Welcome to Recollections

"I visited your site. I visited a shrine of memories, with head bowing, weighted down by grief, grief of loss incurable, Loss of home, of roots, of self. The umbilical cord which before birth, tied me to my mother, since lies buried in the soil, to which I remain tied, spiritually, emotionally. Deep is the yearning, to return to be buried in the soil wherein, lies the cord of life, the soil of Zanzibar." Tribute by Issa Peera, Adelaide, Australia

A wonderfully evocative website. The memoir of your days in pre-revolution Zanzibar was highly interesting, giving me a picture of the life of the Asian community which I had not seen portrayed in the various books I have read about Zanzibar. The photographs provide vivid recollections of those days before the violence of the revolution changed Zanzibar forever. My family and I lived in Zanzibar from July 1963 until November 1965. Our second child was born at the Karimjee Jivanjee Hospital in September 1963. We returned to the island from time to time while I was the American Ambassador to Tanzania (1986-1989) Don Petterson (former US Ambassador to Tanzania), Brentwood, New Hampshire, USA

This site is very impressive, I recently was awarded a grant by Oxford University to conduct research about the Shi'a alims in Zanzibar and this site is of invaluable aid. I recently took a trip to Zanzibar to collect information about my grandfather Marhum Sayyid Hassan Marashi as well as my Great grand father Marhum Abdul Hussain Marashi and this site gave me information that I was unable to attain in Zanzibar itself! I will recommend this site to anyone here in England or elsewhere doing research on East Africa. Ibrahim Marashi, Oxford, UK