Spices
'That evening we called in at Zanzibar where the air was filled with the amazing spicy-sweet scent of cloves, and I stood by the rail at the old Arab town and thinking what a lucky young fellow I was to be seeing all these marvellous places'
-Roald Dahl in his memoirs 'Going Solo'
Zanzibar's spicy history is deeply infused in its present, from sensual aromatic oils to humble breakfast porridge. Spices are stewed into Swahili culture. Their aromas linger over the islands. In Zanzibar, spices are elements of daily life alongside the bold sayings of kangas and morning prayers.
Arabian, African, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani and Persian flavours all cover the Swahili table and lend their language and traditions to the use of spices in Zanzibar. This curious mixture is the stew of 2000 years trading across the Indian Ocean, from the Swahili Coast stretching down from Kenya to the northern shores of Mozambique and inland as far as Rwanda. At the heart of the Swahili lands is the island of Zanzibar and the spices are its heartbeat. Ancient sailors travelled along the coastline but the Zanzibar islands remained untouched by their cultures until the Persian Zenj sultanate was established throughout Zanzibar in 975AD. The Zenj ruled, trading spices, ivory, gold and slaves with Chinese merchants who sailed through India and Persia to reach the east coast, bringing garlic and lemongrass with them.As the spice trade in Zanzibar bloomed, cinnamon and cardamom were introduced to the islands from Asia and chilli and cacao were brought by the Portuguese from South America. Every spice in the world was planted and harvested in the Swahili shamba or countryside.
Zanzibar’s spice capital is Pemba, the lush northern island where over seventy percent of Zanzibar’s spices are still produced. Just 80km north of Unguja, Pemba was known by dhow traders for millenia and after Zanzibar was seized by the Sultan of Oman, Pemba quickly became the home of the spice industry. Seyyid Said bin Sultan planted two clove trees in Pemba and today there are over four million clove trees in Pemba alone. The essential oil distillery, only a few kilometres from Chake Chake, still produces spice oils in traditional ways.
Spice tours will take you through the Kindichi or Kizimbani farming villages, government-owned plantations manned by local farmers who live in the surrounding areas. These farms are like any other villages in Zanzibar, filled with the familiar smoke of kitchen fire coming from the small houses and covered in a rainbow of kangas drying in the sun above the spice mats. A subtle perfume rises from the trees in every garden bed. Littered amongst the mysterious trees of the spice farms are treasures just waiting to be plucked or dug up and tasted; cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric and ginger- to an untrained eye could all be mistaken for simple forest shrubs or even weeds. The spice farmers reveal the hidden flavours of the island, cutting small leaves, roots and stems, breaking open seed pods and handing them to chew or smell.
The beauty of spices is not only in the fragrant seeds and roots but the incredible variety of ways in which the plants can be used. Apart from their obvious culinary uses, spices are used in Zanzibari traditional medicine to treat sickness. Some are used as antidotes to poisons and others taken as aphrodisiacs. Their essential oils are important rustic wellness treatments and their flowers are used for decoration and celebration. Even the wood of the trees can be made into furniture, boats and houses. Women with a good knowledge of their local plants are their own midwives and family physicians; men using them as aphrodesiacs are guaranteed to have a large family and many happy and sleepless nights.
