After 7 years of intensive preparations, Garden of Komba started with a pilot in August 2023 on Zanzibar, Tanzania.
An international group of enthusiastic adventurers, all with strong personal motivation and a backpack full of individual credentials, traveled to East Africa. They stayed for 10 days between and under palm and banana trees in the beautiful Garden of Komba bush camp in the middle of Zanzibar.
In the enchanting natural ambiance of East Africa, a particularly dynamic society emerged, with locals, guests, plants, animals and people as main actors. This was aromatized by moonlit canvas tents and by unforgettable African starry splendor.
A varied program was offered during the day. Century-old and fascinating cultural events took place in a villager’s yards, in mystical exotic locations and villages around the island. A varying range of traditional workshops were offered and experienced by the guests and received with great enthusiasm by performers and participants. These took place, spread across various locations on Zanzibar. A wonderful balance emerged between unforgettable moments and dynamic adventurous experiences.
A unique event took place where a synergy and fusion of cultures that had not yet taken place on this scale under such circumstances could be felt. Between the pilot participants and the Garden of Komba team a mutual interest and great respect towards each other developed from the very beginning.
Warm friendships developed between young and old, without prejudice and restraint. The cooks and their children were as involved in this as were the Masaai watchmen, engaging in deeper conversations at the nightly campfires. Indeed, the staff at Garden of Komba, is deliberately made up of residents of the local Swahili people of Zanzibar. They all specialize in their tasks while presenting a piece of original Africa from their individuality.
Also, members of the Maasai and Menjamwezi tribes, had traveled from the interior of Tanzania to Zanzibar for this purpose and contributed from their individuality to this special Pilot period. Which in turn automatically led to an unforgettable fusion of cultures. Individual exchanges and experiences without parallel, in dealing with villagers, Musicians, painters and artisans. The interest our participants, in the cultural and basic ethics of this tropical island on the edge of the African continent and the Indian Ocean, was a hunger for even more. …
But this time the Swahili culture told its story, without the participants being a determining factor/place and having the tendency to impose their cultural values and norms. An unforgettable new exotic world full of facts and soul experiences sprang up for our guests.
An extraordinary experience, which could only manifest itself in such a specific way within the special concept of Garden of Komba. Many a tear was shed at the end of this special project and no one wanted to go home. Not only friendships had blossomed, but above all a special respect for Man in harmony with his natural environment had settled in everyone.
A piece of the reality of life inside a sub-African culture was carried home in the personal backpack of each participant and took on an individual unforgettable meaning in their everyday thinking and life.
(…never thought this beautiful lifestyle good have such an impact on my personal vision of view…} a participant.
