The Pemba Stools

My mother bought these stools while she lived in Zanzibar, two of four obtained at her request by a very good family friend, Douglas Barber, who was in the Zanzibar police and probably travelled to Pemba fairly regularly. Mother writes that they were, "made in Pemba by the last man to know the craft."

Pemba is an island just to the north of Zanzibar and was part of the British Zanzibar Protectorate. Like Zanzibar, its more recent history is dominated by the Omani Arabs who came to the East African coast in their trading dhows. While it's fairly easy to find reference on the internet to one of the island's traditions, bull fighting - details here - there are no references to.....

....Pemba stools, so either they were only made for a short time by the man my mother referred to or the tradition has completely died out. Searches on the internet have only once found reference to them: three were for sale in the USA at very low prices.

Time has not been kind to our two stools: the cowhide seats are stained and worn, and the wooden legs cracked. They are heavy, awkward, cumbersome. Each time we move house I decide to throw them out but, when it comes to it, I can't.