More Memories of Zanzibar

 

More Memories of Zanzibar, …The more you think of our wonderful Island the more the memories keep coming back.
Please correct any errors or add to this …. It would be appreciated.

There were a few little islands off Zanzibar The furthest south, was Chumbe Island between Dar-Es-Salaam and Stone Town Zanzibar,

Then came Bave Island ,….. Prison Island, …. Snake Island, and last was Grave Island. The story goes that the laborer’s  worked on Chumbe Island and resided on Bave Island, those who committed a crime were sent to Prison Island and if they tried to escape they got shipped to Snake Island …… got bitten by the poisonous snakes passed away, then were laid to rest on Grave Island.

There used to be a Ship wreck when looking west from Cable & Wireless,  If anyone would have gotten close to that wreck it would have been Benito,  Benito DeSouza was always daring and continually looking for adventure. Rumor had it, that it was the British warship the Pegasus, maybe one of our Historians on this forum can confirm it. This site was also a view to the evening sunset in Zanzibar, the red sun would gradually disappear into the Oceans horizon, we witnessed this almost every day,

I go to Jamaica (Negril) and had to pay to see a sunset at Ricks Café which wasn’t even close to the one in Zanzibar.

The tower atop Beit-El-Ajaib had a Flag mast, as soon as a ship was sighted a Horn Blast would sound, and as the ship progressed closer to the harbour the flag would be lowered accordingly, for some reason it were ships approaching from the south side, (Dar-Es-Salaam)and always exited through the north side, Pemba Direction towards Mombasa

Not to mix the horn blast from Beit-El-Ajaib with the Siren from Rahaleo which was heard throughout Stone town, it also sounded off at sunset during the Holy month of Ramadhan so the Muslims would break the fast. Rahaleo was also the home of our only Radio Station “Saute Ya Unguja” I remember that the Number 1 song for a few months was Elvis Presley’s “It’s Now or Never”  The Locals loved Jim Reeves too.

Chwaka was the holiday spot for Goans during the month of December, please correct me if I’m wrong. The school calendar ran as follows:

Term 1:  January to March ….. April was the Break

Term 2:  May to July…….August was the break ….. August Visit ……. Break for Dar/Zanzibar Sports teams to compete.

Term 3:  September to November ….. December was the Break ……… at year end you either got promoted to the next class, or failed and had to repeat the same class.

I remember coming home at the end of each term with my school report card … with a red Line under each subject that I failed.

There was more Red on my report card than the Sultans Flag. As the phrase goes  “Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child”…. My Dad didn’t spare any rod.

The SJCS stationary supply room was across the Hall from the Principals office (Sister Maura) in my time, I loved getting the new Text books, and in the KG Class there were Colored Sticks / Beads like an Abacus for learning to count and Modeling (Playdough)…….. we had Lob-A-Gob books, …. Step 1 ….. Step 2 …. I do not remember how many steps there were. 

In sister Maura’s office was a manual cyclostyling machine that was used for producing exam papers.

During the December break my Dad used to commute by our Austin of England Car from Chwaka to Town and back daily,  he was proud of doing the 20 mile trip in ½ hour that would average 40 MPH, with next to no traffic, The roads were all paved, the only time he would slow down was when the locals would sit on the hot paved roads to warm their buns, or if a chicken ran across the road.

The Bungalows in Chwaka starting from the North side towards (Uroa) were Sultans Bungalow, where the Priest usually stayed,  then came Norwegian Bungalow, this was home to the Gonsalves’s…… Residents Bungalow was occupied by the SJCS Nuns then there was an open field before you got to the Police Station, on the front yard stood a huge Kungu tree, if you got there early in the morning you could collect the Kungus’ unless the  huge tortoise that was a resident in the yard got to them.       I recal l….. Mad Mans Bungalow was across the Police Station facing the beach …..    Fisherman’s Bungalow used to be the Fernandes Family (Herbert, Herman Maureen)     Moolo’s Bungalow was mostly occupied by the DeLima Family  next to this was Cowjee’s Bungalow, not sure who stayed there.   The Last one was Bwana Houdi’s Bungalow this was shared between the Furtado Family ,….. Peter, Joe, Dennis on the top floor & the De Silva Family ….. John Batist  Caitan, Abel  ground level.  I may be incorrect with linking all these names with the respective Bungalows, if anyone can correct and or add to this ,…… would help.

This may not make much sense to the non-Catholics on this forum.

Now I’m really going to date myself, I was an altar boy for many years through school, and could recite the entire mass in Latin, ….. had no clue what it all meant but I could say it.

This was when the Priest would face the Alter and have their backs to the congregation. We all fought to be the right server as that was an honour, you would get to ring the little bells during consecration and communion. I also remember that during the Lenten period instead of the bells that sounded like ring-a-ling ling,   a wooden Clapper was used that went Klappty Klap. I guess this was for no rejoicing during the Lenten period,

Whenever you relate to altar boys, the first thing that comes to mind is the abuse from the priest …. Well Father Redmond used to “Konzi” us that would be knocking our heads with his knuckles, and by God that really gave you a headache.

We also had the honour of setting all the priests’ Vestments before mass, the Sacristan was an African Mission Boy named Charles which we pronounced as Chalace ….. maybe it was a combination of Charles and the Chalice that led to that name, this role was later taken over by John Antao,   their job included prep of the coals to the incense, to the ringing of the Bells,   I’ve learnt a few things through these blogs,  the brass container with the chains that the Priest scooped the incense and put over the coals is called a Thurible also known as a censer vessel. This I did not know …….. Thanks to Google.

There was a large floor space between the alter and the first row of individual seats that had padded kneelers I remember the Nuns and a few people (Mrs. Chief comes to mind) used this section.

In front of this elite sitting was a 2 ½ foot railing with a gate in the middle to let the priest go to the pulpit for his sermons. Our job as altar boys was lock the gate and drape the white cloth over the rail then the parishioners would come forward and kneel across the length of the railing to receive communion, the Priest used to start from the right and move to the left.

There was no placing of the host in your palms like today’s times, The alter boys would carry a tray and placed it under the chin of the person receiving the communion and move along with the priest to the next person. Any morsels of the host that fell into the tray were collected by the priest at the alter and poured into the Chalice. I know for a fact that some servers used to bump the neck of their girlfriends with the tray they carried. Les Gonsalves will confirm.

The Nuns of SJCS used to make the hosts for the church, and I along with other students used to go to the Nuns living quarters above SJCS to pick up the hosts and take it to the church. I did get a taste of the hosts before it was consecrated……..after that no one could touch it.

There was a Boys side and a Girls side in the church, and if you misbehaved, you were removed and put to sit on the girls side…..why was it always the boys who were put to shame, were our girls always as angelic as they looked or were they all in the choir singing.

And to conclude what happened to our Comorian friends ….Sara Himid, Bob Dean, Hussain Sheeba, and Nat King to name a few. Did they all go back to the Comoro Islands?