Meet the Women Transforming Zanzibar’s Seaweed Industry

On Zanzibar’s east coast, a community of women harvests seaweed with the tides, preserving generations of knowledge while helping to shape a more sustainable future.

A group of women working around one table in a lab.
Mwani Zanzibar is a skincare brand that aims to build a regenerative blue economy that benefits people and ocean alike.
Lee-Ann Olwage
Story and photographs byLee-Ann Olwage
Published September 26, 2026
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
A local man up high in a coconut palm tree with the coast in the distance.
A close-up on hand holding up different small shells with ocean water in the background.
Off the coast of Tanzania, Zanzibar is famed for Stone Town’s alleyways, fragrant spice plantations and blinding white beaches. But on the island’s east coast, life follows a different beat, set not by the clock, but by the tides.
Lee-Ann Olwage (Top) (Left) and Lee-Ann Olwage (Bottom) (Right)
An immersive shot of women wading through shallow ocean water, picking seaweed.
At sunrise in the village of Paje, local women wade out into warm, shallow water to tend to seaweed farms that have sustained coastal communities for generations. Known as the Mwani Zanzibar Mamas, the collective was founded to give women a sustainable livelihood while safeguarding the marine world they depend on.
Lee-Ann Olwage
A close-up on a floating basket of seaweed.
Indigenous seaweed is trained along ropes beneath the surface, and left to drink in nutrients for around six weeks before it’s harvested by hand.
Lee-Ann Olwage
A local woman dusting off the entrance step to her house.
Timed to the ebbing tide, this daily ritual has become one of Zanzibar’s most iconic coastal scenes, with women gathering armfuls of glistening seaweed as dawn light spreads across the bay.
Lee-Ann Olwage
A concentrated, green oil is poured into a measurement container in a lab setting.
A tower made of soap blocks.
For generations, Zanzibar’s communities have understood the restorative qualities of seaweed, long before it became a sought-after ingredient in skincare. After harvesting, the crop is carefully cleaned and processed, traditional knowledge paired with scientific expertise to shape it into a range of soaps and skincare products.
Lee-Ann Olwage (Top) (Left) and Lee-Ann Olwage (Bottom) (Right)
A local woman posing for a portrait in a tropical garden, balancing a woven basket on her head.
Founded by Klaartje Schade and Andrew Anthony, Mwani Zanzibar aims to build a regenerative blue economy that benefits people and ocean alike. Every bar of soap supports employment for local women while showcasing the value of sustainably farmed seaweed.
Lee-Ann Olwage
A beach with trees overhanging into the ocean and a boat moored on sand.
By turning an abundant marine resource into high-quality skincare, the collective shows how conservation, cultural heritage and economic opportunity can thrive together, offering visitors a deeper connection to one of Zanzibar’s most enduring coastal traditions.
Lee-Ann Olwage
Published in the Indian Ocean Collection 2026 by National Geographic Traveller (UK).

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