For my second day in Zanzibar, the owner of the hotel where I was staying agreed to set up a driver to take me through the town, the site of Africa's last slave market, out on a spice tour, and to the "slave cave" where, after the Stonetown slave market had been shut down (it was the last slave market in Africa to be shut down), black market slaves were taken from inland to the coast, in order to avoid patrolling British ships.
The old Stonetown slave market was harrowing, and going down to the cells where slaves were kept before they were sold was horrible. They were kept in the sells for 2 days after they arrived, and apparently many suffocated because they were so jammed in, and the couple of slits in the stone that let air in were so narrow. After this they were tied to a post and whipped in front of buyers to show how strong they were. The memorial sculpture there now is quite powerful (the chain included in which is an original chain used when the market operated).
A Zanzibar spice tour is a trip around a path at a spice plantation, while a guide explains the various spices. The planation seemed more like jungle than a farm, though, as none of the plants seemed to be too organized or separate from each other. In addition to the main guide there was another (bare-footed) guide on the tour who would help to cut off pieces of bark or leaves so we could smell and/or taste them. At one point, it became clear that this second guide was going to climb up a coconut tree to get me a coconut. I was very hesitant, and could only think about how bad I would feel if he fell - but this seemed to be part of his job, and I was assured that it was safe. To climb a coconut tree, he took a piece of twine rope shaped like a figure-eight, put one foot in each of the holes, and used this to help grip his feet on the trunk of the tree. He pulled himself up with his arms, brought his legs up, gripping the rope, and then extended his legs down, and began again. It was surprisingly effective, and within 30 seconds he had climbed the 25 foot palm tree, and began to throw down fresh coconuts. It was the best coconut I have ever had. The spice tour finished - of course - at a little hut where packaged spices were sold (for not as cheaply as you might think). Although they were all supposed to be from the plantation I toured, in hindsight I would say there is probably a 50% chance that they were just from the grocery store (it is probably easier to run a small piece of land as a spice tour and to sell dried spices from elsewhere than to actually grow, pick, dry, process, and package them yourself - and, come to think of it, the only people I saw on this plantation were the two guides I had and the guy manning the sales booth...hmmmm).
The slave cave I went to wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. I was under the impression that I was going to the end of the cave, near the ocean, where there are holding cells and a memorial. Instead, I was taken to the mouth of the cave, and told that it was a 3km (!) trip to the end of the cave. I hesitantly went along, with a small flashlight and a guide (a local boy who had just been hanging out in the shade at the cave entrance with a couple of flashlights). It took about one minute for the cave to turn from a giant cavern into a narrow, uneven pathway filled with bats and giant milipedes for me to decide that a 3km hike probably wasn't the most enjoyable (or safest, for that matter) idea. I gave him a small tip and went on my way.
From here, the driver took me to a nearby restaurant (at Mangapwani beach) run by Stonetown's Serena Inn (the most luxurious hotel in Stonetown). The food here was delicious - I had a vegetable pasta with a coconut sauce with a little pilipili (hot peppers), and relaxed under the thatched roof, looking out onto the beach, with a cold Fanta (my current African soda-of-choice), followed by a swim in the amazingly clear, and warm, Indian ocean. Doesn't get much better than this.
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