Zanzibar - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

This popular floating restaurant was on the rocks until Frida Njeri took over

THERE are no land rates for this bar and restaurant that floats on the sea waters of Lamu Island in Kenya. People have lived here for over 700 years. Lamu Old Town is older than Zanzibar, and other settlements in East Africa where Bantu, Arabic, Persian, Indian, and European influences fused into the Swahili culture. The town, with its relatively well-preserved buildings and traditions, is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The island’s natural beauty, history, culture, and popularity with tourists, are what led the bar and restaurant’s original owner to situate it right in the Indian Ocean canal that…

Jun

2023

By BIRD STORY AGENCY

Zanzibar bids to host Africa’s 1st F1 race

NEWS

SIX decades after gaining independence, the island of Zanzibar is on the cusp of making motorsport history by ensuring that Tanzania becomes the second African country after South Africa, to secure the coveted rights to host Formula 1. According to Sportface.it, an Italian sports platform, the semi-autonomous island province has been diligently pursuing admission as one of the Formula 1 calendar's venues, for the past five years - and is now being taken seriously. Leading the charge is the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority, which has tenaciously championed the cause. Undeterred by the substantial financial commitments required, the authority has persisted…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

Zanzibar bids to host Africa’s 1st Formula One race

NEWS

BIRD STORY AGENCY SIX decades after gaining independence, the island of Zanzibar is on the cusp of making motorsport history by ensuring that Tanzania becomes the second African country after South Africa, to secure the coveted rights to host Formula 1. According to Sportface.it, an Italian sports platform, the semi-autonomous island province has been diligently pursuing admission as one of the Formula 1 calendar's venues, for the past five years - and is now being taken seriously. Leading the charge is the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority, which has tenaciously championed the cause. Undeterred by the substantial financial commitments required, the…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

Talks between Ethiopia and Oromo rebel group begin in Zanzibar

NEWS

TALKS between the Ethiopian government and rebels from the Oromiya region have started in Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania, a spokesman for regional Africa group IGAD said. Rebel groups in Oromiya, which is the biggest of Ethiopia's 11 regions and surrounds the capital Addis Ababa, have battled the federal government for decades. In recent years the violence has left hundreds dead and displaced tens of thousands, with Oromos accusing the government of marginalising and neglecting Oromos, the country's largest ethnic group. "The talks are underway in Tanzania as we speak...we hope [it] will lead to a political agreement," said…

Oct

2022

By The African Mirror

New wealth stirs Dubai-style boom in Zanzibar

AFRICITIES

SETH ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY SHINY - and green - new towers are coming to Zanzibar as the semi-autonomous island sets out to lure investment and luxury travellers to its shores and build its economy beyond the tourism that has been a lifeline for decades. The Burj Zanzibar, the world’s tallest green building, is the latest headline-grabbing and record-setting project earmarked for construction on the island. The announcement comes a little over a year after the construction of the Zanzibar Domino Commercial Tower, a spiralling skyscraper on a man-made island off the west coast of the archipelago, was announced. In…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Zanzibar’s pre-colonial “forbidden romance” hits big screens

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

SETH ONYANGO, BIRD LAST week, "Vuta N’kuvute" made history as the first Tanzanian feature film ever to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), debuting in the discovery section. A poster of the Vuta N'kuvute film . Photo Courtesy : Kijiweni Productions. Released in Swahili and with a majority black cast, Vuta N’kuvute (loosely translated as "Tug of War") becomes one of the most authentic African movies available on the global big screen. Director Amil Shivji told bird that using local language was deliberate –– as the use of east Africa's most widely spoken language best carries the depth…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Speedy deeds: Zanzibar goes digital to prove property ownership

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

KIM HARRISBERG A team of Zanzibari data collectors armed with tablets have gathered enough information from hundreds of people on the Tanzanian archipelago to issue each of them a deed to their land in 20 minutes - a process that typically takes up to five years. The project run by Kenya-based technology consulting company Spatial Collective has produced official documentation for about 700 land parcels in a southern town called Shakani since it launched last year. "With title deeds, people can get loans and they will have the security of knowing that, 'This is mine and no one will claim…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Opposition in Zanzibar says candidate detained, people shot ahead of vote

NEWS

AN opposition presidential candidate in Zanzibar detained as he tried to vote early on Tuesday has been released, after nine people were shot dead by security forces ahead of Wednesday's elections, according to his party. Zanzibar, an Indian Ocean archipelago, is a semi-autonomous state of the East African country of Tanzania and both are due to elect their presidents and lawmakers in Wednesday's election. President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania makes his address at the 17th Summit of EAC Heads of State. Photo source: Paul Kagame Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli, whose government is accused of muzzling political dissent and…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Zanzibar opposition campaign manager says he was threatened by armed men

NEWS

AN opposition party campaign manager in semi-autonomous Zanzibar has revealed that he had been seized and threatened by armed men, while a parliamentary candidate was still missing before Tanzanian elections next week. Earlier on Sunday the ACT-Wazalendo party said Nassor Mazrui, its Zanzibar campaign manager and the party's deputy secretary general for the archipelago, and Abdalla Ali Abdalla, the party candidate for the House of Representative elections, had been abducted on Saturday in separate incidents. Mazrui re-emerged at the party's political rally in Zanzibar later on Sunday, saying his assailants fired a shot in the air before forcing him out…