ZANZIBAR


Off the coast of Tanzania, Zanzibar is famed for Stone Town’s alleyways, fragrant spice plantations and blinding white beaches. But on the island’s east coast, life follows a different beat, set not by the clock, but by the tides. At sunrise in the village of Paje, local women wade out into warm, shallow water to tend to seaweed farms that have sustained coastal communities for generations. Known as the Mwani Zanzibar Mamas, the collective was founded to give women a sustainable livelihood while safeguarding the marine world they depend on. Indigenous seaweed is trained along ropes beneath the surface, and left to drink in nutrients for around six weeks before it’s harvested by hand. Timed to the ebbing tide, this daily ritual has become one of Zanzibar’s most iconic coastal scenes, with women gathering armfuls of glistening seaweed as dawn light spreads across the bay.


24 NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM/TRAVEL


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