Stone Town's narrow streets and the beaches beyond them are full of things worth bringing home — carvings, fabric, spices, and a few things you can only really find on this island. Here is an honest guide to what to look for and where.
1. Handcrafted Wooden Artefacts
Local carvers work mostly in ebony, mahogany and coconut wood, turning out masks, statues and small furniture pieces that reflect the mix of cultures that have passed through the island. Look in Stone Town's curio shops (Hurumzi Street has several), the smaller shops scattered through town, or directly from carpenters working on the beach.
2. Kangas and Kitenges
Kangas and kitenges are the brightly patterned cotton fabrics you'll see worn all over East Africa, and both make genuinely useful souvenirs — as clothing, an accessory, or simply a wall hanging. What sets a kanga apart is the Swahili proverb printed along its lower edge, in Latin script today rather than the Arabic script used historically. The saying matters as much as the pattern: some women choose a kanga by its message alone, and the phrases are used to say things directly that might otherwise go unsaid — welcoming a husband home, addressing a disagreement, marking a celebration.
Younger women in Zanzibar often reach for kitenge instead for everyday clothes — a different fabric, equally colourful. Both are widely sold in Stone Town's market stalls and fabric shops.
3. Zanzibari Spice Blends
Zanzibar's spice trade is the reason it's nicknamed the Spice Island, and a blended spice mix is one of the easiest souvenirs to actually use once you're home. Zanzibar Curry Powder and the Zanzibar Seven Spice blend — built from cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and nutmeg — are the two most commonly sold. Darajani Market in Stone Town is the best place to buy them, with fresher stock and more turnover than the spice-farm gift shops.
4. Vikapu (Handwoven Baskets)
Vikapu — handwoven baskets, singular kikapu — are woven from palm leaf and banana fibre in a range of shapes and sizes, useful for shopping, storage or simply as decoration. (Mkokoteni is a different word entirely — it's the wooden handcart used on Zanzibar's streets to move goods, not a basket.) You'll find vikapu in Stone Town's market stalls and craft shops.
5. Tinga Tinga Paintings
Tinga Tinga paintings originated on the Tanzanian mainland and are now sold throughout Zanzibar — bright, flat-colour scenes of everyday life, wildlife and local folklore, usually painted on canvas or board. Stone Town's art stalls and galleries carry a wide range of sizes and prices.
6. Coffee and Tea
Tanzanian Arabica coffee is grown in the volcanic soils around Kilimanjaro and the Meru region, with Peaberry and AA among the varieties most often sold as souvenirs — expect a bright acidity and a fuller body than you might expect from East African coffee.
Tanzanian black and green teas, grown around Kilimanjaro's foothills and the Usambara Mountains, are less well known internationally but worth trying — the volcanic soil and altitude give them a distinct character. Both coffee and tea are sold packaged in most Stone Town shops and supermarkets, which is the simplest way to bring some home.
7. Seaweed Soap
Seaweed farming is a real part of the coastal economy here — women in villages along this coast farm seaweed (mwani) at low tide, a livelihood that supports thousands of families and is worth watching if you pass a farm at the right tide. Mwani Zanzibar, a women's cooperative, turns some of that harvest into handmade soap, sold in cinnamon, lemongrass and turmeric scents.
It's also the welcome soap placed in every room at Matlai on arrival — so if you like it during your stay, the cooperative sells it directly at mwanizanzibar.com, and you can bring more home than the one bar in your bathroom.
8. Tanzanite
Tanzanite is found in one place on Earth: a single deposit near Mount Kilimanjaro, discovered in 1967. Tiffany & Co gave the blue-violet zoisite variety its name that same year, in honour of Tanzania. Depending on the angle it's viewed from and how it's cut, a stone can range from violet-blue to blue-violet — the largest rough crystal ever recorded, nicknamed "the Mawenzi," weighed close to 16,839 carats, well over 3 kilograms.
Buying tanzanite
- Look for rich, even colour with minimal visible inclusions
- A well-cut stone shows more brilliance than a larger, poorly cut one
- Ask whether the stone has been heat-treated — most commercial tanzanite has, and a reputable jeweller will say so plainly
- Buy from a jeweller who can provide certification from a recognised gemmological lab