Nonqui, Northern Zanzibar Island. A travelers paradise. Wow!

Stone Town, Zanzibar. One of Dave's favorite photographs.

While roaming Eastern Africa in the waning months of the old century I stumbled into Stonetown, a small romantic city located on the western shores of the island of Zanzibar.

Soon I became intoxicated not by drink, but by things such as the fading shadows of the dhows that cast their spired shapes over the blackened waters at sunset and by spending hours sitting near the harbor watching exotic groups of world travelers pass by me. Slipping out of my hotel room into the warm evenings I would often wander down to the harbor and stop at the fish vendors and delight in their exotic slivered seafood delicacies.

East Coast of Zanzibar. Where else would you want to be?

Stone Town is a shopping Mecca for Eastern Africa. I found several incredible antique stores specializing in East African tribal antiques from the 1600's through the 1900's. One such store was like walking back in time. Intricately carved horns, parchment scrolls, rawhide prayer books, wooden masks, wooden statues of every shape and size and many other types of antiques were on display. The owner has several partnerships with antique dealers in Santa Barbara, Beverly Hills and Los Angeles - where at those stores the antiques sell for many many times what they sell for in Zanzibar.....so with this in mind, I left his store with several bags of antiquities!

Javed A. Jafferji, the famous photographer behind the classic Zanzibarian postcards and coffee table books available at many of the stores in Stone Town, has his own store at 170 Gizenga Street in Stone Town. This incredibly talented artist and photographer has had his photographs published in magazines such as Newsweek, Sunday Times, and the Independent Guardian. I had the opportunity to visit his store - and meet Javed while I was there. He took me into his back room and showed me several new photographs he had taken as well as a book he was writing. Javed & his father have a wonderful gallery containing local artwork including paintings, antique carvings, lots of his own postcards, and an excellent collection of books.