Stone Town Zanzibar History: Mji Mkongwe Explained

Stone Town, known in Kiswahili as Mji Mkongwe, "the old town", is the historic heart of Zanzibar City on the island of Unguja, off the coast of Tanzania. In short, Stone Town Zanzibar history is the story of the Swahili coast: an African trading civilisation, Muslim for more than a thousand years, which grew rich on Indian Ocean exchange with Arabia, Persia and India. In the nineteenth century it became the capital of an Omani sultanate and the centre of a vast trade in ivory, cloves and enslaved people. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000.

That is the short version. The longer one is more interesting, because Mji Mkongwe is easy to misread. It is often presented as an Arab town on African soil, or as a backdrop for beach holidays. It is neither. It is an African city shaped by the sea.

The Swahili coast: an African civilisation facing the ocean

For well over a thousand years, towns stretched along the East African coast from present-day Somalia to Mozambique: Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa, Zanzibar and many more. Archaeology shows that they were built by African coastal communities, speaking an African language, who adopted Islam from the late first millennium onwards and traded gold, ivory and other goods with merchants carried by the monsoon winds.

The name Swahili comes from an Arabic word for "coasts", and Kiswahili carries many Arabic loanwords, along with words from Persian, Hindi, Portuguese and English. But its grammar and core vocabulary are Bantu, related to languages spoken far inland. That is the key point: exchange enriched Swahili culture without making it foreign. Today Kiswahili is spoken as a first or second language by many millions of people across East and Central Africa and is a national language of Tanzania.

Stone Town Zanzibar history under the Omani sultans

Portuguese ships arrived around 1500 and dominated parts of the coast for two centuries until Omani forces pushed them out. The Old Fort, Ngome Kongwe, was built by the Omanis around 1700 on the site of an earlier Portuguese church.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, Sultan Sayyid Said of Oman moved his court from Muscat to Zanzibar. Under his rule, clove plantations spread across Unguja and Pemba, and Zanzibar became the commercial hub of the region. Caravans travelled deep into the interior, as far as Lake Tanganyika and beyond, linking the island to much of eastern and central Africa. After his death Zanzibar became a separate sultanate, then a British protectorate from 1890. In 1896 a dispute over the succession led to the Anglo-Zanzibar War, often called the shortest war in recorded history, lasting well under an hour.

Zanzibar became independent in December 1963. A revolution in January 1964 overthrew the sultan, and in April that year Zanzibar united with Tanganyika to form what became the United Republic of Tanzania. Zanzibar keeps its own semi-autonomous government today.

The slave trade: places and memory

Zanzibar's prosperity in the nineteenth century rested heavily on slavery. Enslaved people, captured in the interior and marched to the coast, worked the clove plantations or were sold on to Arabia, the Gulf and beyond. Historians estimate that at its height tens of thousands of people a year passed through the Zanzibar market, though figures are uncertain and debated.

Under British pressure, Sultan Barghash closed the open slave market in 1873. On its site, Anglican missionaries built Christ Church Cathedral, completed around 1880. By tradition, its altar stands where a whipping post once stood. A memorial in the grounds and an exhibition nearby now tell the story. Some interpretations shown to visitors, such as the use of certain underground chambers, are questioned by historians, and a careful visitor can hold both the weight of the place and the uncertainty of particular details.

Slavery itself was not formally abolished in Zanzibar until 1897, and in practice lingered for years afterwards. It is an essential part of this history. It is not the whole of it, and reducing Mji Mkongwe to that subject alone would erase the people who have lived, worshipped, traded and argued there for centuries.

Coral stone, carved doors and narrow lanes

Stone Town's buildings are made of coral stone set in lime mortar, with ceilings carried on mangrove poles. Plain-fronted houses open onto inner courtyards in the Omani manner, while Indian-influenced shop-houses have carved balconies over the street. Along many walls run barazas, stone benches where neighbours sit and talk in the evening.

The town is famous for its carved wooden doors. Broadly, square-topped doors with deeply carved frames, sometimes bearing Qur'anic inscriptions, reflect Omani and Swahili traditions, while round-topped doors studded with brass bosses show Indian influence. Doors were statements of a household's status and faith, and carvers in the town still practise the craft.

The lanes are narrow enough to keep the streets shaded. Landmarks include the House of Wonders, the palace Sultan Barghash built in 1883, part of which collapsed in 2020 during restoration work.

Islam in daily life, and a town under pressure

Most people in Mji Mkongwe are Muslim, and Islam shapes the rhythm of the day: the call to prayer from many small mosques, Friday prayers, the fast and the evening gatherings of Ramadan. Hindu temples, churches and the descendants of Indian, Arab and mainland African families are part of the same streets. Visitors are expected to dress modestly away from the beach.

The town is also under strain. Coral-stone houses need constant care, tourism has driven up property prices, and new hotels and waterfront development have worried heritage bodies including UNESCO. How residents can keep living in their own old town, rather than watching it become a stage set, is one of the most important questions facing it.

On the road through Tanzania

Later in the walk, Leon's line crosses Tanzania from Zambia towards Rwanda, far from the coast. Mji Mkongwe is planned as a research trip from the route: he records the exact point where walking pauses, travels to Zanzibar, and returns to that same point to carry on, with no transport counted as walked distance. He hopes to listen to residents, historians and Kiswahili speakers, and to learn local names before tourist-map ones. It connects with earlier chapters, such as the Auwal Mosque in Bo-Kaap, and with the TAZARA railway to the Tanzanian coast. Read about Leon, follow the journal, or support the walk. You can also read the official listing at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

Frequently asked questions

What does Mji Mkongwe mean?

It is Kiswahili for "old town", the local name for Stone Town in Zanzibar City.

Why is Stone Town a World Heritage site?

UNESCO listed it in 2000 as an outstanding example of a Swahili trading town, blending African, Arab, Indian and European influences.

Where was the Zanzibar slave market?

On the site now occupied by the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral, built after the market closed in 1873.

Is Zanzibar part of Tanzania?

Yes. Zanzibar united with Tanganyika in 1964 and is a semi-autonomous part of the United Republic of Tanzania.