MZURI KAJA DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY

Mzuri Kaja, the village

Welcome to MZURI KAJA village!

Mzuri Kaja village is located in Makunduchi, south eastern part of Zanzibar and is about one-hour drive (40 miles) away from Zanzibar town. The large part of the village is coral, leaving a small part which is suitable for agriculture. Wherever you go in Mzuri Kaja, you will find smiling faces providing the kind of warm hospitality and friendliness characteristic of the village. Most villagers are subsistence farmers or labourers. Fishing is another bread-earning activity to many villagers. Before you visit the village, please take time to learn of the legendary tale of the origin of the name MZURI KAJA.

Many villages or localities in Zanzibar have taken their names from big trees, or prominent geographical features found from those areas such as ‘Kilimani’, Kiswahili name for hilly places. However, Mzuri Kaja is an exception. According to the legend, many years ago, a very beautiful young woman came to fetch water from the village well, reputed for attracting strangers from remote villages because of its fresh and very sweet water. At the well, the young woman found no one but an old man, who saw her as she was heading towards the well. The old man was struck by her beauty that he suddenly stopped to gaze her. Then, he instantly rushed to the village to call other men to see this beautiful young woman. When they arrived, there was no one at the well! She disappeared mysteriously.

 

The news of the arrival of a beautiful woman at the well spread like wild fire in the village. It created passion among the villagers to look for her whereabouts. Some decided to follow the path she might have taken and others searched for her at a nearby huge baobab tree that was surrounded by a bush. Their effort, however, did not bear fruit. The beautiful woman had gone to an unknown place for ever. Many villagers believed that she was a spirit; a belief that was common in the village in those days.

 

Because the villagers’ thirst to see the beautiful woman was not quenched, they developed a habit of asking one another jokingly in Kiswahili- “Mzuri Kaja?”, meaning ‘has the beautiful one (woman) come (again)?’. The question was exchanged frequently among the villagers. Mzuri Kaja  started as sobriquet and ended as the official name of the village upto today!

 

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