Six degrees south

The Zanzibar archipelago lies six degrees south of the Equator and is the exact geographical center of the Swahili Coast. This unique physical, historical and cultural entity running from Southern Somalia to Mozambique first grew in the 10th century through trade with the Arab world, India and China. Gold, coconut, ebony, mangrove wood, sisal, myrrh and the infamous slave trade helped make the wealth of this region, slowly shaping it and giving it its unique present character.

For a thousand years now, wooden dhows and their characteristic white cotton sails have sailed these lonely shores, using the monsoon winds to help traders move goods between Africa and Arabia. And for a thousand years too, fishermen have ploughed these rich seas for their bounty of fish, contributing, along with the traders, to the emergence of rich city-ports like Stone Town or Lamu.

But years of rich tradition and culture are on the brink of change. The emergence of large cities such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, the development of large harbours to serve the interior of Africa and the recent discovery of huge gas fields in the region are all threatening this ancient way of life.

With this recent work, I have tried to testify to the unique beauty of this culture and to record it for generations to come. It is a personal, melancholy vision of a place and a culture that are very dear to my heart but which, I now realise, may soon disappear.