Javed Jafferji has spent his life capturing his affection for the island through photography, filmmaking and storytelling – work that reflects a lifelong commitment to preserving Zanzibar’s culture, people and natural beauty. He also wears a lot of other hats. He is a director of Gallery Tours & Safaris and the Jafferji Group of Hotels, and co-founder of the Tanzanite Museum Zanzibar and the Freddie Mercury Museum. His other ventures include Zuri Rituals, Recycle Zanzibar, Zanzibar Horse Safaris, Zanzihouse and Print Plus.

Ahead of Essence of Africa in Zanzibar, and as one of the local advisors, we sat down with him to talk photography, business and why the island deserves a closer look.

You came back to Zanzibar after seven years in the UK working as a paparazzi photographer. What brought you back?

I was photographing the royal family and celebrities in London for about six months, and I realised that wasn’t my future. My parents are from Zanzibar. My grandfather came here about a century ago, from India, and they built a life from scratch. I came back just a week before an election, when everyone was telling me I was crazy. That was the start of my career in Zanzibar.

Is photography still a hobby, or is it a business now?

It’s a business. I started publishing books almost thirty years ago. I went to UK publishers with the idea of a book on Zanzibar and every one of them said it wasn’t a commercial subject. So I started publishing my own. I’ve now done close to a hundred books, coffee table books mostly, on Zanzibar, Tanzania, Kenya, Lamu. The market has shrunk a bit because of cargo weight limits on flights, but I still believe people want to keep a coffee table book. This year we’ve got several out, including a recent one on a founding figure of Tanzania, launched by the President of Tanzania.

And on the tourism side, what have you built?

I started when there was very little tourism here. It only really began about thirty years ago, when the first hotel opened, an Italian five-star lodge. I saw a gap for a tour company, so I started Gallery Tours & Safaris seventeen years ago. Since then I’ve added a Tanzanite museum, the Freddie Mercury Museum, a printing company, and Zuri Rituals, a cosmetics brand my wife and I built during Covid lockdown out of our kitchen. We now have seven or eight shops and boutiques in Stone Town, and five spas across the island.

Tell us about the Freddie Mercury Museum. Why is it important for Zanzibar?

Freddie Mercury was born here, as Farrokh Bulsara, though most people didn’t know that until the film came out. He never talked much about Zanzibar while he was alive. The building where he was born was destroyed after the revolution, but the building where his family lived on the second floor, and where he stayed for his first few months, is still standing. My business partner and I always talked about opening a museum after we watched the film, and we finally did. It’s small, it’s in Stone Town, and it focuses on his early life here and later in India, before he became a superstar.

You also started Recycle Zanzibar. What’s that about?

We wanted to show what Zanzibar’s waste could become. Paper, plastic, metal, even bone, some from Zanzibar, some from the mainland and elsewhere in East Africa, turned into products. Old oil barrels become beautiful animal sculptures, for example. It’s the first shop you see after immigration in Terminal Three, and it was our way of making sure sustainability efforts were one of the first things visitors saw.

If you had one message for buyers ahead of their visit, what would it be?

Hakuna matata. There’s no problem in Zanzibar, full stop. We have the culture, the heritage of Stone Town, the beaches, the forest at Jozani, wildlife. It’s the perfect place to relax after a safari or Kilimanjaro. And Pemba, our sister island, is a growing story of its own, less developed, but with real investment coming.

What makes Zanzibar different from other Indian Ocean island destinations?

Most other islands are just beach. Zanzibar has heritage, culture and history on top of that. We were the capital of Oman during the Sultanate. You don’t just see a beach here, you see history. And from Zanzibar you can connect straight into Tanzania’s safari circuit, the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire, Manyara.

Any hidden gem you always recommend?

It depends what someone’s into. If you’re a sea person, our excursions are excellent. If you like food, do a spice tour, you taste the spices, you get the local food alongside it. There’s something for everyone.

Javed will be in Zanzibar this October for Essence of Africa 2026.