Air Tanzania, TWIGA issue 04

Issue 04 / January to March 2020

YO U R F R E E A I R TA N Z A N I A M AGA ZINE

T R AV E L / TA S T E / TA L E N T

Twiga A I R TA N Z A N I A Issue 04

Doreen Noni A positive force Farouque Abdela Repatriate fashion designer on revitalising Zanzibar

Hope Masike The Princess of Mbira's biggest moments in music

Captain Khalid

Meet the funny fella bringing stand-up here

contents 7

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Regulars

Features

4 CEO foreword

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Doubling up on our Dreamliners

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Air Tanzania news

25 Twiga competition Win a two-night stay at Utengule Coffee Lodge

29 Twiga trends Gifts for 2O2O

42 Tech for coffee 52 Blogger Faysal 52 Sound and vision 53 Culture coming up 54 Tanzania’s treasures New ATCL flight reveals remote but rewarding National Park

57 Wheels car review Toyota Harrier affordable luxury

Is published by: Land & Marine Publications Ltd 1 Kings Court, Newcomen Way, Severalls Business Park Colchester, Essex, UK, CO4 9RA Tel: +44 (0)1206 752902 Email: publishing@landmarine.com www.landmarine.com Advertising: Head Office: +44 (0)1206 752902 Catherine O’Callaghan: +44 (0)7944 212063 (WhatsApp) Godfrey S. Urassa: +255 (0) 686 118 816 (WhatsApp) Email: ATCL-inflight@landmarine.org Printed by: Jamana Printers Ltd.

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Twiga

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39 Farouque Abdela

Doreen Noni Africa’s Oprah on prison, penguins and reclaiming your power

Why the world-famous fashion designer returned to Zanzibar

12 Captain Khalid

45 Hotel review

The funny story of how stand-up comedy arrived in Tanzania

We visit family-friendly Nungwi retreat Flame Tree Cottages

17 A Taste of Tanzania

49 Fred Uisso

Friends’ road trip reveals country’s breadth of natural wonders

The TV chef on championing healthy eating and why Gordon Ramsay is going down!

21 Bongo Dar on Bikes Cycle tour with a difference reveals city’s innovative informal economy

26 Romantic hotels Where to escape with your loved one in the City of Dreams

Air Tanzania information

30 The cashew king of Zanzibar Entrepreneur on adding value to the Tanzanian cashew industry

35 Hope Masike ‘Music and I were born together’

On behalf of:

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Travel information Air Tanzania fleet Air Tanzania destinations Air Tanzania contacts

Follow us on:

@AirTanzania Air Tanzania Company Limited (ACTL) ATC House, Second Floor, Ohio Street Dar Es Salaam.

Toll free: 0800 110045 Office (JNIA) Telephone: +255 222113248 Email: info@airtanzania.co.tz

@airtanzania airtanzania_atcl For the latest flights, information and to book online, visit:

www.airtanzania.co.tz

The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor, or any other organisation associated with this publication. No liability can be accepted for any inaccuracies or omissions. ©2019 Land & Marine Publications Ltd.

Twiga online:

Read online: qrs.ly/k2b0mxr

CEO foreword

Doubling our Dreamliners ABOUT THE COVER STORY Barely out of her 20s and already the owner of an award-winning fashion line, a hit TV show and commercial radio station Lake FM, Doreen Noni may seem to many the epitome of strength, success and contentment.

But, as Twiga’s cover story reveals, the past couple of years, in which her lodestone father was imprisoned without charge, have tested the Tena na Tena host to her limits.

That she is back now stronger than ever and using her experiences to help others tackle their mental health issues and not give up their dreams in the face of failure is testament to her resilience and that of her loved ones She has set up her own NGO, Peter’s Daughter and the Penguins, to lift up the youth of Tanzania and rally their ambitions, echoing the community-driven work that has made Lake FM such a force for positive change in Mwanza. A deserving cover star.

Welcome onboard your Air Tanzania flight and to the latest edition of our inflight magazine, Twiga. As usual the magazine is packed with the people and places that make the ATCL network such a joy to explore whether you are travelling for business or pleasure.

Among that network is Mumbai, India’s City of Dreams. Inside you’ll find some of the city’s most sumptuous hotels – ideal for a romantic trip away. Since December we now offer four flights to the home of Bollywood every week.

You can take the six-hour direct flight in comfort courtesy of our Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.

The ever-growing ATCL fleet now boasts two Dreamliners with the 262-seater ‘Rubondo Island’ flown in from Seattle, in the US, in October to a ceremonial welcome at Julius Nyerere International Airport officiated by President John Magufuli.

President Magufuli has been instrumental in the renaissance of Air Tanzania, the national carrier, and his ambitions for the airline include further strengthening the fleet with four more aircraft expected to arrive before 2021 and adding new international destinations such as the soon-to-be-announced Guangzhou, in China, and plans in place for a direct route between the UK and Tanzania.

The President has also assured that ATCL offers a convenient an affordable connection for travellers across Tanzania. At his direction, a new weekly flight has just been introduced from Dar es Salaam to Mpanda in the Katavi region.

Flying every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the route is designed to bolster trade between Tanzania and neighbours Zambia, the DRC and Burundi. It is also hoped it will – along with our service as the only carrier flying to Mbeya – open up the gorgeous but unheralded Southern Highlands to tourists.

Thank you for flying Air Tanzania. We hope to see you again soon.

Eng. Ladislaus Matindi www.airtanzania.co.tz Follow us on:

@AirTanzania @airtanzania airtanzania_atcl Air Tanzania ATCL

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Managing Director and Chief Executive Air Tanzania

Air Tanzania news

New aircraft join the Air Tanzania fleet Air Tanzania took delivery of another 78-seat Q400/Dash 8 turboprop aircraft in December. Assembled in Canada, the new Q400 arrived in Mwanza from Toronto mid-month. The new Q400, the airline’s fourth, will be used by Air Tanzania to bolster capacity on regional routes.

The Bombardier Q400 (now rebranded by the manufacturers as the De Havilland Dash 8-400) is a one-of-a-kind turboprop aircraft providing fuel efficiency, low emissions, jet-like speed and quiet operation for passengers.

Air Tanzania has ordered a fifth Q400/Dash 8-400 aircraft. The aircraft is due for delivery mid-year 2020. Says chief executive Ladislaus Matindi: “Our current fleet of four Dash 8-400 aircraft is performing very well and offering excellent passenger amenities. We are very satisfied with the Dash 8-400 aircraft’s low operating costs and reliable operations in our highutilisation environment and we look forward to the additional capacity that this new aircraft will provide.

KATAVI IS COMING LONDON CALLING Air Tanzania plans to launch direct flights between Dar es Salaam/ Kilimanjaro and London’s Gatwick Airport during 2020 and using its 262-seat capacity Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners. An exact start date for these UK flights is awaited.

We now have three flights a week from Dar es Salaam to Mpanda Airport (NPY) in western Tanzania in early 2020. Mpanda Airport is the gateway to the 4,471 sq km Katavi National Park – Tanzania’s third largest game reserve and located in a seldom visited area. Katavi is a true wilderness and described by the Tanzania Tourist Board as a thrilling taste of Africa as if it must have been a century ago. The route runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and is served by our Dash 8-400 aircraft.

MUMBAI FREQUENCIES INCREASED Air Tanzania has increased frequencies on its Dar es Salaam-Mumbai service, with the addition of fourth weekly flight. The additional Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flight operates Thursdays from Dar es Salaam.

Flights between Dar es Salaam and Mumbai commenced in July and the popularity of the route has quickly led to Air Tanzania upping its weekly frequencies. To book flights, visit www.airtanzania.co.tz

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Doreen Noni

Africa’s Oprah on

PRISON, PENGUINS AND RECLAIMING YOUR POWER Family challenges have kept Doreen Peter Noni, one of Tanzania’s most promising media entrepreneurs, out of the limelight for the past few years, but she is back to show how sharing your pain can be a positive force for personal and professional change.

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ntrepreneur Doreen Peter Noni is making up for lost time. The next few months will see the release of a string of her projects from a star-studded TV version of her hit radio chat show ‘Tena Na Tena’, a children’s book, a series of radio podcasts and dramas to the launch of her own pan-African NGO. Noni’s ambition and drive is well known – Forbes’ named her as one of the most promising young entrepreneurs in Africa after she set up her own award-winning fashion label, Eskado Bird, before launching community radio station Lake FM 102.5 in Mwanza – but this latest burst of creativity surprises because it follows almost two years in which the 30-year-old has all but disappeared from public view.

During that time, her father, Peter, the former managing director of the Tanzania Investment Bank (now TIB Development Bank), was arrested and remanded for alleged financial irregularities. He was only released 23 months later. The incarceration

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/ Doreen Noni

took its toll on the man and his close-knit family. Noni says: “When a member of a family is held in remand prison, his entire family is imprisoned along with him.”

That family closeness is obvious during our interview. Noni has recently added her father’s name to her own to show her allegiance and as we sit in a breezy oceanside restaurant in Dar’s peninsula, her phone buzzes constantly, but she only breaks the conversation to answer it once – when her brother calls.

It’s also obvious that her feelings surrounding her father’s traumatic experience – he was only released two months before our meeting – are still very raw. Her eyes brim with tears as she describes the pain of seeing the man who had always been her mentor and moral compass become so vulnerable.

“It was the toughest thing I’ve ever had to experience in my life,” she says. “My father is my friend. To see him in such a helpless position broke me mentally and emotionally.

“I remember the morning before we went to court; the policemen in charge wouldn’t allow us to see our father. I begged tirelessly just to see him for one minute. I was desperate and I was not going to take no for an answer, I was ready to get down on my knees and beg. When I finally got a moment with him he could see I was upset. He said to me ‘If you cry, you will make me cry’ and that was the first and last time he saw me crying, up until we went to church together after his release.”

Remand prison visits Her father saw Noni every day during his time in prison. Aside from a few times she had to travel, she never missed a chance to be with him.

Noni and her family, including mum Jacqueline, took over responsibilities to take care of their father’s needs while he was in remand prison “I took food for him, his medicine, I dedicated my life to him,” she says.

“He has always been a loving and supportive father and husband so I

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decided I must be strong for him and my family.”

While Noni was there for her father, she was beginning to feel trapped herself long after she left the prison gates. “It became difficult to wake up and get out of bed,” she says. “I noticed things were changing. I was angry at the world and aggressive. I couldn’t sleep. I locked myself in the house because there was nothing to be happy about, then I became reckless and unfocused. I was trying to find ways to deal with my frustrations.”

Not alone It was an unfamiliar situation for Noni, who was used to being the permanently positive person who was there for others rather than having problems of her own. The first time she felt like she was not ‘alone’ was after listening to Mac Maharaj, one of Nelson Mandela’s fellow inmates on Robben Island, give a speech at a global forum in Portugal.

“He talked about how Nelson Mandela decided that he would remain intact through his ordeal,” she says. “Maharaj’s words moved me so much, I put my hand up to thank him and tell him why his words meant so much to me.

To my surprise, I received a standing ovation after I spoke. Upon leaving the auditorium, people queued to thank me and shared their rock bottom stories with me and suddenly rock bottom didn’t feel so lonely anymore.

At that point I realized that I could turn this bad situation into something good.”

The effect of realising she was not alone in her grief and it did not have the power to beat her was transformative. As Noni has done all her life – from doing voluntary work for charities

Too often people are afraid to admit they are struggling with their mental health… I now know most don’t even know they are suffering

All images: Doreen Noni

/ Doreen Noni

as a schoolgirl each weekend to developing Lake FM as a campaigning commercial radio station that empowered its Wananzengo listenership – she immediately considered ways she could use this insight to help others. “My parents always said you need to serve a purpose greater than yourself,” Noni says.

Tena na Tena Among her ideas was to revamp one of her most popular Lake FM chat shows, ‘Tena Na Tena’ (‘Again and Again’), for television with pan African role models such as Tanzanian media mogul Joseph Kusaga and Kenyan Afro pop band Sauti Soul describing the repeated knockbacks they have had to overcome to reach their levels of success.

The new format is indebted to two of Noni’s favourite US chat shows, Carpool Karaoke and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, with guests being picked up and driven around by the host while they share stories, sing along to the car radio and – in the case of politician and advocate Lawrence Masha – leave the vehicle for an impromptu game of draughts. Twenty three episodes from season one have been screened on Clouds TV every Tuesday at 9pm with repeats on Wednesday and Saturday at 2.30pm as well as being streamed on YouTube on the ‘Tena Na Tena show’ page and its social media platforms.

The hope is the show will inspire Africans to dream big and not be disheartened when things don’t go their way. Noni is an understanding host and now able to share experiences from her darkest times which she did not allow to define her.

She now believes she was suffering from episodes of depression during her father’s imprisonment and she hopes

her experiences of finding a way out and being stronger for it will help in a country whose people have tended to suffer in silence when it comes to mental health issues.

“There is a definite stigma attached to it here,” Noni says.

“When somebody used to tell me they were stressed or depressed, I didn’t understand it. I didn’t like to hear the word. But mental health is an issue here. According to the latest statistics from the World Health Organisation, Tanzania has the fourth highest suicide rates in Africa. These people have to be

Speaking at the World Economic Forum and (top) with Lake FM partners

Invited to the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper

reached. Peter’s Daughter is here to change the conversation on mental health in Tanzania.

“Too often, people are afraid to admit that they are struggling with their mental health. This fear or prejudice and judgement stops people from getting help and can destroy families and end lives. I know now that a greater majority don’t even know they are suffering from mental health diseases.”

Noni recognised her own symptoms as depression while interviewing colleagues at the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders in the US, where a speech she gave about her challenging recent years again drew standing ovations. The other leaders, representing 19 nationalities, all agreed to open up to Noni about challenges in their lives.

“People felt they could trust me with their vulnerability,” Noni says.

“One man told me how he had contemplated suicide. When he described his feelings of depression, I recognised them as my own. This is what I was going through. I could

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Guiding light: Doreen Noni with Mac Maharaj

Campaigning station: Lake FM volunteers clean up

also relate to a girl from Mozambique who talked about her anxiety and how it got so bad she could not even read.”

With the agreement of the students involved, Noni decided to release the conversations as podcasts called Peter’s Daughter and Her Penguins, the name reaffirming her love for her father.

Doreen went on to win first place and Top Female Entrepreneur for the Total Start Upper Challenge for Peter’s Daughter, a documentary series – to be released at the end of January – that goes across Tanzania filming the experiences of exceptional individuals who are finding solutions to combat their depression. She became, in her words, ‘a mental health activist by default,” being invited to speak on the subject at the UN offices in Dar es Salaam.

Peter’s Daughter is now an NGO with a broad remit that includes mental health projects in the country. Recent initiatives under its

name have included Hii Sio Story, Akili Ni afya (This is not a story), a radio campaign and drama that has been endorsed by Muhimbili National Hospital, in Dar, as well as various radio stations in the city.

The drama, which focuses on a young Tanzanian, Mento, who is having bipolar episodes following a traumatic event, is inspired by stories that have come to light through the Peter’s Daughter project and will be available to watch in early 2020.

Noni is also developing a children’s comic book & animation – ‘Peter’s Daughter and her Penguins’ – which uses those waddling birds that huddle together for communal warmth and navigation in the South

On stage at a live Lake FM event

Oprah is my penguin. I want to instil positive mental attitudes in the youth of Africa and help them identify their gifts

Pole as an example of a good support system. “We need to be more like penguins, they are a healthy support system for each other,” Noni says, There’s no doubt Noni’s parents have been a lifelong support – she admits that every major personal and business decision she has ever made has gone through them for approval – but there are many more in her life.

Among them is US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey. There are career parallels. Both are strong, driven women who have used their empathetic qualities to support and inspire and both have been open about their personal hardships. Noni has written to Oprah, sharing the difficulties she has had in her life, and hopes to emulate her reach of influence in the years to come.

“I love how she has had a positive impact in peoples lives across the world,” Noni says. “She is somebody I can learn from, I want her to be my penguin. I want to instil positive mental attitudes in the youth in Africa and help them identify their gifts. This is why I like to call myself the ‘Oprah of Africa’ although my friends call me ‘Oprariri’.”

While it tested her to extremes, her father’s time in remand prison has made her realise there are others with far bigger problems and her own issues have connected her with people all over the world. “I never knew how it felt to have problems before, now I have the ability to make people feel comfortable with their problems because I have owned mine,” she says.

After the time away she is itching to focus her attentions on projects such as Peter’s Daughter, Tena Na Tena, and Lake FM and is welcoming anyone interested in supporting her initiatives. She has been strengthened, but not changed by her traumatic past few years. “Today, I am courageous for God, my family and for the greater public. I am a force of good to the world and I strive to make excellence my brand.” She is still Peter and Jacqueline’s daughter and is forever grateful for them.

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Captain Khalid

THE CAPTAIN

OF COMEDY Stand-up comedian Captain Khalid has done much to foster a comedy culture in Tanzania with his Funny Fellas live shows while building an international renown which has seen him play to sell-out houses from Helsinki to Hong Kong.

Captain Khalid is now based in Hamburg, Germany

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/ Captain Khalid

Stand-up guy: Captain Khalid on stage

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rowing up in Bukoba, the young Khalid Hussein, as he was then known, would regularly be beaten to the punchline and be on the receiving end of roasts (good-natured ridicule) among his extended family of two older sisters, seven cousins, his aunt, mother and grandmother.

“I was the youngest for a while, and despite being very protected, no one was safe from random roasts.

When it came to jokes, my cousins and neighbourhood friends did it better.

“Mama and Grand Ma also had a very dark humour. This made me try to come up with some jokes and stories by being very observant, but most of my jokes were not funny or interesting enough to reach the end and someone with a better story would always cut in.”

Where he did excel was in art and music. There may still be a few copies doing the rounds of the mixtapes he released while a pupil at Loyola High School, in Dar es

Salaam, a decade ago.

“All my school mates thought I’d be a musician as I was involved in rapping, winning a couple of competitions, and producing. I released two mixtapes, which I recorded with headphones on the school laptop and sold to pupils for between Tshs 2,000 and 4,000 [US$ 1 and 2]. They were bad quality, but people still bought them.”

Comedy creator His drawing talents earned him a place at university in Kuala Lumpur.

However, efforts to support his studies in the Malaysian capital floundered with the locals’ mistrust of Africans – something that annoyed Khalid at the time but was later able to mine for comic effect in his stand-up – meaning no-one would take him on for part time work. It was friend who suggested a potential revenue stream he had never previously considered.

Khalid says: “My close friend Kent thought I was charming and he said:

My close friend Kent thought I was charming. He said: ‘You actually make me laugh. You should look into comedy.’

‘You actually make me laugh; you should look into comedy.’ So I did and created the first ever regular stand-up comedy show at our university, despite having no experience at all.

“I called it The Comedy Cage and it featured some big names on the Malaysian comedy circuit at the time. I was the host. It became the first and only regular university stand-up comedy show in the whole of Malaysia.”

The ground-breaking nature of the project made Khalid’s choice of stage name at this time, Captain Khalid, seem apt. It was, he says, intended to represent an ideal to “lead, create, innovate and motivate”.

Return to Tanzania Living up to his new name, Khalid was soon looking to how he could lead a similar stand-up collective in his home country. It was a challenge.

Tanzania had little in the way of a stand-up comedy culture and the unknown Khalid struggled to find others to share the Comedy Cage bill with him.

He rebranded and reached out online for funny men that shared his vision to grow stand-up comedy in Tanzania.

Khalid says: “A close friend of mine told me The Comedy Cage was a stupid name and suggested Funny Fellas. I didn’t think that was mysterious enough, but I kept it with the aim of getting a better name later – well, that never happened!”

Despite Khalid’s reservations, the name change brought other interested comics out of the woodwork.

Soon MC and comedian Emmanuel Mathias, better known as MC Pilipili, was getting in touch along with TV personality Evans Bukuku and rising online star Idris Sultan.

“At the time Idris Sultan had started doing short Instagram clips,” says Khalid. “I thought they were

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/ Captain Khalid

funny, and since he’d shown interest in stand-up, I thought he could be a good fit in the line-up.”

By 2016 when the time the first Funny Fellas gig was announced at Dar’s National Museum Theatre, the bill also included Uganda’s Alex Muhangi and Chipukeezy, from Kenya. The 450-seat venue was packed out on the night.

Khalid says: “After this event, the stand-up comedy scene erupted here and young Tanzanian comics started emerging.”

Cream of comedy talent Funny Fellas has become a regular event on the Dar comedy scene with the latest show taking place at The Starlight Venue, in October.

New East African artists who have had their talents showcased include Eric Omondi and Eddie Buttita, from Kenya, as well as Ugandans Teacher Mpamire and Salvador. The event has also launched the careers of young local comics such as Coy Mzungu, who has gone on to produce his own stand-up comedy platform ‘Cheka Tu’.

The event has also done much to contemporise East African comedy with its young comics performing jokes based on real experiences that happen rather than the tribal jokes that used to dominate routines.

For all its fostering of budding East African comic talent, one of Funny Fella’s biggest draws is still its founder, Captain Khalid. Comedy may not have been his first career choice, but there is no doubt the Bukoba boy looks born to the role nowadays.

He has an effortless grace on stage and an easy-going, likeable demeanour, which he loves to undercut with the occasional politically incorrect comment. He can also flit effortlessly between English and Swahili – witness his routine, streaming on YouTube, in which he hilariously bemoans the shortcomings of Swahili when it comes to sexy sweet talk – even when improvising material. He ensures that at least 10 minutes of every show he does is made up on the spot. Of the scripted material, Khalid, “a natural observer”,

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draws on observations from his environment.

For all its success and good intentions, Funny Fellas has not yet proved a money-spinning venture.

Advertisers have been unwilling to ally themselves to such a new and unproved art form in the country and footing the bill for fees levied on every non-Tanzanian comic brought in to perform has meant it has been a struggle to break even on each show.

“My home wasn’t ready for me,” is how Khalid puts it.

Frustrated, Khalid left for Hamburg hoping his comedy dream would fare better there. Building a career in comedy in Germany may strike some as pointless as starting a mountaineering business in the Netherlands, but Khalid appears to have been able to crack the country’s humourless national stereotype.

This time the comedy collective he set up was the Hamburg International Comedy Festival, which runs for four months and, he says, “celebrates international, regional and local comedians that perform in English within Germany”.

At the same time, he was snapped up the producers of Story Party, a themed comedy show which has been franchised across the world

Captain Khalid with his Story Party co-hosts

I meet people across Europe, the Middle East, Japan and India – some of whom have never even seen a black person…

in which comedians and audience members share their worst dating stories.

While both roles grew raised his profile, his fame skyrocketed when a clip of him performing stand-up in Malaysia went viral. The clip included Khalid’s hysteria-inducing observation that Malaysians refer to all Africans as ‘Nigerians’ seemingly unaware the continent is packed with many other countries and has so far gained more than a million views on Facebook and YouTube.

Khalid was now able to command his own solo international tour, ‘I Think I’m Single’, loosely based around his romantic relationships.

It proved so successful – playing to sold-out venues in cities such as Helsinki, Vienna and Hong Kong

/ Captain Khalid

Quick Q&A with Captain Khalid Who are your comedy heroes?

Legends such as (US comedy stars) Bernie Mac and Richard Pryor as well as [local talent] Mpoki, Joti, Mzee Small, Mzee Majuto and the Vitimbi show really shaped my humour.

How would you describe your style of comedy? Can you tell us a joke?

I am an observer, and mostly do storytelling and I always have at least 10 minutes of improvising in every show I do. I always look forward to this part. As for the joke, I’d urge to people check my YouTube at captainkhalidcomedy.

Do you think there is an identifiable Tanzanian humour? What kind of material do your audiences react to?

I can’t say there is identifiable Tanzanian humour, but they always get the jokes, no matter how much you complicate it.

Were you the class clown at school?

I was more of a class monitor than a class clown, but one thing stood out, I loved all the attention. I loved drawing because whenever I started, my cousins would joke all the way until I finished the picture. Today, my style of comedy is actually inspired by them.

– that a sequel show was written with new material and taken on a second tour.

“It’s a blessing,” he says. “I still don’t know how to process it. It’s still like a dream at times. I meet people across Europe, the Middle East, Japan and India – some of whom have never even seen a black person in their lives but actually find you funny. It’s great when other cultures relate to you.”

International tour The second international tour, ‘I Think I’m Single 2’, has also enabled him to come full circle and return to Tanzania with his live solo comedy show packing out the Little Theatre in Oyster Bay, in August.

“Tanzania is my home and we have

upcoming projects that I can’t talk about yet, but which are definitely going to catalyse the ongoing growth of comedy in this country.”

In the meantime, he is focused on the remaining dates of his world tour and building the international renown of his comedy festival in Hamburg.

Now Khalid’s comedy family stretches across the world and, as the star of the show, he always makes sure that he now gets the last word.

What was it like becoming a film star during your time in Malaysia? (Khalid won a pivotal role in ‘Lelaki Harapan Dunia’ (‘The Men Who Save The World’), which was the country’s contender for the Academy Awards in 2015?

It was an important kick for my career and helped me get more gigs in the city and it turned out to be an award-winning movie.

Things were now promising.

Captain Khalid is now playing to crowds across the world

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A Taste of Tanzania

Tanzanian road trip is a tale of friendship, food and freedom All images: Wim Demessemaekers

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ver the past two years, photographer Wim Demessemaekers and chef Axel Janssens have taken to a 29-year-old Jeep “held together with chewing gum, spit and prayers” for a series of road trips across Tanzania. The adventures may have taken their toll on the Jeep, but along the way the men have forged a strong friendship and gained a priceless insight into the breadth of beauty the country has to offer travellers.

The trips – which explored well known Tanzanian attractions such as Kilimanjaro and the Ngorongoro Crater as well as more under-the-radar treats such as Ruaha National Park and Eyasi – are evocatively captured in the just released coffee-table

book A Taste of Tanzania. Leafing through the book’s 355 pages is a feast for the senses from the tactile quality of its linen-bound cover through Demessemaekers’ unforgettable travelogue of images to the recipes of meals conjured up by Janssens during the trip, which are so good you can almost smell them.

Both Janssens and Demessemaekers have seen their respective arts challenged and inspired by Tanzania’s wild spaces.

Janssens knows the country well. He arrived 14 years ago to offer his culinary expertise to his cousin Dirk, the owner of Onsea House lodge in Arusha. The resulting Machweo restaurant has become known for its inventive mix of French cuisine

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and local influences and Janssens has built a wider renown in intrepid fashion, dropping in on other lodges to prepare impromptu meals for their guests and assorted VIPs, even at overnight camps on safari.

‘The Flying Chef’, as he has become known, used these lodges for overnight stays on the road trip, in return creating on-the-spot dishes inspired by the environment. In Amid the carrot farms that drape the slopes of Kilimanjaro he created a carrot and cumin soup and when evening fell in the volcanic Ngorongoro region he dreamt up a coffee and chocolate moelleux with the gooey chocolate erupting through the coffee crust.

All of the mouth-watering recipes are included at the end of the book.

Book launch Talking to me on the morning after a “intense day” of publicity for the official European launch of the book at the Africa Museum, in Brussels, Demessemaekers is still full of admiration for his friends’ culinary improvisations. He says: “The way he cooked on the road was amazing.

Most of the time he was cooking over a campfire and had to work with limited ingredients, but he seemed to thrive on these troubles. I have only respect for him.”

Demessemaekers also felt strangely liberated by the restrictions he was under on the trip. “We were on a schedule so I didn’t get

long at every destination to take pictures,” he says. “That worked for me because I didn’t want the images to appear manicured or overly staged. I wanted them raw, rough and authentic.”

The results are singularly beautiful.

Demessemaekers’s background is in documentary photography and advertising, but since his work in A Taste of Tanzania has been publicised he has received more commissions to capture wildlife on camera.

Indeed, Demessemaekers was at a bit of a career crossroads when the road trip idea was put to him.

He was looking for “something with purpose” to relight his creative passions after selling his successful advertising agency. He was good friends with Janssens’ brother Steven, a fanatical runner, and when he entered the Kilimanjaro marathon in 2014, Demessemaekers tagged along.

They stayed at Onsea House and while Steven put in the miles acclimatising to the Kilimanjaro heat and altitude, Demessemaekers hung out with Janssens, who started talking about his desire to “put together a cook book with recipes”.

This was their first meeting, but Demessemaekers says “we were a good match and the idea grew”.

Among their shared traits is a care for their crafts. As Janssens loves his slow food, prepared using high-quality locally sourced

A travelogue in pictures: Some of Wim’s images taken during his trip

Capturing the light

Road trip team: (left) Wim Dessemakers and (below) Axel Janssens

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ingredients, Demessemaekers is happy to describe himself as “a slow photographer”, working with a Leica digital camera with a series of old lenses, including one from 1932. With no zoom lens, filters or rapid shutter speed, Demessemaekers had to choose his moment and be in tune with his environment.

There are many wonderful images in the book caught in the rosy glow of morning such as a giraffe surveying the lush Ruaha landscape and as the day draws to a close baobabs are captured silhouetted against the setting sun.

“The light is very important,” Demessemaekers says. “Africa has beautiful light at the morning and at sundown. The light here really caught my heart and inspired me to become a wildlife photographer.”

Demessemaekers seems to have the bravery required for the job.

Crossing the treetop boardwalk in Manyara, he was met with the

/ A Taste of Tanzania

piercing eyes of a lioness looking down on him from her higher perch (the high branches bring relief from tse-tse flies that never venture higher than two metres from the ground). Demessemaekers stuck around and got one of the book’s best shots.

“I was never afraid during the trip,” he says. “Even when we were chased by three elephants in the Serengeti.

I think they thought our Jeep was another elephant.”

The Jeep, hopwever, was soon feeling the effects of the chase, coming to a halt kilometres from anywhere minus a wheel. This was not an isolated incident. Earlier on the trip another 4x4 had come roaring up behind them before pulling up alongside and signalling them to stop. The driver then handed the various car parts which had fallen off the Jeep, including its exhaust pipe, since it had been following it. Despite having Axel as a first name, Janssens has a bit of a reputation for car trouble.

Demessemaekers says these challenges only brought him and Janssens closer and they paled next to the “over the top amazing wildlife” and chances to interact with indigenous tribes such as the Hadzabe.

Demessemaekers says time spent with these hunter gatherers believed to be directly descended from the humans of the Olduvai Gorge was a rare honour. “They do not have a lot of contact with the outside world so to go hunting with the men and foraging with the women was an eye-opening opportunity.”

The in tune with nature living of the Hadzabe serves as an ancient example of the sustainability ideals at the heart of A Taste of Tanzania. Just

Winging it: A self portrait on tour

as all the lodges the pair visit on their travels make every effort to have as light a carbon footprint as possible with measure including solar panels and plastic-free living so the book was put together at a printing press in Belgium run on solar power.

The finished product is a thing of beauty and is the first release for independent publishing house Untold Publishing’, which Demessemaekers is heavily involved in. More projects are being planned including a sequel to A Taste of Tanzania, which will take in the Swahili Coast, including Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar. No doubt Janssens and Demessemaekers are up for it, but is the Jeep?

HOW TO GET THE BOOK A Taste of Tanzania is available at bookshop A Novel Idea, in Dar es Salaam, as well as all of the lodges featured in the book. It is also available to buy from atasteoftanzania.com for US$ 98 (free postage to anywhere in the world).

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AfriRoots

EXPLORING BONGO DAR ON BIKES A two-wheeled tour of Dar presents a side of the city rarely explored and gets to the heart of its people’s innovative resilience.

“I

know everybody in Dar,” my ebullient tour guide Mejah Mbuya tells me as we pitch and bounce on mountain bikes over the city’s cratered back streets.

It’s quite a claim. Tanzania’s commercial capital is one of the fastest growing cities in the world with a population of more than six million.

However, just minutes into our Dar Reality Bike Tour – crafted by Mbuya to reveal the city beyond its commercial centre, beach-fringed peninsula and highways – I’m beginning to believe him. Wherever we go Mbuya is met with a chorus of greetings and he swaps hugs, back slaps, handshakes and fist bumps with locals from toddlers to the elderly. It’s clear he is not only known, but also very much loved here.

The love stems from the fact the half-day tour – just one of a series of inventive trips in Dar and its surrounds Mbuya runs through his company AfriRoots – has opened up a part of the city previously cloistered away from the usual tourist trail. Never exploitative, it shines an admiring spotlight on the informal, innovative economy that earned the city its Bongo (Kiswahili for ‘brain’) nickname.

So, visitors get to see a local coffee delivery service, artisans working with leather, textiles and recycled materials, mamas preparing lunches over one stove for passers-by, an underground cinema movement and markets teeming with bargains and fresh produce.

With unemployment so high in Dar, Mbuya applauds this DIY drive to

The food market at Tandale

make a living and wants to do what he can to support it. That includes talent-spotting for tour guides. He saw the potential of Jeremiah or ‘Jerry’ – who ably takes over guide duties while we are in his home neighbourhood of Mwananyamala – while riding on earlier tours.

Mentoring has been a key part of Mbuyah’s other projects such as Dar urban arts collective Wachata Crew, which he co-founded. As part of this influential troupe of hip-hopobsessed graffiti artists, Mbuyah has maintained his involvement in

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/ AfriRoots

community outreach schemes to encourage the people of Dar to express themselves in street art.

Such commitment to social justice has led to Mbuya being called on to speak to the United Nations and he was heavily involved in the recent adding of cycle lanes to two of Dar’s busiest streets, Morogoro Road and Kawawa Road.

The twin loves of Dar and bikes are also indulged in the Reality Tour.

It has been running for a couple of years and among those to have ridden alongside Mbuyah are former England international football star Wayne Rooney. He, alongside his teammates from his second stint at Everton, caused pandemonium among the Premiership-loving Dar residents during the trip.

The reaction to my arrival is understandably more muted, but getting high fives as I ride from groups of beaming children is a heart-warming highlight. Riding the bikes is great fun. The distance is not a physical challenge – it’s 15 km round trip – but hazards include pot holes, puddles, boda bodas and the occasional goat. If you would prefer not to cycle, the trip can also be taken on foot or on a boda boda.

The trip is by turns heart-breaking,

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hilarious, joyous and eye-opening.

Here are my highlights.

Coffee-making Dar style For an energy boost, Mbuya takes us to his favourite Dar backstreet barista in the Makumbusho neighbourhood. Here a young man stands to grind roasted coffee beans with a giant mortar and a pestle big enough to double as a baseball bat. Coffee grinding is traditionally considered a woman’s job, but this guy has built quite a reputation with vats of his coffee being dispatched by men on bicycles to sell around the neighbourhood. He listens to the beans as he works, with the different sounds they make with each whump of the pestle letting him know when to temper his blows and begin to grind the grains. Things get a little less sensitive when I take over with the pestle, but the results still make an excellent and powerful cuppa.

The bitterness of the strong Turkish coffee is tempered by chunks of a peanut brittle called kashata or, as Mbuyah puts it, “African Snickers”.

Traditional Swahili medicine blends African spiritualism and herbalism and it is hugely popular across Tanzania

Making coffee in Makumbusho

Second-hand markets Donated clothes (mitumba) from abroad are resold locally here in dukas (stalls) across Makumbusho

and at the sprawling Tandale market.

Vendors usually buy the clothes in bulk and unseen, but they know what sells and arrange some well organised, attractive stalls. There are retro fashion steals to be had here. I spotted Red Tab Levi jeans, Nike Air hi-tops and Adidas trainers for just a few hundred shillings each. Even Dar youths – once so enamoured of their fast fashion – are beginning to look to the markets to create more singular, pre-loved looks.

Even if you’re not after a bargain, the markets are fascinating, especially the auctions at Tandale. Usually conducted in the back of a truck they are a frenzied mass of gesticulations and shouting with deals done, clothes bought and cash pocketed in seconds.

Food market The tour uncovers Dar’s innovative informal economy

Tandale also has an amazing fresh produce of market. It’s a feast for the senses. Drying banana leaves

/ AfriRoots Guide: Mejah Mbeya with Twiga’s Mark Edwards

nest the street and there are stacks of plump mangoes, pineapples and avocados – with many super sweet examples cut open to sample.

Sections of the market are also given over to spices, grains and vegetables.

Make a Swahili snack In front of one of the many traditional Swahili homes – recognisable by their four-sided roofs and six internal rooms – in the Mwananyamala neighbourhood two women cook a steady supply of kitumbuha (rice flour cakes) and chapattis to feed the local workforce.

People wander past to grab one on the go or for something more substantial there is a side porch with seating where you can have a meal of chapattis, kidney beans and hot spiced tea. I’m invited to make a chapatti over the one hot stove.

The result is like a tasty and more substantial pancake and goes down well with the tea’s hit of cardamom and cloves.

Swahili pharmacy Traditional Swahili medicine blends African spiritualism and herbalism and it is hugely popular across Tanzania. It helps that it’s cheaper than conventional medicine and promises to tackle ailments you’d struggle to get a medical doctor to show concern for. The pharmacist is not in, but Jerry delights in rifling through boxes of treatments, including a love potion that is to be lit and inhaled while thinking of

your romantic target. There are also bags of elephant dung, which can be burned to keep away mosquitoes as well as, one assumes, anyone with a functioning nose. Jerry is kind enough not to open a box that already has the attention of a swarm of flies. He says it contains rotten eggs, which are to be thrown to the ground while standing at a crossroads and incanting a rival’s name.

Bad luck is then sure to befall them.

Medicinal garden Somehow, amid the baked and cracking soil of her Msharifu neighbourhood, Bibi Zaituni, a woman in her sixties Jerry introduces me to, maintains a medicinal garden. It provides a natural pharmacy to treat the ailments of her community. Zaituni is also the neighbourhood’s unofficial midwife and collects trash to up-cycle into colourful rugs. It seems so unfair that the home of such a good-hearted woman along with many others in the area is susceptible to flooding. When I visit, December rains have left her otherwise spotless home knee deep in water.

Dar’s hidden cinemas Dar was once home to a lot of cinemas – including a drive-in – showing the latest releases, but the arrival of TV in 2002 put paid to them. Those that could not afford a TV were left out until Captain Derek Lufufu began adding a dubbed Kiswahili soundtrack to films on video cassette and showing them publicly for 100 shillings a head (US$ 0.30). Lufufu’s crowd-pleasing commentary, in which he was narrator and all characters, became hugely popular and little cinemas began to crop up across the city. Many are still there – I’m allowed to look around one just behind some food stalls in Tandale market – and still only charge 100 shillings per film.

HIP-HOP SAFARI Mbuyah is also a founding member of Dar’s hip-hop street art collective Wachata Crew. A fan of the music, he started out as an MC, but found his talent best suited to the tags and throwups of graffiti art. He was chief among the collective in setting up out-reach projects to share street art skills with Dar’s youth and brighten up the neighbourhood with spray painted murals. He has become well known in the international hip hop community, speaking and performing at music festivals in the US and Europe. Now he counts some of the world’s biggest hip-hop stars among his friends and, as tour guide, has even introduced some of them to Tanzania’s wealth of wilderness and wildlife on his Hip-hop Safaris. Recent guests have included New York rap duo Dead Prez.

Other AfriRoots Tours Dar History Tour – learn about its earliest settlers the Wazaramo, the first neighbourhoods of Dar, the role of the city in liberation struggles of sub Saharan Africa and why both Malcom X and Che Guevara were inspired to spend time there.

Dar by Night – get a taste of the city’s nightlife with a meal, drinks and a live music show.

Camping trips – the AfriRoots team have 4x4s and all the camping gear you need for trips into the wild from Dar from short excursions into the Pugu Hills to further afield.

To book these tours or the Dar Reality Tour, visit afriroots.co.tz

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competition

WIN

AT UTENGULE COFFEE LODGE

a paradise amid Tanzania’s Southern Highlands To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize, answer the questions below and send them, along with a picture of yourself holding Twiga issue 4 on your flight, to competition@landmarine.org

by March 20, 2020. Good luck!

1

As well as owning tour company AfriRoots, Mejah Mbeyah is also a founding member of which urban arts collective in Dar?

2

3

What is the name of Chef Fred Uisso’s restaurant?

Where does Doreen Noni’s radio station, Lake FM, broadcast from?

COMPETITION TERMS AND CONDITIONS: Choice of room and date of stay is dependent on avialbility at Utengule Coffee Lodge. One entry per person.

Entrants must be 18 years or over. The decision of the organisers will be final.

The competition is not open to employees and their relatives of Utengule Coffee Lodge, Air Tanzania or Land & Marine Publications Ltd. The prize does not include flights or travel to and from the destination.

Images: Daniel Msirikale

TWO NIGHTS’ BED AND BREAKFAST

I

f you love coffee and the countryside, then Twiga has the competition prize of your dreams.

We are offering one lucky reader and their guest a twonight bed and breakfast stay at the Utengule Coffee Lodge, a 16-room haven of comfort and tranquillity with incredible views out to the Great Rift Valley. The family-friendly lodge has one of the finest restaurants in the region, a swimming pool, a tennis court and is the perfect base to explore the hikers’ paradise

of the Mbeya ranges that loom above it. Also, within easy reach are Untengule’s 400 acres of coffee plantations, which have been producing award-winning coffee for a century. There will be chances to see the coffee-making process close-up – especially exciting during the picking season from April to August – and, of course, taste plenty of the results.

Accommodation will be in one of the lodge’s spacious, self-catering bungalows, each with their own veranda.

Last issue’s

WINNER Congratulations to Vanessa De Carvalho who wins two nights’ bed and breakfast at the legendary Emerson on Hurumzi, Stone Town. Well done and thanks for flying Air Tanzania.

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Romantic hotels

The five most

ROMANTIC HOTELS in Mumbai

It’s easy to fall in love with Mumbai. India’s coastal metropolis is home to the heart-on-its-sleeve cinema of Bollywood and its elaborate Art Deco architecture makes the pulses soar as you explore. Its hotels will also keep the romance burning with stunning sea views to take in from rooftop bars and pools and rooms so sumptuous you’ll be loathe to leave their luxury. Here’s our pick.

The Taj Mahal Palace © Soho House Mumbai

Where: Apollo Bandar, Colaba How much: Rooms from US$ 546 Romance rating: A love that lasts.

Soho House Where: Juhu Tara Rd, Chandrabai Nagar, Santacruz West How much: Rooms from US$ 165 Romance rating: Bollywood love story.

Juhu Beach – with its chic bars and casual cricket matches – is all that separates this stylish 11-storey townhouse from the Arabian Sea. Such a fantastic location is best appreciated from the rooftop pool and bar – a sublime spot for a sundowner. The hotel is also very close to Bollywood studios and the film industry’s preening stars are often seen hanging out at the bar or the opulent screening room with its 32 armchairs made in mohair and Rajasthani hand-printed block fabric. Rooms are a pleasing blend of antique signature future and modern touches such as walk-in rain showers.

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LunaseeStudios / Shutterstock.com

Mumbaikers have had a love affair with this baroque beauty since it arrived in 1903, seeing it as a beacon of elegance and luxury. Its south Mumbai seafront location affords fantastic views as well as proximity to the trendy boutiques of the hip Khala Gouda. Guests are truly spoiled with four fine-dining restaurants, free yoga classes by its wonderful outdoor pool each morning and a personal butler service for rooms in the Palace Wing. Sharing one of the hotel’s high teas, a Mumbai institution, is a definite romantic treat.

AnilD / Shutterstock.com

Le Sutra Hotel Mumbai

saiko3p / Shutterstock.com

/ Romantic hotels

Le Sutra Where: 14 Union Park, Khar How much? Rooms from US$ 144 Romance rating: The food of love.

The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is situated next to the Gateway of India

The Oberoi Mumbai lobby red piano

Here’s a hotel that is as individual as the one you love. Le Sutra in the trendy coastal suburb of Bandra has its own gallery and the hotel is a work of art in itself. The 16 rooms are spread over three floors and are a playful take on the spiritual and aesthetic concepts from the ancient Vedic scriptures. The Tamas floor has a futuristic vibe with rooms that look like rocket ship interiors on the first Hindu space mission while the minimalist Sattva rooms are havens of calm. An arty crowd hang out at the hotel’s cozy restaurant, Out of the Blue, complete with gurgling waterfall. A wonderful one-off.

InterContinental Mumbai Where: 135 Marine Drive How much? Rooms from US$ 215 Romance rating: Views to fall in love with.

The Oberoi Where: Nariman Point How much: Rooms from US$ 250 Romance rating: Sophisticated splendour.

Mumbaikers have had a love affair with this baroque beauty since it arrived in 1903, seeing it as a beacon of elegance and luxury. Its south Mumbai seafront location affords fantastic views as well as proximity to the trendy boutiques of the hip Khala Gouda. Guests are truly spoiled with four fine-dining restaurants, free yoga classes by its wonderful outdoor pool each morning and a personal butler service for rooms in the Palace Wing. Sharing one of the hotel’s high teas, a Mumbai institution, is a definite romantic treat.

Another Marine Drive favourite, the InterContinental glories in its sweeping sea views and heart-stopping sunsets with a rooftop pool and open-air bar and restaurant, the Dome. Other dining options include Kebab Korner – don’t let the name put you off, it is a Mumbai institution, serving authentic Indian street food from world-renowned chefs in chic surroundings since 1971 – and the lavish L&S Bistro. The enormous rooms and suites all have that priceless view, marble bathrooms with standalone baths for a relaxing, romantic stay.

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trends

GIFTS FOR 2O2O From leather belts to shoulder bags, Twiga has collected a variety of stunning fashion accessories that are ideal for gifting family and friends in the new year.

Love Lane bag Cross body bag with dachshund printed design poppytreffry.co.uk US$ 39

Fun basket with shoulder straps Large round basket made from classic palm leaf 2ducktrading.com.au US$ 44

Leather belt One-piece belt made with premium quality washed fullgrain leather etsy.com US$ 45

Sanchong rainbow gemstones bracelet With gemstones including blue topaz, amethyst, peridot and garnet tsaixtsai.com US$ 323

Smock dress Pure silk with poppy motif jessicarussellflint.co.uk US$ 425

Melako earrings Handcrafted in East Africa.

A range of colours available bohemiadesign.com US$ 42

Limited edition umbrella Wooden handled umbrella featuring hand drawn design jessicarussellflint.co.uk US$ 70

Sophie Allport tote bag Gorgeous mustard yellow tote bag sophieallport.com US$ 52

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Cashew king

CONNECTING CASHEWS TO TANZANIA Fahad Awadh is nuts about cashews and, yes, he does know they are actually seeds, in fact there is very little he does not know about them. His research ahead of setting up YYTZ Agro-Processing, a fully automated cashew processing plant in Zanzibar, was exhaustive.

T

he most shocking fact the company’s chief cashew officer and co-founder unearthed was that despite Tanzania being the fourth largest producer of cashews in the world, 90 per cent of its product is exported – “straight from the trees”, as Awadh puts it – to countries such as Vietnam and India with the final roasted and ready-to-eat version reaching a European and US market often unaware they are munching on Tanzanian cashews.

“The situation was there was no idea of the true origin of the cashews,’ says Awadh. “I knew I had to address this opaque supply chain if I wanted to appeal to discerning, millennial customers in European and US markets to whom traceability is important. They want to know where the product came from and they want to know it was ethically sourced and the producer was well looked after.”

Awadh knows exactly where his cashews come from. He’s built the business around a group of smallholder farmers and women’s groups in the Mtwara region. They get a secure market to sell as well as YYTZprovided training on food safety, budgeting and good agricultural

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practices while Awadh gets some of the best cashews in the country.

Customers get to trace the connection from farm to packet thanks to an ingenious bit of technology, the first of its kind in the world, designed by a start-up in the Netherlands. Each pack has a QR code which, once scanned by your smartphone, reveals the name of the farmer whose land the cashews were picked from as well as a brief description of the farm. It even lets the customer thank the farmer for their work.

Competing in export market The state-of-the-art packaging is being introduced for YYTZ’s latest range, More Than Cashews, which is being launched in the new year.

Inside premium quality roasted cashew nuts are flavoured with sea salt, from Pemba, or from Zanzibar spices, and vacuum packed for freshness within in an aluminium inner barrier. It is key to Awadh that the processing adds value and appeals to customers willing to pay for quality as global prices for cashews as a commodity have plummeted.

With his fully automated processing plant in an industrial centre just outside Stonetown Awadh, who runs

YYTZ has introduced machines to speed up the shelling process at cashew farms

YYTZ with his former pilot father Ali (he started his flying career at Air Tanzania), is able to produce at a rate and standard that allows the company to compete in the export market. A team of 20 staff monitor machines that do the cashew drying, grading, screening and roasting before packaging them for sale. The only part of the cashew processing not done in the plant is the shelling, which is taken care of by the

/ Cashew king

Five facts about cashews

1 2

Cashews aren’t nuts. They are the seeds of the cashew apple.

The cashew’s seed lining contains a powerful irritant called anacardic acid (which is why they are never served or sold in their skins).

3

The botanical name Anacardium refers to the shape of the fruit, which looks like an inverted heart. It is formed from the Greek ana “upwards” and kardia “heart”).

4

They come from Brazil (unlike Brazil nuts, which are mostly found in Bolivia). Portuguese sailors planted them in Goa, India, in the late 1500s and from there they spread through Asia and Africa.

5

Cashews are very nutritious and are packed with protein and essential minerals including copper, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.

smallholder farmers.

Their work rate has, however, has also been boosted with machinery. A woman in the farms will typically shell 40 kilos a day, yet YYTZ has invested in semi-automated shelling machines for its smallholders that increase individual capacity to 600 kilos a day.

YYTZ has also ensured it is positioned to benefit from the latest scientific advances in cashew production. As well as its cashew

plantations, Mtwara is home to a research institute, which has recently created a hybrid cashew of superior flavour, size, colour and processability. YYTZ has bought thousands of the hybrid seeds and is giving them free to farmers in Singida, near Dodoma, which the Institute has highlighted as having the perfect conditions for cashews.

A sellable crop is achievable after just 18 months, which is previously

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/ Cashew king

Doing business is in Awadh’s blood. His childhood makes Bill Gates look like a late bloomer. He created his first product at age 12 – a range of scented candles unheard of. This year YYTZ has given out 35,000 seedlings to farmers in the district and next year promises 50,000. The expected high yields in the next few years should cement YYTZ’s status as major cashew products exporter.

Processing plant

(Top) Fahad Awadh and (above) cashew farmers in Mtwara

Checking crops in the Mtwara plantations

For more information on YYTZ, visit yytzagro.com

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While Mtwara and more recently Dodoma are prominent cashew producing areas, Zanzibar is definitely not. In fact, no cashews are grown commercially on the island at all. Still Awadh is convinced he made the right decision to base his processing plant there. In an effort to revive the ageing business park, YYTZ and many other businesses have been offered benefits such as three years free rent, help with building improvements and duty-free import of raw materials by the Welcoming Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority.

Then there is its proximity to Zanzibar’s efficient port and cargo ferry with trucks of shelled cashews coming straight to the processing plant. The port is also the first stage on the shipping route to Awadh’s main buyer in the Netherlands, where the bags of roasted cashews are distributed to outlets in Europe and Canada, including healthy supermarket chain Whole Foods.

YYTZ products are also being made available in the domestic market with luxury hotel the Hyatt Regency Dar es Salaam recently requesting a number of gift boxes containing dry roasted cashews sprinkled in sea salt as treats for guests. Three retailers in Kenya have also agreed to sell YYTZ products.

Awadh, who admits he even dreams of cashews, is experimenting with more potential products with cashew milk, cheese and butter in

the testing stages. Awadh is a disarmingly creative CEO – his designs for a T-shirt company cooked up with two of his friends while still at university in Canada were so good, they were modelled at fashion shows and were bought across the world – and very hands on. “I want to understand everything myself,” he says.

He is not your average entrepreneur. He meditates every morning and before we get down to our cashew chat, he talks knowledgeably about the ancient philosophy of stoicism and how it helps him deal with the ups and downs of running his own company.

However, doing business is in his blood. His childhood makes Bill Gates look like a late bloomer. As a talented pupil aged 11 in Toronto, Canada, he was selected to attend a full-time business school with subjects such as entrepreneurship and technology added to the syllabus. “It got me thinking in a different way,” he says. He created his first product at age 12 – a range of scented candles, rolled and decorated by himself, of course – which sold out at the district school board’s trade fair. It was an early example of Awadh knowing his audience – primarily female teachers – who he knew would swoon over the candles.

Now, Awadh knows the exacting standards of the audience he is aiming for with his responsibly sourced and premium grade cashews.

The sustainability is far more than a gimmick. There is a real duty of care between YYTZ and its farmers and Awadh will measure progress as much on their success as his own. “I want to be proud of what I do,” he says. “I’ve never just wanted to be successful. If you see the farmers and they’re still in the same place then I haven’t done anything.”

Hope Masike

‘MUSIC AND I WERE BORN TOGETHER’ Following the recent release of Hope Masike’s third album, The Exorcism of a Spinster, in Harare, Cecilia Kamuputa caught up with the Princess of Mbira to talk about her favourite sound, playing the mbira (thumb piano) and her biggest moments in music.

Q: Who is Hope Masike?

A: I am an African, a Zimbabwean whom God blessed with the gift of art! My name is Hope, the Hope who gave her life to this gift or calling and, more than anything, enjoys sharing it.

Q: What drew you to music?

A: At a very young age I discovered I was artistically gifted. It was no secret; be it at home or in school, there was no doubt there. So, me and art were born together, music included. What drew me to pursuing music academically and professionally was my discovering jazz and Mbira. I loved both a lot and decided it would be great to make money from something I love, to wake up each morning to do just that, to meet new people all my life and share my gift and life with them.

Q: Please explain your creative process.

A: My creative process is like the hen and egg case. In one case, the hen

starts it all, in the other, it’s the egg.

Some songs, I dreamed of, some I sat down and consciously decided to write based on a certain theme.

Other songs began as a pattern I just started playing on my mbira. Thank God for all these modern devices I can record myself the minute a new melody finds itself in my head. Of late, because I started venturing into poetry, many songs are now derived from poems I wrote. A song starts wherever it wants. From there, I try out different ideas from my tool bag of stuff then I just respect where I think the song wants me to take it.

Q: What is your favourite song to perform?

A: For a very long time it was ‘Ndinewe’, and I noticed that the song did not just lift me up but my audience too. It was also one of my most popular songs which really did well. ‘Ndinewe’ is a praise song dedicated to whomever or whatever makes you grow and glow.

Often times, I would get lifted into

Hope Masike was sure of her musical talents from a young age

A mbira or thumb piano

a beautiful universe of gratitude to God while performing the song, such heavy gratitude that for that moment, nothing else would matter.

And when gratitude takes over like that, truly nothing else matters, not even the problems you might be facing. Gratitude for even the smallest things is always bigger than any problem of any magnitude, I find.

Q: Is there a hidden meaning in your music?

A: Sometimes, yes. Sometimes I write a song very expressly meaning something but I choose to hide it in metaphor, because metaphors are beautiful. One of its beauties is that sometimes then anyone and everyone can have their own personalised meaning to a song.

Also, in my culture, in my language, Shona, important things were rarely said directly. They were spoken in proverbs, riddles and such, giving the message a broad, yet very direct meaning. I like emulating that in my writing.

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/ Hope Masike

Zimbabweans are very welcoming and kind, even more so to visitors. We like smiling and laughing; we are so good at turning lemons into lemonade, maybe a bit too good at this Q: Do you collaborate with others?

What is the process like?

A: Yes, I do and there are different processes with each musician I meet. With some there is an easy and immediate musical flow while with other musicians, the process is longer or requires a bit more work, especially when we do not share the same musical philosophies. However, each process is beautiful and important in its own way.

I, currently, am a long-standing member of two collaborative bands. One is called Monoswezi, acronym for Mozambique, Norway, Sweden and Zimbabwe, the four countries represented in the band.

The band sound is a fun Afro-Nordic fusion and our sound is a natural flow of Zimbabwean music plus Mozambiquean music blended with Scandinavian jazz.

My other long-standing collaboration is called Mahube, a Southern African outfit comprising musicians from Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique. It is led by acclaimed South African musician Steve Dyer.

This one is a great chance for me to experiment and have fun with the sound of southern Africa.

I have had difficult collaborations, mostly because of ‘conflicting’ music views, some where I found myself on stage wondering what on earth I was doing. I also haven’t found out yet if I can get into studio and work with a musician whose musical approach or style or even brand I do not particularly like. But I inherently think music itself is a bridge, meaning it’s a great catalyst for mixing things that seldom mix.

Q: What has been your biggest moment in your career?

A: Several, but being on stage, singing hand in hand with Salif Keita still takes the cup. I used to watch

Salif Keita on a Zimbabwean TV show called AfroBeat back then and my friends and I would sing along to his songs, with wrong lyrics of course and dance about with absolutely no idea whatsoever that one day one of us would be sharing the stage with him. So, the day I found myself standing next to Salif, singing with him became one of the biggest markers in my life that anything is possible, everything is possible and we create.

Q: What do you like to do outside of music that contributes to your musicality, maybe a hobby that you turn to rejuvenate or enhance your creativity?

A: The magic word there is poetry, be it reading or writing it.

Masike draws on traditional Zimbabwean music

Q: How has your music influenced you and others?

A: Positively I believe. I sing positivity. Where I can’t, I lament to God, which is still positive anyway. I hope I am also a big ‘anything is possible’ inspiration to the young ones out there.

Q: What is your favourite Zimbabwean sound?

A: Proudly and loudly Mbira.

Obviously!

Hero: Salif Keita

Q: What is your favourite Zimbabwean food?

A: Too many dishes I like but for now I will say, Mbwire mbwire. It’s so tasty but so dry and ‘dusty’ that it teaches you two important things: drink plenty of water and don’t rush or you will choke.

Q: What is one thing that makes you proud to be Zimbabwean? And African?

A: Our golden hearts. Zimbabweans are very welcoming and kind, even more so to visitors. We like smiling and laughing; we are so good at turning lemons into lemonade, maybe a bit too good at this. And Africa’s warm energy and the African sun are part of our strength and pride. Harnessing it is what we need to work on now.

Q: Other than for entertainment purposes, how else do you use your music?

A: It’s a shoulder to lean on, it’s my punch bag, and it’s my therapist.

Music has been many great things to me.

Q: What great things would you want visitors to come experience in Zimbabwe?

A: Come let us host you like the queens and kings you are. airtanzania.co.tz

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Farouque Abdela

‘Fashion is about individuality, colours and madness –

Zanzibar has them all’ He’s dressed Princess Diana and been the darling of swinging London, but fashion designer Farouque Abdela is now focused on transforming the look and lives of his homeland, Zanzibar

fashion scene of London that Abdela moved in for almost four decades.

His Afrocentric designs, put together with the embroidery and tailoring skills that were a family tradition and fine-tuned attending the London School of Fashion, brought him success and big-name clients. Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is said to have turned up unannounced at the designer’s Abbey Road studio to buy his entire collection of waistcoats and Abdela also famously designed for Princess Diana – the pair bonded over a love of going barefoot – as well as author Maya Angelou and jazz musician Courtney Pine.

Famous client: Princess Diana

aged 14, two years after the revolution – has, since his return, set about reuniting Stone Town and Zanzibar with its past.

Some of that work surrounds us as we talk. The Secret Garden was until recently the tattered remnants of a marketplace, but Abdela has helped transform it into a stylish open-air courtyard restaurant by day and a cool music venue at night hosting local taarab bands. An array of potted plants adds a lush landscape

Return to Zanzibar Still, it is clear that Zanzibar is where Abdela’s heart is. Many were surprised when he left London and returned to his birthplace in 2004.

Even the designer himself had his reservations on arrival. The still lithe and dapper 69-year-old has said in previous interviews that he felt “traumatised” on seeing what had become of the ornate Swahili architecture of Stone Town that so enchanted him as a young man. “I was getting lost in the streets they were so different,” he says. “I thought this is not my home. All the buildings were falling apart in 2004.”

But, Abdela – who left Zanzibar

Mark Reinstein/Shutterstock.com

“E

verything I wear is made in Zanzibar, except my glasses.” Fashion designer Farouque Abdela is holding court in the Secret Garden café of one of his favourite Stone Town hotels, Emerson Spice. He’s dressed immaculately in a loose black linen shirt and trousers, leather sandals and one of his own hand-printed waistcoats. The look is accessorised with a hand-made basket – bought on Pemba – and a similarly weaved fan that he flourishes to emphasise his points and battle the midday island heat.

The hottest hours of the day usually find him in the cool confines of sister hotel Emerson on Hurumzi where the staff are resplendent in the shimmering peach uniforms he designed and his interior design skills have given the rooms an opulent update.

Still, when we meet he is keen to talk over drinks at the Secret Garden.

I have been looking forward to interviewing Abdela for some time and he does not disappoint. As he cuts through Stone Town’s labyrinthine lanes, fan in full effect, I hear him end a phone call with a potential client with the withering: “I wouldn’t get out of bed for that amount, darling.”

It’s an arch comment that seems to come straight from the fierce

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/ Farouque Abdela

yzhnenko Dmitry/Shutterstock

Dresser to the stars: jazz artist Courtney Pine was one of Abdela’s clients

and modern artworks hang in each cloistered, intimate seating area, but many of the walls have been left in their crumbling original form so as, Abdela says, “to retain the link between then and now”.

Abdela found a kindred spirit in hotelier Emerson Skeens. He describes his friend as a “one of a kind who left a real legacy” in restoring such prominent, historic buildings – Emerson Spice was owned by the last Swahili ruler of Zanzibar and Emerson on Hurumzi once belonged to merchant Tharia Topan, then the richest man in East Africa – to their former glories. “Even when I am in the Hurumzi lobby it gives me a feeling of being among royalty.

There is something regal about that place.”

Reviving rituals Skeens died five years ago and Abdela sees himself as a “custodian in keeping his work and vision alive”.

Abdela has also revived one of the most glorious rituals of the age of the Sultans in Zanzibar – the Umbrella Dance. An elegant, colourful procession with dancers twirling their umbrellas high above their heads, the dance was introduced

by Zanzibar’s third Sultan Seyyid Barghash – who was also responsible for introducing taarab music to the island – to be performed only on his birthday.

Abdela loves the dance for its blend of beauty and rebellion.

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Carrying an umbrella was a sign of nobility at that time so a troupe of low-born dancers each brandishing one while performing for the sultan was a daring move. “It was a hit back,” says Abdela. “A way of saying we’ll do what is forbidden and we’ll do it better.”

The performance is the centrepiece of a series of ‘Unique Entertainments’ Abdela curates quarterly for visitors to the island. He feels tourism has been key to maintaining a demand for the Zanzibar’s archaic customs and here guests are showered with jasmine petals and entertained with traditional music and dances, which Abdela has choreographed and designed the costumes for. “They are a headache to arrange,” says Abdela, “but they are a lot of fun.” The shows provide regular work and a good income for the dancers, who had seen interest dry up in their skills before these events.

Timeless traditions Abdela, who still lives in family home on the outskirts of Stone Town with his two brothers, is doing what he can to keep these and other traditional art forms alive, but it is proving a battle. “You can smell and feel it,” he says. “The local culture is disappearing.”

He has never followed fashion’s fickleness and hunger for the new. “I don’t understand it when someone is able to tell you what this year’s colour is – I don’t want to be dictated to on creativity,” he says. “Fashion is about individuality, colours, madness.”

Timeless, traditional African textiles have always featured in Abdela’s fashion designs. He has amassed hundreds of khanga – his collection includes examples from the 1940s – and in returning to Zanzibar, where the khanga originated, he has done much to champion handcrafted quality in his work and that of his

protégés. He has a studio at Hurumzi – his work was once centred at the oceanfront Sultan’s palace The House of Wonders – where he continues to produce one-off designs “with the Farouque touch” for the local market as well as clients as far afield as Singapore, Brazil and London.

Abdela has found that the restrictions of working in Zanzibar have necessitated new levels of creativity.

“I have to be creative to get things done here. Some materials are not available to use so you have to rack your brain for alternatives. I recently created a collection from potato sack cloth and a collection from plastic bags here – something I never would have done in London. The plastic dresses are totally unwearable, but I sold them for a lot of money. Two Saudi princesses bought them. I couldn’t believe it.”

Usually, Abdela works with locally sourced hand-woven cotton and shares his stitching skills and years of expertise with students in his studio.

Many of them have gone on to start their own businesses. Abdela has also brought trained tailors from New York and London to the archipelago to teach cutting and proper finishing here and he has been campaigning for textiles and fashion courses to be introduced at Zanzibar University.

His work designing the uniforms at Hurumzi he sees as a model that could potentially transform the local fashion industry.

“There are 580 hotels on island,”

Abdela once had a studio in London’s famous Abbey Road

/ Farouque Abdela

I don’t understand it when someone is able to tell you what this year’s colour is – I don’t want to be dictated to on creativity

machines to make their own garments under the designer’s tutelage.

The results were sold at the Zapha+ market stall in Stone Town.

The project’s good work caught the attention of US President at the time, Bill Clinton. A well-known backer of Aids charities, Clinton visited the centre and was moved to send a cheque to cover rent and salaries for four years. The gesture had a huge financial impact, but more crucially it removed the stigma attached to the organisation on the island. “After Clinton left everyone wanted to know about the building,” Abdela says.

berm-TEERAWAT/Shutterstock.com

Giving back

he says. “If we empower our people here to design clothes for them all it will be cheaper for the hotel and create employment here. There are so many opportunities.”

For all Abdela’s work to revive traditional customs on Zanzibar what he is most proud of giving new life to is a group of young people who have become like a family to him since his return from what he calls his “self-imposed exile”.

His high profile on his return led to him being introduced to a group of young people who were all born with HIV from parents who had the illness.

He was asked if he could help the group organise itself. Abdela, who had lost many friend and colleagues to Aids during his time in the UK in the 1980s, was moved to help. He

co-founded the Zanzibar Association of People Living with HIV (Zapha+) to ensure the youngsters not only had long lives – all are given HIV treatment – but that their lives were full of promise.

Farouque Abdela at The Secret Garden in Stone Town, Zanzibar

Proudest moment Abdela organised English lessons as few of the group could read or write, taught them marketable skills and secured them an office to work from.

“The proudest moment of my life was when I handed over the keys to their office – the look on their faces was priceless,” he says.

Soon the group was making its own spice soap to sell – Emerson Spice was an early customer – and Abdela called in a few favours from his fashion friends to bring in sewing

Zapha+ has gone from strength to strength since with more than 3,000 members across Zanzibar and Pemba. Abdela’s role is less hands-on – “they don’t need me anymore,” he says – but he still puts his own money into the running of the project and visits still warm his heart.

“It’s wonderful to go in the office as there was a time people thought there was no hope,” he says. “Now they are running their own radio station and there is a photography club. There are people there who were only two years old when the project began and now they are training to be journalists. I would like to see a member of this organisation as a member of parliament one day.”

Abdela charitable efforts have continued with another cause close to his heart, the Organisation of People Living with Mental Illness, which he is a patron of.

“I like to help my own people,” he says. “There is a joy. I tell my friends in London what they have learned there they can teach others here. It’s wonderful to give back to your community. I am just one man. Imagine what we can do together.”

NEED TO KNOW For more information of Farouque Abdela’s Unique Entertainments, visit farouque.com To find out more about the work of Zapha+, go to envaya.org/zapha airtanzania.co.tz

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Tech for coffee

THE BEST GADGETS FOR

COFFEE MAKING Tanzania is renowned for its coffee with premier grade Arabica beans thriving in the plantations that terrace the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro and the Southern Highlands.

To retain that quality from farm to cup you need a good coffee maker. No idea where to start? Not to worry. Here’s our round-up of the best gadgets out there whether you want to brew a cup of café-quality coffee at home or while on safari.

Nanopresso Portable Espresso Machine

Ember Ceramic Smart Travel Coffee Mug

HyperChiller Instant Iced Coffee Maker

Everything is getting smart these days – cars, TVs, phones – so why not coffee mugs? Ember’s travel-friendly temperature control travel mug is one of the coolest coffee gadgets on the market. It keeps your hot beverage at the perfect temperature right down to the last drop thanks to its adjustable temperature dial at the bottom, which can even be controlled by the Ember smart phone app.

Let’s face it, East Africa gets hot and someºtimes when the sun is beating down the last thing you want to do is add to the heat with a steaming cup of coffee. Step forward the Hyperchiller, which can turn a hot coffee into an iced coffee in less than a minute so you get a cooling drink and still get your caffeine hit. What’s more there’s no ice involved so no chance the much-loved taste of your coffee is going to be watered down as it chills.

amazon.co.uk US$ 170

amazon.com US$ 44

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Make sure you start each morning of your camping trip in the Tanzanian wilds with a shot of freshly brewed espresso with this handy piece of kit. Once you’ve packed in the ground coffee good and hard the Nanopresso’s patented super-pumping system reaches high levels of pressure during the extraction process (sometimes more than an at-home espresso machine!) for unparalleled coffee quality.

All you need to do is add boiling water and hit the pump. At only 15 cm long and weighing less than half a kilo it’s eminently portable, but you can get a cheaper mini version if you wish. wacaco.com US$ 64

/ Tech for coffee

De’Longhi Magnifica S Bean To Cup Coffee Machine For coffee connoisseurs nothing but a beanto-cup maker (a machine with a built-in coffee bean grinder) will do. However, while these appliances do produce a richer, more intense cup of coffee, they often cost an eye-watering amount of money. Thankfully, De Longhi’s Magnifica range is relatively affordable. This model’s grinder has 13 separate settings so you can brew a bespoke beverage and there is a built-in water filter to ensure fantastic flavour with each cup. There is also a milk frother and an adjustable coffee dispenser means you can choose between espresso or full-size cups. If the range of options are dizzying and you just want a quick cuppa, hit the auto cappuccino button and in no time at all you’ll have a luxuriously frothed drink to enjoy. amazon.co.uk US$ 320

Bialette Moka Express For all the modern inventions that flood the market sometimes only a classic will do. The Bialette Moka has been around since the 1930s and it revolutionised the way coffee is made first in Italy and then around the world. It’s simple to use and turns making coffee into a simple, sensory daily ritual. Fill the base with water, add your preferred amount of ground coffee to the metal filter basket then heat on the hob or above a bush fire.

The tell-tale gurgling signals the water is gushing through the coffee and it’s time to take it off the heat. By then the smell of the coffee has flooded the house and you have a delicious brew – strong and highly caffeinated and ideal for a morning hit. amazon.com US$ 25

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Hotel review

FLAME TREE COTTAGES, ZANZIBAR Once a family home that has grown into an oceanside complex of 19 elegant and thoughtfully placed rooms, Flame Tree Cottages is a true Zanzibar hideaway on the island’s northernmost tip. Mark Edwards finds the family feel is still present in the warm welcome and air of informality and that a stay here is a great way to immerse yourself in the coastal community of the fishing village of Nungwi

Style

Location Getting here means grabbing a taxi and driving as far north as you can go before you hit the ocean. This takes just over an hour (a dala dala is a much cheaper, but longer option and you may spend much of your holiday having to repair your frayed nervous system as a result – Flame Tree does offer massages and yoga) and means coming here feels like a real escape. It also means you’ll need a car to get anywhere, such as visiting the very-worth-it spice farms that pepper this end of the island. However with one of the best stretches of salt-white sand in the already beach-blessed Nungwi right on your doorstep, a turtle sanctuary, a host of water-sports and restaurants to enjoy and

the fishing village with its dhow builders just a few minutes’ walk along the beach you may not want to leave anyway.

The coast is full of life here. A fleet of fishermen venture out into the Indian Ocean and bring in their catch every day. The water shelves gently here so it’s a safe swimming spot and the tide is less extreme here so you can swim at almost any time of day. That is except for a couple of days each month when the tide retreats to such an extent the offshore coral reef can be explored like a bizarre marine garden. Make sure you take a pair of water shoes – they can be borrowed for free at the hotel – as there are sea urchins lurking underfoot.

The complex with its lush, manicured gardens gives off a sense of peace and tranquillity. A stay here is an opportunity to unplug whether you are a family, a couple or a solo traveller.

Each room has an attractive veranda with dining table and cushioned chairs for relaxing so if you are with a young family you can dine in privacy.

The family-friendly theme continues with a lovely outdoor swimming pool with large shallow area for younger swimmers and there are kayaks and badminton and boules sets for guests to borrow free of charge.

Flame Tree seems to hook those that stay there and the number of repeat visitors is high. Communal areas are filled with sofas airtanzania.co.tz

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/ Hotel review

made for lounging and there are hand-carved wooden bookcases stocked with a wide choice of paperbacks left behind by former guest.

There’s free wi-fi throughout the complex if you have young ones who are more interested in their tablets than the printed page.

No matter how gripping your book is, once sunset begins there will be only one thing you’ll want to focus on. The hotel is west facing for perfect sunset views and offers wonderful vantage points to watch the day’s glowing goodbye spread across the ocean.

Service and Facilities The friendly staff in their colourful flowery shirts are always around to help. Even if you don’t see them, it seems they see you. Sit outside on your veranda anytime between 7.30 am and 10 am and they will appear with a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs in any style and a French press of steaming coffee.

The hotel can also arrange a variety of trips for guests, including a sunset cruise – Flame Tree has its own boat, which is crewed for trips by a couple of members of staff There is also an on-site spa with a range of relaxing treatments and yoga classes twice a day, excluding Saturdays. Early morning sessions are held in the open-air garden studio while evening classes take place on the rooftop of the main house. It’s the perfect vantage point to take in the sunset and the lapping waves. Such fantastic locations for classes make Flame Tree Cottages popular with regular yoga retreats throughout the year.

Rooms Among the 19 rooms there are four family villas with two bedrooms each with the rest made up of king-size and twin-bed doubles.

All the rooms are en-suite, airy and unfussily decorated. There are mahogany writing desks and dressing tables and plenty of room to store your clothes. My double bed was a lovely four-poster – decorated with petals each day by the cleaner – swathed in a mosquito net. There was also repellent and candles on hand should I have wanted to spend the evening on my veranda (however, mosquitoes were few and far between during my stay in late December).

Food and Drink The hotel attracts a pretty fit bunch of guests, who, after a day of yoga, diving and sailing, are after some healthy food to refuel.

The hotel’s beachside restaurant with tables on the sand has a menu that makes full use of the bounty of fresh produce available locally as well as having plenty of gluten-free and vegetarian options. Seafood, as you would imagine, is screamingly fresh. The catch of the day is just that with the hotel’s Zanzibari chef making daily visits to the local fishermen’s market.

There is also a daily changing specials board for lunch and dinner and the bar, with its attractive thatched roof, offers an impressive range of cocktails.

Flame Tree Cottages offers stylish accommodation just footsteps from the white sand beach of Nungwi in northern Zanzibar

NEED TO KNOW Flame Tree Cottages, Nungwi Zanzibar. Tel: +255 24 224 0100 email: info@flametreecottages.com

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Fred Uisso

Fighting talk from Chef Fred

Fred Uisso has done much to put Tanzanian cuisine on the map with a string of international cookery prizes under his belt and a TV show that explores the country’s rich culinary heritage. Mark Edwards finds the owner of destination dining restaurant Africando is now looking to inspire the next generation of Tanzanian chefs.

All images: Emanuel Feruzi

“T

ell Gordon Ramsay, I want to fight him.”

Chef Fred Uissa seems in a combative mood and as a former Tanzanian heavyweight champion boxer you’d have to put your money on him if he ever came to blows with the reliably furious UK celebrity chef and TV star.

However, the challenge is made with a big smile on Uissa’s face.

To him, Ramsay is a hero and the

Moshi-born chef and entrepreneur has carved a similar international renown on the back of his own cooking skills and charisma.

Memories of the UK Sitting back in his office above his Dar restaurant Africando, Uissa seems in fine spirits, reminiscing about his days in the UK in the 1980s. He still savours his introduction to British cuisine on arrival at

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/ Fred Uisso

Paddington train station in London – a steak and kidney pie and a can of Tango. His time in the UK capital, where his interest in Ramsay was piqued, was spent studying as well as honing his culinary skills in some of London’s top hotels, including the Marriott in Marble Arch. One of his dinner guests was the UK boss of international supermarket chain Marks & Spencer, who was so impressed he signed Uisso up as his personal chefs on business trips to locations such as Ghana and Russia.

Culinary upbringing Uissa was already a talented chef before he arrived in the UK. His mother instilled in him and his five siblings a love of food and cooking in the family home in Rombo, near Moshi, and these skills were recognised in his first job at Mikumi Wildlife Camp. He applied to work in administration, but was soon preparing the food for guests, which included a large group of Brazilian contractors who were so impressed with his creations they made him their Camp Food Master.

The Brazilian tastes didn’t run too far from Tanzanian – “They like manyoka, beans and chapattis,”

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Uisso says – but, the learning chef was broadening his repertoire and soon he was providing the food for the team building Dar International Airport.

The influence of Uisso’s globetrotting can be seen in the menu at Africando, which has elements of Mexican and European cuisine amid the traditional Tanzanian favourites. The 60-year-old – he still has a boxer’s physique despite hanging up the gloves in 1985 – had the restaurant built from scratch in 2003 on a plot of land in Dar’s Mwananyamala neighbourhood and from the start had grand ambitions for the place. “I wanted it to be among the top five restaurants in town and compete with Dar’s biggest restaurants by serving fantastic, affordable food and good portions.”

He was true to his word. While Africando’s location lies well way from the restaurant-lined highways of Oyster Bay and the city centre, the quality of Uisso’s food soon made it one of the hottest dining destinations in the city with star names

Chef Fred Uisso has proved himself on the world stage

to be spotted in its leafy, shaded courtyard. Recent A-list guests have included former Miss Tanzania Wema Sepetu and actress JB as well as a host of movie actors and government officials.

Masaptasapta

Uisso is now keen to pass on his skills to the next generation

With Africando securing his fame in Dar, Uisso built his brand across the country as star of ‘Masaptasapta’ or ‘Yummy, Yummy’. The popular Azam

/ Fred Uisso

I wanted Africando to be among the top five restaurants in town and compete with Dar’s biggest restaurants by serving fantastic, affordable food

TV show follows Uisso as he searches for the recipes of the ancestors, focusing on a different tribe every week. Each episode ends with Uisso setting up his travel kitchen and preparing the dish himself. He admits to “loving the spotlight” and he is a natural in front of the camera – engaging, funny and with an obvious passion for the recipes he has uncovered. He is understandably very proud of the show. “I wanted it to be like a movie and be authentic and natural,” he says.

Uisso has also found fame far from Tanzania and in doing so has been able to promote the country’s cuisine to the rest of the world. In 2016 he was selected to compete in World Food Challenge, held in the US and considered one of the calendar’s leading food sports competitions.

Uisso came fourth overall, but won hearts across Alabama, the US state that hosted the event, as the first African chef to ever make the finals.

“I was the talk of the town,” says Uisso.

In the same year a YouTube video of Uisso preparing a recipe won second place in the World Gourmet Society Competition, which is judged by 50,000 online

voters across the world. Uisso was invited to the ceremony in Monte Carlo, in the south of France, to pick up his award.

Sharing his skills There will be no more international competitions. Uisso says he has “proved his point” and is keen to give the next generation of Tanzanian chefs a chance to shine. He is also doing what he can to ensure he passes on his experience to the new breed, running masterclasses for budding chefs.

The kitchen staff at Africando are all street kids Uisso has trained for free. “My chefs are street chefs – I feed them well and teach them how to be creative,” he says. Uisso calls down for one of the team to prepare me some dinner – a lightly dusted fillet of Nile perch with one of Uisso’s trademark sides, potato chips, “fried three times so they are crunchy on the outside and soft inside”.

The young chef has only been under Uisso’s tutelage for three months, but the master has taught him well. The food is absolutely delicious. I wolf it down as Uisso talks about his current efforts to preach healthy eating to Tanzanians and

how one of his biggest ambitions now is to create meals featuring fresh, local produce for customers on Air Tanzania flights.

There are plenty more ideas taking shape. Uissa has also been licenced by the World Food Championships to organise Africa Food Championships in the near future, he plans to open a new branch of Africando in Arusha and building works are well under way at the Dar restaurant to add bed and breakfast facilities with Uisso ultimately hoping to offer food and board at both venues to travellers exploring Tanzania.

Chef Fred Uisso is a busy man. That bout with Gordon Ramsay may just have to wait.

Chef Fred Uisso’s tips for eating healthily 5 Less starch, more protein and veggies 5 Cut out the snacks 5 Stick to breakfast, lunch and dinner

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Sound and vision

Faysal blogger

At least slow buses let me get plenty of reading done Faysal Alao is a vlogger and tour operator from Tanzania living in Arusha. He uploads videos roughly every other day about his experiences and everyday lifestyle on his YouTube channel, ‘Lifestyle of Faysal’. You can also keep up with him on Snapchat @faysal_alao and Instagram @callmefays

MUSIC REVIEWS

BY MARK EDWARDS

Living in Dar es Salaam has always been enjoyable for me because of my enthusiasm for a great social life, its multicultural setting and tropical climate. Over the last few decades, the city has thrived, becoming a metropolis of over six million people.

With energetic trade, arts, fashion, media and music scenes it is easily the most prominent city in Tanzania.

Such a popular city does have its drawbacks when it comes to traffic and the long bus ride certainly seems to frustrate the daily commuters, but I do, finally, get back home. The rapid growth in Dar has made the city face serious congestion and mobility challenges worsened by an underdeveloped road network and an increase in motor vehicles.

This, however, is a challenge being faced by a number of countries which have a growing middle class. The article provided an insight into the daily challenges of people who go through this traffic congestion every day and how it affects productivity.

The author had suggested on improving the capacity of roads in terms of increasing number of lanes, proposing new overpasses and underpasses at the main road intersections, and developing small towns to prevent the push factor of migration to the city centre.

In my opinion, this would help alleviate congestion hotspots and also support public transit, mobility and connectivity for citizens who live in low-income communities.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Standing at the bus station, I was torn between taking a dala dala or trying my luck with the new bus rapid transit. Knowing I was in for a long journey, I grabbed a magazine from a vendor.

It contained an article entitled ‘Access to the City, which made interesting reading.

FILM REVIEWS

It was getting late in the evening with the sun starting to retreat.

Everyone around me seemed to be in a rush to get the closest bus home. I had just taken the ferry back to Dar after a day spent catching up with my friends on Kigamboni Island.

COLDPLAY / ‘Everyday Life’ When Coldplay’s breakthrough song, ‘Yellow’, was released almost 20 years ago, its beatific refrain that “everything was all yellow” ushered in the band and singer Chris Martin’s seemingly unquenchably positive world view. It has stood the UK band well with their brand of upbeat stadium rock making them one of the biggest bands on the planet.

However, latest double album Everyday Life admits the world is a troubled place and explores war, racism, faith, gun control, climate change, police brutality and more.

The new sounds span the world – highlight ‘Arabesque’ features Nigerian brass arrangements and three generations of the country’s legendary Kuti family while the transcendent ‘Church’ has background vocals in Arabic – and compound the album’s theme of unity across races and faiths in these troubled times.

21 BRIDGES / Directed by Brian Kirk A hot-headed New York cop (played

by Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman) is tasked with tracking down a pair of drug thieves who are suspected of shooting seven policeman in their escape. To do this he closes down the 21 Bridges that surround Manhattan so the thieves are trapped on the island.

With just a few hours to find them the ticking clock and the compact geography make for a sleek edge-of-the-seat thriller. The characters are drawn in broad strokes and the script’s clichés outnumber the bridges, but still there is a claustrophobic intensity to the action, especially during a thrilling chase through the Big Apple’s subway system.

MANCHESTER HAPPENED / Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi UK-base Ugandan writer Nansubuga has followed up her debut novel, ‘Kinti’, with another masterpiece. This collection of short stories will strike a chord with those that have left home to seek opportunities abroad. It’s dedicated to the “fearless Ugandans in the diaspora” with tales that give insight into the immigrant experience from the 1950s to the present day. Weaving between Manchester and Kampala, this impressive collection will captivate anyone who has ever wondered what it means to truly belong.

Culture coming up Agnes-Senga Tupper, the director of Chuma Art Workshop, in Dar es Salaam, rounds up the latest events in arts, music and film in the commercial capital.

STORMZY / Heavy is the Head London Grime artist Stormzy seems well aware that there is a lot expected of him with the release of his second album. The album’s title, Heavy is the Head, is suggestive of the burden of responsibility to outdo his multi-award-winning debut ‘Gang Signs and Prayer’ – as well as the morning after symptoms of a young man’s partying lifestyle – but he needn’t worry.

The follow-up is even better. There’s plenty of big-name collaborations among the 16 tracks with guest artists including Nigeria’s Burna Boy, Aitch and Headie as well as a rapping Ed Sheeran on single ‘Own It’, but it’s Stormzy show. On solo tracks such as ‘Sound of the Skeng’ and ‘Vossi Bop’ he flows with confidence and humour, but matches that brashness with reflective insight on tracks such as the sweetly sung ‘The Crown’. It’s clear he still wears it.

FROZEN 2 / Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee Frozen became the biggest animated film of all time and there was no way that Disney were going to ‘Let it Go’ without a sequel. The sequel comes packed with more earworm songs and once again champions sisterhood, love and acceptance in charmingly empowering singalong fashion. This time Elsa the Snow Queen and her sister Anna, joined by friends, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven, embark on an adventure far away from the kingdom of Arendelle. They head to an enchanted forest where its indigenous people have been trapped for decades by a magical fog. There’s a Greta Thunberg quality to our heroes this time around as they battle to undo the damage done by past generations and rousing anthem ‘Into the Unknown’ is destined to be a karaoke staple.

ART TALKS AND HANGOUTS Artists in residence / at Nafasi Arts Space Meet artists Sbonelo Lithuli, from South Africa, Finland’s Vilma Pimenoff and Kirubel Melke, from Ethiopia, during their four-week residency at Nafasi where they will share artistic projects. Stay up to date with the Nafasi Art Space social media pages for announcement of dates.

The Nafasi Academy Launch / 3 February Nafasi Art Space launches its first art school to train selected aspiring artists from marginalised groups to take their talents to the next level. The launch event will include talks, live music and food. Open to all.

FILM AND EXHIBITIONS

Cinema / every Friday night / at the Alliance Française Thursday Movie Nights / at the Goethe-Institut Cine Kids / every last Saturday of the month 11am at the Alliance Française

A Bad Idea / until 20 January / at Nafasi Arts Space A group exhibition by artists using different mediums exploring and presenting what could be classified as a bad idea in art.

LIVE MUSIC AND MORE Sauti za Busara Festival / 13 until 16 February at Old Fort, in Stone Town, Zanzibar.

NUDIBRANCH / Irenosen Okojie Award-winning Nigerian writer Okojie’s latest work is a collection of short stories. The tales are full of otherworldly situations and oddball characters – among them a young Martinique woman who is a Grace Jones impersonator by night, a dimension-hopping monk who has taken a vow of silence and a homeless man who slips through a gap in time.

The tales mix beauty and the grotesque, which is perhaps why Okojie has named the collection after a group of jelly-bodied, kaleidoscopic sea slugs. Bodies both fascinate and repulse in these nightmarish tales that are never less than bold and inventive.

East and central Africa’s largest international music festival, featuring musicians from across the continent.

Chi and Friends / at Triniti Bar, Oysterbay from 13 February to 12 March from 7.30 pm until late Open mic nights of music, poetry and comedy.

Slow Sessions / Thursdays 6pm to late at the Slow Leopard, Masaki Jazzy, laidback performances from some of Tanzania’s smoothest live music acts.

Marafiki Night Live / at The Slow Leopard 3 January, 7 February and 6 March from 7 pm to late Live music and dancing.

Punch Line Comedy Show / 8 pm to late / at Elements Stand-up comedy show with music. Every second and last Wednesday of the month.

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Tanzania’s treasures Katavi

KATAVI NATIONAL PARK The real Eden of the Southern Highlands is filled with wildlife but not human visitors. It’s time to visit this hippo heaven

T

o drive across the lush green marshland of Katavi National Park, filled with hippos, elephants, waterfowl and abundant antelopes is to understand why it has been called East Africa’s best wildlife park.

Set within the shallow arm of the Rift Valley that runs south-east from Lake Tanganyika to terminate in the marshy expanse of Lake Rukwa, Katavi is Tanzania’s third largest National Park and, according to one recent scientific survey, holds a higher concentration of game than any other.

The park receives fewer visitors in the course of an average year than would pass through the entrance

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gate of one of its better-known peers – Ngorongoro Crater or the Serengeti, for instance – during a quiet hour.

when the floodwaters retreat, that Katavi comes into its own.

The Katuma, reduced to a shallow, muddy trickle, forms the only source of drinking water for kilometres around, and the flanking floodplains support game

River life Tangled brachystegia woodland covers much of the park and is an ideal habitat for eland, sable and roan antelopes. But the main focus for game viewing within the park is the Katuma River and its seasonal lakes Katavi and Chada.

During the rainy season, these lush, marshy lakes are a haven for myriad of water birds and they also support Tanzania’s densest concentrations of hippo and crocodile.

It is during the dry season,

Park life: A lion cub and crocodile in Katavi National Park

A male lion in Katavi

concentrations that defy belief.

While visiting the park, you can count up to 100 hippos out of the water with passing numbers of thirsty elephant, buffalo, lion, hyena and various antelope.

The two-metre-wide trickle of muddy, sluggish knee-deep water that the Katuma is reduced to becomes a haven for hippos.

Wherever the water is belly deep, groups of up to 200 hippos flop across each other like seals at a breeding colony.

Haven for hippos These hippo concentrations comprise several different groups that would be dispersed across the saturated flood plain at other times of year.

Observers will witness dramas as males battle for supremacy in the crowded pools, with bloody territorial disputes occurring practically on a daily basis.

The Katuma shallows also supports herds of other animals on a scale seldom seen elsewhere in modern-day Africa. An estimated 4,000 elephants might converge on the area, together with several herds of 1,000-plus buffalo, while an abundance of giraffe, zebra, impala and reedbuck provide easy pickings for the numerous lion prides and spotted hyena clans whose territories converge on the floodplains.

Also common on the flood plain are smaller herds of topi, reedbuck and defassa waterbuck, while the fringing brachystegia woodland hosts substantial populations of impala, giraffe, eland and - more elusively - sable and roan antelope, as well as leopard.

This mammalian wealth is

complemented by a diversity of birds. Highlights are the prolific water birds that congregate along the rivers wattled and blacksmith plovers, yellow-billed, open-billed and saddle-billed stork and pelican are common - as well as yellowthroated sand grouse which come chuckling and gargling to drink a couple of hours after sunrise.

The dazzling lilac-breasted roller and elegant grey-backed shrike perch conspicuously on open branches, while taller stands of acacia, such as those around the tented camp, are home to the gorgeous paradise flycatcher, sulphur-breasted bush-shrike and black cuckoo-shrike.

Dry season During dry season, from May to October, the vegetation is lush with higher animal concentrations.

During the wet season, the internal roads are often impassable and swarms of mosquitoes and tsetse flies prohibit enjoyment.

GETTING TO KATAVI NATIONAL PARK: Katavi is too remote to be a realistic goal for a road safari within the duration of a typical vacation. Overland driving visitors can reach Katavi via Sumbawanga along a reasonable rough road that forks west from the main Lusaka-Dar es Salaam highway near the Tunduma border.

Using public transport, trains run from Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Kigoma via Tabora to Mpanda, from where plenty of light vehicles cover the 35 kilometre road to the park headquarters at Sitalike. Game-viewing vehicles are available at Sitalike for US$ 100 per day inclusive of fuel.

The park covers an area of 4,471 kilometers or (1,727 sq miles). East of Lake Tanganyika. The park headquarters is located at Sitalike, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Mpanda town.

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Wheels car review All images: Toyota Motor Corporation

Toyota Harrier

AFFORDABLE LUXURY F

or many years the Toyota Harrier has been a rather unremarkable but moderately popular used import. In many ways it was the ideal SUV for those looking for a combination of space and comfort and who did not care too much about the ride, handling and style.

This was certainly true of the mid-sized crossover’s early guises.

But the current version of the Harrier (in effect, the mark IV), which was

launched back in 2013, is far superior in almost every respect to the earlier models. Then in 2017, the Harrier benefitted from a minor facelift.

In fact, and since 2013, the less-than-exciting Harriers of old have morphed into something much more stylish and form part of Toyota’s sharply crafted range of vehicles such as the eye-catching C-HR. The Mark IV is also a tad more muscular in its appearance than the first three versions of the Harrier.

There’s still plenty of the original Harriers for sale across East Africa and they still hold their value. Even today, buyers can expect to pay around TSH 25 million a Mark 1 or Mark 2.

Soft-roader Touch control

For those with more money to spend then used examples of these latest-model post-2013 Harriers are now finding their way to our part of the world. But

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/ Wheels car review

…used examples of these latest-model post-2013 Harriers are now finding their way to our part of the world

is this particular Toyota worth considering?

First of all, the high-riding Harrier is available in both 4x4 and 2x4 configurations. But unless there’s lots of off-road driving to do, then the cheaper and quicker 2x4 will be fine for most buyers. After all, the Harrier has always been much more a softroader than an off-roader.

Under the hood The Harrier’s engine is a 2.0 litre four-cylinder producing a slightly a just-about-adequate 149 hp.

However, and in other markets, and in its 2.5 litre hybrid version, this is combined with two electric motors and produces 197 horsepower. But maybe this model will not be on offer in East Africa as there are still concerns about the high-tech nature of hybrid powertrains and their cost to maintain and repair.

The latest model of the Harrier is paired with a six-speed automatic

transmission, but a CVT gearbox should be available as well. Toyota claims a top speed of 180 km/h for the Harrier and fuel consumption of 13.2 km/L., which is probably what buyers would expect for such an SUV.

Sporty option Look out for Harriers in sportier Elegance trim when choosing a pre-2013 model. These come with a body kit, lowered sports suspension, wider wheels, uprated brakes and sports seats. But beware. Due to some unfathomable rebranding

by Toyota, the Elegance actually became the entry level model post-2013.

So, if you looking for a reliable, well-built mid-sized crossover then the Harrier must surely be given a look – especially when the undoubted advantages of owning a Toyota are taken into account.

Packed with safety features

LEXUS In many markets elsewhere, a slightly modified version of the Harrier is sold new as a Lexus RX. And there is no doubt the odd used RX’s will, in time, be found for sale among Dar’s car bazaars.

The only outward difference between the two is the fact that the Harrier has a slightly less appealing front-end, while Lexus buyers get a decidedly more upmarket cabin. But the Harrier definitely presents much better value for money and I would certainly recommend over the Lexus-badged RX.

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Travel information

Before take-off Taking your first flight is certainly exciting, but can also become a source of stress for those who are unfamiliar with the rules, procedures and customs of flying. To prepare yourself for your first flight, it is therefore important to get information on everything you need to do before and during your journey. Here is a useful pre-departure checklist.

1

Before departing, it is important to check the airline’s website for its hand luggage rules: weight, sizes and types of objects you can take on board. For example, as regards liquids, you are advised to carry these in your hand luggage, only in transparent, reseal able, plastic containers, not exceeding 100 ml. In this section, you will find information regarding the hand luggage permitted on your flights; if you have connection flights, we advise that you also check the websites of other airlines.

2

Arriving at the airport in advance (at least two hours for domestic flights and three hours for international flights)

will enable you to check in and board your flight calmly, without anxiety and without unexpected last-minute issues.

3

Check in online, if possible.

If travelling with hand luggage alone, you can check in online and print or download your boarding pass which you must take with you directly to security checks. This will enable you to save precious time once at the airport and to go to the gate calmly. For further information, please visit the dedicated page.

4

Set your mobile to flight mode, as well as other devices connected to the internet that you are taking on board.

Cabin crew will remind you of this step before take-off. With flight mode set, you can still take photos of your unforgettable journey and you can also enjoy the in-flight entertainment system! To find out more, please visit the dedicated section.

5

If you suffer from motion sickness… you will only find out about it during your first flight! To prevent sickness from ruining your first flight on a plane, we advise you to take natural remedies, such as, for example, ginger tablets or gum to chew. Ginger is believed to have a anti-nausea properties. Otherwise, ask your doctor to prescribe you antihistamines with a sedative effect.

6

Enjoy the view! By choosing a seat near the window, you will see breath-taking landscapes and you can take photos of the exquisite white clouds you will be flying above.

Try to take a nap. Sleeping on the plane will make time pass faster and you will arrive at your destination calm and rested.

7

8

Lastly, especially during take-off and landing, the change in pressure inside the cabin may cause discomfort in your ears. To prevent this discomfort, you are advised to stay awake during these manoeuvres and to chew gum or wear earplugs.

AIR TANZANIA FLEET National carrier Air Tanzania is justifiably proud of its revamped six-strong fleet. Here we take a close-up look at our aircraft with technical data and specifications.

BOMBARDIER/ DE HAVILLAND DASH 8-Q400 Number of aircraft available: 3 Bombardier, 1 De Havilland Seat capacity: (Bombardier) Business Class 6, Economy 70, (De Havilland) Business class 10, Econony 68 Number of flight-deck crew: 2 Range: 6,112 km (3,300 Nm) Typical cruising speed: 470 knots (541 mph or 871 km/hr) Thrust per engine at sea level: 23,300 lbf. / 103.6 kN Wingspan: 115 ft 1 in. (35.1 m)

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AIRBUS 220-300 (CS300) Number of aircraft available: 2 Seat capacity: Business Class 12 and 120 Economy Class Number of flight-deck crew: 2 Range: 6,112 km (3,300 Nm) Typical cruising speed: 470 knots (541 mph or 871 km/hr) Thrust per engine at sea level: 23,300 lbf / 103.6 kN Wingspan: 115 ft 1 in (35.1 m) Length: 127 ft (38.7 m) Interior cabin width: 129 inches (3.28 m)

BOEING 787-8 DREAMLINER Number of aircraft available: 2 Seat capacity: Business Class 22 and 240 Economy Class Number of flight-deck crew: 2 Range: 13,621 km (7,355 Nm) Typical cruising speed: 488 knots (561 mph or 903 km/hr) Thrust per engine at sea level: 64,000 lbf / 280 kN Wingspan: 197 ft 3 in (60.12 m) Length: 186 ft 1 in (56.72 m) Interior cabin width: 18 ft 0 inch (5.49 m)

Flying between COMORO - AFRICA TANZANIA - TANZANIA AFRICA - INDIA AFRICA - AFRICA

hours ahead of your flight time for domestic flights and three hours for international flights.

Family travel

Passports and visas A valid passport or travel document that is valid for at least six months is required to enter the United Republic of Tanzania.

Visitors will also require a valid visa upon arrival. There are a range of visas available depending on the nature and frequency of your visits, but a single entry visa can be obtained on arrival in Tanzania subject to the fulfilment of all immigration requirements. There is a US$ 50 charge for the visa.

For a full list of visas available and for countries for which special terms exist, visit the Air Tanzania website.

Check-in Check in online, if possible. If travelling with hand luggage alone, you can check in online and print or download your boarding pass, which you must take with you directly to security checks. You should check in two

Fares for infants and children As a general rule, children up to two years old are not required to have their own seat and are allowed to travel on parents’ lap.

An infant tickets costs 10 per cent of the regular fare. Depending on the destination, taxes and fees may apply. Please note that only 1 baby per adult is accepted. You can choose to buy a seat for your baby at the reduced rates for children if any children’s rate is applicable.

If your child is older than two years or turns two while you are travelling, you will have to book a separate seat for him or her and book the children fare for the entire journey. If a child travels with an accompanying adult in the same class of cabin, the child should be seated in the same seat row as the accompanying adult. Where this is not possible, the child should be seated no more than one seat row or aisle away. Reduced rates apply for children aged two to 11 on most routes, depending on the travel class. Children turning 12 years en route need to be booked as adults for the entire journey.

Expectant mothers Our priority is always your safety and that of your unborn child.

To avoid unnecessary risks to you and your baby, we recommend

Free allowance

30 kg 23 kg 2PC @ 23 kg 2PC @ 23 kg

that all expectant mothers consult a doctor before booking their ticket and inquire about their fitness to fly the length of the trip they intend to take.

Depending on the stage and circumstances of your pregnancy, you may be required to present certain medical forms before flying. For your own safety and the well-being of your child, Air Tanzania will not accept expectant mothers who are pregnant from their 36th week or beyond.

UMNR (children travelling alone) If you’re planning for your child to travel alone, we’re here to make sure they enjoy their trip and that they are well taken care of throughout their journey.

When you book our unaccompanied minor service, your child will be received at the originating airport, taken care of during transit and while on board the aircraft. He or she will be handed over to the person designated by the parents/ guardians upon arrival at the final destination.

Cost To avail the unaccompanied minor service, an adult fare needs to be purchased for the child. Please contact us to book the flight and the service.

Infant fare checked baggage allowance Infants travelling on an infant fare are allowed 10 kg as baggage allowance.

BUSINESS

Air Tanzania has a free allowance for passengers’ baggage across economy and business class. For full details and rates please see our website www.airtanzania.co.tz or contact booking enquiries 0800 110045

ECONOMY

FREE BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE

Free allowance

40 kg 30 kg 3PC @ 23 kg 3PC @ 23 kg

Child fare baggage allowance Children and infants travelling on a child fare are eligible for the same baggage allowance as adults.

Wheelchairs If you need wheelchair assistance at the airport, you must advise Air Tanzania of this at the time of booking. You can request wheelchair assistance through our Call Centre or at Air Tanzania Sales offices.

Inflight Wi-Fi On board Wi-Fi Enable Wi-Fi on your laptop, tablet or smartphone, and select AirTanzaniaWifi You will need to launch your web browser, which will display the log-in web portal. From the portal, simply select your preferred price plan.

Portable electronic devices (PEDs) You can use your e-readers, tablets and smartphones from gate to gate – including taxiing, take-off and landing – without a risk to safety.

Note that on-board Wi-Fi is only available on certain aircraft. Please follow cabin crew instructions at all times.

For Booking & Enquiries: 0800 110045 www.airtanzania.co.tz

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Air Tanzania destinations

DISCOVER

Regional and international routes

Bukoba Mwanza Geita Kigoma

Musoma Arusha Kilimanjaro

TANZANIA Katavi

Tabora Dodoma Iringa

Zanzibar

Dar es Salaam

Mbeya

INDIAN OCEAN

Active routes Upcoming routes

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For Booking & Enquiries: 0800 110045 | www.airtanzania.co.tz

UK

London

CHINA

Guangzhou Mumbai

INDIA

Bangkok

THAILAND

NIGERIA

Lagos UGANDA

Entebbe Kigali Bujumbura

KENYA

Nairobi

RWANDA

BURUNDI

TANZANIA

DRC

Lubumbashi

Dar es Salaam Comoros

ZAMBIA

Lusaka ZIMBABWE

Harare

Active routes Upcoming routes

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Air Tanzania contacts

WHERE TO CONTACT US E-COMMERCE Location: ATC House, Ohio Street.

Email: tce-commerce@airtanzania.co.tz

CONTACT CENTRE Location: ATC House, Ohio Street.

Email: contactcentre@airtanzania.co.tz

0800 110045 Toll Free (Tanzania only) Tel: +255 022 212 5221

For the latest flights, information and to book online, visit:

www.airtanzania.co.tz

Follow us on:

@AirTanzania

@airtanzania

airtanzania_atcl

Air Tanzania ATCL

AIR TANZANIA CONTACTS DAR ES SALAAM (HQ)

TABORA

KAMPALA

Location: ATC House, Ohio Street P.O Box 543 Office (JNIA) Tel: +255 222 117 500 Email: darairport.station@airtanzania.co.tz

Email: tabora.station@airtanzania.co.tz

Location: Park Royal Mall, Room 208, Buganda Road.

Email: uganda.station@airtanzania.co.tz Email: bbesalestc@airtanzania.co.tz Tel: +256 414 289 474 / +256 393 517 145

ARUSHA Location: Boma Road Email: arusha.station@airtanzania.co.tz Tel: + 255 272 545 296

MBEYA

SONGEA Location: African Benedict Office Hanga- opposite TRA Songea Email: songea.station@airtanzania.co.tz Mob: +255 712 796 421

KIGOMA

Location: Jacaranda Road, Lupa Way Street Email: mbeya.station@airtanzania.co.tz Mob: +255 768 834 017 / +255 744 680 680

Location: Lumumba Road, opp. Mambo Leo Pharmacy Email: kigoma.station@airtanzania.co.tz Mob: +255 742 580 580

COMOROS

IRINGA

Location: Immeuble MATELEC Moroni, Grande Comores Email: com’airgsaatc@gmail.com Tel: +269 3714857 / +269 4464857

Location: Asas House, Dodoma Road, opp. TCC. Email: Iringa.station@airtanzania.co.tz Mob: +255 753 574 986

BUKOBA Location: Kawawa Rd. Block 1 Email: bukoba.station@airtanzania.co.tz

Location: Postal Building, Kijangwani Email: zanzibar.station@airtanzania.co.tz Mob: +255 785 452 585

KILIMANJARO

ZIMBABWE

Location: KIA Email: arusha.station@airtanzania.co.tz

Location: 24 Shamwari Complex, 157 Sam Nujoma Street, Ext Belgravia, Harare Email: hresalestc@airtanzania.co.tz Tel: +263 424 796 286/7 Mob: +263 773 119 462

ZAMBIA Barnetts Building, Shop 3, Hailie Selasie Avenue, Longacres, Lusaka.

Mob: +260 956 610 250

DODOMA Location: Mtendeni Street Block Q P.O Box 83 Tel: + 255 262 322 272 Email: dodoma.station@airtanzania.co.tz

MWANZA

Tel: +255 282 501 059 Email: mwanza.station@airtanzania.co.tz

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ZANZIBAR

ENTEBBE Location: Entebbe International Airport, Room no 095.

Email: uganda.station@airtanzania.co.tz Email: bbesalestc@airtanzania.co.tz Tel: +256 716 680 250

BUJUMBURA Location: Air Burundi, 13 Avenue Du Commerce, B.P 2460.

Email: harieth.rutihinda@airtanzania.co.tz Tel: +257 610 139 48.

INDIA Location: 204, 2nd Floor-A Wing, Kanakia Wall Street, Andheri East, Near Chakala Signal, Mumbai 400059.

Email: Res.tc@airtanzania.co.in Email: Sales.tc@airtanzania.co.in Tel: 022-4882-5811/12 Help Desk WhatsApp Number: +91 93158 35057

JOHANNESBURG Location: West Tower, 2nd Floor, Nelson Mandela Square, Maude Street, Sandown, Gauteng, South Africa 2146 Email: southernafrica@airlinepros.com Tel: +27 11 881 5945

Issue 04 / January to March 2020

YO U R F R E E A I R TA N Z A N I A M AGA ZINE

T R AV E L / TA S T E / TA L E N T

Twiga A I R TA N Z A N I A Issue 04

Doreen Noni A positive force Farouque Abdela Repatriate fashion designer on revitalising Zanzibar

Hope Masike The Princess of Mbira's biggest moments in music

Captain Khalid

Meet the funny fella bringing stand-up here