Researching Mtoni Palace
A report by Susanne Pot, Karin Meijer and Xiaoguang Zhang

We are three architecture students of the Technical University of Delft, in the final year of our studies. At the beginning of this year it was time for all of us to start our graduation project. One of the projects we could choose from, consisted of making a design for the future use of Mtoni Palace on Zanzibar. As soon as we heard about this project, we were exited about it.

Beit el Mtoni was the palace of Sultan Said from Oman, he was the first Sultan on Zanzibar and made Mtoni the first palace of Zanzibar. The name Mtoni means ‘place by the river’. Princess Salme, the daughter of Sultan Said, wrote the book ‘Memoirs of an Arabian princess’ in which she describes her life at Mtoni palace. We are now analyzing the palace and trying to find out what Mtoni palace must have looked like before, when Salme lived there. There is not much information available about the history of the palace. The book of princess Salme is a good source, because she vividly describes her life (1844-1924) at Mtoni palace and at Zanzibar. But to really taste the atmosphere we had to go there ourselves. So from 3 to 18 October 2007 we went to Zanzibar, where we could taste the ambiance of Africa, meet many interesting people, visit old Stone Town and most important, do research on Mtoni Palace in its proper context.

Our adventure started when we arrived at the Slipway hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. There we got a warm welcome by Nicola and Carolina Colangelo, owners of Mtoni Marine Centre and main partners in the Mtoni Conservation Project.

We started the next day with a meeting with Joe Noronha, the architect who developed a plan for the reconstruction of Mtoni Palace a few years ago. It was a nice and interesting conversation and it helped us to get started with our research.

That afternoon, after a three hour trip by boat, dancing on the sea, we finally arrived at Zanzibar Island! We took a taxi to the Mtoni Marine Centre Hotel, where the whole crew welcomed us with a big smile, flowers and some sweet tea! In the lobby we met Stefanie Schötz, project coordinator of the Mtoni publication. This place immediately started to feel like home.

But then the real work started!
The next day we had a meeting with Dr. Hamad Omar, head of the Department of Archives, Museums and Antiquities of Zanzibar and also with Professor Abdurahman, which was a surprise because we did not yet know if he would be available. Under supervision of Professor Abdurahman we started our excavation work at the Mtoni site the same day. We were lucky to have a lot of help from Saidi, who is in charge of the work that is done at Mtoni Palace, and his helpers. It was incredible how they kept on going in the burning sun, when we really had to sit down to rest once in a while. The excavating was a very interesting experience. We learned a lot on how to do excavation work. Abdurahman thought us for example how we could preserve the fragile findings.
Finding a complete aqueduct and the cistern it was leading to, was a great reward for all the work that was done.

After the excavation work we thought it was time for us to discover a bit more of the surroundings. So we went to take a look at Stone town, Salme’s gardens and the Marahubi palace ruins. Later we visited John Da Silva, a painter, in his Omani house in Stone Town. John Da Silva knows a lot about the history of Stone Town and during the years he collected many old postcards of Zanzibar. He told us a lot of nice stories, while we were looking at his collection and admiring his house.

After that, we visited Ghalib Ahwad at the Town Planning Department. He told us how Stone Town developed during the years and how he sees the future of Stone Town. This gave us a good impression of the city. Triggered by old maps, hanging on the wall in his office, we became curious if he could help us find old maps of Mtoni palace. We got lucky because he had some helpful maps and an aerial photo of the site. Again, great research material!

Now, back in the Netherlands, there is still a lot of work for us to do and it will take a long time before we will finish. But for all of us this trip to Tanzania was the fantastic beginning of our graduating project.