A wonderful experience will give you the chance to discover the enchanting beauty of Changuu Island (Also known as Kibandika, Prison or Quarantine Island). Changuu, is a small island 3.5 miles (5.6 km) North-west of stone Town, Unguja Zanzibar, with around 880 yards (800m) Long and 250 yards (230m) Wide at its proudest point. The island uninhabited until the 1860s when the first sultan of Zanzibar Majid bin Said, gave it to two arabs who used it as a prison for rebellious slaves prio to shipping them abroad or selling them at the slave market in Zanzibar’s Stone Town. After zanzibar becoming a british colony following the 1890 Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty with Germany, the appointment of a british First Minister, Lloyd MATHEWS in October 1891, led to the purchase of Changuu Island from its Arabs owners on behalf of the zanzibar government in 1893 with the purpose of building a prison.
Despite the prison buildings being completed in 1894, causing the island to earn its name “Prison Island”, the facility never housed prisoners. The colonial authority was concerned by the risk of disease epidemic affecting Stone Town, then East Africa’s main port. To combat this threat Changuu was turned into a and a quarantine station for Zanzibar and African mainland slaves, which was, then under the British colony. The old prison was turned into the facility’s hospital and in 1923; the island was officially renamed as quarantine Island. Quarantine cases were to be taken from ships and monitored on the island before allowing to progress with their journey.The main desease that was monitored was Yellow Fever. Although the island was a quarnteen station for slave from December to March, the rest of the year was a leisure resort for European people and local residents of Zanzibar.
A building known as the “European Bungalow” was built in the late 1860s to cater for the holidays makers althoygh the number of visitors had to be limited as the only fresh water on the island was rainwater stored in underground tanks. The remaining Large pits on the island from earlier coral mining for use as a construction material and were cleaned out and used as swimming pools. A new complex of quarantine buildings was erected in the south-west of the island sent a gift of four Aldabra giant tortoises to Changuu from the island of Aldabra. As result of food availability and quick breeding, the tortoises reached 200 by 195. However, people began to steal the tortoises for sale abroad as pets or for food and their numbers dropped rapidly. By 1988, there were around 100 tortoises, 50 in 1990 and just seven by 1996.
A further 80 hatchlings were re-introduced into the island in 1996 to increase the numbers but 40 of them vanished. The Zanzibar government, with assistance from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (Now known as World Animal Protection) built a large compound for the protection of the animals and by 2000, numbers had recovered to 17 adults, 50 juveniles and 90 hatchlings. The species is now considered vulnerable and has been placed on the IUCN Red List by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. More tortoises, mainly juveniles, continue to be brought to the island from other locations for conservation.
There is a dedicated foundation on the island, which looks after the tortoises’ welfare. Visitors are able to observe and feed the tortoises.
