Africa's Hidden History: Sailing From Kenya to Zanzibar | Timeline

[Applause] [Applause] take one of these thousand miles to Zanzibar [Music] [Music] welcome to the world of Sinbad the sailor and the start of an amazing adventure my quest will take me down the North East African coast from lhamo and Kenya to the tiny village of poppy knee then to the bustling port of Mombasa and then to the voodoo island of Pemba and finally to Zanzibar the place once called the island at the end of the world I'm about to sail into the life of an extraordinary character a swashbuckling Arab seaman Explorer and merchant the stories of Sinbad the sailor astonished generations with tales of bizarre people and strange mythological creatures from unknown lands [Music] and my adventure is launched just as it would have been in Sinbad's daily over a thousand years ago every man from the nearby village is here to drag 12 tons of solid teak to where she'll eventually meet the rising tide the Indian teak hole is incredibly strong Dao is even smaller than this carried Arab sailors all the way to China and back again Sinbad's crew would have been men just like these they don't need plans or modern tools their boat building skills are handed down from father to son [Applause] [Music] and it's a special privilege to be allowed to join them as they celebrate seamanship strength in manhood this initiation is vital if I want to be part of their world because these East African sailors are the living symbols of the 21st century without compass or sextant they still ply the coastal trade routes pioneered during the first millennium but Sinbad himself is a man lost in mythology a combination of many men and many deeds one theory is that he came from Baghdad the Baghdad merchants of his day controlled the vast Indian Ocean trade route and passed along through the Indonesian Spice Islands all the way to China my first stop on Sinbad's Trail is here in London once a fortress port protected by the Sultan of Oman this was a medieval cape canaveral a launchpad for men brave enough to step off the ends of the earth a likely place for Sinbad to start his African adventures in these streets and buildings built at coral he would have bought trade goods spices gold ivory leopard skins rhino horn peacocks and generations of slaves [Music] and this waterfront was Sinbad's last site of modern civilization from here he sailed south to seek his fortune and I want to find it out to do the same thing but I'm Amazon goo that's what healy work for European so I need a formal introduction to the right captain they have to tell you the price Wiley here is the local shipping agent but in the end it's up to me to bargain my way on board a down task when you don't speak the language poppy knee and then Malindi Mombasa and here's a tip never try to rush business in Africa if I'm pushy I'll pay twice what I need for my passage or miss out altogether I don't take up much space you know it's a big price he can make you four three five okay that's great finally the captain agrees if you've warned me to be ready to sail with the afternoon tide you won't wait and nothing else is sailing south for at least a week so what I'd really like to find is a an antique shop or something that sells really old things the pressure is on I've got just over four hours to find all my trade goods I need antiques and perishable goods such as grain and tobacco and I have to get them at the cheapest price I can because like Sinbad need to make a profit or at least break even is the best alum the antique shop which we have so jump shot yeah this is also for junks usually the lemon people they were covering the woods and making their own jugs I've always been looking for these these used to actually be made of rhino horn which is obviously highly illegal these days but the hell is this man this is their original Jam beer oh really from 1370 that's beautiful really my plan is to trade the antiques in towns where they sell to foreign dealers such as Mombasa and I might even keep some for myself so we take the sword the knife here's another business expense he said he cannot go less than 56 for you 556 finally we get there we've got him down to half the opening price for 56,000 Kenyan shillings or around $500 u.s. I'm in business well that's pretty well blown my budget as far as antiques and the things I wanted to take to Australia so what I'm gonna do now is try and find a whole lot of things I could sell right the way down the coast all the way to Zanzibar to pay for my passage and that's exactly what Simba did almost a thousand years ago Swamy is waiting for me here at the grain store he's got a good deal on the grain and tobacco that are hard to get in the coastal villages to the south I can't tell the difference this is number one is it yes okay so we put tobacco here's a 10 bags of millet yes is there anything else that we can sell down the coast yes this is incredibly expensive abstract you know the best of this stuff is about three times the price of gold and this isn't quite that but I think I can trade it really well down the coast and make a pretty good profit [Music] the dow crew is happy to earn an extra tip by getting my goods down to the waterfront I'm glad I don't have to find my way through this maze of streets with all this stuff alone and then I get my first sight of the ship I bargain so hard to join waiting for us is a solid seafaring down force our Darfur [Music] we stopped loading and I experienced a flash of excitement the scent of legend is in the air and I can feel Sinbad all around me [Music] this isn't actually all my stuff I've only got about 700 kilos this boat can actually take about 35 tons I've actually seen them with cars along with the word finally my antiques make up and I just hope this proves to be a treasure chest trading from a doubt just like this made Sinbad and his fellow merchants very rich man but as we hoist the sail I get my first taste of what my journey will be all about [Music] there are no mechanized winters here the only way to take on gravity is with sweat and muscle [Music] finally so order four is underway and what an amazing feeling it is the great changes in the course of civilization all started like this [Music] it was like this for the great explorers such as cook Columbus Vasco de Gama and Simba [Music] as we clear the harbor I experience the intoxicating prospect of the unknown somewhere far over the horizon is Sansa ba-leep Island at the end of the world [Music] two hours down the East African coast and the solder is cruising on a smooth monsoon breeze Zanzibar is many days sail to the south and I couldn't be happier that I'm aware and being sized up by my captain they call him Ali boss and he wants to make sure I'm not a liability at sea it cost me over 3,000 Kenyan shillings to be here but on a trading down even paying passengers and members of the crew everybody max in and actually pull the ropes puts up the sails even if you're not an expert like me it's the effort that counts an ally boss expects nothing less he's been sailing and trading for 30 years and like the Sinbad of legend he started from scratch [Music] it said Sinbad went to sea after losing his father's fortune Valley boss has never had a fortune to lose he relies on nothing but sale power and with one wife in lamu in another in Zanzibar he's judged to be the most successful dal trader of the East African coast our first destination is the tiny village of Kapena about 50 kilometres south of London about a six-hour sail well this is home for the next three weeks she was about 50 feet long or 17 meters and she weighs about 25 tonnes and a good stiff breeze should about eight knots that's a ripping 30 miles an hour technically she's about as old fashioned as you get there's no engine no radar no GPS no winches to haul this massive boom up and everything depends on her lateen sail this simple piece of design is how the Arab sailors dominated the oceans from the Mediterranean all the way to China [Music] there's an old Swahili saying you can't move the wind so move the sail by moving the huge spread of canvas from one side of the mast to the other the crew can catch the changing wind it's much more adaptable than a square sail the wind can come from anywhere and their soda can go wherever she likes and I figured that a picture of this giant wind machine from the top of the mast would be a classic le boss has other ideas clearly he thinks his paying passenger could be a problem after all no sensible person would go to so much trouble for a photograph it is my profession and I did ask permission but I guess you thought I was kidding born upon a memoir in the moon a town where the one whoa come on I'm on you get up anyone but Ginga anyone responded then I'm gonna do no other one welcome my shoe that one more time as I get my dressing down we inch into the first trading port copy me [Music] [Music] one hundred and fifty years ago these people would have been part of the slave trade they may have been victims or traders the coastal villages helped sell slaves from the inland to the Arab and European merchants and so in those days the site of our sail on the horizon would have caused terrible fear [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] but today we're very welcome because we've got what they want sacks of grain [Music] everyone from the village is on the beach in the hope of making a good trade they have plenty of cooking bananas coconuts and mangoes but along the coast with its salty soil it's almost impossible to grow millet wheat or maize and that's what I've got on board and so with le vos keeping a sharp eye on proceedings it's time for me to take on the locals yeah okay we'll take some tamarind this coast is famous for these mangoes these are a little green but they'll be pretty good in a couple of days okay we'll have the mangos bananas and the tamarind the villages will give me what I need but they want three sacks of millet plus cash in the end I give them a sack of grain in exchange for a sack of mangoes two bunches of cooking bananas and a sack of tamarind I have the strange sensation of being on board a time machine nothing has changed in over a thousand years the villagers head quickly for sure maybe too quickly I've been ripped off or not but I think we've done pretty well for a bag of maize we've gained a whole lot of fresh food that's not going to be tradable for me but it's gonna be very good for the crew and we'll need the energy we're a big crew for good reason any fewer and we'd never get the half kind of sail up the mast Mombasa is around 200 kilometres south with a good wind it should be an easy sale but with no engine no compass and uncertain weather we are literally sailing into the unknown a week and a half into our journey to Zanzibar and I've got my sea legs well tuned there are a dozen of us living and working on this tiny sloping deck and out here you've got to stay on your toes literally these shark-infested waters leave no room for a clumsy stumble followed by an unplanned swim we're two kilometres or just over a mile of the East African coast between the tiny village of Cappy knee and Mombasa [Music] [Applause] [Music] and as we go through the constant routine of tacking and hauling canvas and slowly starting to get to know my crewmates they're hard men tough and resilient this alley boss look-alike is called captain McCory or cheeky monkey he's 60 and as helmsman he navigates using nothing but the skyline and the Sun he went to sea at 5 as a cabin boy Mooney is 32 he's a Kikuyu tribesman from Mombasa he's been at sea for 10 years and has just saved enough money to get married the oldest man on board is Ibrahim Salim he's 18 and has spent most of his life as a fisherman now his assistant navigator and elder statesman he no longer likes to go ashore but he's got two wives and five children aged between 20 and 50 and he's an important man ali ahmed is the cook he's 30 and has worked all over the world and he and i are about to make ourselves very popular [Music] [Music] it's not the largest tuner in the Indian Ocean but it will help extend the sardines and maize Ali is working on below and this is the most terrifying galley I've ever seen so order has no electric power so heat comes from only one source and open flame it seems insane on an oar wooden dowel that has no fire extinguishers but Ali is completely relaxed down here amid the smoke and a stinking bilge gas he works miracles every five hours in all weather he whips up food for 12 hungry men it's pretty simple spicy fish on a bed of maize in your supermarket these would come in cans but out here off the African coast they're absolutely fresh and delicious and they go very well with the maize meal boiled with water this is the staple along the coast it's a little like mashed potato very filling a white bait maybe like as the Sun gets lower in the sky le bas is looking for a safe Anchorage the reefs of Mombasa are far too treacherous to approach at night so we pull into one of the safe mangrove harbors that line the coast to wait for tomorrow's high tide and as often happens in Africa I did not expect a totally unexpected these are the Maasai but they're not a coastal people their territory is far inland along the Rift Valley so it's strange to see them so far from home it turns out the young warriors working as security guards on the coast meanwhile on board the soda the crew makes their nightly devotion to God and the Prophet Mohammed the two events are like a short course in the history of the East African coast sure you have ancient Africa the culture plundered for centuries eight million slaves tons of ivory spice and gold on board the DAO Muslim traders in a European travel it was the Arab and European merchants who moved the money and slaves to the Middle East and beyond [Music] [Music] [Music] the following day we cruise out to catch the northern monsoon alley boss checks with the passing local to make sure we don't plow into an unexpected reef there are no charts on board and it's the first time the Korra assailed dis bay but soon was safely back at sea next stop Mombasa but as we plow south I have no idea that East Africa's most cosmopolitan port would signal the start of a strange new adventure in just over 24 hours I will leave the 21st century far behind and step into the fascinating world of East African voodoo mombasa at last after two weeks at sea we sail in under the looming 16th century guns of fort jesus through this rifle port the Sodor looks as if she's sailing on a map of africa and in a way it sums up the clash between islam and europe that dominated this harbor from the middle of the sixteenth century the Portuguese and Muslim potentates fought bitterly for control of Mombasa 25,000 Portuguese and their allies died here in one sage alone [Music] today Mombasa is a central trading terminus for dour captains Trading South to Zanzibar and North to Somalia and beyond le boss advises me to unload my antiques and try for a sail he says this is the best chance I'll have the traders here have more cash than in Zanzibar meanwhile he loads goods to sell on the Voodoo island of Pemba they'll get a good price for washing powder and foam mattresses the mattresses are in short supply especially in Zanzibar [Music] as we thread our way through the main market I think of Sinbad the trader he would have spent his life just like this a stranger in a strange land living off his wits the best way he could know when I bought them in lemmo if they if they good pieces or not and I'll need to be on my toes to outwit this man Jimmy Doty is the most famous trader in Mombasa like visible many of the African artifacts you see in your local curio shop probably passed through his hands 50,000 and paid fifty six and a half but anyway we won't catch all you want to butter change a batter actually would be good because these masks are really beautiful yeah then we'll do like this and give you one price seventy thousand and change with the mask okay next afternoon we're heading south sailing under the guns again you can see how easy it would have been for the traders of Sinbad's day 2 an egg on a deal as he was leaving they could have just blown him out of the water [Music] but I think the legendary sailor would have been proud of me these masks are worth a lot of money in the West but I'm also well aware that they shouldn't be taken lightly they're not just decorative as the Sun glints through the shaman's eye I'm struck by their real purpose Buddha [Music] two days later we're coming ashore on the island of Pemba magic is still practiced here and Ally boss has agreed to be my guide for centuries in Africa food is mixed uneasily with Christianity and Islam and a little in the mixture has changed [Music] members about 40 kilometers or 25 miles north of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania it's a Muslim island known for its clothes an tations it's rarely visited by outsiders and almost never by mazinger's or europeans [Music] [Music] and as I take portraits of these children it's hard to connect their innocence with a common perception of Voodoo particularly when they're carefully covered heads pointed a strong influence of the Muslim religion but this unique East African version of ancestor worship is taken more seriously than Western medicine these two women are ill and priest is here to provide a cure first he casts a spell to call up their dead relatives then he sprays the village with magic water to clear the way for the arriving dead [Applause] [Music] from then on it's up to the priests assistants to feel the approach of the invisible spirits they will identify the woman's illness and suggest the remedy [Music] soon the women are possessed their ancestors the present the priest works hard to make the spirits present their diagnosis what's making the women ill how should they be cured eventually he gets his answer [Music] [Applause] [Music] what's a goof back inside their heart he writes the cure in his own blood [Music] then he mixes it with plain water and gives the medicine to his patients and I can feel myself willing the women to get better Ally boss tells me there's only a handful of motorised vehicles on pembo and later in the day he manages to get hold of one to get us to the other side of the island he's planning a big surprise [Music] somewhere up the road is something I'd never expect to see in Africa a bullfighter for hundreds of years the Portuguese dominated trade along the coast and they left behind fragments of their culture including this [Applause] while the men work up a little tribal courage and the kids find a safe vantage point of the trees officials appear with the bull which clearly doesn't want to be here and I have to say the East African version of the bullfight is not entirely death-defying [Music] he has a go at the right hand carpet and runs away [Music] [Music] then another go another go and off again the only thing this animal wants to charge is into the wild blue yonder we don't have to call this bullfighting on bullfighting I was expecting to come to arena and we'll know a collage with a court not on a row this is a tradition and I've been doing it since the Portuguese came here and so people better get but at least you know the ball won't be heard it's far too valuable to the village for that the day on Pemba was a draining experience and I was happy to get back to work at the port it's a relief to meet up with the rest of the crew and our freshly patched sail Ally boss has agreed to help me sell my 10 remaining sacks of militant knives and he has to be tough about it though the shipment has just come in from another day there's a glut and so the price will be low you mean I'm with him eternally I think he's got a measure of the local shipping agent fine a minute he'll be emotional Cooper and zuly at last I get an offer if you know 40,000 Tanzanian shillings or $10 a sack it's not as much as I want said I'm still at in front now all I have to do is unload the rest of my clothes every about it in the mystical port at the end of the world [Music] dawn on the Voodoo island of Pemba after 48 hours on the island of magic the crew of soda 4 are anxious to make the final push to Zanzibar town [Music] with a good breeze will make landfall after a two-day sale [Music] and as I enjoy the warmth of a new day I think about the tales of Sinbad I have no doubt that he too experienced voodoo and still today there are so many things about Africa we don't understand [Laughter] then the fates intervene the wind falls and dies completely we're inside of dangerous reefs and we're completely becomed we're at the mercy of the tide when it turns in a couple of hours will be pushed helplessly back to land the Sun blazes higher there's a Zephyr breeze and we barely move [Music] on board the heat is oppressive it melts all desire to make an effort even to talk [Music] doubt crews have died like this become for weeks they have perished of hunger and thirst [Music] Alley boss watches the glittering ocean for a sign of wind the hours dissolve into each other a right to take my mind off things remember we have no radio no engine we could be out here for days then suddenly we're startled into action the boys have seen the ocean rippled by wind and the canvas fills with power now this is more like it the boys shake off the heat and rejuvenated by the cool breeze you break into a Swahili seizure the next day a really special moment for me after all these weeks at sea Ally boss hands me the tiller and I feel truly honored this probably looks pretty easy but it's actually a really fine balancing act because you've got the huge sail up here which is wobbling all over the place this boat weighs about 25 tons of solid teak then you've got this huge rudder here I'm trying to get them all together so this thing cuts straight through the water is really really difficult soon as you see le is actually adjusting this all the time because I'm steering so badly but it's incredible balance to try and make it not wallow in the water which is actually what I'm making it do [Music] Zanzibar is just 20 hours away but it's also a place that ghosts thousands of years back into town [Music] at last Zanzibar the port once known as the terminus at the end of the world from the time of the Egyptian Empire traders from Arabia India Indonesia China and Europe came here to pick up their cargoes spices gold ivory and the millions of slaves [Music] it was Zanzibar that helped inspire the Sinbad stories [Music] and judging by this thick jumble of douse it's clear that the Sinbad ethos is alive and well at the dawn of the 21st century [Music] but first and foremost it's the busiest down port on the East African coast the Sinbad stories are one thing earning a living in a tough world is another about half a million people live and work here their survival depends entirely on the spices and the important goods coming ashore now I have one last task to complete my apprenticeship as a merchant Ali vas tells me that we will get a good price for our sixty kilos of raw tobacco but I'm feeling pretty good Ali boss and the boys have taught me a lot about a disappearing world and I feel much closer to the legend of Simba I can imagine him doing exactly this around a thousand years ago he would have come ashore right here in just the same way trader I'm just about broken even with this tobacco sale in Zanzibar but in the end I'd have to say this experience has been absolutely priceless in other words it was worth more than money can buy at three hundred thousand Tanzanian shillings I almost doubled what I paid for the tobacco and in the end all my trading on the journey has left me with a small profit it's my last night ashore with the boys and I'm anxious to repay their generosity and friendship but there is a slight problem when it comes to celebrations remember they're Muslim so there won't be any seafaring stuff with taverns and rum instead they insist I follow them through the old port to their favorite haunt this place Zanzibar's open-air food market not exactly what I had in mind but they say it's magic and it is which caught everyday and they just put it out here and all these different stalls is just the most fantastic safer then we say our goodbyes next stop for so order for is the coast of war-torn Somalia I don't know when we'll sail together again but they've taken me on a fantastic voyage [Music] money ah thank you my friend [Music] ah thanks to their professionalism I understand the legend of Sinbad like Davy Crockett or Robin Hood or Daniel Boone Sinbad is part of myth and part of reality and amalgam of many men and many days [Music] but I know that Sinbad the sailor is alive and well today there are hundreds of swimmers up and down this coast and al-abbas is just one of them I know that somewhere we'll meet again because the spirit of Sinbad will always take us on a journey to the ends of the earth [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 374,021

Rating: 4.872777 out of 5

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, east africa, history of the world, timeline documentary, kenyan history, kenya history, kenya history and culture, david adams documentary, david adams journeys to the ends of the earth, david adams films, zanzibar, zanzibar island

Id: KpnELLod5zU

Length: 50min 18sec (3018 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2019