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Chapter 20 - Zanzibar and the East African Slave Trade

From Malawi, Toto drove across across Southern Tanzania to the island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean. Zanzibar is one of the world's "spice islands" and also played a key role in the sad history of African slavery.

Zanzibar is now famous for its white sand beaches and clear blue water, which brings many tourists to visit. In the 1700s and 1800s it was a prime stop for all the ships sailing between Europe, the Middle East, India, Asia and Africa. Despite being off the coast of Africa, Zanzibar was ruled by the Sultan of Oman. A "sultan" is an Arabic king. Oman is a country near Saudi Arabia and Yemen, which isn't that far away from Zanzibar, as you can see on your map.

At the time, the locals grew lots of spices that other countries wanted to use in their cooking. The farmers on Zanzibar still grow these today. Whenever you eat cloves, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg or other spices, there is a good chance they were grown on Zanzibar.

Back in the 1800s, the Arab farmers used African slaves to pick and process all those spices, not unlike how America at the time used black slaves to harvest cotton and other crops in the South. Slavery happens when one group of people take away the freedom, rights and dignity of another, just so that the unfortunate people can do free work for them. Today we realize that slavery is against the human rights that everyone deserves, but many years ago, that wasn't the case. Back in the 1800s and earlier, slavery was a big business, sadly, and its East African trading hub was Zanzibar. It is an awful and tragic history, but one that's worth learning so that it's not forgotten or repeated.

At the time, Arab "slavers," who made a business out of capturing and selling slaves, would travel deep into East Africa to capture black men, women and children. Sadly the chiefs of these African tribes and villages would often sell members of their own tribe or their captured enemies to these slavers. Imagine one day you're living with your family and the next day you're being marched with chains around your neck with other innocent neighbors towards an unknown coast. Here's a picture of a sculpture by the old slave market in Zanzibar. The same chains in the sculpture were actually used around the necks of marching slaves back then. Often the slaves were forced to carry heavy elephant tusks taken from elephants hunted for their ivory. (Ivory is the white material, like the enamel of your teeth, that makes up the tusks of elephants.) 

Once at the coast, the slaves were crowded into the bottoms of boats and shipped to Zanzibar. Some slaves didn't even survive this far, as they were often underfed, but the unlucky ones who did survive were held in terrible cells, like a dungeon. A couple of these cells are still in Zanzibar today. Here's a picture of me in one of them. Can you believe that up to seventy men, women and children were crowded into these cells for up to three days while they were waiting to be sold as slaves? Many died of suffocation, since the narrow windows behind me were the only source of fresh air. When the tide came in, the bottom of the cell often flooded with sea water. There were no toilets, so the whole place must have stunk and been a horrible experience for those innocent Africans who made it to this point.

Once removed from this dungeon, the weakened slaves were tied to a post and whipped in front of the buyers. The buyers paid more for stronger slaves, so the slavers cruelly whipped the slaves to show how strong they were. This only shows us how cruel and inhuman the slavers were, since the slaves would have been very strong if they'd been fed and treated well. But slavers didn't even treat them like fellow human beings, which is one of the things that happens when slavery is allowed.

Historians estimate that around 50,000 slaves a year passed through Zanzibar's slave market towards the end of the slave trade. Most slaves sold in Zanzibar went to the Middle East, India and to Zanzibar itself for the spice plantations. Some went to America, although most of the slaves in America, South America, and the Caribbean came from West Africa. The hub of the trade for slaves in the US during the 1820s was Salem, Massachusetts.

In exchange for slaves, ivory and spices, the Arabs received bleached American cotton cloth called "Merekani" (pronounce it and you will hear that it sounds like 'America'), guns, beads, and metal wire. America and Europe used the ivory for billiard balls, piano keys, combs and knife handles. Fortunately for elephants, all those things are made with plastic today.

So how did all this awful trade in humans end? Well, remember the Scottish missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in chapter 17, who "discovered" Victoria Falls? As he explored the interior of Africa, he came across these long, terrible caravans of captured slaves being marched towards Zanzibar. He was so appalled by the treatment of his fellow human beings that he returned to Great Britain and started a movement to stop the slave trade. In 1873 the British took over Zanzibar and left the Sultan of Oman as the local ruler, as long as he agreed to outlaw slavery. At the time Britain was a very powerful country with a strong navy, so they were able to take over Zanzibar. Unfortunately Dr. Livingstone died of malaria in Zambia one month before slavery and the slave trade was outlawed in Zanzibar.

Dr. Livingstone is buried today in the Westminster Abby in London, which is reserved as an honor for famous UK citizens. His heart, however, was removed and buried under a tree in Zambia, as they said that "his heart belonged to Africa."

Fortunately today everyone in this region knows that slavery was a terrible thing. As many of the citizens of Zanzibar are descendants of former slaves, they want the visitors coming to enjoy their beautiful beaches and tasty spices to leave also knowing something about the history of slavery. This way we can all prevent this unacceptable treatment of other humans from ever happening again. After all, many countries, including the US, were involved in this human tragedy.

 

Epilogue:

While in Tanzania, I traveled to Zanzibar with my friend, Joseph. His grandmother was captured as a slave near Mt. Kilimanjaro back in 1873 and was sent to Zanzibar. She was ultimately lucky, as the British outlawed slavery while she was in one of the slave-holding cells pictured above, and so she was freed before she was sold. Her youngest daughter is Joseph's mother, and Joseph is his mother's youngest child. As his grandmother lived to well over one hundred years old and also lived with his family, Joseph heard many of her stories about when she was a slave and then freed. (It is African tradition for the parents to live in their old age with their youngest child.)

Joseph's beloved grandmother told him that she and her younger brother and sister were working in their family's fields in the valley when members of a rival clan within their tribe took them hostage and sold them into slavery. She said they were chained around the neck and ankles and made to march to the ocean carrying elephant tusks. Joseph said the slaves on the caravan were fed mangoes. To this day he said you can fly over Tanzania and see the old slave caravan routes marked by trails of mango trees, since the slaves threw their mango pits along the path while they marched.

When the caravan arrived to the port town of Bagamoyo, the slaves were put in dhow boats to Zanzibar. Bagamoyo means "lay my heart down". The slaves, many of whom had never seen the ocean, believed they left their heart on the land as their bodies were loaded onto the boats to be sold as slaves in Zanzibar.

Joseph also told us his grandmother's stories of being held captive in the small slave-holding cells while waiting to be sold. She told Joseph that "the water came in and out" of the cells. This was the ocean tides. The captives cleaned themselves with the ocean water and also drank it. As the cells had no toilets, the water was surely quite dirty (even clean ocean water will make you sick). She told Joseph that many slaves died. She added that the conditions in the cells were so horrible that the slaves would endure terrible whippings on the slave trading post rather than be sent back down into the cells. As I mentioned above, the slave buyers would only buy slaves strong enough to endure a fierce whipping to prove to these cruel owners that the slave was strong. If the slave could not bear the beating, he or she would not be sold and would be sent back down into the cells and most likely die.

Joseph said when his grandmother and her two siblings were freed, they were turned over to Christian missionaries who took them back to the mainland from the island of Zanzibar. They were separated there in the chaos. The missionaries asked Joseph's grandmother where she was from, and she pointed North and said "from there". The missionaries recognized her tribal language as being from the Northern mountains but incorrectly sent her to a slave refugee camp in Kenya instead of to her town near Kilimanjaro, in what is now Tanzania. Years later her brother came with a warrior from their tribe to find her in Kenya and took her back home. They needed a warrior to cross Masaai land as the Masaai tribe were fierce fighters. When she returned, she married this warrior, who is Joseph's grandfather.

As one of the last surviving slaves from Zanzibar, Joseph's grandmother was often interviewed by Dar es Salaam University in Tanzania to record her stories first hand before she died in the 1970s. I felt honored to be able to hear them and share them with you as told by her to her youngest grandson.

Travel Questions about Zanzibar:

1. Zanzibar is an island that's part of the country of Tanzania. In which ocean will you find Zanzibar?
2. Why is Zanzibar called a "spice island"?
3. Define the term "sultan."
4. What did the slaves have to carry with them as they were marched in chains towards the coast?
5. How many slaves were held in the small cell in which Toto took the photo?
6. After one to three days in the cells, what did the slave traders do to the slaves?
7. Back in the 1800s, the Arabs of Zanzibar traded slaves, ivory and spices for what?
8. Which Scottish missionary was responsible for convincing the British government to take over Zanzibar to outlaw slavery and the slave trade in 1873?
9. Where is his body buried today? Where is his heart buried and why?
10. Why do the people of Zanzibar teach visitors about their place in the history of slavery instead of hoping everyone just forgets about this sad era in history?

Global Citizen Questions on Zanzibar:

1. Draw a picture of one of your favorite foods that contains spices grown in Zanzibar.
2. There are many islands in the world that are called "spice islands." Do a cybersearch to find the name of another spice island. Write a paragraph on where it is located and which spices they grow.
3. Write a paragraph on how you think you would have felt if you were captured as a slave in East Africa in the 1800s.  Describe the experiences you would have likely had.
4. The United States and many other countries have a history of slavery and involvement in the slave trade. Research your country's involvement and write an essay about this history.
5. Dr. David Livingstone is an important European figure in African history. Research more about him and write a paper about this interesting man.
6. Arab traders used ships called Dhows to said around Zanzibar. There have a unique triangular sail like this. Draw a picture of you sailing a Dhow in the Indian Ocean.

Chapter 19 - Malawi and Livingstone

From Zambia, Toto continued on to the small, vertical African country of Malawi. Malawi is actually one of the poorest countries in Africa, although the people are some of the friendliest. It's a very green country dominated by Lake Malawi, where I camped for several nights.

The lake seemed more like the ocean, since you couldn't see across it and it had waves. It reminded me of Lake Michigan, where I used to visit my grandmother. However, unlike Lake Michigan, the water in Lake Malawi is quite warm. When we were kids at Grandma's house, we used to tease my youngest cousin by telling him that the rock in the water was a hippopotamus. In Lake Malawi you can't go to the beach at night, because you might run into an actual hippo!

I did go scuba diving in the lake during the day. I didn't see any hippos, but I did see lots of cichlid fish. Since this lake is made of fresh water instead of salt water like the ocean, many of these fish are caught for tropical aquariums. You might even have a fish in your aquarium whose grandparents came from Malawi.

What is interesting about cichlids is that the males make nests  in the sand which look like big craters by moving the grains with their mouth. The females are attracted to the males based on how nice their nest looks. Instead of laying their eggs in the nest, though, the females store the eggs in their mouths until they hatch two weeks later, going without eating the whole time!

While in Malawi, I went on an all-day hike up the green hills surrounding Lake Malawi to the town called Livingstonia. The town was named after the British missionary, Dr. David Livingstone. You probably remember from Chapter 17 that he "discovered" Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe in 1855. Dr. Livingstone was active in this area, both as an explorer and a missionary. He also saw many of the locals being taken by Arab traders as slaves in this area, which made him very upset. As a result, he was important in the ending of the slave trade in East Africa, which we'll talk more about in Chapter 20.

One of his followers from Britain came to this area and founded a school and clinic in the town, which he named in honor of Dr. Livingstone. Today the town is home to several schools and a university providing education to many of the locals, so Dr. Livingstone's legacy lives on. The guides who took me on the hike were studying at the university to be ship mechanics, in hopes of giving their families a better life.

On the hike, they showed us this school for orphans in the village. They are orphans because their parents have died, mostly from AIDS. Unfortunately, the children were out of school for the day, but I thought you'd want to see a picture of their classroom. The sticks you see are their chairs and desks. The children sit on the sticks and listen to the teacher's lessons. It certainly was more basic and less comfortable than my elementary school and, most likely, yours. The school is supported by the village's chief as well as by donations from tourists. It made me appreciate how lucky I was to have my family and a school to attend as a child. So next time you think about something you don't like at school, remember how fortunate you are compared to these poor children.

Travel Questions about Malawi:

1. Which lake has warmer water - Lake Michigan or Lake Malawi?
2. Why could Toto not go to the beach at night on Lake Malawi?
3. Is the water fresh or salty in Lake Malawi?
4. What is unique about female cichlid fish?
5. What does the male cichlid's nest look like?
6. How does the male cichlid make his nest?
7. What did Dr. Livingstone see while exploring the region around Malawi?
8. What was Toto's guide studying at the school in Livingstonia?

Global Nomad Questions on Malawi:

1. Find Malawi on a map and list the countries that border the country.
2. The border for three countries lies in the middle of Lake Malawi. Which three countries are they?
3. Next time you go to a pet store, ask the assistant to show you a cichlid. If you have an aquarium, bring a little of Africa to your home by buying a cichlid for it.
4. Describe some of the things you have at your school which the orphans at the Malawi school are not fortunate enough to have.
5. If you want to do a cybersearch and see pictures of Lake Malawi cichlids, you can click on this link.

Chapter 18 - Zambia's Lake Kariba & Crocodile Farm

From Victoria Falls, Toto drove through the country of Zambia to Lake Kariba. The lake is formed by a dam on the Zambezi River, downstream from Victoria Falls. The border between Zambia and Zimbabwe runs through the middle of the lake, as the river still forms the border here. Actually, the middle of the lake is also the safest place to swim, since the lake is home to many wild crocodiles and hippos, which stay closer to shore. I'm sure you remember from Chapter 16 that hippos are quite dangerous. I probably don't have to tell you that crocodiles can be dangerous, too. This is especially true when they're big, and I saw some big ones at the crocodile farm on the Lake Kariba.

There are several species of crocodiles, found around the world in Africa, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Asia. The species in Africa and Zambia's Lake Kariba are Nile crocodiles. (The Nile river is a river in northeastern Africa, most notably Egypt.) You've probably seen belts, shoes, wallets or purses made from crocodile skin before. Well, just like leather, which comes from cows, the skin for these items comes from crocodiles, which must be grown on crocodile farms. The largest crocodile farm in the world is on Lake Kariba, so I went to see it.

The farm has two parts. In one fenced area, they have many ponds filled with really large crocodiles whose job it is to lay eggs. We went around in the back of a truck while they fed these mama and papa crocodiles. Let's just say I wasn't at all interested in getting out of the truck, as these animals were really big! Most of them had been captured on the lake, to prevent local people from killing them to protect their livestock.

It takes at least twelve years for crocodiles to get this big and start breeding. Some crocodiles live up to one hundred years old in the wild! At this farm they had 1,500 breeding crocodiles, mostly females, because they are the ones who lay eggs, which happens around October. In the wild, each female lays an average of thirty-four eggs. When I was there, the farm was advertising for temporary seasonal workers to collect the eggs in a couple of months. The advertisement said that job applicants must be able to "swim, run fast and be brave!" The farm also buys wild eggs collected from locals, because the Zambian wildlife department wants its very poor citizens to think of crocodiles as valuable. Otherwise, they might just kill the wild crocodiles as a nuisance.

The interesting thing about crocodiles is that the sex of the crocodile is determined by the egg's temperature while it's in the nest. A temperature of 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) results in females, while 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) results in males. Since the farm wants to save energy and have more females, they keep the incubator at 32 degrees Celsius.

45,000 eggs go into the incubator each year, which is the second area of the farm. When moving eggs to the incubator rooms, the collectors have to keep each egg in the same position it was in the nest, so that the egg hatches properly. This is because the baby crocodile is attached by a tiny tube to the egg yolk, which feeds it. If the egg is turned to a different position, the feeding tube from the yolk might get clogged, killing the baby crocodile inside the egg.

After about ninety days, the eggs begin to hatch. The first crocodile to hatch emits a noise as a sign to the other baby crocodiles, who then all start hatching together. In the wild, the mother hears this cry and opens the nest to help the tiny babies  (20-30 centimeters long) into the water. At the farm, workers help the eggs to hatch in a special hatching room. To prevent all 45,000 eggs from hatching too early or all at once, the workers take all the eggs that are close to ninety days old and move them from the incubator into a separate hatching room.

The farm raises the baby crocodiles in a controlled environment, to ensure that as many as possible survive. By the time they're two years old, they live in pens like this. In the wild, only one percent of eggs survive, but the processes at the farm ensure that seventy-five percent of the eggs hatched there survive. This gives them more crocodiles skins to sell.

Of course, to get their skins, the farm has to kill the crocodiles when they reach four years old. The farm ships the skins to Japan and Singapore in Asia, where factories turn the skin into shoes, belts, bags, and other expensive accessories. This is like killing a cow for its leather hide, except that cows are typically killed for their meat, not for the skin (the leather is considered a kind of bonus). The farm, on the other hand, sells some crocodile meat (it tastes like chicken, honest), but people don't buy crocodile meat the way Americans buy beef, so they don't sell all of it. Instead of throwing it out, they feed the meat to the 1,500 big crocodiles--who don't seem to care that they might be eating their relatives!

Unlike warm-blooded mammals, crocodiles are cold-blooded reptiles. This means they have to rely on the sun's heat to warm their bodies. Humans and other mammals have a constant body temperature, while reptiles can allow their body temperature to change. This means they can slow down their heart rate to only three or four beats a minute. The farm told me that a crocodile can also hold its breath for up to three hours underwater. (Don't try this at home!) In the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, there are seventy- to one-hundred-year-old crocodiles that surprise the wildebeest crossing the river by holding their breath for so long that the wildebeest forget the crocs are there. These old crocs can live for a whole year just from that one big meal!

Watching the Zambian farm feed the big crocs, I saw that they don't really chew their food--one crocodile ate an entire chicken in one gulp. If you've ever seen a snake (another reptile) eat, you know that they eat the same way, taking a long time to digest their food. Crocodiles eat quickly and digest slowly, which is why they can live so long off one big meal. Since you're not a reptile and digest your food relatively quickly, I suggest you continue to chew your food at home.

Another interesting thing the farm told me was that crocs open their mouths while in the sun, like this one. Do you know why? They do it to cool their brains! Their brains must operate at a cooler temperature than the rest of their body, so the crocodiles do this so their brain works better. Next time a grown up tells you to close your mouth, you can tell them that you're just cooling your brain like a crocodile so you can think better!

Travel Questions about Zambia & the Nile Crocodile:

1. What was the name of the lake that Toto visited in Zambia?
2. What kind of crocodile do they have in Zambia?
3. How old can crocodiles live?
4. How many eggs does a female lay in her nest on average?
5. What determines the sex of the eggs when they hatch?
6. If you wanted to work at the farm collecting eggs, what three skills does their advertisment say you'd need to have?
7. Where does the farm send the crocodile skins to be made into handbags, shoes and other fashion items?
8. What is the difference between warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals?
9. Why do crocodiles sometimes keep their mouths open in the sun?

Global Nomad Questions on Zambia:

1. Draw a picture of a worker collecting eggs from a crocodile nest.
2. If one centimeter (cm) equals 0.39 inches, how many inches is a 30-cm baby crocodile when it is born?
3. Being cold-blooded is just one thing that distinguishes reptiles. What are other characteristics that make reptiles unique?
4. Zambia and Zimbabwe used to be part of Rhodesia. Research when Zambia got its independence and why it was once called Northern Rhodesia.
5. Crocodiles are different from alligators, even though they look similar. Do a cybersearch to find out the difference and write a paragraph about what you learned.
6. Some people do not approve of raising animals just to be killed for their skins. In Zambia, the farm provides jobs and promotes wildlife conservation for this poor country, which the government believes is a good thing. Do you agree with this or not? Write an essay explaining your opinion on the issue and why you feel that way. Does your behavior support your opinion?
   

Chapter 17 - Zimbabwe's "Smoke That Thunders"

From Botswana, Toto went to the country of Zimbabwe. To get there I crossed back into Namibia along a thin strip of Namibia called "The Caprivi Strip." It is a panhandle at the top of the country. A 'panhandle' is a term used to describe a thin area of land created by a border between countries, like this one, or between states, like the ones on Oklahoma and Florida. Look at this map of Southern Africa including Namibia. Can you see the Caprivi Strip jutting out like the handle of a pan from the top right (northeast) of Namibia towards the place that four countries meet? They are Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

I drove from Namibia to Zimbabwe across the narrowest border between two countries in the world. It was only 45 meters (about 50 yards) wide. In fact, it's just wide enough for the road between the two countries.

Then I went to see Victoria Falls, where the Zambezi River tumbles over one hundred meters in a spectacular waterfall. The middle of the falls is the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, as the Zambezi River is where the two countries meet.

Historians say that Dr. David Livingstone, a British missionary, discovered the falls in 1855. He called them "the most wonderful sight I had witnessed in Africa." He named them after the British queen at the time, Queen Victoria. The reality is that he was only the first European to see the beautiful waterfall. Of course the local African people "discovered" the falls a long time before Dr. Livingstone arrived. The name for the falls in their local language means "Smoke That Thunders." That's because the falls make a very loud noise like thunder from all the water hitting the rocks. The falls also create lots of mist and spray that you can see from far away, where it looks like smoke. Up close it felt like walking through a constant rainfall. Because of this, the area around the falls is a rain forest, even though it may not rain for many weeks during the dry season. The mist also means I saw a rainbow almost constantly. During a full moon you can even go at night and see a rainbow created by moonlight!

I went canoeing just downstream from the falls in a bend in the mighty Zambezi River, whose water looks green. Lots of things that wash down the falls tend to collect in this bend. It smelled pretty bad, so I asked my local guide why that was. He showed me the rotting carcasses of a hippo and crocodile. Both had apparently washed over the falls at night several weeks before. I could see how it could happen, as just ten meters away from where the water goes over the ridge, you wouldn't realize that the river drops one hundred meters. I'm sure both animals were quite surprised as they fell to their unexpected deaths. Needless to say, I kept far away from the edge of the falls and preferred to watch the beautiful spectacle from a distance.

One of the things I did in Zimbabwe was to taste a snack that many locals eat the way we eat potato chips. They were dried mopane worms! Here's what they look like. I promised the students at St. Peters School that I would eat something surprising on my travels. So when the waiter put a bowl of dried mopane worms and peanuts on the table, I had to try them in order to live up to my promise. I guess they were a bit like our cheese snacks, only they tasted more like smoke and wood  than cheese. I have to admit, I ate more than one, though they were a bit dry for my liking. Nevertheless, you can buy whole bags of dried mopane worms in the markets. Do you think they'll show up in the snack aisle at your grocery store? Try adding "Bag of Mopane Worms" to your family's grocery list and see what reaction grown-ups give you!

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe Travel Questions:

1. What four countries meet near Victoria Falls?
2. How wide is the border between Namibia and Zimbabwe?
3. Define 'panhandle.'
4. What is the name of the Namibian panhandle across which Toto drove to get to Zimbabwe?
5. What is the local name for Victoria Falls?
6. Why did Dr. David Livingstone name the falls "Victoria"?
7. Why is the area just downstream from Victoria Falls a rain forest?
8. Can you name two animals that live in and near the Zambezi River?
9. What color is the water in the Zambezi River?
10. What snack did Toto eat in Zimbabwe?

Global Nomad Travel Questions on Zimbabwe:

1. There are 3.28 feet per meter. How tall are the Victoria Falls in feet?
2. Draw a picture of Oklahoma and Florida, and show where the panhandle is on each of these states.
3. Draw a scene of what Victoria Falls might look like if you were to visit.
4. Zimbabwe had a different name before it gained independence. Research the country's history and find out the former name.
5. Do you know what makes a rainbow? If you don't know, do some research and find out why you'll almost always see a rainbow at Victoria Falls.
6. Have you ever seen a waterfall near your home or on a trip? If so, write a paragraph about your experience. How tall was it compared to the 100-meter-tall Victoria Falls?
7. Find the Zambezi River on a map of Africa. List all the countries through which it flows. Into what ocean does it empty?