Stone Town

Zanzibar is now a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania. The Persians settled here to serve East African ports. After them the Portuguese gained control for 200 years until 1698, when the Sultanate of Oman conquered it. They started to plant spices on the plantations outside the main city Stone Town. But most of the products came from East Africa. Ivory and slaves where the most profitable goods. During the 19th century Zanzibar became a British protectorate because they were against the slave trade and hence more popular. After a pro British Sultan died in 1896 and the successor didn't like the fact that the British were defacto governing the island. This led to the Anglo-Zanzibar war. It lasted 38 minutes and is now known as the shortest war in history. The Royal Navy pounded the Beit al Hukum Palace and afterwards a cease fire was in place. 1963 eventually Zanzibar gained independence. A month later the bloody Zanzibar Revolution ended in genocide. Thousands of Arabs and Indians were killed and even more expelled. Tanganyika played the cards rights and was able to merge with the Republic Zanzibar and Pemba.
Of course these days Zanzibar is a major tourist place, serving lobster to fat people. But the charm of Stone Town is still there. Arab women hush through the narrow alleys, baskets of colorful powders are being sold, the architecture impresses with Portuguese, British, Arab and Indian influences, and the atmosphere gives the impression of multicultural harmony and religious tolerance.
Zanzibar is rather expensive. I managed to find a room for 10$ in hotel that currently got renovated. The owners were all young guys with rasta and getting stoned most of the day. The last night one of them had a local Muslim girl in his room. After screaming at each other in the room, they spilled into the hallway where she was holding up a knife and he was bleeding from his hand badly. The next day I asked him what happened. Apparently she refused to have sex with him and then he decided to "force" her.
There are many museums and palaces of Sultans in Stone Town which are pretty good. I checked them all out and the for example the old slave market. That's where the slaves that came from East Africa were sold to Arab people or were brought into the slave trade triangle between, Europe, Africa and America. Today there is only a basement visible where they were stored, a monument and a church with the altar on the exact place where the whipping pole used to be.
After the British Empire outlawed slavery in 1833 some Sultans secretly went on with the slave trade and stored the slaves in a cave 10km north of Stone Town. But after he died nobody wanted to take over the business.
In the evening people go to the food market at the oceanfront and eat fish, beef, Zanzibar pizza and many other things. Competition is fierce.
I usually went to the Reggae bar which is a dirty, cheap local place where locals get completely wasted. But they sell by far the cheapest beer in this Muslim town. But crime is not a big issue.
On a spice tour I got to know a guy from New York, who normally does stand up comedy in the bars of Hells Kitchen. No subject was taboo.
I usually stayed in the park during the day where I got to know a Kenyan, who told me the story of his life. To make it short, he sleeps in the park, he has no money at all, struggles to get a job because the few jobs that are around will go to Zanzibar citizens, he used to fish on a dhow for 20 US cents a day and much more. He was well educated and had a nice personality. I spend about 3 hours each day with him.
The last 2 days I was on the island presidential election were in preparation. Big groups collected all the citizens and they then gathered on a plaza where they hailed their candidate. He won well over ninety percent in Zanzibar.