Zanzibar’s forgotten railway: East Africa’s first steam line that vanished too soon

Stone Town. Few visitors strolling through the winding alleys of Zanzibar’s Stone Town today would guess that the island was once home to East and Central Africa’s first steam railway.

Long before Kenya and Tanganyika laid tracks, the clatter of carriages and the whistle of a steam locomotive echoed along Unguja’s palm‑fringed coast.