Beautiful Indian Ocean island has a rich, complex history, well worth investigating
Zanzibar is promoted to tourists as a paradise of white-sand beaches, turquoise seas, coral reefs teeming with life and resorts where cocktails appear as if by magic. All that is true, but there is also a darker, more complex history, one that shaped not just Zanzibar but much of East Africa. It’s a past built on human exploitation, one that deserves to be acknowledged and remembered as much as the natural beauty is celebrated.
From Stone Town, it’s impossible to miss Changuu, better known as Prison Island. It sits on the horizon like a mirage, its coral walls and palm-lined shoreline glowing in the late-afternoon light.
These days, tourists arrive by the boatload, cameras at the ready, eager to meet the island’s famous Aldabra giant tortoises or to swim in the impossibly clear waters. The past told a different story: when the first dhows brought enslaved men and women here, their journey was one of fear and despair, not leisure.
Hints of the past
Prison Island is both beautiful and haunting, a contradiction that makes it all the more powerful. The slaves brought here were commodities, awaiting sale or punishment. The ocean that now reflects sunlight like glass once mirrored the terror of human beings who knew that freedom was slipping from their grasp.
The old prison building still stands. Its rear façade faces the sea – the side from which the slaves would have disembarked. Today, the area in front, where the prisoners would have been gathered, is a restaurant serving seafood platters and cold drinks, but it doesn’t take much imagination to picture a very different scene more than a century ago. In the shadow of those same coral walls, men and women once waited in chains, unsure of their fate.
A few remnants remain, silent witnesses to what took place here. In the areas now repurposed as the ladies’ toilet and the bar, visitors will discover iron rings embedded in the floor, which were once used to secure prisoners as punishment was administered. Pause for a moment beside one of those rings, and the laughter of tourists fades into the background. What you hear instead is the echo of history, the whisper of waves carrying stories too heavy for words.
Before or after a guided tour, it’s worth stepping into the small information centre. There you’ll find letters, photographs and artefacts that lend voice to the voiceless: correspondence between colonial officers, abolitionists and traders. Some of it is chilling in its bureaucratic indifference; other pieces are deeply human, offering rare glimpses of compassion amid cruelty.
And then, as if the island’s narrative couldn’t be more surreal, there are the tortoises. Four Aldabra giants were originally gifted from the Seychelles, a symbol of peace, perhaps, or merely exotic decoration. Whatever their purpose, they have thrived. Today, nearly two hundred lumber slowly across the island’s sandy paths, impervious to both history and humidity. The oldest of them, at 193 years, has witnessed more than most of us could imagine. When stroking the shell of such a creature, it’s hard not to feel the contrast between the permanence of nature and the fragility of human morality.
Ironically, Prison Island never served its intended purpose as a prison. In later years, it became a quarantine station, housing patients with yellow fever and other contagious diseases before they could enter Zanzibar. The irony isn’t lost – an island once used to confine slaves was later used to protect the population from another kind of threat. Either way, confinement remained its central theme.
What lies beneath
Back on the mainland, a visit to Stone Town’s Anglican Cathedral deepens the sense of historical gravity. The cathedral itself is an architectural gem – a fusion of Gothic and Islamic design, built directly atop what was once the island’s largest slave market. It’s a symbolic act of redemption: faith built upon cruelty; hope anchored in remembrance.
In the courtyard, the remnants of the slave chambers are preserved. The air down there is thick and still. Low ceilings press down on you, and it takes little imagination to picture the suffering that filled this space. Chains hang on the walls, a silent reminder of what the human body and spirit can endure. In the garden, a sculpture depicts five enslaved figures, carved from stone, their necks bound together by real chains. This isn’t a distant history lesson; it’s an emotional confrontation.
The small museum adjoining the cathedral recounts Zanzibar’s role in the East African slave trade. For centuries, the island was a hub for human trafficking. Tens of thousands of Africans captured from the mainland were sold here each year to Arab, Indian and European traders. The trade was abolished in 1873 under pressure from the British, but abolition didn’t erase the memory. The slave trade shaped Zanzibar’s identity, its economy and its people in ways that can still be felt today.
Riches and respect
Tourists want to escape to the exotic beauty that Zanzibar offers in abundance. Visiting Prison Island and the Old Slave Market isn’t about guilt: it’s about gratitude – for freedom, for progress and for the chance to learn from history.
It’s also about perspective. Standing at the edge of Prison Island, you can see Stone Town shimmering across the water. The same view would have been visible to those brought here in chains, freedom so near, yet impossibly far. And from the steps of the cathedral, you can hear the call to prayer drifting through the narrow alleys, a reminder that Zanzibar’s story is one of coexistence as much as conflict.
Swim in the warm Indian Ocean. Sip cocktails beneath the frangipani trees. Wander through spice farms and lose yourself in the labyrinthine lanes of Stone Town. But take a morning to visit the above two sites as well. Read the plaques. Touch the stones. Let the weight of history settle on your shoulders, if only for a while.
The soul of Zanzibar lives in its resilience, in the echoes of its past and in the quiet determination of a people who turned pain into beauty. That’s the story worth remembering and the one worth telling.
Remember, when visiting, that sites like Prison Island and the Old Slave Market are not just tourist attractions, they’re memorials. Dress modestly, speak softly and take a moment to reflect before raising your camera. Support local guides – their stories give these places a human voice that no plaque ever could. Buy from local vendors and artisans, and most importantly, carry the experience with you. Share what you’ve learnt so history never becomes just another forgotten footnote.
Text and Photography | David Batzofin
For more information, go to visitzanzibar.go.tz and travelandthings.co.za.
