THE ZIFF DHOW RACE
The five-kilometer
dhow race organized by Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) on the
shores of Bagamoyo turned out to be a great crowd-puller and full of excitement
for the young and the old. Ten dhows with four crews in each vessel
participated and all of them won equal cash prizes!
The
decision by the judges to categorize them as one, two, three winners could not
be a fair decision and hence, the total price of TShs. 1,000,000/= was equally
shared by all the participants. All the ten dhows at the signal “go” started
the race with their sails fully unfurled. In the forefront was an official
engine-driven fiber boat which after reaching the half way, all the dhows were
supposed to make a “U Turn” and back to the shore.
And
as it turned out to be, some dhows made the “U Turn” before reaching the exact point and there was
an obvious mix-up and confusion. Heated arguments ensued on reaching the “finish
point” and the judges instead of categorizing them with an unbiased decision,
the best decision was to split the cash prices into equal amount for each
participant. The decision was accepted
with obvious satisfaction and smile!
The
dhow race 2015 is sponsored by ComNet and similar races will be held on the
shores of Dar es Salaam on 13th June and in Zanzibar on 19th
July. The ComNet provides services such
as full ICT support, web services, networking designing and installation, voip talk and bulk
sms and CCTV installation and support.
The
services of this company is available in
the following main stations which are Dar es Salaam, Mtwara, Tanga,
Zanzibar, Pdemba, Mafia, Kibaha and Bagamoyo. The services will shortly be
available in Arusha, Dodoma and Mwanza.
The
Coordinator of the dhow race competitions, Sabrina Osman Faraji stated that the
film festival, an international annual film festival in Zanzibar will be held
on 18th July to 26th. The CO of Zanzibar International
Film Festival Prof. Martin Mhando was also present at the event.
The
dhow race in Bagamoyo was held right on
the shore of tourist hotel called The Funky Squid’s Beach Bar & Grill.
Story &
Pictures by Abdul Hai
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