Zanzibar is the Z Word to End the Alphabet

Zanzibar is located in the Indian Ocean south of Kenya and just across the Zanzibar Channel from Tanzania. Located directly across from the mouths of the Wami and Pangani Rivers, Zanzibar appears also to have a city named Zanzibar, but I’m really not sure. Most people have heard of Zanzibar, but they can’t place when or why. The information I was able to get on Zanzibar is confusing. It appears Zanzibar is made up of two major islands and a bunch of minor sandbar type islands. The interweb can be a sorry place to research some places, while a good place to research other places. Zanzibar seems to have been pushed into the strange and strained side of the webnet.

Zanzibar has traditionally been a final whistle stop for great safaris, hence it has forever been romanticized, fictionalized, and aggrandized. When something larger than life gets mixed into a story of fantasy, truth and legend, it becomes difficult to separate fact from legend. After all, the degree of exotic, rich, and opulent is mostly in the discernment of the individual. Much like Rome, Venice, Paris, Katmandu, and Singapore, the word Zanzibar alone conjures up a unique romance that defines exotic. But, today’s post isn’t so much about Zanzibar, except what has been written already, as it is about a Zanzibar inhabitant and about endings and beginnings.

The Red Colobus Monkey is a native of Zanzibar and about the only thing I know about them is, unlike myself, they haven’t reproduced in captivity. They do reproduce in the wilds of Zanzibar though. There’s probably a good lesson in that for all of us, but I’ll let each of you figure that one out on your own. I have my own take, but rather keep it private.

As for Zanzibar, being the final destination and end of the great safaris, I suppose you could consider it the end of the earth. It certainly is practically an opposite end of the earth from North America from whence I hail. But as we all know, and if not you are about to be told, all endings are beginnings. With this post, I’ve reached the end of the alphabet again, and begin a new series for the blog. I’m also ending the alphabet following habit I’ve had for a couple of passes. I’ve found it to be constraining, and there are ideas that just feed into my consciousness that sometimes scream to be let out. All that screaming is distracting, and makes it hard to focus on whatever letter of the alphabet I am on at that particular time.

So, today’s post of Zanzibar, the end of the earth, is the end of the alphabet, and the end of the series. But not the end of the blog. It’s a beginning of a new series, and the introduction of a new subtheme; the monkey. Today, it was the Red Colobus Monkey. Next, who knows? Maybe, the Albino HMS Monkey? As usual, I’ll interrupt with other thoughts, those that scream at me and won’t shut up until I let them out. Would you expect any less, here beneath the Carolina moon?

Dread