Where Chwaka is
Chwaka is a village on the bay of the same name, on the east side of Unguja, at the edge of the island’s only national park. It is not a beach destination in the way the coast north and south of it is. It is a bay village with a working shore, and the bay is the reason to be interested in it.
Chwaka Bay
Chwaka Bay is a large, shallow tidal lagoon and one of the most studied bits of water on the island. A tidal exchange study records it covering something like fifty square kilometres when full, with an average depth of a little over three metres at spring high water. Zanzibar’s tides are semidiurnal with a range running from close to a metre at neaps to over three metres at springs, which means an enormous volume of water fills and empties this bay twice a day.
That is the defining fact of the place. At high water it is a broad sheet of shallow water; at low water great expanses of it are mud, sand and seagrass with channels running through them. The village’s fishing, the seaweed plots and the boats all run on that cycle rather than on the clock.
Swimming is not really what Chwaka is for. The bay is shallow, muddy in parts and tidal to an extreme degree, and anyone wanting a swimming beach should look to the northern tip at Nungwi and Kendwa, or to the ocean-facing coast at Pongwe or Paje. The beach holidays guide covers how the island’s coasts differ.
The mangroves and the national park
The bay carries extensive mangrove and is visited by boat from the bay villages — quieter, and with far less organised traffic, than the boardwalk at the other end of the park. The mangrove tours guide covers what lives in them: crabs and mudskippers in very large numbers on exposed mud, and kingfishers, herons, egrets, waders and fish eagles throughout.
Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park takes its name from this bay and is Zanzibar’s only national park. It was first gazetted as a forest reserve in 1960 and became a national park on 27 February 2004, covering roughly fifty square kilometres. It was established primarily to protect the Zanzibar red colobus, the endemic monkey found nowhere else, and most visitors come for that. The mangrove boardwalk at the park’s southern edge, crossing the tidal inlet between the villages of Pete and Jozani, is the second half of the same visit and is frequently rushed. Both are covered in the forest walks and primate watching guides.
The bay is also sheltered, quiet paddling water, similar in character to Menai Bay in the south-west and quieter still — covered in the sea kayaking guide.
What else is here
Seaweed is farmed on the bay flats, as along the rest of this coast, and worked at low tide almost entirely by women; the seaweed farm tours guide sets out the industry and how to visit it honestly. Fishing and boat work go on throughout, and village tours covers what is and is not verifiable about the community programmes advertised on this coast.
Michamvi, on the peninsula across the bay, looks back at this shore, which is the reason it has the east side’s sunsets. Uroa is the next village round the bay to the north.
Practical notes
Everything here is tidal, including whether a boat can leave. Plan around the water rather than the hour. Getting to this side of the island, and to the island itself, is covered in the guide to reaching Zanzibar and crossing it.
Footwear for the flats: mud, seagrass, shell and urchins in the rubble.
Chwaka is a village, and a conservative one. Dress covered away from a hotel beach.
Rainfall is bimodal: long rains, masika, about March to May; short rains, vuli, about October to December. The seasonal guide to the islands and the coast sets those months against the mainland’s.
Common questions about Chwaka
Is Chwaka a beach destination?
Not really. It is a bay village with a shallow, muddy, strongly tidal shore. The reason to come is the bay itself — mangroves, birds, quiet paddling — and the national park at the head of it, rather than the sand.
Is Chwaka the same as Jozani?
They are two ends of the same protected area. Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park became Zanzibar’s only national park on 27 February 2004, having first been gazetted as a forest reserve in 1960, and covers roughly fifty square kilometres. Jozani is the forest with the red colobus; Chwaka Bay is the mangrove and tidal system at the other end.
Can I see the red colobus from Chwaka?
The forest is a short drive away at the other side of the park, and the colobus is what almost everyone visits for. The mangrove boardwalk between Pete and Jozani is usually part of the same trip and is worth not rushing.
Why is the bay so empty at low tide?
Because it is a shallow tidal lagoon covering something like fifty square kilometres at high water, averaging a little over three metres deep at spring high water. With a tidal range from about a metre at neaps to over three at springs, most of that water leaves twice a day.