the Friday mosque of Kiponda

The Ijamaa mosque is large by the standards of Stonetown. There are at least 30 mosques in this old quarters of Zanzibar and this is one of the oldest.


the Ijumaa Mosque sits in the narrow alleys of Kiponda, Stonetown, Zanzibar, Tanzania



façade of the Ijumaa Mosque



the elaborately carved wooden door of Ijumaa Mosque


Known in Kiswahili as Msikiti Ya Ijumaa Mizingani, it was originally built by Sunni immigrants from Faza in 1831. Like most of the mosques in Zanzibar, it was simple and unpretentious. It underwent several renovations and expansions notably in the 1850s and the 1950s. In 1994, the Ijumaa Mosque was refurbished in a more modern arabesque style with geometric arches and ramparts with funds from Arabic states. A marker in the mosque proclaims it as the burial place of famous Muslim scholars in Zanzibar.


an old gas lamp converted to electric



a small cube of a building right across the mosque



Arabic markers in marble



rampart shadows of the mosque

Stalking the woman in red in Uzi

Photographing landscapes is hard enough. But taking portraits of strangers poses a special challenge. You just wouldn't know how people would react being photographed. Others feel that it is an invasion of privacy which it really can be, getting annoyed if not downright angry. Some are too shy and would walk away from the lens.


an aerial view of Ng’ambwe, Uzi which I eventually visited on-site



3 women of Ng’ambwe



the woman in red was working with several ladies when I first approached her


On occasions, I can be lucky. Take this woman in a blazing red dress in Ng’ambwe, Uzi. She was at first nonchalant and then became engaging. It helped that I lingered in the location for awhile and that must have made them more comfortable with me. I was interested in what they were doing – they were planting seaweed – and they probably recognize too some of my companions who they might have worked with in the past.


holding some seaweed planting material



an engaging smiling


As a subject, I could not ask for anything more. Her red dress is fiery and catches the light glaringly. And her generous personality showed in the shots that I took.


unbridled laughter



her easygoing work demeanor shows here



a final take

To go: Uzi is about 25 km southeast of Stonetown, Zanzibar, accessible by road only during low tide via a causeway at Unguja Ukuu.

portraits from Lotim

Lotim is a contraction of Lombok Timor which means East Lombok. It is the site of my frequent forays in Lombok for it is here that seaweed abounds. Production is healthy in this part of Indonesia thanks to a reef protected from strong winds and a steady ocean current action that facilitates nutrient circulation.


girl with a comb, Kaliantan



giggling girls in Kaliantan



man with bushels of seaweed, Kaliantan


Seaweed does have its season in Lombok. Heavy monsoon rains in December to March disrupts production in that drying of the wet harvests is interrupted frequently so farmers tend to lie low during this period. By May and onwards though, farmers get busy expanding production so by middle of the year, cultivation would already be in full swing.


woman sorting seaweed, Kaliantan



woman cleaning the seaweed harvest, Kaliantan


It is June now so perhaps I should pay Lombok a visit once more. Could be a good time to do more portraits too.


smiling at Serewe



woman spreading seaweed on the sand for drying, Serewe

a place called Wingwi

The view from the plane was compelling. Orderly lines of seaweed cultivars sprawl across hectares on the reef of Wingwi, right where the channel forks like a trident in the isthmus northeast of Pemba.



aerial view of the forked channel of Wingwi, Pemba, Zanzibar, Tanzania


dense seaweed farms fill the tidal flat of Wingwi


Just like Maziwa Ngombe, the road to Wingwi is exceedingly rough. How the seaweed gets trucked out of the village is clearly challenging but infrastructure in the outskirts of Pemba is poor.


a woman farmer watching us curiously as we passed by



arches of trees overrun by vine create a surreal background amidst the ricefield


Most of the seaweed farmers actually live in the village that are some distance away from the channel. It is normal fare for them to walk a few kilometers to get to their farm sites during the day but they still curiously choose to live away from the water banks.


a boy carrying the seaweed that he was able to dry for the day



a shelter for respite near the drying area of Wingwi



seaweed drying tables are fashioned from cultivated pine

Seaweed mariculture is a fairly recent enterprise. It was introduced in Pemba in large scale in the early 90s but it is only in the last 2 or 3 years that the industry saw a significant spurt in production. Conveniences like styropor-bottom boats, plastic floaters and bamboo rafts otherwise common in seaweed-growing countries like the Philippines and Indonesia are sorely missing in Pemba. Farmers generally don’t have capital nor do they have access to farm materials. In fact, to transport seaweed from farms to the drying areas, farmers still use traditional canoes called mtombwe that are dugout from century old mango trees.



these canoes cost about $500 each



a dock for mtombwe boats in Wingwi

Maziwa Ngombe up close

Maziwa Ngombe. The name is hard to pronounce. Getting there too takes some patience. The village is accessible through a rough road that is best ridden in a 4x4. From above though, inside the comforts of the plane which we chartered from Unguja to Pemba, Maziwa Ngombe is a big producer of seaweed. The farms are dense and cover hectares of the white sandy tidal flat that gets exposed during low tide.


Maziwa Ngombe seaweed farms, as seen from above



farmers swarming over the reef during lowtide in Maziwa Ngombe



some take the opportunity to plant seaweed, others to harvest



harvest over her head


Seaweed farmers in Tanzania customarily work only during low tide. In high water, work becomes dangerous and boats are necessary. In low tide then which comes when the moon is full, the expansive reef can be traversed on foot and seaweed planting, tending and harvesting can easily be done. The rest of the photos tell the story.


it’s like seaweed fur around her



women of Maziwa Ngombe in colorful traditional kanga attire



women with their seaweed harvest, resting under the shade of the coralline crags



Maziwa Ngombe is dry and barren, with a few baobabs protruding over the flat landscapre



umbrella-like limestone outcrops mushroom over the tidal flat



a woman with her seaweed harvest by the stairs leading to the drying area



wooden boats are used in ferrying the harvested seaweed



typical harvest scene in Maziwa Ngombe



a splashing race

beyond the beach of Matemwe, Zanzibar

Beyond the wide and white beach of Matemwe in Unguja Island (Zanzibar) is a string of villages not unlike many others in the northeast – they depend on the sea for a living. An obvious and ready work is fishing. The coastline, undeniably, sits on a healthy reef, renowned for snorkeling and diving, and boasts of a teeming population of fish, octopus and shells.


exceedingly tall coconut trees always seem to swirl all over the beach



the tidal flat of Matemwe stretches about half a kilometer into the sea


Nowadays though, seaweed farming is becoming predominant, and majority of the several thousands of families in the area are engaged in this form of marine agriculture.


For lack of space, hang-drying is the preferred mode of desiccation of cultivated seaweed



a seaweed “gate” leads you towards the beach


I was able to visit this place four years ago and I noticed a perceptible alleviation of overall standards in Matemwe. There are now more stone houses instead of temporary ramshackle dwellings. Some of the roofs are now in corrugated GI sheets although woven coconut leaf roofs are still common.


a traditional stone house uses limestone held together by a mixture of mud and clay



a heavily carved "Zanzibar" door in a warehouse in Matemwe


Fortunately, the increase of population in Matemwe comes with better public facilities. Water now runs in public taps provided for by the government. Local mosques have also sprung up and these were all community-built and financed by a pool of fund collected from local taxes.


note the dark kohl around the eyes of the crying girl (she was afraid of us, strangers!)


And where there is a visually endless stretch of powdery white, fine grain sand, there would be the resorts. I count at least eight of them in the map. There could definitely be more in the future.