Jambangome

Jambangome is a west-coast shore of Pemba. The road in runs between bananas, then through coconut and a village of metal roofs, and down to the place where the mangroves open onto the sea. Behind that shore are rice fields, cattle, and the farms. At the landing a great baobab still stands. An ngalawa works the water when the tide allows. A canoe is poled along the creek. Lily pads sit on the still ponds, and beyond the islets is the reef line.

In the bush above the shore the old stone is still there. One doorway keeps a cusped arch and a spiral jamb, cut in coral, now dark with moss, a tree on the right-hand wall. Other walls stand because the roots of figs hold them, and small arches are still readable underneath. This is Swahili stonework. It is not a ticketed museum, and no published excavation has dated this particular doorway, so the day does not invent a century. A host from the shore walks it. Do not climb the walls. The day is the doorway, the trees that have taken the ruin, the road to the water, and the coast as it is.