Spice Trade History of Zanzibar

In his memoirs ‘Going Solo’, Roald Dahl remembers particularly fondly, his visit to Zanzibar.  In it he writes, “That evening we called in at Zanzibar where the air was filled with the amazing spicy-sweet scent of cloves, and I stood by the rail at the old Arab town and thinking what a lucky young fellow I was to be seeing all these marvellous places”.   It is a richly detailed description of a culture unchanged by history.  The smell of centuries of spice trade still hangs in the air, where cloves were traded like gold and the wealth acquired from a commodity of flavours still visible in the grand architecture of Persian, Asian and Arab influences.

The introduction of spices to the island

The abundance of spices form the base of the Swahili culture and have been an integral part of life on this island, stretching back 2000 years.  In 975AD the Persian Zenj sultanate traded across the Indian Ocean with the Chinese and the Portuguese, who brought lemongrass, garlic, cacao and chilli, as well as acquiring cinnamon and cardamom from Asia.  In the 16^th century however, the Portuguese in their attempt to take over East Africa, made little progress maintaining the spice cultivars.  Their heavy focus on military development meant they failed to make good use of the land.  In spite of their battle cry being “For Christ and spices”!

Successful Arab cultivars

It was the ruling Arabs of the 18^th century who recognised the islands spice potential and using slaves to cultivate and harvest them, it was developed into a roaring trade.

Cloves traded like gold

In 1818 cloves were introduced and with Zanzibar’s tropical climate and fertile soil, plantations thrived.  Zanzibar became the largest producer of the spice and it became their highest trade commodity.  After planting just two trees, the Sultan occupied 45 plots by the time of his death in 1856, leaving them to his many children and concubines.

Successfully cultivating and trading in almost all the worlds’ spices, all trade with East Africa passed through Zanzibar and it soon became known as it is still today, as ‘Spice Islands’.