Playing the ‘Mzungu Crazy Card’ in Zanzibar

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  09.29.08 | 10:53 AM ET

In the Ottawa Citizen, Rebecca Hall muses about the “incredibly freeing” nature of being an outsider in Zanzibar. She writes:

I called it the Mzungu Crazy Card (mzungu is the Swahili term used to identify, varyingly, white people, foreign people, Europeans and magicians). As one of a handful of expatriates living on the Tanzanian archipelago, Zanzibar, everything I did incited laughter. Everything I did was “crazy,” and treated as such. I haggled for a mango in the market. I asked for tea without sugar at work. Crazy! I asked for tea with sugar at work. Still crazy.

Tags: Food, Mzungu, Africa, Tanzania, Shrinking Planet

Eva Holland is the senior editor of World Hum. She is an associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and her writing has also appeared in Reader's Digest Canada, NationalGeographic.com, the National Post, the Montreal Gazette, the Ottawa Citizen and WestJet's Up! Magazine, among other publications. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


2 Comments for Playing the ‘Mzungu Crazy Card’ in Zanzibar

Terry Ward 09.29.08 | 1:48 PM ET

Thanks for posting this, Eva. I loved it.  I play that game with my neighbors (who I would barely recognize if they slammed into me somewhere other than on my street) every day.

Eva Holland 09.30.08 | 11:14 AM ET

Glad you liked it, Terry! I can definitely relate, too.

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