showcases the best in live African music Also inside

COMPETITION Your Free Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries Magazine

Win a traditional Swahili massage at Mrembo Spa

In this issue Bookings:

Feature pages

azammarine.com +255 22 2123324 Follow us: @azammarine kilimanjaro fastferries officialazammarine

3

Welcome Safari njema

5

By numbers

10

Bottlenose dolphins 10

Abdulrazak Gurnah Tanzanian novelist wins Nobel Prize in literature

13

Msonge Organic Family Farm

Spreading the word on farming the wild way

18

The taste of Tanzania

Made-in-Tanzania gifts for the eco-friendly foodie

23

20

Top Five

Five fascinating facts about cloves

Jahazi is the official magazine of

23

Cashing in on our cashews

Azam Marine and Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries Opposite St Joseph Cathedral Sokoine Drive, PO Box 2517 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Tel: +255 22 212 3324 Email: info@azammarine.com Web: azammarine.com

How Tanzanian brand More Than Cashews is building a better life for local farmers

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Tanzanian role models

Jahazi is published by: Land & Marine Publications (Tanzania) Ltd. 4th floor, Josam House Block A, along Coca Cola Road Mikocheni Area, Dar es Salaam Tel: +255 686 118 816 www.landmarine.com

Homegrown beauty queens and models

Advertising sales: Catherine O’Callaghan Tel: +44 (0)7944 212063 (WhatsApp) Email: catherineocallaghan@landmarine.com

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Farouque Abdela

Fashion icon who once dressed Princess Diana now set on reviving the style of Stone Town

36

Zanzibar beyond the beaches

Soak up some ancient Swahili culture

38

Swahili story time / Wakati wa hadithi

Ukurasa Mpya

Godfrey S. Urassa Tel: +255 (0) 686 118 816 (WhatsApp) Email: godfreyurassa@landmarine.com

Jahazi is printed by: Jamana Printers Ltd, Dar es Salaam The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor, or any other organisation associated with this publication. No liability can be accepted for any inaccuracies or omissions. ©2021 Land & Marine Publications Ltd.

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Jahazi regulars

Editor: Mark Edwards markedwards@landmarine.com Head office: Land & Marine Publications Ltd. 1 Kings Court, Newcomen Way, Severalls Business Park, Colchester, Essex, UK, CO4 9RA Tel: +44 (0)1206 752902 Email: publishing@landmarine.com

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8

In pictures

43

Travel information

Marafiki Music Festival

Our services, travel tips and ferry schedules

17 Competition

Win a Swahili massage at Mrembo Spa

34

Technology review

Minimalist tech

41

Our fleet

46

Puzzle page

Family fun and puzzles

44

Our destinations

47

Route maps

Read Jahazi online: qrs.ly/3gd3i3f

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

1

Welcome Karibu Safari njema It is my pleasure to welcome you onboard your ferry crossing with Azam Marine and Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries, the number one ferry company in East Africa.

We started out with just one vessel, the Mv Muungano, but now have a fleet of air-conditioned catamarans that provide the best possible services for Tanzanians, international tourists and business travellers. Our passengers are very dear to us and we have made great efforts to ensure your experience with us is a positive one all the way from booking your tickets to the moment you arrive at your destination.

Issue 5

Follow us: @azammarine kilimanjaro fastferries officialazammarine

Our online ticket purchasing system is a quick and easy way to plan and pay for your journey in advance. Boarding is similarly hassle free thanks to the design of our vessels and our carefully organised boarding protocols.

Once we are under way, passengers can sit back and enjoy the journey with in-cabin features such as personal entertainment systems and a range of available refreshments competing for your attention with the spectacular Indian Ocean views from the cabin windows. Our ferry crossings are safe and speedy and deliver you right into the heart of Stone Town or Dar es Salaam for your business or leisure engagements.

Another bonus to travelling with us is getting to sit back and enjoy the latest edition of our onboard magazine, Jahazi! Once again, we have brought together the people and places that make the Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar so special.

You can now keep up with the latest Azam Marine and KFF news as well as some amazing images of our fleet in action on our new Instagram page @azam_marine

‘Your Safety is our Priority’.

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries www.azammarine.com

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

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Zanzibar marine life

Bottlenose dolphins by numbers Bottlenose dolphins love hanging around the coastline of Zanzibar so much they can’t stop smiling. Actually, their famous grin is a result of the built-in curvature of their mouths rather than their mood, but there’s no doubt the archipelago’s temperate, tropical waters and its rich marine life to feed on, make life pretty sweet for the dolphin population. There are plenty of chances for visitors to spot and swim with these playful creatures, especially in Kizimkazi, in the far south of the island. Here’s some fun facts and figures to acquaint yourself with before you see them up close.

Top speed in the water. Traffic accidents do happen and can be fatal.

1 eye open

This is how bottlenose dolphins sleep as they have to be awake to breathe.

20/20

Bottlenose dolphins have great eyesight both in and out of the water.

40-60 years The average life span of a bottlenose dolphin.

7minutes

The length of time these mammals can hold their breath underwater.

590 kg

They may look cute, but they are serious units. Some grow as heavy as this and reach four metres in length. Unsurprisingly, they have quite an appetite, consuming 6-7 kg of a variety of food from fish to squid and shrimp a day

9 metres

The height a bottlenose dolphin can flick a fish it wants to feed on up in the air with its tail flukes.

They then pick the stunned fish from the water surface to eat whole (dolphins don’t chew).

10-15

They are social creatures and travel in pods of around 15 to bottlenose dolphins.

1500 to 1600

grams

19 kph

The average weight of a bottlenose dolphin’s brain. That’s around 200 grams heavier than a human brain. Based on current metrics for intelligence dolphins are one of the most intelligent animals in the world.

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

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Travel in style With Azam Marine and KFF

Our fast, efficient and safe service connects our passengers between Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar City in just 1 hour and 40 minutes on average. However, it’s unlikely our VIP Class and Royal Class passengers are looking at the clock. There’s too much to enjoy and all in sumptuous comfort. Is it time you upped your travel game?

Bookings With four trips a day (launch times are 7am, 9.30am, 12.30pm and 4pm) there’s no more convenient or comfortable way to travel between Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar Island. Call 0800 785555 to book a spot.

VIP CLASS BENEFITS

ROYAL CLASS

Exclusive access to the air-conditioned VIP lounge – where our VIP and Royal passengers get to relax and enjoy complimentary soft drinks and snacks.

For our most exclusive level of travel, available only on our Kilimanjaro VII ferry, passengers get all of the VIP benefits as well as these extras:

Priority boarding so passengers have plenty of time to settle into their seats and avoid the crowds. Passengers’ luggage is safely and conveniently stored in VIP trolleys. Also included:

• A coffee machine

• Panoramic views • Free WiFi • Blankets • Soft drinks and snacks

• Headsets • Entertainment screens showing a range of films and TV shows.

• A more extensive menu option for drinks and • Wider seats with more legroom and which can be reclined to lie flat if you fancy a power nap.

• Entertainment: a wider selection of movies and magazines (including yiur own personal copy of Jahazi!)

Photo opportunity ‘Leaving at daybreak’ by Kambitro This wonderful image of our ro-ro passenger and cargo ship Azam Sealink 1 captured at daybreak and resplendent in the first rays of the sun was taken by Kambi Juma Lila, a Tanzanian photographer who works under the name Kambitro. You can find more examples of his work, which includes wedding and fashion shoots as well as documentary and travel photography, at his Instagram page @kambitroshot. You can also get in touch via email at kambijuma25@gmail.com or by calling +255 718489096 / 783308893.

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

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Follow on pages

A celebration of live music This year’s Marafiki Music Festival was a chance to experience the cream of East African talent performing live on stage. The three-day event took place in October across three venues – Nafasi Art Space and Alliance Francaise in Dar es Salaam and Firefly, a boutique lodge in Bagamoyo. Among the big-name acts who entertained the crowds were Nasibo, from Zimbabwe; Ziad Daroueche, from the Comoro Islands; Akoth Jumadi, from Kenya; Tarajazz and Zan Ubuntu, from Zanzibar; Sinaubi Zawose, from Bagamoyo and Dar es Salaam’s Dabo Mtanzania.

There were also plenty of opportunities to discover your new favourite band with a host of emerging acts such as Bahati Female Band, Kudra Mazongela, Justine Kaozya and Balaa MC. The festival – which was launched in 2020 with the aim of discovering new talent and expanding Tanzania’s live music scene – also stages music industry discussions and workshops. This year’s event was so successful, festival director Isack Abeneko is already inviting applications from performers for October 2022. For details, visit the festival’s new website marafikifestival.org email marafikimusicfestival@gmail.com or call +255 714 383 883.

Nafasi is also looking ahead with a host of exciting events to see out 2021.

Internationally renowned Tanzanian musician Msafiri Zawose will head performing arts event Lete Stori on November 20 while on November 26 there will be an early evening of jazz and poetry in the Nafasi library.

Finally, get set for a weekend not to be missed as the Nafasi stage hosts plenty of live music at the Sauti Mpya Festival. Visit nafasiartspace.org or its social media pages for more details.

Photography: Matei Babu

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IN PICTURES

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Nobel prize winner

Tanzanian novelist wins Nobel Prize in literature Congratulations to Abdulrazak Gurnah, who in October became the first Tanzanian to win the prestigious literary award. The writer left Zanzibar when he was 18 and exile and escape have been recurring themes in his work. Jahazi takes a closer look at the career of the now US$ 1,150,000 richer author.

O

n October 11, when Zanzibar-born author Abdulrazak Gurnah first got the call informing him he had won the Nobel prize in literature, he assumed someone was playing a joke. It was only after he put the phone down and it immediately rang again, heralding a succession of calls from the world’s media desperate for an interview that it began to sink in.

The Nobel prize in literature is the world’s most famous literary award with a roll-call of laureates that goes back to 1901 and which includes luminaries such as Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison and Bob Dylan. Gurnah’s place on that list is a landmark with the writer not only becoming the first Tanzanian to win but also the first black African recipient since Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka in 1986.

of English at Kent University. Still his East African roots and the indelible sense of dislocation that stemmed from being wrenched from his homeland never left him and became predominant themes in his fiction.

While memories of his early years in Zanzibar remained strong, he looked even further back as a writer, detailing the African experience – in the intimate spaces created by families, companions and friendships – during the warring British and German colonial control in the late 19th century.

While Gurnah may have met the news with incredulity, there are many in the literary world who have long thought the 73-year-old author was overdue such global recognition. Since starting writing seriously in his early 20s, he has published 10 highly acclaimed novels and a number of short stories. His fourth novel, ‘Paradise’, was shortlisted for

his most recent release, ‘Afterlives’, was among the six nominated novels for this year’s Orwell Prize for Political Fiction – another UK award.

Gurnah left Zanzibar in 1966 when he was 18 years old. The aftermath of the revolution in 1964, when the Sultan of Zanzibar and his main Arab government were overthrown, was still being keenly felt by the islands’ Muslims and the young Gurnah was forced to leave his family behind and flee to the UK as a refugee.

The country has become his adopted home. He now lives in Canterbury, in the south-east of England, where he continues to write and was until his recent

the UK’s Booker Prize in 1994, while

retirement the emeritus professor

Leaving Zanzibar

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Abdulrazak Gurnah © Mark Pringle

African lives Novelist Maaza Mengiste, writing for UK newspaper The Guardian, says these sensitive portrayals of ordinary African lives in extraordinary circumstances create a fresh understanding of history. “Each of Gurnah’s novels focus on the stories of those whose stories might not have made it into the archives or who lack the documents that would make them memorable to the larger world. But these shopkeepers, homemakers, askaris, students and refugees all matter to him and in the course of his writing, he makes them meaningful and complicated, and reminds us that every single one is worthy of remembrance.”

These elements of Gurnah’s work were also singled out by the Nobel committee announcing the award with chair Anders Olsson praising the author’s “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents” in a body a work that “recoils from stereotypical descriptions and opens our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world”.

New audience Gurnah began taking his writing seriously in exile. Even though Swahili was his first language, he wrote in English and the well-read scholar makes nods to literary classics of the language such as Chaucer’s ‘The Canterbury Tales’ in his second novel, ‘Pilgrim’s Way’, and to Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ in his most famous novel, ‘Paradise’, in which a young enslaved Tanzanian follows his merchant owner on a treacherous journey into the Congo Basin.

Despite leaving Zanzibar in his teens and not returning for close to 20 years – he was allowed to see his father shortly before he died – memories of the Swahili coast and its indigenous people remained vivid from his place of

exile. He conjures a cosmopolitan region globalised by trade connections with the entire world and yet betrayed by a history of slave trading and colonial oppression – Portuguese, Arab, German and British – that challenged personal freedom. Such a shifting sense of national identity and kinship is further complicated by becoming a refugee and many of Gurnah’s characters find themselves detached from their homeland and come to question their allegiances and place in the world as a result.

The Nobel prize should bring a new audience to an author who has flown under the radar of many readers, including those in his East African homeland. It has become the world’s most famous prize for literature since being established (along with awards in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine and peace) in the will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel in 1901. Gurnah joins a roll call of distinguished laureates, all of whom have in the words of Nobel been deemed “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”. The winner gets a medal, a diploma from the King of Sweden and prize money, which this year is worth 10 million Swedish Krona (US$ 1,150,000).

Shopkeepers, homemakers, askaris, students and refugees all matter to him... and he reminds us that every single one is worthy of remembrance

READING ABDULRAZAK GURNAH The writer has an extensive back catalogue of novels, short stories and essays, so here’s a few ideas on where to start.

MEMORY OF DEPARTURE Gurnah’s debut novel was released in 1987 and centres on talented teen Hassan’s efforts to escape his stunted life on the East African coast for a new start in Nairobi only to be drawn back in.

PARADISE The story of a young Tanzanian boy, Yusuf, pawned by his father to work for a powerful Arab merchant and accompany him on a treacherous trading trip into the Congo Basin. It’s part coming of age tale, part love story and paints a vivid picture of an Africa increasingly corrupted by colonialism and violence.

BY THE SEA This tale of love and betrayal was longlisted for the 2002 Booker prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times book prize in fiction.

It focuses on two Zanzibari asylum seekers in the UK with an intimate shared history who struggle to truly leave their past behind.

THE STATELESS PERSON’S TALE This affecting short work is Gurnah’s relaying of the plight of a refugee he met who has lost his identity documents and been detained in the UK for 12 years. It is included in the Refugee Tales book series released to raise awareness about the situation of many refugees and migrants in the UK.

AFTERLIVES

Gurnah’s latest novel, ‘Afterlives’ © Bloomsbury Publishing

Gurnah’s most recent novel focuses on the people enduring German rule in East Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century, including those whose allegiances and identity are tested by signing up as askari serving in the German Colonial Army.

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Msonge Organic Family Farm

Spreading the word on

ORGANIC FARMING The Msonge Organic Family Farm is a success story in Zanzibar with more and more people signing up to receive doorstep deliveries of its just-picked, wild-grown fruit and veg. Its ambitions don’t stop there, with its founder, Dr Mwatima Juma, aiming to spur the entire island into embracing organic farming. Mark Edwards meets her.

D

r Mwatima Juma was instrumental in introducing the term organic farming in Tanzania.

As chief of the Tanzanian head office of the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the chairperson of the Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement she helped put in place the standards the country’s farmers are required to meet to get their produce certified organic for the lucrative export market.

However, the organic movement

farming practices that many Tanzanian farmers have been familiar with for generations.

Certainly, Dr Juma has been immersed in the wild way of farming since she can remember.

She was raised on her father’s farm in Shakani on the Fumba Peninsula in the south-west of Zanzibar Island.

It was an idyllic natural playground to grow up in, with the young Zuma free to roam its 15 acres, fashioning toys from the branches of trees and picking fresh mangos and bananas

only gave a name to sustainable

to snack on.

Organic farming advocate – Dr Mwatima Juma

In time, though, she began to help her father, Abdulah Juma, and his team and her attention was drawn to the all-natural farming techniques they would employ such as using manure from the farm’s kept chicken and cows as fertiliser for new vegetable growth and rotating crops to preserve nutrients in the soil.

The farm is her father’s half of a 30-acre plot that he purchased together with his brother. The land was then spilt equally between the pair with Juma’s father – a nurse by

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Msonge Organic Family Farm

trade – setting up a trust so that his children and extended family would share ownership of his farm in the years to come.

While Juma’s uncle sold his share of the land to housing developers, her father intended for his farm and the nine-bedroom house built on site to remain as a source of food, income and a rural haven for Juma and her siblings away from the temptations of the city.

However, another of his plans to ensure a brighter future for his children – entrenching the value of education – meant his academically primed offspring soon fled the nest for university courses and high-powered jobs on the mainland and abroad. “You sent us to school, now I like medicine,” was how Juma recalls her brother putting it to her crestfallen father.

Juma was alone among her brothers and sisters in maintaining links to her upbringing on the farm in her vertiginous career trajectory.

She gained the first of her degrees in agriculture and was soon working with Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture as commissioner for research, finding out all she could about the growing organic movement in Europe and how her country could benefit from being a part of it.

walking that talk.”

At the start of 2020, the then 63-year-old began to shape a plan for her retirement once she stepped away from her official duties. Her father, who has now passed away, had always hoped that one day Juma would return to take over the family farm and with more time on her hands she foresaw an opportunity to “see what she can do here” and channel her considerable energies into making the farm – now to be called Msonge Organic Family Farm – flourish as a commercial enterprise as well as a centre of learning to spread the grow organic message across the Zanzibar archipelago.

‘Pakacha’ deliveries

Not everyone was sold on the idea and she faced plenty of opposition in arguing the case for organic farming. During all this time, she was regularly returning to Shakani and was seeing her words validated in real results on the farm.

Juma says: “People were telling me you can’t use organic methods to grow vegetables, but here we have fields of cassava, cooking bananas, sweet potatoes, spinach,

The plan appeared doomed before it had barely begun. The covid pandemic struck and the ensuing international travel restrictions snatched away the farm’s prime customers – Zanzibar’s array of high-spec hotels and restaurants – which, bereft of guests, no longer had any need for regular deliveries of fresh, organic produce for their menus.

However, Juma was able to pivot from the hospitality sector’s troubles by selling direct to consumers. Inspired by the ‘green basket’ organic food delivery schemes she had seen on work trips in Europe, she began her own.

Juma and her small team filled up pakacha – a traditional Swahili basket woven from coconut palm leaves – with super-fresh produce from the farm and arranged twice-weekly deliveries (Monday and Thursday) straight to people’s homes on the island.

The project has taken off in a big way. At first the catchment area covered the Fumba Peninsula and

radish, okra and cowpeas. I was

the capital Zanzibar City, just 12km

An organic original

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Selling produce at a farmers’ market in Zanzibar

The Msonge Organic Family Farm is divided into mutually supportive zones

from Shakani, but deliveries have now reached resort villages on the south-east coast such as Paje and Jambiani. In time it is hoped operations will go island-wide.

Everybody wins with the project – the customers, the farm and the environment. The organic goodies that arrive on your doorstep will have been picked that morning so they are at the peak of perfection and taste wonderful. There’s plenty of variety too. Leave it up to the Msonge team to put your pakacha together and you’ll find a mix of wild fruits such as golden mangos, root vegetables like cassava and jack fruit, leafy greens such as rukola, spices such as freshly harvested cinnamon and “some little extra gifts”, as Juma puts it. All in all, there will be around 20 products in each pakacha.

The abundance of the seasonal products means the prices can be kept low. It’s TSH 20,000 (US$ 8.50)

for each delivery should you want to keep the pakacha – Juma tells me it makes a great laundry bin – or give the pakacha back to the farm and the price is TSH 15,000.

Arranging your order is easier than ever with the recent launch of the farm’s own app, which was developed by Juma’s tech-savvy son. Customer numbers continue to increase with the door-to-door delivery service a boon amid the social isolation of covid and the vitamin-rich produce a welcome boost for islanders’ immune systems put to the test by the virus.

For Juma, the pakocha system means a guaranteed market for the wide range of produce she grows and support for the organic farm’s celebration of biodiversity. While Juma has arranged the 15 acres into distinct zones – among them designated areas for fruit orchards, vegetable fields and fodder crops for animal feed – they interrelate

as sustainable ecosystems. This natural harmony can be as beautiful as it is productive at times, such as the natural beehives hung on the golden mango trees, which produce delicious organic honey and help to pollinate surrounding plants. Then there are the towering coconut palm trees that delineate the zones and provide shaded growing environments for other plants and breeding grounds for beneficial insect life.

Way forward By investing the consumer in this sustainable system – exemplified by the biodegradable pakocha which can be returned to the farm to become the waste to fuel more plant growth – Juma sees her organic farming going one step further into a permaculture way of life, reaping benefits for Zanzibar and its people for generations to come.

“Permaculture is wider, more holistic,” she explains. “It provides space to think long term. There should be a reason and a use for everything. Nothing is wasted on the farm. It trains you to design nature to work for you. Before you cut back a tree, think about what its shade brings and what you can grow under it.”

The thinking behind permaculture is shared to students at the Practical Permaculture Institute of Zanzibar, which the Msonge Organic Family Farm now runs. The international place of learning was set up in 2015 by the design team behind the Fumba Town housing development, which makes use of permaculture principles in its lush landscaping – among the features that have put its apartments and villas among the most desirable real estate on the island.

Juma and Franko Goehse, from

The pakocha deliveries are going from strength to strength, hotels on the island are welcoming back tourists with Zanzi Resort, Dream of Zanzibar Hotel and Sunshine Marine Lodge among those making orders once again Growing the natural way on Msonge Organic Family Farm

the Fumba Town team, became Facebook friends and soon Msonge Organic Family Farm was selling its fruit and veg to the earliest occupants of the town at regular farmers’ markets. When the idea for the institute was brought up, Juma mentioned that the farm had purchased a five-acre plot in Kizimbani, about 25 minutes’ drive north of Stone Town. Its homestead was converted into the institute and the farmland repurposed to provide practical demonstrations of the permaculture principles taught in the classrooms.

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Msonge Organic Family Farm

Juma admits to initial concerns that she may be “crazy” giving up the land to such an untested project, but it has, she says, proved “a blessing” with her own understanding of the possibilities of permaculture expanded from the input of students who have come from all over the world to study at the institute.

Msonge Organic Family Farm took over the running of the institute in March this year and while the majority of its classes are still conducted in English to students from across the globe, it has introduced a course in Kiswahili aimed at getting locals involved in wild growing.

Vision of an organic island Ultimately, Juma hopes that Zanzibar will become an organic island, future-proofing its world-famous growing conditions. “There’s a long way to go,” she admits. “Still, I hope I will see it in my living years.”

Stone Town is due an organic makeover, she says. “It has a surprising number of green spaces and small gardens that would really benefit from organic practices.

I would also like to see waste recycling introduced there.”

Progress can certainly be seen at Msonge Organic Family Farm.

The pakocha deliveries are going from strength to strength, hotels on the island are welcoming back tourists with Zanzi Resort, The Blue Bhari Hotel and Sunshine Marine Lodge among those making orders once again and you’ll find a fresh selection of the farm’s produce at the Tupomoja Café in Mbweni every Sunday. There is also the opportunity for the public to taste Swahili dishes filled with fresh ingredients from the farm and cooked on the porch “of the same old big house” Juma grew up in at twice monthly

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Sunday ‘Farm to table’ lunches.

You can expect traditional dishes such as makopa (dried and sliced cassava) and plenty of vegetarian options.

Early starts With the extra acreage of the new farm in Kizimbani, Juma has been able to pursue a long-held desire to grow turmeric and cinnamon.

These plants take a while to mature, but Juma is expecting a bumper crop in the coming years.

This means a lot of work.

“There is so much to do. People are bending their backs to keep up,” says Juma. The scaled-up operations prompted Juma to employ five new staff in July, on top of her usual team of four workers and any children and grandchildren available to help out. However, the sexagenarian – who is up at 4.30am without fail and on pakocha delivery days she is helping with the harvest by 5am ahead of a full day of activities – sounds doubtful about the long-term prospects of the new arrivals, some of whom are already voicing concern at the physical labour involved.

Juma is used to the hard work.

She was brought up on a farm – in the days when organic farming was just farming. She is hoping the wild ways of the past will become the future for Zanzibar with Msonge Organic Family Farm leading the way.

PICK OF THE PAKOCHA Dr Juma and her team always like to include a few welcome surprises among the just-picked fruit, vegetables and spices that turn up at your door. Here’s some of the more unusual.

Nyungu A mixture of medicinal plants that are boiled together. Breathing in the steam from the process is thought to remedy a host of ailments from coronavirus to possession by evil spirits.

Rucola A rocket-like leafy vegetable which has a distinctive peppery flavour and is great in salads, piled on top of pizza or made into pesto.

Cinnamon leaves Cinnamon leaves are often dried and have a lighter taste and aroma compared to cinnamon bark when used in teas or cooking.

Matembele Information To find out more about the pakocha deliveries, ‘Food to Table’ Sunday lunches and visits to the Msonge Organic Family Farm, visit its Facebook site or call +255 754 536 630. For more details on upcoming courses at the Practical Permaculture Institute of Zanzibar, visit permaculture-eastafrica.com

These sweet potato leaves come with a wealth of health benefits. They are loaded with anti-oxidants, help protect eye health, can loosen congestion if you have a cold and strengthen your bones.

It’s also pretty tasty with a spinach-like flavour.

Competition Win a traditional Swahili massage at Mrembo Spa

How to enter To be in with a chance of winning this prize, answer the three questions below (the answers are all contained within the pages of Jahazi 5)and email them along with a photograph of you holding a copy of the magazine on your Azam Marine and KFF journey to competition@landmarine.org by the closing date: January 8, 2022.

Bahati njema!

Answer these three questions What is the name of Nobel prize in literature winner Abdulrazak Gurnah’s latest novel?

In which country did cashews originate?

Which Dar es Salaam venues hosted the recent Marafiki Music Festival?

Competition terms and conditions: Prizes dependent on availability. One entry per person. Entrants must be 18 years or over. The decision of the organisers will be final. The competition is not open to employees and their relatives of Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries, Azam Marine, Mrembo Spa or Land & Marine Publications Ltd. The prize does not include travel to and from destinations.

A

fter exploring Stone Town and steeping yourself in Swahili culture, what better way to relax than to experience a traditional massage at Mrembo Spa in the heart of the historic city?

Mrembo is the Swahili word for a sophisticated woman who likes to pamper herself and there are plenty of indulgent treatments on offer at the spa that incorporate

fresh, locally sourced and 100 per cent natural ingredients. The spa has teamed up with Jahazi to offer its 60-minute ‘Mrembo Massage’, which involves essential oils from Zanzibar combined with coconut, moringa and baobab oil, to one lucky winner of this issue’s competition. Find out more at mrembospa.com

Last issue’s winner Congratulations to Asha Simba who wins a VIP return trip from Dar to Zanzibar in the comfort and luxury of the catamaran’s VIP Lounge, courtesy of Azam Marine and Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries.

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

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THE TASTE OF TANZANIA Here’s some made-in-Tanzania gifts for the eco-friendly foodie in your life. All companies advocate sustainable farming practices and produce delicious food. Karibu chakula!

1001 Organic

Zanzibar is known as ‘the spice islands’ and this social enterprise sources some of the best the archipelago has to offer from more than 100 organic-certified farmer families on Unguja and Pemba.

Farmers get a guaranteed price and are supported to keep to regenerative and gentle cultivation processes to ensure a high-quality crop and maintain the spice forests for years to come. Last year, the company’s black pepper, which is grown on Pemba and allowed to dry and ripen in sunlight to develop its hot spicy and floral flavour, won a gold award at the renowned Monde Selection Institute. This prize winner along with a large range of other dry spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and ginger are available to buy online or at 1001 Organic’s store in the heart of Stone Town, on Unguja. For more details, visit

Seaweed farming is big business and among the world’s algae growing hot spots are the clear coastal waters of the Zanzibar archipelago. While much of the trade is driven by multinational demand for seaweed as an integral ingredient of emulsifiers vital to products from toothpaste to ice cream, island co-operative Mwani Zanzibar gives 17 seaweed-farming mamas the opportunity to add value to their crop by transforming the treasured ingredient – naturally abundant in essential amino acids and moisturising phytonutrients – into desirable organic beauty products such as spiced soaps, body polishes, massage oil and body butter. A visit to Mwani’s headquarters in Paje, on the south-east coast of Unguja, provides the chance to browse and buy the products. For

1001organic.com

more details, visit its Instagram site @mwanizanzibar

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Mwani Zanzibar

FOOD

Chocolate Mamas Tanzanian cocoa grown in farms across the verdant Kilombero Valley has a worldwide renown among discerning chocolatiers, but Chocolate Mamas is the first homegrown company to turn these beans into bars. Since 2011 the company has been producing gourmet chocolate from its Dar es Salaam workshop. All the ingredients are locally sourced – from the 100 per cent pure cocoa from Tanzania farmers to the flavourings such as pili pili (hot pepper), cinnamon, orange and coffee. Even the cute corn husk packaging is made here. You can browse and buy the range at Chocolate Mamas outlets in Dar, Arusha and Zanzibar. Visit the Facebook site for more details.

Hai Life

Main image Rosa van Ederen

Tanga-based company Hai Life sources farm-fresh fruit and vegetables from the farms of the Usambara Mountains and Lushoto for its healthy and super tasty juices.

All its juices are 100 per cent natural with no added sugar or water and made by cold pressing the pick of seasonal produce for optimum nutrition and flavour. The family-run operation has come up with some imaginative combinations for its juices, among them the vitamin-packed Pineapple and Carrot Crush, best-seller Pineapple, Beet and Ginger and the full-flavoured Cloudy Apple. Hai Life takes pride in paying its farmers fair prices and donates its fruit and vegetable waste back to them to use as animal feed. Even the packaging is ecologically sustainable. The products are available at a number of supermarkets in Tanga, Dar, Moshi and Arusha. For more details, visit hailife.co.tz

Serengeti Delight This company has been producing high quality dairy products – making use of Tanzania-farmed milk and fruit – for close to two decades. It sells a variety of classic cheeses such as halloumi, feta, cream cheese and paneer as well as a range of live yogurts flavoured with local farm ingredients such as blueberries, passion fruit and vanilla. The organic, protein-packed products are a healthy choice for a quick snack with fermented dairy products such as cheese and yoghurt both proven to reduce the risk of developing Type II diabetes. You can’t get much cleaner and healthier than the brand’s natural yoghurt, which has no added flavours or sweeteners and has been made to a traditional recipe. Serengeti Delight products can be found in supermarkets across the country and also hold regular pop-up tasting sessions at markets in larger towns and cities. Visit its Facebook site for upcoming events.

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Top five

FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT

CLOVES

At this time of year a sweet, woody scent wafts through the Pemba air. You can trace it to the mounds of harvested clove buds and leaves left by farmers to dry in the sun, a process responsible for releasing the heady scent. The cultivation of cloves on the Zanzibar archipelago began in the 18th century and for many years the islands were the world’s largest producer of the spice. Production levels are not what they were, but cloves grown here are still considered by many to yield the highest-quality oil, flavour and aroma and are a staple part of Swahili cuisine and medicine. Jahazi has put together some fascinating facts to get you clued up on cloves.

Health benefits Versatile clove not only perks up your mulled wine, seasons curry dishes and adds some spicy warmth to cakes and biscuits, it brings some very welcome health benefits. A teaspoon of ground cloves contains more than half your recommended daily dose of manganese, an essential mineral for maintaining brain function and building strong bones. Studies have also revealed it helps with good digestion, protects the liver, boosts the immune system, stimulates blood circulation, eases headaches and stress and can help stop the growth of tumours.

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Clove farming Many people on Pemba depend on cloves for their livelihood. The short rainy season from September to November is when the cloves are harvested by hand and it is often a family affair. Men climb the evergreen Syzygium aromaticum trees – which can grow up to 15 metres high – to pull off bunches of unopened flower buds and leaves from the higher branches.

They then throw them to the ground to be collected by the women and children.

The crop is carried in a sack from the farmer’s land to the villages where it is sorted to separate the buds from the leaves with piles of each left on mats to dry in the sun. The cloves are then taken to one of three collection centres on the island where they are cleaned, tested and purchased by weight.

The origin of the name Ever wondered where cloves get their name? Well, here’s a clue, or should that be ‘clou’. Cloves are flower buds that are nail-like in shape and the name comes from the French for nail, which is ‘clou’ and is derived from the Latin word ‘clavus’.

As to the origin of clove trees in Zanzibar, well they may have come from the oldest known clove tree in the world. Experts believe ‘Afo’ a clove tree on Ternate (one of the Maluku Islands in Indonesia), is between 350 and 400 years old. The story goes that seedlings from the tree were stolen by a Frenchman, Pierre Poivre, in 1770 and later transferred to Zanzibar.

Helps your teeth

Highly prized Spices were among the most valuable items of trade in ancient and medieval times and cloves commanded the highest price of all for their range of uses from flavouring food to a breath freshener and body perfume.

India saw cloves as sacred. The ancient texts of India in around 800 AD refer to cloves as the ‘divine flower’ and cloves were also associated with the Hindu goddess Lakshmi who symbolised beauty, wealth and fortune. Much later, when maritime trade routes brought the Swahili Coast into play and spices spread into Europe, in 17th Century Britain cloves were worth at least their weight in gold due to the high price of importing them.

Cloves contain 14 to 20 percent of an essential oil called eugenol. It’s this pungent oil that gives cloves their distinctive scent and also contains much of their health-giving properties.

Pemba has its own distillery operated where the oil is extracted from cloves by crushing them. It is run by the Zanzibar Trading Corporation and located at Machomane, about kilometre outside the island’s capital, Chake Chake.

One of the most renowned uses of the essential oil is as a painkiller for toothache and dental emergencies. The antibacterial properties of cloves are also thought to be good for all-round oral health with a study finding compounds extracted from cloves stopped the growth of two types of bacteria associated with gum disease.

Another study found people who used a daily herbal mouthwash made with tea tree oil, cloves, and basil showed improvements in gum health, as well as the amount of plaque and bacteria in the mouth in just a few weeks.

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Cashew Zanzibar

CASHING IN ON OUR CASHEWS Tanzania is one of the biggest producers of cashews in Africa yet with around 90 per cent of the crop exported in its low-priced, raw form for processing and retailing abroad much of the lucrative revenue potential crop escapes the country. However, with its seeds (yes, cashews are seed, not a nut) grown in the rich soil around Mtwara and shelled and roasted at a processing plant on Zanzibar Island, Tanzanian brand More Than Cashews has built an inclusive value chain. Co-founder Fahad Awadh reveals why the company’s single origin products benefit local farmers, the country, the planet and anyone lucky enough to taste the naturally delicious results.

F

ahad Awadh is nuts about cashews and, yes, he does know they are actually seeds. In fact, there is very little he does not know about them. His research ahead of setting up YYTZ Agro-Processing, a fully automated cashew processing plant in Zanzibar, was exhaustive.

The most shocking fact the company’s chief cashew officer and co-founder unearthed was that despite Tanzania being the fourth largest producer of cashews in the world, 90 per cent of its product is exported – “straight from the trees”, as Awadh puts it – to countries such as Vietnam and India with the final roasted and ready-to-eat version reaching a European and US market often unaware they are munching on Tanzanian cashews.

“The situation was there was no idea of the true origin of the

had to address this opaque supply chain if I wanted to appeal to discerning, millennial customers in European and US markets to whom traceability is important. They want to know where the product came from and they want to know it was ethically sourced and the producer was well looked after.”

Awadh knows exactly where his cashews in his More Than Cashew range come from. He’s built the business around a group of smallholder farmers and women’s groups in the Mtwara region. They get a secure market to sell at best prices as well as YYTZ-provided training on food safety, budgeting and good agricultural practices while Awadh gets some of the best cashews in the country.

Customers get to trace the connection from farm to packet thanks to an ingenious bit of

cashews,’ says Awadh. “I knew I

technology, the first of its kind in

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Cashew Zanzibar latest scientific advances in cashew production. As well as its cashew plantations, Mtwara is home to a research institute, which has recently created a hybrid cashew of superior flavour, size, colour and processability. YYTZ has bought thousands of the hybrid seeds and is giving them free to farmers in the Itigi District in Singida, which the institute has highlighted as having the perfect growing conditions for cashews. A cashew nursery has been set up with more than 70,000 trees planted since 2018, many of which have already started producing the nuts in small quantities. The expected high yields in the next few years should cement YYTZ’s status as major cashew products exporter.

Doing business is in Awadh’s blood. His childhood makes Bill Gates look like a late bloomer. He created his first product at age 12 the world, designed by a start-up in the Netherlands. Each More Than Cashew pack has a QR code which, once scanned by your smartphone, reveals the name of the farmer whose land the cashews were picked from as well as a brief description of the farm. It even lets the customer thank the farmer for their work.

The state-of-the-art blockchain technology is part of the packaging across the three-strong More Than Cashews range – Dry Roasted With Sea Salt, Plain Dry Roasted and Raw Unroasted. The glutenfree, single-origin products are all vacuum packed for freshness within in an aluminium inner barrier.

centre just outside Stone Town Awadh, who runs YYTZ with his former pilot father Ali, is able to produce at a rate and standard that allows the company to compete in the export market. A team of 20 staff monitor machines that do the cashew drying, grading, screening and roasting before packaging them for sale. The only part of the cashew processing not done in the plant is the shelling, which is taken care of by the smallholder farmers.

Their work rate has, however, also been boosted with machinery. A woman in the farms will typically shell 40 kilos a day, yet YYTZ has invested in semi-automated shelling machines for its smallholders that increase individual capacity to 600 kilos a day.

With his fully automated processing plant in an industrial

YYTZ has also ensured it is positioned to benefit from the

Competing in export market

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Processing plant

Grading the cashews before packaging

The More Than Cashews range

While Mtwara and Singida are prominent cashew producing areas, Zanzibar is definitely not.

In fact, no cashews are grown commercially on the island at all. Still Awadh is convinced he made the right decision to base his processing plant at the Amaan Industrial Park. In an effort to revive the ageing business park, YYTZ and many other businesses have been offered benefits such as three years free rent, help with building improvements and duty-free

import of raw materials by the welcoming Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority.

Then there is its proximity to Zanzibar’s efficient port and cargo ferry with trucks of shelled cashews coming straight to the processing plant. The port is also the first stage on the shipping route to Awadh’s main buyer in the Netherlands, where the bags of roasted cashews are distributed to outlets in Europe and Canada, including healthy supermarket chain Whole Foods.

YYTZ products are also being made available in the domestic market with luxury hotel the Hyatt Regency Dar es Salaam among its clients. Three retailers in Kenya have also agreed to sell YYTZ products.

Duty of care Awadh, who admits he even dreams of cashews, is experimenting with more potential products with cashew milk, cheese and butter in the testing stages. Awadh is a disarmingly creative CEO – his designs for a T-shirt company cooked up with two of his friends while still at university in Canada were so good, they were modelled at fashion shows and were bought across the world – and very hands on. “I want to understand everything myself,” he says.

He is not your average entrepreneur. He meditates every morning and before we get down to our

cashew chat, he talks knowledgeably about the ancient philosophy of stoicism and how it helps him deal with the ups and downs of running his own company.

However, doing business is in his blood. His childhood makes Bill Gates look like a late bloomer. As a talented pupil aged 11 in Toronto, Canada, he was selected to attend a full-time business school with subjects such as entrepreneurship and technology added to the syllabus. “It got me thinking in a different way,” he says. He created his first product at age 12 – a range of scented candles, rolled and decorated by himself, of course – which sold out at the district school board’s trade fair. It was an early example of Awadh knowing his audience – primarily female teachers – who he knew would swoon over the candles.

Now, Awadh knows the exacting standards of the audience he is aiming for with his responsibly sourced and premium-grade cashews.

The sustainability is far more than a gimmick. There is a real duty of care between YYTZ and its farmers and Awadh will measure progress as much on their success as his own. “I want to be proud of what I do,” he says. “I’ve never just wanted to be successful. If you see the farmers and they’re still in the same place then I haven’t done anything.”

FIVE FACTS ABOUT CASHEWS

1 2

Nuts or seeds?

Cashews aren’t nuts. They are the seeds of the cashew apple.

Skins

The cashew’s seed lining contains a powerful irritant called anacardic acid (which is why they are never served or sold in their skins).

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Heart shape

The botanical name Anacardium refers to the shape of the fruit, which looks like an inverted heart. It is formed from the Greek ana “upwards” and kardia “heart”).

4

Origin

They come from Brazil (unlike Brazil nuts, which are mostly found in Bolivia). Portuguese sailors planted them in Goa, India, in the late 1500s and from there they spread through Asia and Africa.

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Healthy

Cashews are very nutritious and are packed with protein and essential minerals including copper, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.

PLANET-FRIENDLY SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT Having 90 per cent of the cashew nuts produced in Africa exported raw in the shell to be processed in India and Vietnam before being re-exported to Europe and North America is an unsustainable practice that has a huge impact on the environment. Cashews with the shell are quite bulky – around four to five kg of raw cashew nuts

are required to produce one kg of cashew kernels. This means that transporting containers full of raw cashew nuts halfway around the world has a four-to-fivefold greater impact on the environment. The More Than Cashews seed-to-shop model is a far more sustainable and planet-friendly alternative.

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Farouque Abdela

‘Fashion is about individuality, colours and madness –

Zanzibar has them all’ He’s dressed Princess Diana and been the darling of swinging London, but fashion designer Farouque Abdela is now focused on transforming the look and lives of his homeland, Zanzibar

“E

verything I wear is made in Zanzibar, except my glasses.” Fashion designer Farouque Abdela is holding court in the Secret Garden café of one of his favourite Stone Town hotels, Emerson Spice.

He’s dressed immaculately in a loose black linen shirt and trousers, leather sandals and one of his own hand-printed waistcoats. The look is accessorised with a hand-made basket – bought on Pemba – and a similarly weaved fan that he flourishes to emphasise his points and battle the midday island heat.

The hottest hours of the day usually find him in the cool confines of sister hotel Emerson on Hurumzi where the staff are resplendent in the shimmering peach uniforms he designed and his interior design skills have given the rooms an opulent update.

Still, when we meet he is keen to talk over drinks at the Secret Garden. I have been looking forward to interviewing Abdela for some time and he does not disappoint. As he cuts through Stone Town’s labyrinthine lanes, fan in full effect, I hear him end a phone call with a potential client with the

It’s an arch comment that seems to come straight from the fierce fashion scene of London that Abdela moved in for almost four decades. His Afrocentric designs, put together with the embroidery and tailoring skills that were a family tradition and fine-tuned attending the London School of Fashion, brought him success and big-name clients. Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is said to have turned up unannounced at the designer’s Abbey Road studio to buy his entire collection of waistcoats and Abdela also famously designed for Princess Diana – the pair bonded over a love of going barefoot – as well as author Maya Angelou and jazz musician Courtney Pine.

withering: “I wouldn’t get out of bed for that amount, darling.”

enchanted him as a young man.

“I was getting lost in the streets

Farouque Abdela returned to Zanzibar in 2004

‘Kindred spirit’

Return to Zanzibar Still, it is clear that Zanzibar is where Abdela’s heart is. Many were surprised when he left London and returned to his birthplace in 2004.

Even the designer himself had his reservations on arrival. The still lithe and dapper 69-year-old has said in previous interviews that he felt “traumatised” on seeing what had become of the ornate Swahili architecture of Stone Town that so

they were so different,” he says. “I thought this is not my home. All the buildings were falling apart in 2004.”

But, Abdela – who left Zanzibar aged 14, two years after the revolution – has, since his return, set about reuniting Stone Town and Zanzibar with its past.

Famous client: Princess Diana Mark Reinstein/ Shutterstock.com

Some of that work surrounds us as we talk. The Secret Garden was until recently the tattered remnants of a marketplace, but Abdela has helped transform it into a stylish open-air courtyard restaurant by day and a cool music venue at night hosting local taarab bands. An array of potted plants adds a lush landscape and modern artworks hang in each cloistered, intimate seating area, but many of the walls have been left in their crumbling original form so as, Abdela says, “to retain the link between then and now”.

Abdela found a kindred spirit in hotelier Emerson Skeens. He describes his friend as a “one of a kind who left a real legacy” in restoring such prominent, historic

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Farouque Abdela

buildings – Emerson Spice was owned by the last Swahili ruler of Zanzibar and Emerson on Hurumzi once belonged to merchant Tharia Topan, then the richest man in East Africa – to their former glories.

“Even when I am in the Hurumzi lobby it gives me a feeling of being among royalty. There is something regal about that place.”

Reviving rituals Skeens died five years ago and Abdela sees himself as a “custodian in keeping his work and vision alive”.

Abdela has also revived one of the most glorious rituals of the age of the Sultans in Zanzibar – the Umbrella Dance. An elegant, colourful procession with dancers twirling their umbrellas high above their heads, the dance was introduced by Zanzibar’s third Sultan Seyyid Barghash – who was also responsible for introducing taarab music to the island – to be performed only on his birthday.

Abdela loves the dance for its blend of beauty and rebellion.

Carrying an umbrella was a sign of nobility at that time so a troupe of low-born dancers each brandishing one while performing for the sultan was a daring move. “It was a hit back,” says Abdela. “A way of saying we’ll do what is forbidden and we’ll do it better.”

The performance is the centrepiece of a series of ‘Unique Entertainments’ Abdela curates quarterly for visitors to the island.

He feels tourism has been key to maintaining a demand for the Zanzibar’s archaic customs and here guests are showered with jasmine petals and entertained with traditional music and dances, which Abdela has choreographed and designed the costumes for. “They are a headache to arrange,” says Abdela, “but they are a lot of fun.”

The shows provide regular work 28

and a good income for the dancers, who had seen interest dry up in their skills before these events.

Abdela, who still lives in family home on the outskirts of Stone Town with his two brothers, is doing what he can to keep these and other traditional art forms alive, but it is proving a battle. “You can smell and feel it,” he says. “The local culture is disappearing.”

He has never followed fashion’s fickleness and hunger for the new. “I don’t understand it when someone is able to tell you what this year’s colour is – I don’t want to be dictated to on creativity,” he says. “Fashion is about individuality, colours, madness.”

Timeless, traditional African textiles have always featured in Abdela’s fashion designs. He has amassed hundreds of khanga – his collection includes examples from the 1940s – and in returning to Zanzibar, where the khanga originated, he has done much to champion handcrafted quality in his work and that of his protégés. He has a studio at Hurumzi – his work was once centred at the oceanfront Sultan’s palace The House of Wonders – where he continues to produce one-off designs “with the Farouque touch” for the local market as well as clients as far afield as Singapore, Brazil and London.

Innovate to create Abdela has found that the restrictions of working in Zanzibar have necessitated new levels of creativity.

“I have to be creative to get things done here. Some materials are not available to use so you have to rack your brain for alternatives. I recently created a collection from potato sack cloth and a collection from plastic bags here – something I never would have done in London.

The plastic dresses are totally unwearable, but I sold them for a

Dresser to the stars: jazz artist Courtney Pine was one of Abdela’s clients yzhnenko Dmitry/ Shutterstock

Abdela once had a studio in London’s famous Abbey Road berm-TEERAWAT/ Shutterstock.com

lot of money. Two Saudi princesses bought them. I couldn’t believe it.”

Usually, Abdela works with locally sourced hand-woven cotton and shares his stitching skills and years of expertise with students in his studio. Many of them have gone on to start their own businesses.

Abdela has also brought trained tailors from New York and London to the archipelago to teach cutting and proper finishing here and he has been campaigning for textiles and fashion courses to be introduced at Zanzibar University.

His work designing the uniforms at Hurumzi he sees as a model that could potentially transform the local fashion industry.

“There are 580 hotels on island,” he says. “If we empower our people here to design clothes for them all it will be cheaper for the hotel and create employment here. There are so many opportunities.”

For all Abdela’s work to revive traditional customs on Zanzibar what he is most proud of giving new life to is a group of young people who have become like a family to him since his return from what he calls his “self-imposed exile”.

His high profile on his return led to him being introduced to a group of young people who were all born with HIV from parents who had the illness. He was asked if he could help the group organise itself.

Abdela, who had lost many friend

I don’t understand it when someone is able to tell you what this year’s colour is – I don’t want to be dictated to on creativity and colleagues to Aids during his time in the UK in the 1980s, was moved to help. He co-founded the Zanzibar Association of People Living with HIV (Zapha+) to ensure the youngsters not only had long lives – all are given HIV treatment – but that their lives were full of promise.

Abdela organised English lessons as few of the group could read or write, taught them marketable skills and secured them an office to work from.

“The proudest moment of my life was when I handed over the keys to their office – the look on their faces was priceless,” he says.

Soon the group was making its own spice soap to sell – Emerson Spice was an early customer – and Abdela called in a few favours from his fashion friends to bring in sewing machines to make their own garments under the designer’s tutelage. The results were sold at the Zapha+ market stall in Stone Town.

Presidential support

Farouque Abdela at The Secret Garden in Stone Town, Zanzibar

The project’s good work caught the attention of US President at the time, Bill Clinton. A well-known backer of Aids charities, Clinton visited the centre and was moved to send a cheque to cover rent and salaries for four years. The gesture had a huge financial impact, but more crucially it removed the stigma attached to the organisation on the island. “After Clinton left everyone wanted to know about the building,” Abdela says.

Zapha+ has gone from strength

3,000 members across Zanzibar and Pemba. Abdela’s role is less hands-on – “they don’t need me anymore,” he says – but he still puts his own money into the running of the project and visits still warm his heart.

“It’s wonderful to go in the office as there was a time people thought there was no hope,” he says. “Now they are running their own radio station and there is a photography club. There are people there who were only two years old when the project began and now they are training to be journalists. I would like to see a member of this organisation as a member of parliament one day.”

Abdela charitable efforts have continued with another cause close to his heart, the Organisation of People Living with Mental Illness, which he is a patron of.

“I like to help my own people,” he says. “There is a joy. I tell my friends in London what they have learned there they can teach others here.

It’s wonderful to give back to your community. I am just one man.

Imagine what we can do together.”

More information Find out about Farouque Abdela’s Unique Entertainments, visit farouque.com To find out more about the work of Zapha+, go to envaya.org/zapha

to strength since with more than

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Role models

Tanzanian women

ROLE MODELS Tanzania is blessed with beauty queens and fashion models whose appeal is far more than skin deep. Twiga takes a close-up look at the homegrown goddesses that have used their high profile to help others.

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Flaviana Matata Matata was the first ever winner of the Miss Universe Tanzania competition, in 2007, and has gone on to become one of Africa’s most recognisable and successful models.

Her striking looks have seen her front campaigns for global brands such as Diesel and Clarins, and build a global profile she has used to pursue philanthropic projects dear to her. Matata was raised in Shinyanga, in northern Tanzania, and after completing high school gained a diploma in electrical engineering at Arusha Technical College. It’s an academic path many young Tanzanians – girls especially – don’t get the chance to take. Matata credits her parents for always prioritising education and wants to do all she can to support more young women to stay in school and pursue their potential.

The Flaviana Matata Foundation offers scholarships to young girls to pay for their fees through high school and into further education so they have the skills and support they need to get a job or start a business.

Other accomplishments include renovating schools, kitting them out with new tables and desks, organising after-school clubs for girls and distributing toiletry boxes to schools for girls to use during their menstrual cycle.

In 2018, Matata was named Most Inspirational Woman at the Global Women Gala.

Donate to the work of the foundation at flavianamatatafoundation.org Flaviana Matata handing out school equipment to pupils as part of her foundation’s work

Image: Luis Quezada

Image: Michael Mlingwa

(Above) Sylivia talking at a Global Peace Foundation event and (right) on outreach work for her own foundation

Sylivia Sebastian Bebwa The Mwanza-born Sylivia was crowned Miss Tanzania in 2019 and went on to compete in that year’s Miss World competition. She has qualifications in physics, chemistry and biology and at one time harboured ambitions to be a doctor.

The desire to help others with health conditions informed her choice of ‘beauty with purpose’ project for the Miss World event. Sylivia works with children in Tanzania who have hydrocephalus, a condition in which an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid occurs within the brain, often causing long term complications such as learning disabilities and speech and memory problems. Sufferers can have a full life span if the condition is caught early enough and Sylvia’s work has so far helped raise funds for 20 families to get treatment while also raising awareness of a condition that can attract damaging superstitious beliefs in some Tanzanian communities.

Sylivia, who in her spare time loves sport and dancing, is also involved in supporting the work of non-profit Smile Train, which provides corrective surgery for children with cleft lips and palates, as well as the Tanzania Breast Cancer Foundation.

Having had a modest upbringing in Mwanza before gaining global renown as Miss Tanzania, she was also an inspirational presence at a recent Global Peace Foundation event, encouraging young girls to follow their dreams.

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Role models

Miriam Odemba

Queen Mugesi surrounded by children on an outreach project for the African Reflections Foundation

Odemba was the first Tanzanian model to win a contract with world-leading modelling agency Elite and was the first from her country to win a major world beauty pageant when she was crowned Miss Earth/Air/Water in 2008.

The elemental nature of her title has also inspired the direction of her philanthropic work. The Miriam Odemba Foundation was set up in 2019 with its environmentally friendly projects including providing clean drinking water in rural areas and the planting of trees to offset global warming. Its work also encourages families to send their children to school and empowers women in communities. The not-for-profit foundation already has an impressive list of completed projects. It has provided water cans for pupils in Miteza, Mingombe and Kiwambo; funded the school fees of 250 students in the Manyara district; built a deep solar well and renovated a school in the Mkuranga district; paid for a double green house for the Matokeo Agriculture Group and bought 10 sewing machines for a sustainable women’s project.

To donate to the foundation’s work, visit miriamodembafoundation.org

The work of the Miriam Odemba Foundation has brought clean water to rural communities

Queen Mugesi Ainory Gesase Being crowned Miss Grand Tanzania in 2018 and the modelling career that followed has brought many opportunities for international travel for Queen Mugesi Ainory Gesase.

The 22-year-old has always been someone with an interest in global issues. She studied international relations and diplomacy at Tanzania Centre for Foreign Relations, one of the country’s most prestigious learning institutions, and attached herself to the work of the African Reflections Foundation.

Among the NGO’s continent-wide operations is Village Hearts Projects in Tanzania, which tackles hardships in the country’s rural areas. As its Water Ambassador, Queen Mugesi has fronted outreach projects in villages such as Mwarusembe in the Pwani region, where the project built a deep well at the local primary school to provide clean water for villagers.

Mugesi oversaw the handing out of carrying cans to pupils so they can transport water back for their families after each school day.

The keen dancer and singer has shown her commitment to charity work since her teens when she began volunteering for the Alpha and Omega Reconciliation and Peace Building, educating and campaigning for the prevention of war and violence and the effects it has on women and children.

For details on how to get involved in Alpha and Omega Reconciliation and Peace Building projects, visit: arepeb.or.tz/g

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Queen Elizabeth Makune addresses students at a Jatu Unitalk event

Queen Elizabeth Makune Makune was Tanzania’s representative in the 2018 Miss World beauty pageant and has continued to boost the profile of her home country in setting up Twenzetu Kutali, which showcases the many attractions of Tanzania to a domestic market and provides an online savings account designed to help Tanzanians save for the safari holiday they have always dreamed of.

Makune knows how rewarding it is to experience Tanzania’s greatest natural attractions. She has climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and she also aims high when it comes to her career. She is ambassador for Jatu PLC, a food retailer that supports the Tanzanian agricultural industry by providing a supportive market outlet for local farmers. Her role involves spreading the company’s mission to build health and eradicate poverty through human resources, agriculture and industry. The MBA student is also a regular speaker at the Jatu Unitalk seminars at universities where she shares with students the rewarding career paths available for graduates that will make the most of their years of learning.

To find out more about Twenzetu Kutali, visit its Instagram page #twenzetukutalii

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

33

MINIMALIST TECH Minimalism is a trending concept right now with social media full of influencers in their bare but beautiful homes espousing a less-is-more lifestyle and the inner peace that can come from getting rid of unnecessary belongings. Paring down your tech so you have less of it and it has less of a hold over you is a big part of the minimalist mantra. Here are five essentials all with a stripped-down style.

Keeping time…

Bering Ultra-Slim Watch At just 4.8 mm in width the Bering Ultra Slim range watch is so minimal it is barely there. Danish watchmakers Bering define minimalism as the “ability to simplify without losing quality” and the Ultra Slim, for all its wafer-thin appearance, has been built to last with high quality sapphire crystal protecting its dial against scratches and a woven Milanese strap attached to it with strong stainless-steel links. The subtle yet striking design will look simply wonderful on your wrist. beringtime.com US $220 Image: Bering

Minimalist lifestyle…

Light Phone 2 Minimalist 4G Phone Many people are drawn to minimalism as they have had enough of becoming too attached to their possessions.

Smart phones can have a hold on their users so one that comes without many of the more addictive features is to be welcomed. The Light Phone 2 has no social media, clickbait news, email, an internet or any other anxiety-inducing infinite feed. You can, however, make thelightphone.com US $350 Image: the light phone inc

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phone calls and send texts and there are a few useful tools included such as an alarm, calculator and maps. It uses electronic paper screen technology, such as found with e-readers, that does not emit the blue light of traditional backlit screens, which can upset your sleep cycle. Simply put, the Light Phone 2 lets you get on with your minimalist life.

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

By Mark Edwards

Smart storage…

Artifox rack When you’ve decluttered your home and given it a clean, stylish minimalist look, storing your bike indoors to get in the way, dirty the floors and gather dust will undo all that hard work. However, with the Artifox Rack vertical bike storage you can make it part of your minimal décor and it frees up floor space. Featuring a unique hidden mounting system, this bicycle rack self-levels along any flat surface. Made from powder-coated steel and solid hardwood, the bike rack works with most styles and sizes of bikes. theartifox.com US $290 Image: A R T I F O X

Being tidy…

Grovemade desk tray For minimalists, mess is stress so keeping your living space clean and uncluttered brings with it an attendant clarity of mind. This is especially important when you are working and want to be focused and productive.

Grovemade desk trays organise your essential items for quick and easy access. Machined from solid cork, they provide a soft and protective bed for your tools, with four pockets designed to accommodate the things you need most at your desk. Each desk is handmade at the company’s workshop in Portland, Oregon, in the US, and the cork is hand-dyed in two available colours with Japanese calligraphy ink.

Pure water...

Ag+Cup Getting rid of old belongings can be a testing task, but there is a silver lining – quite literally in the case of the Ag+Cup. This handmade ceramic mug has a 99.9 per cent silver inner lining that naturally purifies your water to keep you healthy and hydrated. You can throw away your old mugs and just use this. Minimalists will love its sleek design with choice of homemade glazes and the mug can take pride of place in your Instagram-ready, clearedout cupboard. amazon.com US $59 Image: Amazon

grovemade.com US $120 Image: Grovemade

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

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Zanzibar

ZANZIBAR BEYOND THE BEACHES Blindingly beautiful though they are, there is more to Zanzibar than its pristine white beaches and deep blue waters. Break up your sunbathing sojourn with these visits that will reveal far more about this historic, culturally rich island.

Stone Town Losing yourself in the labyrinthine lanes of Zanzibar City’s old town area is a treat for the senses. Sights include ornate Swahili wooden doors, tiny tempting shops selling locally handmade goods and locals holding court on baraza – long stone benches along the outside walls of buildings – while you’ll also hear the sound of the muezzin calling from the many mosques and smell the scent of cloves, ginger or lemongrass from the numerous spice stalls. A guided tour will help reveal the town’s rich and often heartbreaking history of entwined cultures brought together through the spice and slave trade. From the Sultans of Zanzibar to the singer Freddie Mercury, you’ll find out about the influential people who called these corralled coral stone buildings home.

House of Wonders This extravagant mansion, which commands Stone Town’s seafront, is one of the grandest structures on the island. It was built for Sultan Barghash, in 1883, with luxurious features including East Africa’s first use of electricity and running water – then modern wonders that gave the building its name. In recent 36

years it held a museum dedicated to Swahili culture and visitors were able to explore the architectural coupling of European style and Zanzibari tradition in its cast iron columns, elaborate door carvings, coral rag and open central courtyard. Unfortunately, in 2012, one of the long-neglected building’s balconies collapsed and the House of Wonders has remained closed since with restorations yet to be completed. Still, the building’s faded grandeur can be admired from the seafront.

Seafront mansion House of Wonders

Forodhani Gardens During the day, the tree of this seafront garden offers welcome bowers from the unrelenting sunshine, but at night is when the place comes alive with the

Forodhani Gardens is Stone Town’s nightly street food showcase

sights, sounds and smells of Zanzibar’s street food market.

As dusk approaches stallholders arrive and light their braziers and hurricane lamps to prepare cheap and tasty street food for the throng of appreciative customers that wander the seafront here in the evening. Popular dishes fish and meat kebabs (mishkaki), grilled squid and octopus, samosas, chapattis as well as innovative indigenous treats such as Zanzibar pizzas – a savoury or sweet pancake with a dizzying range of possible fillings, from the delicious to the bizarre (mango and cheese, anyone?).

Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park Zanzibar was once close to being covered by dense evergreen forest, but now the protected reserve of Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park,

Spice farms

Tour of Prison Island A 30-minute ferry ride from Stone Town gets you to the tiny island – just 800 metres by 230 metres – nature reserve of Changuu. It’s also known as Prison Island as a jail was built here in the late 19th century to house the overspill from its overcrowded and squalid counterpart on the Zanzibar mainland. However, not one inmate ever stayed there and the island has, instead, over the years provided a place of quarantine during disease epidemics and a retreat for ex-pat Europeans who hung out at the holiday cottages here far from the hustle of Stone Town. There are residents on the island who were around to witness many of these events as it is home to a number of Aldabra giant tortoises – some more than 100 years old. The tortoise population, which began from four presented as a gift from the British governor of Seychelles in 1919, is now under the protection of a foundation and ferry day trip visitors have the chance to feed them and swim with them in the waters here.

Zanzibar has a spice trade dating back to the 16th century with its tropical climate and fertile soil once making it the world leader in clove, cinnamon and nutmeg production. The Spice Island still thrives today on a smaller scale with many independent farms joining organic co-operatives to achieve sustainable livelihoods as well as benefiting from eco-tourists keen to experience the fragrant harvest. A trip to a shamba (spice farm) gives visitors a chance to see how the spices are grown and harvested as well as taste a variety of fragrant spices such as lemongrass,

Cruise by dhow

turmeric, vanilla, chilli and black pepper as well as the Big Three.

ples are built without nails, instead planks and boards are held

The coastal waters of Zanzibar are peppered with traditional Arab dhows and nowhere more so than the island’s northernmost tip, Nungwi. Here in the early mornings fishermen roll in to the wide white sand beach with their catch and many offer pleasure trips out on the waters to enjoy the stunning sunsets or to snorkel amid the coral reefs of Mnemba Atoll Marine Reserve. The ride will no doubt leave you marvelling at the craftsmanship involved in building a dhow – smaller exam-

Credit Nick Fox/Shutterstock

in the central lowlands of the island, is the largest wooded area that remains. The sunken setting means it often floods and the resulting singular swamp forest environment is a fertile home to a huge range of plant life and wildlife, including one of the rarest primates in Africa: Kirk’s red colobus monkeys. The monkey is found only on Zanzibar’s main island, Unguja, and with the forest all that remains of its dwindling habitat its population was below 2,000 in the 1990s.

However a concerted conservation effort in the park has brought the numbers up to in excess of 2,500.

Work to develop the park has also included the creation of a number of tourist trails with possible wildlife sightings along the way including Sykes’ monkeys, bush pigs, Zanzibar suni, tree hyraxes and Ader’s duiker, as well as more than 40 species of bird. The trails also include a boardwalk that allows access to the protected mangrove swamps that stabilise the shorelines here and provide essential habitat for thousands of species.

Here in the early mornings fishermen roll in to the wide white sand beach with their catch and many offer pleasure trips out on the waters to enjoy the stunning sunsets

Boardwalk Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park

together with roots and willow branches – and Nungwi Village is known as the centre of this tradition on the island. Here you will get a chance to see local boat builders use techniques handed down from the 15th Century, learn about each stage of the entirely handmade construction process from the sourcing of the wood and the ritual of launching a new dhow.

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

37

Swahili story time / Wakati wa hadithi

UKURASA MPYA

Na Joseph Shaluwa

The latest exclusive short story for Jahazi by Tanzanian writer Joseph Shaluwa is a tale of the promise of new love for a handsome boy with plenty of hurt inside.

U

TANASHATI wake ulimfanya apendwe na kila kiumbe aliyeitwa mwanamke! Mtaani kwao alikuwa akipata shida sana kila alipopita kutokana na kubambikwa jina la HB wakimaanisha handsome boy au mtanashati.

Kiukweli ni kwamba hawakumsingizia ni kweli alikuwa na kila aina ya sifa za kumfanya aitwe mtanashati, maana alikuwa anavutia kisawa-sawa!

Uzuri wake haukushia kwenye umbo na sura yake pekee bali hata alipokuwa akiongea na kuachia tabasamu pana usoni mwake ambalo lilisababisha mwanya uliopo katikati ya meno yake mawili ya mbele kuonekana sanjari na vijishimo vidogo mashavuni mwake!

Kimsingi huwa anavutia zaidi!

Pengine ili muweze kumfahamu vizuri kijana huyu ni vizuri kama nitaainisha sifa zake wazi-wazi. Sio mrefu sana, sio mnene sana, ana mwili wa mazoezi hapo namaanisha kuwa ana mikono minene, kifua kipana na sura isiyo na makunyanzi, ni maji ya kunde, mwenye nywele fupi siku zote!

Ndevu zake huzinyoa kwa mtindo wa mduara ambao ni maarufu zaidi kama O! Macho yake ni makubwa yaliyozungukwa na nyusi nyeusi ambazo ni kama zimetindwa kulingana na jinsi zilivyokaa kwa mpangilio unaoridhisha. Kubwa zaidi ni mpangilio wa mavazi yake.

Ni kama alikuwa na mtaalamu wa mavazi!

Anayemshauri kila siku avae nguo gani!

Huyu ni Richard!

Lakini wengi wamezoea kumuita kwa

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jina la Richie. Kijana anayevutia wasichana lakini asiyependa kabisa kujihusisha nao.

Naam Richard alikuwa kijana mtanashati sana, kutokana na kutokuwa na time na mabinti, wengi walidhani kuwa huenda alikuwa mtoto siyo riziki, ukweli huo alikuwa nao Richie peke yake.

Siku hiyo, alifika ofisini mapema sana, hata wafanya usafi wenyewe walikuwa bado hawajamaliza kufanya usafi!

“Vipi kaka Richie, mbona leo mapema sana!” Sia, msichana anayeanya usafi katika ofisi anayofanyia kazi Richie alisema.

“Usijali...unajua ni kazi nyingi sana, hivyo niliona ni vyema kama ningewahi na kupunguza kidogo!” Richie alijibu kwa utulivu sana.

“Sawa basi, nipe dakika kumi, nitakuwa nimemaliza kufanya usafi ofisini kwako!” Sia akamwambia Richie.

“Acha niende Canteen nikapate chai kwanza, halafu baada ya muda ulioniambia nitakuwa nimekwishamaliza!”

“Hakuna tatizo kaka Richie!” Richie hakuwa na kitu kilichomfanya aendelee kusubiri, akarudishia mlango kisha akaanza kupiga hatua za taratibu kuelekea Canteen.

Huko nako alikuta mengine!

“Tunamalizia kuandaa, tupe dakika tano!”

Mhudumu akamwambia.

“Kwani saa hizi saa ngapi jamani?”

Hatimaye Richie akauliza.

“Ni mapema sana!” Akajibiwa.

“Muda wa chai ni kuanzia saa mbili kamili!”

Akajibiwa tena.

“Duh! Leo ni siku ya ajabu sana kwangu!”

Mgahawa mwingine nje ya ofisi.

Muda huo aliutumia kuangalia saa iliyokuwa katika simu yake. Ilisomeka kuwa ilishatimu saa 1:17 asubuhi.

Hapo akagundua kweli aliwahi sana!

Ilikuwa mapema mno.

Safari yake iliishia katika Mgahawa mmoja wa kisasa uliojulikana kwa jina la New Flowers Cafe. Akaingia ndani kisha akatafuta mahali palipompendeza na kuketi, muda huo huo akatokea msichana anayehudumia katika Mgahawa huo, akamsabahi kisha akafungua kinywa chake akionyesha tabasamu lake lililojaa bashasha!

“Karibu kaka!” Msichana huyo akamkaribisha kwa shangwe.

“Nashukuru!” Richie akajibu huku akiyaachia macho yake nafasi ya kuangaza huku na huko, si unajua tena mazingira mapya.

Macho nayo yana mambo!

“Naomba nikusikilize kaka yangu!”

“Chai ya rangi na piza!” Wakati Richie akitamka maneno haya, aliyatuliza macho yake usoni mwa dada huyo anayehudumia katika Mgahawa huo.

“Ok! Nakuletea muda siyo mrefu!”

Mhudumu akaondoka na kumuacha Richie

Richie akawaza kisha akaondoka kabisa maeneo ya Canteen na kwenda katika

peke yake.

Muda huo akajaribu kuutumia kufikiria

mgogoro wake na mchumba wake Nima uliotokea usiku wa kuamkia siku hiyo.

Nima ndiye alisababisha Richie awahi kuamka siku hiyo na kukimbilia kazini akiamini ni mahali pekee ambapo angeweza kutuliza mawazo yake.

Kwa mbali picha ya Nima ikaanza kumrejea akilini mwake, ni msichana ambaye alitokea kumpenda kwa moyo wake wote, ni kati ya wasichana wengi walikuwa wakimsumbua kila kukicha wakimtaka kimapenzi! Lakini kwa Nima ilikuwa zaidi, hakuwa na haja ya kutafuta au kuwa na fikra za kuwa na mwanamke mwingine zaidi ya Nima.

Lakini kwa wakati huu Nima alianza kumkera, tabia za ajabu zilizoanza kujitokeza zilianza kumuudhi, wivu wa ajabu aliokuwa nao sasa ulianza kumkera, kwa sasa kila kitu alichokifanya Nima kwake kilikuwa kero, kilichokuwa akilini mwake hakutamani kabisa kitokee, ni kweli alianza kufikiria kuachana naye, lakini hilo ni jambo ambalo halikumpa furaha kabisa katika akili yake.

Alishachoka kusumbuliwa na wasichana kila uchwao. Sasa uamuzi wake ulikuwa kutafuta mahali ambapo angeutuliza mtima wa moyo wake!

Nima bado alikuwa moyoni mwake!

Lakini tabia zake zilimkera!

Katikati ya mawazo hayo, akifikiria jinsi

usiku huo ulivyokuwa mgumu kwake, mlangoni mwa Mgahawa huo akatokea msichana mrefu na mwembamba kiasi, mwendo wake ulishawishi mno kumtizama, macho yake ya kusinzia yaliweza kuwaacha hoi wanaume wenyewe uchu wa mapenzi, hipsi zake pana na uso wake wa duara ndiyo uliowachanganya zaidi watu!

Alikuwa mrembo haswa!

Karibu kila aliyekuwa katika Mgahawa huo alimwangalia msichana huyo alivyokuwa akikatiza katikati ya Mgahawa huo. Baadaye akaenda kuketi katika meza aliyokaa Richie!

Wakati karibu watu wote waliokuwa ndani ya Mgahawa huo wakiushangaa uzuri wa msichana huyo, Richie hakumwangalia, hata hivyo mawazo yake hayakuwa hapo, lakini alipoketi ghafla katika meza aliyokuwa amekaa yeye, alishtuka sana!

“Mh! Huyu siyo binadamu...siyo binadamu huyu...leo malaika amekuja mwenyewe duniani!” Maneno haya yalizunguka kichwani mwa Richie huku akimtazama kwa macho ya uoga.

“Habari yako Anko?” Sauti ya msichana huyu ilizidi kumchanganya zaidi Richie.

“Salama Anti, habari yako!” Richie aliitika kwa sauti maalum ambayo aliindaa kwa ajili ya msichana huyo tu!

“Samahani nimekuvamia kwenye meza yako!”

“Usijali jisikie huru!” Msichana huyo akaagiza chai na kwa pamoja wakaendelea kunywa kimya kimya. Watu waliokuwa pembeni yakowakaendelea kumwangalia msichana huyo huku wakinong’ona.

Kiasi cha dakika kumi nzima, hakuna aliyezungumza, ingawa kila mmoja alikuwa akimwangalia mwenzake kwa kuibia na kila walipokutanisha macho yao waliachia tabasamu pana usoni mwao.

Baadaye yule msichana akaukata ukimya kwa kuanza kuzungumza.

“Samahani, napenda kujua jina lako. Mimi naitwa Irene!” Sauti tamu iliyojaa kitetemeshi ilisikika kutoka kwa mlimbwende huyo.

“Richard!” Alisema bila kuongeza neno lingine lolote.

“Hii ni business card yangu, naomba

tuwe tunawasiliana, tafadhali usinielewe vibaya!” Dada huyo akasema kisha akamkabidhi kadi yake yenye namba zake za mawasiliano.

Wiki moja baadaye Richie na Irene walikutana katika Ufukwe wa Coco.

Baada ya mazungumzo marefu, kila mmoja alikuwa tayari kumpokea mwenzake.

Irene, kama ilivyokuwa kwa Richie alikuwa kwenye uhusiano uliomtesa kwa muda mrefu. Kila mmoja alikubali kuutuliza mtima wa mwenzake.

Ukurasa mpya wa mapenzi ukafunguka baina yao.

Richie akamsahau Nima...

Irene akamsahau Jerome!

MWISHO.

JOSEPH SHALUWA Joseph Shaluwa mwandishi wa simulizi hii, ni mtunzi wa riwaya nchini, memba wa Umoja wa Waandishi wa Riwaya Wenye Dira Tanzania (Uwaridi).

Ameandika vitabu vingi, lakini kwa sasa ana vitabu vipya viwili MATEKA UGHAIBUNI na MOYO WANGU UNAUMA ambavyo vinapatikana kwa oda. Wasiliana naye kwa: simu 0621-044191, email: joeshaluwa@gmail, Facebook: Joseph Shaluwa, Facebook page: Simulizi za Joseph Shalu

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

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Our fleet Experience the finest, modern and swift ferry services in Tanzania

Our Catamarans We have a fleet of eight vessels with a speed range of 25 knots up to 40 knots allowing passengers to be in Zanzibar from Dar es Salaam within 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Kilimanjaro VII

Kilimanjaro VI

Kilimanjaro V

Kilimanjaro IV

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

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Travel information For further information and to book visit www.azammarine.com

Our services Onboard hospitality services:

WiFi Free Internet on board all our catamarans

Entertainment Library of movies and TV shows to watch

Snacks Enjoy a cup of coffee, tea or Juice

VIP Lounge Luxurious Lounge Dedicated to VIP and Royal class passengers.

Need to know

25 Kgs

Permitted Luggage is 25 kgs per person.

Any additional will be chargeable.

Consumption and carriage of alcoholic beverages is highly restricted.

No refund policy on missed travel date or time. In case of cancellation, office should be informed at least two hours prior to departure.

Online bookings are not considered

Travel tips

Ferry schedules

All foreign passengers (not Tanzanian citizens) are required to carry their passports when traveling between the islands of Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania.

Foreign passengers are required to pay for their tickets in US$. We do however accept payments in UK Pound Sterling (GBP) and Euro (€). All other currencies are not acceptable.

Foreigners with resident permits or exemption certificates are allowed to pay for their fares in Tanzanian Shillings and will be charged the normal fares applicable for citizens. Tanzanian citizens are encouraged to carry some identification to prove their citizenship. We recommend all passengers to buy their tickets from our offices in Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar or Pemba and from our approved travel agents throughout the country. Please do not buy tickets from people in the streets claiming to be our agents.

DAR - ZNZ Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar 7 AM 9.30 AM 12.30 PM 4 PM

ZNZ - DAR Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam 7AM 9.30AM 12.30PM 4PM

ZNZ - PEM Zanzibar to Pemba 7.30AM (WED, THU, SAT, SUN)

PEM - ZNZ Pemba to Zanzibar 7.30 AM (THU, FRI, SUN) 9AM (TUE)

PEM - TAN Pemba to Tanga 2.30PM (SUN)

TAN - PEM Tanga to Pemba 11PM (MONDAY)

confirmed until a payment has been made.

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

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Our destinations Let us take you to Tanzania’s coastal cities and the islands of Zanzibar

Dar es Salaam This fast-expanding city – population four million and counting – is Tanzania’s commercial and cultural hub. Traces of Dar’s beginnings as a Zaramo fishing village can be seen at the Kivukoni front where dhows dock at dawn laden with the night’s catch for the bustling fish market, but now gleaming skyscrapers dominate the skyline. This modern metropolis rocks around the clock with a vibrant music, food and art scene, but if you prefer to relax there are a string of serene beaches in easy reach as well as the nature escapes of Pugu Hills and Mikumi National Park.

waters while its vibrant and unique Swahili heritage will fascinate culture vultures and its famous spices perfume the air and flavour the food. Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries delivers you to one of the island’s greatest attractions, Stone Town, the capital’s ancient port. Here you can explore its maze of bazaars, cafés, mosques and mansions that are vestiges of the island’s pivotal role in trading along the East African coast.

Pemba

Unguja, the largest island of the Zanzibar archipelago, is a treasure trove for tourists. Those who snorkel, scuba or windsurf will

As its Arabic name, which translates as “the green island”, suggests, Pemba has a lush landscape, combining the cultivated and the wild. There are plantations of banana, coconut and cloves as well as expanses of mangrove forest. With far fewer hotels than its Zanzibar big brother Unguja, 80 km south, it provides an exclusive escape for the adventurous traveller with remote attractions including the dense canopy of monkey-magnet Ngezi Forest and the private paradises of isolated sandbanks. Its white sand beaches are ringed on all sides by coral reefs which offer some of east Africa’s best snorkelling and diving – with marine life including humpback

love its reef-protected cerulean

whales in July and August.

Zanzibar

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Dar es Salaam waterfront Gideon Ikigai / Shutterstock.com

Pemba Island

Tanga When its sisal farming was in full flight, Tanga was earmarked as the capital of Tanzania, but it now offers more low-key charms. It still has a busy port – the second largest in the country – with our ferries crossing to Pemba – and plenty of attractions for the visitor.

Its history as an Arab trading post before the Germans and British vied for colonial control in its sisal

Contacts Bookings: azammarine.com +255 22 2123324 info@azammarine.com Follow us: @azammarine kilimanjaro fastferries officialazammarine

Azam Marine and Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries Opposite St. Joseph Cathedral Sokoine Drive, PO Box 2517 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania heyday has left a town with some fascinatingly eclectic architecture, especially the gothic Bombo Hospital. The ocean offers great dhow sailing, there is a rich coral reef for diving enthusiasts and Tanga’s proximity to the Saadani National Park makes it the only city with a wildlife sanctuary incorporating a marine park in the region.

Other nearby attractions include the Amboni Caves and the Swahili

Email: info@azammarine.com www.azammarine.com Tel: +255 22 212 3324

Tanga

trading outpost of Pangani.

Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

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Puzzle page Animal wildlife fun and puzzles

ANIMAL WORDSEARCH

SPOT THE

Can you find the words listed below in the letter grid?

Find the five differences between the first and second pictures of the monkey below

Kudu

Lion

Giraffe

Hare

Elephant

Wildebeest

Zebra

Ostrich

DIFFERENCE

Rhinoceros Hippopotamus

5 4 2

3

9

7

6

8 11

10 13

12

14

1

15 40 37

39 38

36 16 35

26 34

33

46

31 32

30

27 28

29

25 24 23

17 21

18

22 20

19

DOT TO DOT Follow the dots to finish the image and see whats hiding in the picture

Routes For further information and to book visit www.azammarine.com

Tanga

Pemba Island

Wete

Korogwe

Mkoani

Zanzibar

Zanzibar Mkokotoni

Stone Town Bagamoyo Kibaha Kichwele National Forest

Dar es Salaam

KiwengwaPongwe Forest

Chwaka Bay

Stone Town Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park

Chumbe Island Coral Park

Kiwani Bay

Zala Park

Follow us: @azammarine kilimanjaro fastferries officialazammarine

Menai Bay Conservation Area

Pemba Island Kilimanjaro Fast Ferries book online at azammarine.com

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Routes For further information and to book visit www.azammarine.com

wengwaongwe orest

Tanga

Pemba Island

Wete

Korogwe

Mkoani Chwaka Bay

Zanzibar Mkokotoni Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park

Stone Town

Bagamoyo Kibaha

Zala Park

Dar es Salaam

Pemba Island

Mkoani

Bookings: azammarine.com +255 22 2123324 info@azammarine.com 48