How I found the freedom to be myself
Sometimes in life people change, sometimes life changes people, and sometimes life is there when people change. Before I went to on my trip to Zanzibar I was in a place of transition to say the least, and I can’t say whether it was the place or whether it was me, or whether it was really a bit of both. This is what I learned in Zanzibar.
Life is beautiful, and life is colorful and so are the people in it, and when things become dark or difficult, the best thing that you can do is throw colour on it. When I first arrive at the Zanzibar airport my senses were overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the airport or the lack of an airport to say the least. In my time I have been fortunate to travel to many places and as a result many airports, but for me this was a first. The building was old and bare, there was sand on the floor, and things moved at their own place, but the locals didn’t seem to mind this minimalistic approach. This place was naked, and so was I as I decided to leave the excess of western culture behind me, and walked in embracing the idea of simplicity.
This thought however was quickly put to rest when I entered the streets of stone town, the hub of Zanzibar, there is a colorfulness in this town, in the markets, your senses find that the clean over-the-top structures of Western power are absent; instead you find a culmination of old Arabic courtyard architecture, and African culture, intermingled with beautiful bright colors, exotic fragrances, these aspects are what give this town a completely unique feel.
The streets are narrow and inter leading, as an outsider you can easily get lost in the maze of stores and buildings, with the smell of fruit and spices, never far away.
From its tumultuous history of violence and revolution to its awakening as a beautiful place of colour and peace, Zanzibar is the epitome of new life: the light that radiates from the people, from the jolly larger-than-life captain of our dhow boat; Babo, to the children playing in the street, laughing as they run through the vibrant curtains of shaded cloths that contrast the stony road surface below or to the life of the Zanzibar born musician Freddie mercury. These people show no signs of unhappiness or unrest, and as I sat and watched them in their daily movements, the ease and gratitude with which they handled life, even when they had very little of their own, opened my heart, to let go of the resentments which plagued me, and inspire me.
As I stared at them through my camera lens I did not realized that those moments, and those people would follow me home, as I traded a camera for canvas, and capture those images by picking up the paint brush that I had long since forgotten about. I took my experienced in Zanzibar and translated it onto the canvas that now hangs on my wall as a constant reminder of how small things and small moments can change you.
And this is what freedom means to me: freedom and independence stems from the freedom to express one ’s self, and find that thing that inspires creation.
About the Author: Liesl Schroeder I am a writer, with a degree in philosophy.
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