Communist tenement

I’m always fascinated to see these austere towering tenements that dominate the Michenzani area of Zanzibar City. Nowadays they are in poor condition and blackened by harsh tropical heat and humidity, but they are very striking and always bustling. They were constructed in the 1960s with the financial assistance of communist East Germany as part of the grand ‘New Zanzibar Project’. The project was ambitious, delivered mixed results and didn’t achieve its goal of settling the whole Zanzibari population in tenements.