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Celebrate Christmas and New Year's at Africa House. More... [x]

Christmas Eve

Share the spirit of the season and join Saint Joseph's Catholic Church Choir for a Sunset Christmas Carol sing-along as Emmanuel Kazumba leads you through a jamboree of carols.

The party starts at 8pm! Rock around the Christmas Tree with Santa's Karaoke Party and lots of sparkling good cheer.

Christmas Day Chill Out

Join us at the Sunset Bar for lazy day Christmas cocktails and Sizzling Sunset Bar-B-Q. Savour a variety of fresh local seafood & quality meats marinated with our Chef's own secret recipe & char-grilled to perfection.

New Year's Eve

Indulge in the exotic flavours of our specially prepared New Year's Eve menu for an evening of fine dining in Tradewinds Restaurant. The diet starts in January so this is your last chance to indulge one last time!

The clock is ticking for an unforgettable New Year's celebration with Big Music from Big Joe entertaining all the party revellers with the best sounds this side of the Equator.

Countdown to 2014 in style in the Sunset Bar. The place to be and be seen!

Tippu Tip's House

Tippu Tip was one of the most renowned slave traders in the East African region. Although his real name was Hamed bin Mohammed el Marjebi, everybody called him by his nickname Tippu Tip, which referred to a nervous twitch affecting his eyes (tippu tip means "to blink"). Another theory is, that Tippu Tip had characteristic blinking eyes similar to those of the bird called Tippu Tib.

Born in 1837 he entered the slave trade already by the age of 18. After years of travelling across the East African mainland, trading in slaves and ivory, Tippu Tip was by 1895 a wealthy man owning seven plantations on Zanzibar and about 10,000 slaves. He also supported European explorers, such as Livingstone and Stanley, in the planning of routes and supplies.

The house of Tippu Tip is situated just a couple of metres from The Africa House Hotel. The house is over 175 years old and today in a bad state, only the massive carved wooden door is a reminder of Tippu Tip's prior wealth. After the death of Tippu Tip in 1905 the house was used as a private residence until the 1960s. After the 1964 Revolution the house was turned into a block of flats. Today several families live in the building under poor conditions.

The house itself is not open to the public, but against a small fee visitors may be shown around by the residents. Knowing the house and its history is interesting for tourists, some so-called "Tippu Tip experts" will likely tell you stories which are not entirely true, such as the existance of a now blocked tunnel at the front entrance that was used to smuggle slaves and ivory unnoticed into the house. Additionally, the resident caretaker may tell you that the slaves were kept here for two days before being shipped to another location. A separate room was supposed to have been used for storage of ivory. The second floor was home to the family slaves, used by Tippu Tip as interpreters between the Arab, Swahili and Bantu traders. The top floor with two giant rooms was the home of Tippu Tip himself, one facing the east and the other the west. What parts of these stories are facts or fiction remains unknown.

AFRICA HOUSE HOTEL, STONE TOWN, ZANZIBAR ISLAND
P.O. Box 3246, Shangani, Stone Town, Zanzibar
Tel.: +255 (0)774 43 23 40 or +255 (0)777 212621
Email: / Skype: africahousehotel