Stonetown – Stonetown Trip

TRAVELLING AROUND
STONE TOWN

STONE TOWN, THE PLACE TO BE

Stonetown of Zanzibar (Arabic: مدينة زنجبار الحجرية‎, romanized: madīnat Zanjibār al-ḥajariyya), also known as Mji Mkongwe (Swahili for ‘old town’), is the old part of Zanzibar City, the main city of Zanzibar, in Tanzania. The newer part of the city is known as Ng’ambo, Swahili for ’the other side’. Stone Town is located on the west coast of Unguja, the main island of the Zanzibar archipelago. Former capital of the Sultanate of Zanzibar and thriving center of the Indian Ocean spice trade and slave trade in the 19th century, it retained its importance as Zanzibar’s main city during the period of the British Protectorate. [1] When Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined to form the United Republic of Tanzania, Zanzibar retained a semi-autonomous status, with Stone Town as the local seat of government.

Stone Town is a city of prominent historical and artistic importance in East Africa. The architecture, which largely dates from the 19th century, reflects the diverse influences underlying Swahili culture, creating a unique blend of Arabic, Persian, Indian and European elements. For this reason, the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.

Due to its heritage, Stone Town is also a major tourist attraction in Tanzania, and much of its economy depends on tourism-related activities.

The heart of Stone Town consists mainly of a maze of narrow alleys lined with houses, shops, bazaars and mosques. Because most streets are too narrow for cars, the city is busy with bicycles and motorbikes. The coast has wider streets and larger, more regularly spaced buildings.
Stone Town’s architecture has a number of distinctive features, reflecting the blending of Arabic, Persian, Indian, European and African traditions. The name “Stone Town” comes from the ubiquitous use of coral stone as the main building material; This stone gives the city a characteristic, reddish warm color.

Traditional buildings have a baraza, a long stone bench along the outer walls; This is used as a raised sidewalk when heavy rain makes the streets impassable, or else as benches for sitting, resting, socializing.

Another important feature of most buildings are large verandas protected by carved wooden balustrades. The best-known feature of Zanzibari houses are the finely decorated wooden doors, with rich carvings and bas-reliefs, sometimes with large copper studs from the Indian tradition.

Two main types of doors can be distinguished: those in the Indian style have rounded tops, while those in the Omani Arabic style are rectangular. Wood carvings are often Islamic in content (many consist of verses from the Qur’an, for example), but occasionally other symbolism is used, for example Indian lotus flowers as emblems of prosperity.

Stone Town is peppered with grand historic buildings, several of which can be found on the coast; These include former palaces of the sultans, fortifications, churches, mosques and other institutional buildings.

Medieval Zanzibar

A Greco-Roman text between the 1st and 3rd centuries, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, named the island Menuthias (Ancient Greek: Μενουθιάς), which is probably Unguja. [8] Zanzibar, like the nearby coast, was inhabited by Bantu speakers in the early first millennium. Archaeological finds at Fukuchani, on the northwestern coast of Zanzibar, indicate an established agricultural and fishing community from no later than the 6th century AD. The significant amount of buckle found indicates wooden buildings and shell beads, bead grinders and iron slag have been found at the site. There is evidence of limited involvement in long-distance trade: a small amount of imported pottery has been found, less than 1% of the total pottery finds, mainly from the Gulf and dated to the 5th to 8th centuries. The similarity to contemporary sites such as Mkokotoni and Dar es Salaam indicate a unified group of communities that developed into the first center of coastal maritime culture. The coastal towns, including those on Zanzibar, appear to have been engaged in Indian Ocean trade during this early period. Trade increased rapidly in importance and quantity from the mid-8th century and by the end of the 10th century Zanzibar was one of the central Swahili trading cities.

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Shangani, the original fishing village that developed into Stone Town, was a small, largely insignificant Swahili site founded in the 11th century. Larger towns in Unguja Ukuu, Kizimkazi and Tumbatu were the island’s powers from the 8th to the 16th centuries.

The Portuguese built a church in Shangani in the early 16th century and the Queen of Northern Unguja had a house built there in the mid-17th century. When the Portuguese were expelled by Zanzibaris and Pembans in the 17th century, local patricians invited the Sultan of Oman to exert political power in exchange for defense against Portuguese reprisals. Part of the Portuguese church was built into the Omani fortress, which housed about fifty soldiers. The sultan also appointed a local governor, but political authority still rested largely with the Mwinyi Mkuu, then Queen Fatima

Excavations on nearby Pemba Island, but especially at Shanga in the Lamu Archipelago, provide the clearest picture of architectural development. Houses were originally built with wood (c. 1050) and later in mud with coral walls (c. 1150). The houses were continually rebuilt with more permanent materials. In the 13th century, houses were built with stone and joined with mud, and in the 14th century lime was used to bind stone. Only the wealthier patricians would have had houses built in stone and lime, the strength of the materials allowing flat roofs, while the majority of the population lived in single-storey thatched houses similar to those of the 11th and 12th centuries .

According to Tom Middleton and Mark Horton, the architectural style of these stone houses has no Arabic or Persian elements and should be seen as a completely indigenous development of local folk architecture. Although much of Zanzibar City’s architecture was rebuilt during Omani rule, nearby sites illuminate the general development of Swahili and Zanzibari architecture before the 15th century. [11]