The doors of Zanzibar

Any art lover visiting Zanzibar for the first time is bound to be impressed by its numerous carved wooden doors. Another item that is likely to catch the eye is the intricacy of the designs and the extra embellishments they carry, which were made from bronze and other materials. It is also remarkable to see […]

Any art lover visiting Zanzibar for the first time is bound to be impressed by its numerous carved wooden doors. Another item that is likely to catch the eye is the intricacy of the designs and the extra embellishments they carry, which were made from bronze and other materials.
It is also remarkable to see that these features do not only endow homes and structures owned or inhabited by locals, they are a strong feature of hotels including those of Western origin. This caused our reporter to inquire about how they became such a famous and indelible part of the architecture of the Island.
In the past, when houses were built in Zanzibar, the first part of the structure to be erected were the doors which were at the entrance into the building. The construction and  finish of the door was representative of the societal class and wealth of the owner of the house. Such a door would therefore be elaborately carved out and finely sculpted.
With businesses generally carried out at home, Zanzibar’s doors were considered business identities of their owners, so much so that any passerby could tell what kind of business the person was involved in and the status it came with.  Symbols carved on the doors informed of other personal details of the owner.
The patterns and styles of the designs were influenced by the different cultures which interacted with Zanzibar over the centuries. In Stone Town which is the old part of Zanzibar city, there are two major types of culturally influenced doors which are the Gujarati and Punjabi doors of India, and the Arab doors especially those influenced by the Omanis. Each one is easily recognisable by features and characteristics peculiar to them.

For one who has visited the Taj Mahal, the minaret-shaped top frames of Zanzibar’s Punjabi doors and their arches, can be easily linked as having some semblances.
These doors bearing brass knobs and spike-like embellishments were influenced by Indian culture, when they were forced to protect themselves from war elephants by adding such innovations to their architecture.
According to Haji Mohammed, a tour guide,  the brass additions to doors were an effort to prevent elephants from crashing them down and barging into homes. When the Indian traders moved to Zanzibar, they continued the tradition, even though there are no records of such elephants on the tourist island.
They now serve as decorative pieces adorning doors and even windows across Stone Town ,yet not missing the show of wealth and status.
The idea behind building Gujarati doors was security, to protect the goods within, which were mostly gold jewellery and ornaments. Their panels were reinforced to further strengthen the already heavy wood of the doors. These doors give tourists a quick idea of how much gold trading went on in ancient Zanzibar.
He said: “These doors are built into segments that are foldable or collapsible. They have square shutters and are made into smaller sections. A lot of these doors are visible in parts of Stone Town, especially in the Kiponda area, once largely occupied by Indian businessmen.
A readily noticeable feature of the Arab doors are the inscriptions on their top, which are generally believed to be verses from the Koran, deliberately so, for protective influence, with the lavishly decorated frames of the door bearing interlinked chain-like sculptures. The chains, Mohammed said, are reminiscent of the era of slavery ,with slave masters decorating their doors with these features.
Initially built with all square tops, many Arabic doors now have semi-circular frames, which were later introduced to the original design.
The squares and other geometry which feature on Arabic doors are representative of traders who offered accounting services. This way, if one were in need of such a service, by looking at the doors he knew where to go.

Across Zanzibar there are identical features which  all doors carry. These are not mere designs but have specific messages which they convey. They include pineapples, dates palms and frankincense, vines, waves, ropes, chains, beads, flowers, squares or other geometric shapes and fish scales. Each one had a meaning and/or represented certain facts about the owner of the house.
All over Zanzibar, locals, especially traders upon entering their shops or simply passing by echo the words ‘karibu’, the Swahili word for ‘welcome’ which is represented by the pineapple on many doors.
Date palms and Frankincense are known to be a very valuable part of Arabic culture. On Zanzibar’s doors they represent wealth and abundance.
For houses where the doors are designed with vines, represented in the manner in which vanilla shoots, peppers and/or spices grow, owners of such buildings traded in these crops.
For those who eked a living from the sea, the waves on their doors represented the source of their livelihood.

Ropes were a symbol used to depict that the owner of the house owned fishing vessels as well as security.
Asides being linked to the slave trade era, the symbols of chains on a door were also believed to ward off evil spirits.
Jewellers who dealt in precious stones and other materials, advertised their trade on their doors with beads.
As obtains in northern Nigeria, one is usually able to tell that there are  distinct families living in a compound by the number of huts in it. In Zanzibar, one is able to determine this by the number of flowers on the doors.
Most mathematicians and accountants are usually identified by the swiftness of their responses to calculations. But in Zanzibar the geometric signs and patterns on their doors are what give them away.
Zanzibar was known to serve the needs of other parts of Tanzania with fish, and its influence in this context reached even as far as Oman. Fishermen advertised their trade  with carvings of fish scales sculpted on their doors.  
Around Stone Town, evidence of  the art of carving and sculpting designs could be seen, as  Mohammed explained  that the skills are passed on from generation to generation, with some of the trends being altered to suit modern day trends.