Cyber Ethiopia

From Addis there are now direct flights to Zanzibar, the exotic island off the coast of Tanzania, or flights through Nairobi if you prefer. Zanzibar offers the distraction of the Indian Ocean, an Ocean I’ve become very fond of over the years. The Spice Tour ‘The thing’ to do on Zanzibar, apart from lie on the beach and explore the history, is to go on the ‘spice tour’. Zanzibar is fantastically rich in spices. It would be nice to think that the wealth and history of Zanzibar was built on spices, but it was actually developed more on ivory and slaves. Spices came later and helped Zanzibar survive when the elephants were finished and slaving abolished. The spice tour involves going to one of several sites in

the centre of the island where a short walk takes you through an incredible number of spices, not to mention fruits and other useful plants. We drove past an agricultural research station to a little stand which sold spices and crafts. From there our sleepy driver, Rama, suffering perhaps from the effects of the daytime fasting of Ramadan, was replaced by the energetic Shaban. Shaban took us for the ‘two hour’ tour - the middle length one - which we endured in the humid heat of the lush forest land. The first plant we were shown is the ‘Gifu’, a small acacia which has the interesting feature of animal-like leaves which fold in when touched. Our first spice was cardamon, which is a large spear head leaved plant. The spice comes from the seed pots growing near the roots. Surprisingly we saw a large snail on one of the leaves about 7 feet above the ground. We were shown a variety of common fruits - passion fruit, pineapple, grapefruit, orange, banana, guava and so on, all growing in seemingly haphazard little groves. More unusually we saw the breadfruit, with its large round fruit with a hard spiky outer shell, and the similar jackfruit. There were also dorian trees, which have a large smelly fruit (it is an acquired taste). More appealingly, there was the Zanzibar apple, which resembles the lichi in texture and taste. Lichi’s were also around but were not in season. We also had a look at the cacao tree, with its large purple hanging flower pods. We encountered many more spices, leading off with the cinnamon tree, from which we licked the bark to identify the distinctive taste. Of course the main spice Zanzibar is known for is the clove, which is common enough to give Zanzibar its distinctive smell. Cloves grow in little red buds, contracting down to the distinctive look of a 3 pronged claw on the end of a stick. These are dried and turn black to give us the familiar clove from our spices bottle. I can’t help but think of Christmas when I taste cloves - I only seem to have cloves then - in mulled wine or ham or in turkey stuffing, although it’s also added to curries. Pepper from pepper corns (pili pili) and hot chili peppers are also on the tour. An unusual spice was mbirimbi, which is apparently used with coconut sauces. Vanilla is a clinging vine which sometimes climbs in remarkably straight lines up trees. The leaves provide the vanilla oil. Tumeric, a major ingredient of curry, comes from the roots of a small ordinary looking green plant. Of course we were also introduced to ginger roots. One of the most fascinating spices in my experience is nutmeg. I was first introduced to nutmeg on the Caribbean island of Grenada (the spice isle) which along with the East Africa coast and an island in Indonesia is the major producer of nutmeg. The fruit of the nutmeg tree looks like a large green plum. You cut it open to get to the nutmeg nut in the centre. Surrounding the nut is the red waxy net of mace, another important spice. My main memory of nutmeg is as an addition to hot toddies (hot lemon and rum), but it is also a mild narcotic, chewed as the ‘betel nut’ in Indonesia. There were a number of other local plants. One of the most interesting was the ‘lipstick plant’ a bush with large tubular red plumes, which is used locally for lip reddening. The small lantano flowers were everywhere, and were woven into rings and bracelets by the small boys. The soap berry tree predictably has berries which are used as a local soap. I tried them at the end of the tour, but I won’t be giving up my modern soap. Jasmine lined some of the paths with its’ fantastic smell. We also stopped at a local village, whose traditional tukuls with palm thatch contrasted with the cellphones going off and the fancy political posters everywhere. We were invited into one compound where an older fellow three sheets to the wind invited us to try the local distilled hard stuff - gongo. I was the only one brave or foolish enough, and one sip of the stuff made my eyes cross. We were also shown a hole in the ground covered with wood and metal which is used to ripen bananas - coals are used to heat them. A woman with henna darkened hands and feet showed us the technique of removing coconut meat using a stool with a flat metal edge on one side which is used to carve out the coconut. The henna plant the women used was also nearby. No spice tour is complete without the obligatory boy climbing up a coconut tree. Our boy skipped up a good size tree with his bare feet and knocked down a feast of coconuts. These were skilfully dehusked and opened by a series of cracks by a sharp knife. The coconut milk is sweet and nice. Apart from the milk and meat of the nut, the nut itself is used for cups, ladels and other utensils. The fronds of the tree are perfect for basket or mat weaving, and two small boys quickly wove baskets to carry our spice treasures in. To round off this amazing tree, the trunk is used for construction or fire. We finished off the tour with lemon grass (for tea which treats arthritis or rheumatism or fragrant oil) and a star fruit - a bitter little fruit which predictably is star-shaped. The tree is called ‘carambola’ which is unrelated to the Italian pool table game of the same name which is still very popular in Ethiopia. As we finished the tour another bus arrived, which shattered the illusion that the place was entirely for us. The advantage of this tour, which made it so much better than the other famous spice tours in Kerala, India and Grenada, is that everything is jumbled together. In a two hour walk you have a new plant to be described every 5 minutes, instead of long drives between plantations. We stocked up on vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper and cloves at the stand before we made our goodbyes.