The oracle pace quickened with the increase of the drum tempo……. Dressed in a loincloth, a necklace of horns around his neck and his body adorned with animal skin and other tools of his trade, around and around he went dipping the whisker in the gourd filled with a magical liquid concoction and spraying it onto the tethered goat. Reciting intonation loudly, his bloodshot eyes bulging and arms flaring, his dance reached its frenzied climax.

The tall man standing aside, dressed in a long white robe with a turban tied round his head looked towards the east. The first sign of dawn was beginning to show against the pitch black sky – it was time. He withdrew a long knife from the sheath around his waist, bent down, a flash of steel against the flames as he slashed the throat of the goat separating the head from the body. As he placed the blood drenched goat head atop of the waist high stone wall he could hear the witch doctors prophecy

‘MAY IT STAND FOR A THOUSAND YEARS. BLESSSED ARE ALL WHO COMES THROUGH ITS DOORS. LAUGHTER AND HAPINESS SHALL PREVAIL WITHIN ITS WALLS………….’

And so the head was placed on the building which approximately 150 years later became the Africa House Hotel.

Fiction? Wild imagination? Not so, please read on………….

The first part of the building was erected by Ibn Ismail, a wealthy and flamboyant Omani slave trader and used as his home in Zanzibar. Towards the end of his life he donated it to the Sultan of Zanzibar and it became a guest house for members of the Royal family. Majid, the sultan’s son was a frequent visitor to the house for his forbidden love tryst with the beautiful slave girl Ayasha. Over the years, the building became part of the Royal family ‘Bait al Mal’ (community trust) and was eventually sold to a family who leased it to the newly formed English Club.

In 1888, the English Club (the oldest such club in East Africa) opened exclusively to English residents. Facilities included a bar, restaurant, library, billiard room and accommodation. Golf, tennis, hockey and cricket matches were played at the clubs sports fields at Mnazi Mmoja. Membership regulations changed in later years allowing Europeans and Americans to apply.

One of the annual highlights was the New Years Eve fancy dress ball which created great interest amongst the locals. Large crowds would gather to stare at the mad ‘wazungu’ (colonials) in their fancy dress costumes.

Later, Garages were built at the sea front (the present day shops), and a terrace erected above. (Now the Sunset Bar)

After the revolution in 1964, The English Club and all other secular social clubs were abolished by Presidential Decree. The building was taken over by the Government and converted to a hotel which became part of a co-operation (Furaha ya Visiwani) which included the Zanzibar Hotel and the Starehe Club (formally the Yacht Club)

Over the years, the building was neglected and fell into disrepair. Most of the books from its once impressive library (where research by the author of the novels Murder in Zanzibar and Tradewinds was carried out) disappeared. The decrepit hotel with its dark corridors, stinking toilets and unreliable stock of warm beers – the only place in Zanzibar you may have found one, became a haven for young tourists on the hippy trail, a meeting place of souls from around the world on a journey of discovery and the young at heart in search of a glimpse of the past.

The building remained in this decrepit and semi abandoned state until it was rescued by an Omani investor with a dream. For him, the building was much more than a potential business; it was a love encounter which turned into an obsessive affair. Negotiation with the Government led to the privatization of the hotel.

Years of neglect had taken a heavy toll on the building and inspections revealed many haphazard repairs. Partitions and additions using incompatible methods together with heavy water tanks on every floor greatly compromised the structure of the building; indeed part of the building had collapsed and was off limits to the construction crew.
Every effort must be made to transform the building to its former glory.
Restoration commenced. Plumbing and electrical systems were installed, foundations strengthened and walls rebuilt. Traditional building methods were used throughout employing many skilled and semi-skilled local artisans.

It was during the restoration of the oldest part of the wall that the building revealed its secret…….The skull of the goat, the incense burner and other sacrificial implements used by the Oracle to bless the house more than 150 years ago were discovered!

Décor and interior furnishing was a task which the new owner, an airline captain took a special interest in. Through his travels came carpets from Persia, lamps from Morocco, marble from Italy, silk and velvet from China, bar décor form England, antique four poster beds from Zanzibar and other paraphernalia from the Arabian Gulf and the rest of the world. Everything had to reflect a sense of place, history and tradition creating an aura of timelessness, elegance and grandeur.

The Africa House re-awakened from its chequered and interesting past, embracing all who walk through the door with warmth and old world charm. Laughter and happiness prevail!