AN ORANGE SELLER IN ZANZIBAR

by Martin Walsh

An orange seller at Darajani, Zanzibar, July 2006 (photo: Martin Walsh)

I’m no Javed Jafferji, but every now and then I manage to take a photograph that I like, whether for its subject, composition, colours, or some combination of all three. This snap of an orange seller was taken at Darajani in Zanzibar in July 2006. I offered a cropped version of it to Ahmad Kipacha for the cover of the first issue of the short-lived Journal of Humanities when he was launching it in the University of Dodoma in 2009. Alas, the photo didn’t make it – indeed none did – but I’ve still got the mock-ups that I made, one of which is shown below.

Mock-up of a cover for the first issue

I like this photo both for its colours and as an image of everyday marketing on one of Zanzibar Town’s busiest thoroughfares. Anyone who’s been shopping or sightseeing at Darajani will know that it’s usually a hive of activity, and you can see some of that in the background of the full shot, minus the movement, noise and pungent odours. The taste of those oranges is another memory that the photo can only remind me of.

A decade before taking this picture I led a study of The Development of Oranges as a Cash Crop in Ndijani, Unguja – Ndijani being the centre of orange production for the island’s urban market. The main harvesting season was June-September, and it’s quite likely that the oranges in the photo were sweet Ndijani oranges plucked from trees fertilised with the manure of cattle intentionally grazed between them. This was a feature of orange growing in Ndijani, together with a rotating marketing system designed to prevent oversupply in the town and wild fluctuations in income for the rural producers.

As the Holy Month of Ramadan begins in Zanzibar, this will be a busy time for the fruit sellers of Darajani, though it may be too early for the main Ndijani crop. Ramadhani karimu!

References

Kipacha, Ahmad (ed.) 2009. Journal of Humanities (Dodoma) 1 (1).

Kombo, Abdallah, Soud Hemed, Peter Oldham and Martin Walsh (ed.) 1995. The Development of Oranges as a Cash Crop in Ndijani, Unguja. ZCCFSP Working Paper WP 95/22, Zanzibar Cash Crops Farming Systems Project, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources, Zanzibar.