Crtd 11-03-10 Lastedit 15-10-27
Zanziiiii!
The Harem Before and After The Bombardment
The Anglo-Zanzibar War was fought between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar on 27 August 1896. With a duration of only 45 minutes, it holds the record of being the shortest war in recorded history. After the death of the ruling sultan, his nephew Khalid bin Bargash, seized power in what amounted to a coup d’état. The British favoured another candidate, Hamud bin Muhammed, whom they believed would be easier to work with, and delivered an ultimatum ordering Bargash to abdicate. Bargash refused. The British landed parties of Royal Marines (in a bit smarter way than the recent MI6-SAS Benghazi-Lybia night beach landing operetta) to support the “loyalist” regular army of Zanzibar. From five Royal Navy ships fire was opened on the palace (see picture above: "THE HAREM AFTER THE BOMBARDMENT") at 9 am on 27 August 1896 as soon as the ultimatum ran out. With the palace falling down around him and escalating casualties, Bargash beat a hasty retreat to the German consulate where he was granted asylum. The shelling stopped after 45 minutes. As a final act, Britain demanded payment from the Zanzibar government to pay for the shells fired on the country.
I went to Zanzibar with three ladies of the "family". Unlike me they belong to the hardworking class looking forward to the holiday break, and consistently called it "Zanziiiii!!". I have been able to find a moment to get the story above through to them, albeit in a 13 second summary, because I finely sensed they had not gone here to hear dull historical treatises, but to engage in totally uninterrupted chatter while showing off some impressing heaps of elegant clothes they brought with them in their luggage, baffling in quantity and size, at least compared to my mini rucksack (see picture above "THE HAREM BEFORE THE BOMBARDMENT").
Our lodge was in Jambiani, at the SouthEast (sea) side of the island, where the beach water is shallow until a reef at 2.5 km distance
Low tide at Jambiani. At the horizon you can see the huge Indian Ocean surfs at the reef 2.5 km East behind me.
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High tide at Jambiani, the ladies and local whale hunters. They later told me on my arrival they had been acting as "James bond girls" and my failure to notice this and do a James had been thought so embarrassingly ridiculous they they even felt shy of telling me. But of course I was a bit distracted by the background view and felt shy of telling THEM. |
To be honest, we did not see any whales ourselves, and the fishermen's typical fish is a one person dish but at home I had already picked this true Zanzibar image from the internet , and showed it to the ladies only after our return |
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Petra decided I should wear the traditional Zanzibari kikoi,and as the photographer of this picture
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Tamara (black belt judo). No chance to get out. At the moment of this picture I just decided to start some moderate screaming in advance of her overstretching of my right elbow joint with her left foot likely to become rather painful. |
The old Omani Arab harbour town is called "Stone Town" (far from a pleonasm in Africa). The town is built by Arabs but I saw none. All over Africa the easy white yielding to the armed rebels and impatient first black graduates of European universities by happily liquidating their worryingly declining businesses, going home to Europe and granting "independence" was their worst ever crime against humanity - cheered by the United Nations! In the Zanzibar case: three months after "independence" (1963), all Arabs and Indians got chased from the island. The 7000-odd who did not find a boat in time got, as usual under negro attack, butchered with pangas, all ages, both sexes. That obviously was the immediate end of the Zanzibari economy and all exports. After the loot was finished everybody got very hungry. They immediately joined Tanganyika in a union "Tanzania", hoping they would be given some food from there. Nowadays some Pakistani families remain, who told me they were left alive, being in the country side during the massacres.
Zanzibar "Stone Town", roughly from the fire position of the Royal Navy bombardment of 27 August 1896
Sweating in a Stone Town coffee bar with our German lodge owner (2nd from right), always bare foot with necklaces around her ankle, even here. At home usually such in bikini, no doubt to show a perfect body remarkable to her age, to which when shopping nearby she usually adds a headscarf (only)
"Uganda Waragi Around The World", on the Zanzibar African music festival
When the ladies decide to get really drunk they take Uganda Waragi, bottles of which appeared in decent quantities out of their sizeable luggage. They plan a photo book "Uganda Waragi Around The World", the picture above is an addition to the project. When they get decently drunk they remember my Liza-rottweiler story and start scratching me behind my ears.
