Quickly Bakari Mshamata makes its way through the thicket of Spice wood. Men follow him. The air is moist, the ground soft. The men have to be careful not to fall. At the time of harvest, when the farmers carry buckets and wood, the gait is particularly difficult. But Mshamatas steps are practiced, he knows the paths. Up to eight hours, he runs daily through the forest.
Where the pepper grows, how to harvest the cloves and the cinnamon dries, he knows since his Childhood. The family of farmers living for generations of agriculture. His grandfather spices has grown, his father, and soon will do it also Mshamatas children. In the primary school-age boys by their fathers to learn the basics first. If you start working on the spice farm, you are rarely older than 15 years. “It is our identity,” says Mshamata. He says also: “One other possibility we have.”
Zanzibar archipelago in the Indian ocean, approximately 35 kilometers from the mainland of Tanzania, is home to many exotic spices. The conditions for growing are ideal: It is hot and humid, like a steam bath. This is especially true for Mshamatas home to Pemba, the “green island”.
“Where else can you have so much nature?”
a Little more than 400,000 inhabitants living on the second largest island of the archipelago. “I know hardly anyone who has nothing to do with spices,” says Farooq Musa, as he rides in his little Bus on the streets of Pemba. The Manager sunglasses, greasy hair, and leather shoes – comes from the main island of Unguja. Of course, the spices that drive him in this morning to Pemba, in the forests of Mshamata and the other farmers. He regularly visited her in her village, looks to the Right and pick up orders. On the window banana pass trees and palm trees, and you see a cow on the roadside to graze. “Where else can you have so much nature?”, Musa asks.
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Once the Sultan of Oman has decided to take advantage of this Wilderness. Two hundred years have passed since then. He took the clove from Indonesia to Zanzibar, and his statement went on: It took a few decades for the small island group had developed into a major hub. For the trade in spices, but also with people. About 40 farms had been built, Said bin Sultan, the majority on Pemba. Thousands of slaves he left it for us. The business with the cloves was henceforth the guarantor of the wealth of those who controlled him. All the others felt little of it.
But the times in which the Zanzibar archipelago was the largest cloves traders in the world are long over. Meanwhile, the group of Islands lies on the ranking of the exporting countries lagging behind Madagascar and Indonesia. Once again, the trade with the spice to the question of power. Since the end of the sixties, the state “Zanzibar is the Spice Trading Corporation” (ZSTC) controls the Export. Each individual clove belongs basically to the President.
