Africa House Hotel

This is a large white building with castellated battlements located on Mizingani Road, where the latter runs very close to the sea. Originally called the Sultan’s Palace, it was built in the late 1890s for members of the sultan’s family. From 1911 it was used as the official residence of the Sultan of Zanzibar, but after the 1964 revolution, when Sultan Jamshid was overthrown, it was renamed the People’s Palace. It remained in use as government offices until 1994, when the palace was converted into a museum dedicated to the history of the sultans of Zanzibar.

Remarkably, much of their furniture and other possessions survived the revolutionary years and are now on public display for the first time. The museum is well organized and informative: the first floor is devoted to the early years of the sultanate (1828 to 1870), while the upper floors contain exhibits from the later, more prosperous period from 1870 to 1896. These include thrones, banquet tables and ceremonial furniture, as well as more personal items such as beds and the sultan’s personal toilet. There is also a room dedicated to Princess Salme, the daughter of Sultan Said who fled to Hamburg with a German merchant in 1866. It’s a fascinating story, told by the princess herself in her book Memoirs of an Arab Princess from Zanzibar, which you can buy at the museum. Outside in the palace garden are the tombs of Sultans Said, Barghash, Majid, Khaled, Khalifa and Abdullah.