The Big Make-over

Who and what is behind the ongoing facelift of Stone Town of Zanzibar’s historic heart?

By Andrea Tapper

The historic quarter of Zanzibar is undergoing a massive overhaul and facelift. Exclusively for THE FUMBA TIMES, state conservator Ali Said Bakar and private investor Samuel Saba revealed their plans for the evocative make-over during a discovery walk.

If you are living in Zanzibar or are a regular visitor, you may have noticed some changes already. All of a sudden, the fountain at Forodhani, laid out in 1936 for the silver jubilee of Sultan Khalifa, is bubbling again. Boda-boda bikes no longer (or much more rarely) get in the way of pedestrians in the labyrinth of Stone Town. The seafront promenade, beautified by the World Bank some years ago, has been kept surprisingly clean, with locals and tourists resting under palm trees on traditional barazas.

Nobody could be happier about the progress than engineer Ali Said Bakar, who took over a lacklustre Conservation and Development Authority (STCDA) in 2022 and has initiated much of the renaissance himself. “Stone Town has about 2,700 buildings, 1,000 need urgent repair”, he tells me. Bakar has found an unusual ally in Samuel Saba, a young investor from Dubai claiming to handle real estate projects worth $450 million with his family company Infinity Developments, including the new Anantara residential resort on the north east coast of Zanzibar worth $170 million.

Paying fines for littering

The public-private and the private changemakers agree, the time to act is now. “Heritage tourism is growing”, Bakar points out and is determined to clean-up Stone Town: “We have started punishing littering with a fine of TZS 50,000”, the agile civil servant says while walking along the promenade. “We want to enhance the customer journey experience”, investor Saba describes the wider cultural and touristic intentions of the two men’s public-privte initiative as we cross over to the freshly painted Sultan Cemetery behind the Palace Museum, where nine of the 12 former Zanzibar rulers are buried.

White walls, green grass patches, comfortably paved walkways: the renovated graveyard and an adjacent modern exhibition have become an instagrammable heritage experience. The graveyard museum was financed by Oman, which is also trying to heal Zanzibar’s biggest wound in the heart of history, the collapsed Sultan’s palace. The painstaking reconstruction costs $22 million and might be finished in 2027, Bakar estimates.

Repairs with cement? Not allowed!

With the help of investor Samuel Saba several major historical icons are presently under repair. Infinity billboards with ambitious renders have popped up everywhere The ongoing beautification – for Zanzibar nothing short of a new approach towards its own history – is not uncontroversial. Modern shops and restaurants in the Old Fort? A padel court instead of sundowners at the Africa House?

Some critics question the methods (“building with concrete”), others the intentions (“who will benefit?”) and aesthetic qualities (“will it look like Disneyland?). Most concede however: the miserable looking old town can only gain from the effort.

With the help of the Dubai investor, Zanzibar is claiming its 1,000-year-old history back. The government and the real estate mogul plan innovative tourist packages such as a “Stone Town Heritage pass”, sharing potential earnings for the next 25 years, Saba disclosed.

But what is the guarantee that this time things will work out – against the backdrop of ever more dilapidated houses barely kept up by wooden poles? “85% of Stone Town’s houses are deteriorated”, well-known historian Prof. Abdul Sheriff has said. “We are moving fast”, counters Bakar, “the impact will encourage others.”

Facelift for the Old Fort

Standing in front of the Old Fort, built 1698-1701 by Omani Arabs to fend off Portuguese invaders, big changes are visible.  With high-pressure cleaning (“water and chlorine”, says Bakar) the impressive building has regained its natural clayish-brown colour instead of the former weathered mouldy black. “Heritage does not mean deterioration”, insists the chief engineer. He has learnt to be careful: “We have documented on video that we used lime and not cement to restore the walls” – just as the world heritage status demands. Another challenge remains: The popular Sauti za Busara festival held at the Old Fort for 22 years and the Infinity modernisations must yet find ways to coexist.

Bakar’s Stone Town revovery mission rests on three pillars: state-financed renovation of particular historical buildings, improvements of utilities such as the closure of drains, and green corridors: “I want a seafront garden all around Stone Town from Mnazi Moja Hospital to Malindi Police Station”, he says.

Dubai investor Samuel Saba assures he is “ready to help wherever necessary”. He has already completed the hospital garden with park benches and lights. As we proceed to the High Court, I wonder how the private entrepreneur got involved in Stone Town’s overhaul in the first place? More or less by chance, it turns out. Wanting to acquire property in Stone Town himself, the conservation authority safeguarded him from a fraudulent offer – that kickstarted the co-operation of the two men.

From High Court to the museum

We have reached the former High Court, already beautifully renovated by Infinity. Climbing up an elegant staircase still covered with construction dust, we imagine the many cases argued here since the times of the British protectorate. The almost completed transformation has turned out airy and authentic. “In all projects we follow exactly what the conservation authority tells us”, says Samuel Saba. In this case, modern partitions were removed and valuable wooden interiors like judges’ panels, witness stands and even a cell for suspects carefully restored. Built around 1900 by British architect John Sinclair, the Saracenic-style court combines colonial and Arabic features. The museum will showcase Zanzibar’s history from anti-slavery legislation to later-day treason cases.

What’s the future of Africa House?

In front of Africa House, the former British club and long-time popular restaurant presently looking for a new owner, we watch heavy machinery fortifying the seafront wall, erecting a pier and resting spaces for visitors. For years, the garden had deteriorated and had a huge hole in the seawall. The rehabilitation of the seafront alone, once the yacht harbour of the colonial club, could “cost about one million dollars”, Samuel Saba estimates, leaving the overall financial budget of his cultural engagement unclear. “We do not know how much it will cost”, he says, “but we will do the needful.”

Meanwhile, the Stone Town conservation is trying to keep the momentum going. Conservator Ali Said Bakar knows he has no time to lose.

Historic Gem – Stone Town

Stone Town is Zanzibar’s unique historical heart, a 1,000-year-old cosmopolitan relic of Arabian palaces, Indian trader shops, royal residences, mosques and narrow winding lanes. Most of its more than 2000 houses were built at the end of the 19th century, when Zanzibar became rich by slave and spice trade in the rhythm of monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean.

Constructed entirely with coral stone – hence the name Stone Town – much of of it was nationalised when Zanzibar and Tanganyika merged as Tanzania in a coup in 1964. Lacking funds and care,  the historic gem deteriorated.

Tourists, however, love discovering the ancient labyrinth. In 2000, Stone Town was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO.