this is a neighbor house seen from the hotel restaurant. Slightly decayed.
laundry was changing everyday. Today was the jean’s day.
We were walking around with our old cameras when an enthusiast man came around and commented on them, mentioning black and white films. he seemed to remember some childhood memories. He didn’t bother us, just watched and waited patiently for us to finish our pictures before offering something. But instead of the usual crap, he invited us to see the house, the inside of the house. Which was a first for us. This kind of visit doesn’t seem to be proposed anywhere in tourism business. Except open doors showing nothing but darkness and trash, we had seen nothing so far. So we jumped on the opportunity.
this is the main entrance. Next building is our hotel from where we could see the other side.
we were surprised to learn that this house is supposedly on the World Heritage list. True or not the derelict state of the place doesn’t quite match that label. The guide smiled, talked about the government and showed money going in his pocket…
my previous readings about Tip was about slave trading and how a ruthless bastard he was. This notice seems quite politically correct, no way to defame one of the rare celebrities around. Zanzibari people were of course enjoying slave trade since they were spared. Slaves were black people, not Arabic, and coming from inland. One of the things that Africans seldom mention when they require apologies and cash back for slavery is that the colonials would have never managed the slave trade on such a grand scale without the help from local tribes. The enemy tribes were very helpful for selling prisoners and finding new enemies when business proved juicy and demand was high.
By the way the only real celebrity from Zanzibar is Freddie Mercury. And the island, or Africa in general, is so homophobic that the citizens mostly prefer to ignore him instead of making money on his fame, quite a feat!
Tip was a sultan as well, so his house, a palace by then, was the highest building around. The view is quite nice with a full panorama around on Stonetown roofs. Not worth the roofs of Paris of course but pleasant enough.
less attractive, the junk, clothes and other things, on the house roof.
the blue Indian Ocean.
confirmation of our suspicions, the inside of a local house is rarely attractive.
the top storey is potentially great though. Shady and cool with a great view, it could be a great living room with a minimum of tidiness and a few couches.
typical unfixed windows…
the stairs were a bit scary to climb on, not very straight, quite wobbly.
nowadays, other houses are higher than this one.
this house is still vast for modern standards but only one family lives in. Most rooms are left empty or littered with trash. Only one seemed to be used by the family, we were a bit surprised to see hardly no furniture in it except a big plasma TV. Nice priorities…
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