Part of the Malindi team - Our ngalawa was called "MOTO MOTO"
As I was fascinated by the sea from my childhood, it was not a surprise that later I joined also the official govermental competion of ngalawa race.
This special race was organized by the former President Karume who was by himself a seaman.
The first race took place soon after the revolution – maybe in 1966 or 1967. The races were organized on different official celebration days like Revolution celebration day or Union celebration day of Tanzania.
Here we compeated with other regions of Unguja like Mangapwani, Muanda, Makunduchi, Gulioni and Kizingo in town area plus the island of Pemba.
Our ngalwa boat was called „Moto Moto“.
We - as Malindi boys - many times came first and won the race.
Then the former President Karume handed over 1,000 shillings to our so called captain (nahodha). His name was Mrambwani.
At that time 1,000 shilling were round about 500 US dollars nowadays and a lot of money for us youngsters.
The money was shared by six people who were participating in the boat race and few of the money was given to organize an evening celebration at Malindi Raslikhima sea side.
There we celebrated our success with a special ngoma music group and cultural drums.
After the party we were waiting for the next competion!
As a winner of this race you were allways seen like a hero in Malindi and we were very proud at that time to be one of the best crews in that ngalawa race of Zanzibar island.
The race allways started from Ras Shangani (today Hyatt Hotel) to Changu island and back.
We past Changu island left hand side. There was a place called danzi (a spot with a lot of fish). Here a boat with a flag and a referee was the spot where we had to turn back to the shore in Stonetown.