“You can record this conversation. I am not scared. I always tell them that if you want to be with me, you need to have money. They have used my body for far too long, so now any foreign woman, either from Europe or America, who comes to be intimate with me, has to pay,” Hamad (not his real name) said.
Transactional relationships between foreign female tourists and young Zanzibari men have been a sensitive, contentious issue subjected to sociological research and journalistic investigation for decades.
Economic inequality often gives foreign women more bargaining power against local young men, dictating the direction the relationship will lead.
Some end up as holiday romances, others turn into long-term relationships leading to marriages, while others tragically end up as scams.
On Facebook and Reddit, public groups and discussions mainly centre around tourism experiences in Zanzibar, like the “Travelling to Zanzibar” Facebook page.
Now and then, a story of a romance turned sour appears. In most cases, foreign women speak about their ordeal of being a victim of a romance scam at the hands of “a beach boy”—a term that is both descriptive and stigmatising, defining young men working in the informal tourism economy along Zanzibar’s beaches.
Hamad, 26, identifies himself as a beach boy and has seen it all. Some of his peers even travelled to Europe with their newfound flames, but they all returned to the island.
They recounted being confined to the house and not allowed to go out to sunbathe, as their sole duty was in bed to please their partners, sexual exploitation masked as a love relationship and an opportunity for a better life abroad.
He was also involved with a European lady whom he chose not to name; after a whirlwind romance lasting a few weeks, she asked him to go to Europe with her.
He refused. What followed was manipulation and betrayal, as he caught her in a compromising position with one of his close friends, later discovering they had been intimate.
He has now given up on love, insisting that in any relationship with a foreigner, money will be the deciding factor.
“If you come to me and say you love me, you have to take care of me, because living in this place is expensive and I don't want her to waste my time,” he said.
He claimed most of these foreign women sexually exploit local boys and discard them when leaving.
“They look down on you like you are nothing. For one year, I have been used for sexual pleasure,” he recounts.
He said he lost so much time until realising he was just being used, noting that now he does not do it anymore, not for free, anyway.
He mainly speaks on economic challenges that lead these young boys on the island to engage in relationships with older foreign women.
On a few occasions, genuine love is the catalyst. But for most, they are driven by their desire to escape poverty, a situation exploited by these women who understand the economic predicament of these energetic young men on the island.
Zanzibar is not a unique case; The Gambia in West Africa has been widely reported in media coverage describing older European women engaging in relationships with much younger local men, often tied to economic imbalance.
Similar cases exist in Kenya's coastal tourist region and the Caribbean islands. Like most beach boys, Hamad has limited education and works in the informal tourism sector, taking tourists sightseeing for a few dollars, mainly operating around Forodhani Gardens, a public space in Stone Town.
Hamad said he does not want to play the victim, acknowledging there are two sides to the story.
He knows friends who have used foreign women to get rich by scamming them, but views that as reciprocity for what young boys experienced in the past at the hands of foreign women.
Most give up on love after constantly being used and dumped, turning into scammers as a result.
“It's like they are vengeful; they fall in love with foreign women coming here and believe it's true love, only for the women to fly back to their countries without even telling them,” he explained.
He narrated how he once fell in love with a Japanese lady with whom he grew very close, spending most of his days with her and assisting her in any way he could.
He later realised he was just a glorified tour guide offering services for free. When it was over, he was left penniless because all the time he could have been working was spent with her, thinking it was love. At the end of the day, she left without a trace.
“If she had paid me for taking her around and running errands for her, that would have helped me greatly; I wouldn't have been upset when she left,” he added.
Dreams of riches and relocating to Europe drive these young men into transactional romance.
Hamad insists African men are trustworthy and offer true love, but circumstances drive them into female sex tourism.
Unlike others, he does not dream of going abroad, hoping instead to build something for himself in Tanzania.
He resents going to North America or Europe to work for scraps, feeling he will be looked down upon. He has seen many cases where fellow Africans are subjected to ridicule just to stay with women in Europe.
He said even when his friends went to Europe, they were not given opportunities to work and make money, because the women feared financial independence would cause the boys to leave them.
His last girlfriend was from Spain, and he was deeply in love with her. By then, he worked on a boat; they moved in together and started living as a couple on the island.
After a few months, she broke things off unexpectedly, leaving him confused and directionless.
Hamad has been left with the burden of paying rent for his one-room accommodation, as well as taking care of his ailing father and his sister, a single mother with two children.
Without a formal job, he knows the only way to earn a living is to continue dating foreign women, not for love, but for financial benefits.
“My dad is not working; he always calls me for money, and I have to help him. He is my father; without him there is nothing,” he said.
“So in my mind I have to think about myself, my family and my lady; that's too much on my mind,” he added.
In his life, being involved with many foreign women has left him heartbroken, traumatised, and depressed.
He advises Tanzanian youth to stop being lazy and find work to do. “Do not look at foreign women as a way out of poverty; don't look at the colour of their skin as a jackpot; you might go to Europe and just become a servant or houseboy to these women,” he urged.
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