Seaweed farming in Zanzibar
Image by Marios Forsos
The best “office” view in the world - working in warm, shallow, crystal clear water, looking out to the Indian ocean and the white sails going past. but the work is hard and relentless for the young girls tasked with transferring the still-wet seaweed from the farms to shore.
Seaweed farming is a big business in Zanzibar. It’s a huge business, with Zanzibar exporting up to 12,000 tons of seaweed a year, contributing over $5 million to the local economy. This is important for a relatively poor island on many levels - financial, social, and reputational. For a structured and, in many ways, strict, Muslim society, the ability of women to not only work - and work hard - but also to contribute significantly to the family budget and have independent status in society is both unusual but also groundbreaking and has influenced Zanzibari society quite significantly over the years.
But, what is seaweed farming? Well, it is pretty much what the word suggests but, as always, the devil is in the details. In Zanzibar, seaweed is farmed in a rather unusual way: short poles, no more than 30 or 40cm high, are driven deep into the sand in shallow waters with rope or string (also relatively thick) strung loosely between them. Then, at regular intervals, small or medium-sized thick seaweed is tied along the rope and then left to grow over a period of 3-5 weeks until they are ready for harvesting. Seaweed farming plots are not unlike standard agricultural plots, ranging from a few square meters to more than a hundred meters in width.
Almost all farming is done by women (more than 90%) and younger girls, and it is genuinely back-breaking work. Yes, the work environment is second to none - emerald blue, crystal clear waters, white sand, coral, unprecedented wildlife, the ocean breeze on your back, and the sight of white sails crisscrossing the horizon is not something you can beat, but the work is harsh!
From around 9 in the morning to well past 2 pm, under constant harsh sun, intense heat (sometimes reaching 40C) all the time walking on sharp coral, sea-urchins, and even sharper roots, cutting the soles of your feet constantly, most of the time bent over and working under time pressure. I spent less than two days with the women of eastern Zanzibar, and after that, the condition of my feet was so bad that they swelled for almost a week, and walking was extremely painful! No wonder the old Zanzibari saying: "Mwani (the Swahili word for seaweed) is money"!
Following a storm, seaweed gets ripped from the farms and carried along the water. the first task of each day is to walk around and collect separated seaweed to return to the farm
To the visitor, of course, the sight of the women with the colorful dresses against the beautiful blues of the sky and sea, with patches of green and white breaking up the blue, is majestic and the subject of many photos, selfies, and excitement. Don’t get me wrong, this is rightly so - the sight is truly spectacular, and I cannot imagine another place in the world where so many colors can be seen so close together - the young girls, dressed in every single color imaginable, sometimes combining both clashing and complementary colors, running along the shallow waters, laughing and teasing each other, their mothers (or, generally, elderly women) carefully and tenderly managing the delicate seaweed, all set against the brilliant backdrop of amazingly blue waters is a spectacle like no other - have a look at the images and tell me what you think - and anyone can simply just spend hours looking at them without ever getting bored…and yet, there is intense toil and hardship underneath all that beauty. And it’s only getting harder.
I first went to Zanzibar in 2012 - back then, along the eastern shores of the island, there was maybe, one hotel every 100m, most of them smaller, boutique ones, most of them catering to laid back tourists wanting to spend a few days after their “hardships” going on safari in Kenya and Tanzania. Pretty much everyone I met back then fits this profile. Sure, there were a couple of hotels offering windsurfing (there’s some excellent wind in Zanzibar, especially in the mornings) but that was pretty much it. I would wake up in the morning and for hours I would only see local women walking along the beach, gathering small shells for cooking later in the day, and, let me tell you, not a seaweed farm in sight!
Seaweed farming is a very qualitative - rather than quantitative - business. Seaweed must be selected, harvested, based on very soft qualities - their softness, their colour, their size and even their spread - how complex and far-reaching their branches are. Sorting them, selecting the ones which are ready for harvest, and moving them to help promote their growth or affect some of their other qualities, can only be taught on the job, through many back-breaking hours. Any factor influencing the quality of the seaweed has an enormous impact on the quality of an entire crop, sometimes lasting for months, reducing the price commanded by the seaweed by as much as 50%. And, as we all know, once prices start going down, it is very difficult to bring them back up. As a result of the ever-increasing pressure on prices and the diminishing quality of the seaweed, the farmers are forced to seek revenue elsewhere - some have turned to household crafts (basket weaving, rug making, etc.), but those need material, an independent distribution network and points of sale - all of which are mostly either lacking or are in very basic levels, making subsistence harder and harder.
Others have tried to expand their operation by banding together, forming cooperatives, and even opening their farms to tourists and making deals with hotels. This is still not very easy - Zanzibar is a Muslim territory, and business run by women is frequently frowned upon, often needing male directors and finance officers to flourish, but in this day and age, the women seaweed farmers of Zanzibar are becoming more and more open to new ways of working, even if it means sacrificing some of their hard-earned revenues. It is these women who are still keeping this amazing tradition alive and the world - us - owes it to them to help them succeed.
I cannot recommend a visit to the seaweed farms enough - it is a rare sight, and while the people are not always amenable to random tourists snapping hundreds of pictures of them in the middle of their workday, they are overall very nice, very willing and eager to laugh (mainly at the tourists suffering from a hundred things slashing their feet) and more than happy to share their workday with you. Of course, these days finding a large seaweed farm is more complex than it used to be - there are fewer now and more challenging to find, but if any of you happen to be in Zanzibar and you want to see them, head out to Jambiani beach, south of Paje, and a few hundred meters past Pakachi Beach Resort (in fact, you can access the beach from Pakachi) and you will see a massive one. If you don’t know how to head out to the east coast, most hotels can organize a transfer or even a driver for the day for you. First, make sure you have some beach, waterproof shoes. No, not flip-flops or those really thin foot glove things - they are the worst - but actual, proper shoes you can take into the water. Second, a wide-brimmed hat and very strong sunscreen… trust me, you will thank me!
Stories inspired by Mario Forsos
Image by Marios Forsos