It was Ernest Hemingway who lured Dan Olofsson to Africa. “I read all his books,” says the Swedish technology entrepreneur who heads the consultancy Sigma, and they lodged in his imagination.
So when he and his wife, Christin, decided in the early 2000s to build a winter home someplace warmer than their native Scandinavia, they considered the Caribbean but eventually set their sights farther south. “There’s fantastic wildlife and nature in South Africa,” the 65-year-old Olofsson says. “You don’t have that in a lot of places.”
Their plans grew to include a guest lodge at what is now the well-regarded Thanda Safari Private Game Reserve, which opened in 2004. (“Thanda” is Zulu for “love”.) Soon after, the Olofssons set out to acquire a private-island counterpart to their safari lodge and settled on one in the Shungi Mbili Island Marine Reserve in southern Tanzania. After years of negotiation and sustainability-minded construction it was rechristened Thanda Island and welcomed its first paying guests in August. The property, which has five bedrooms and rents in its entirety for $10,000 a night (for up to 10 people), is roughly 20 acres ringed by coral reefs in protected waters that teem with sea life, including whale sharks, dolphins and five species of turtles. The closest inhabited land is Mafia Island, home to more spectacular marine life, trustworthy dive centers and traditional villages. Thanda Island’s hospitality director, Antigone Meda, likens it to Zanzibar 30 years ago – and while Zanzibar now has 200-room hotels, Mafia has about 200 hotel rooms. (Thanda guests who don’t helicopter in from Dar es Salaam fly to Mafia, where Thanda staff greet them and ferry them over in a sleek mahogany boat that would do James Bond proud.)
The Olofssons envisioned the island as a private paradise where they could escape with their three children and eight grandchildren. But the Tanzanian government wouldn’t let them buy it unless it would contribute to tourism in the country and protect marine wildlife. The couple complied but remained committed to building a private family home. And here they were inspired by another 20th century American icon.
“We were at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port around the Fourth of July three or four years ago,” Olofsson recalls. “Looking around, we liked the New England style. Our South African property is more Zulu style. Here we wanted something different, and we decided on New England.” The resulting house on Thanda, with its white wainscoting, peaked rooflines and pastel palette, mixes the American and the Scandinavian, with a few African flourishes like bird’s-nest lamps in the living room and colorful fabric on the chairs in the library.
<div id="attachment_32044" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32044" class="wp-image-32044 size-full" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/FO091316_019.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="768" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FO091316_019.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FO091316_019-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FO091316_019-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FO091316_019-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FO091316_019-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />Water world: The exotic rim-flow pool on Thanda Island was designed by owner Dan Olofsson, who has a degree in engineering</div>
The design is intentionally hard to classify.
Olofsson invested millions – “Less than 10,” he clarifies, though he is unsure of the exact amount – to build something that exists in very few places in the world. That’s in addition to the island itself, with its perfect white sand and clear turquoise waters just feet away from the house.
The Olofssons were very hands-on with the villa and two freestanding beach bandas (open-air bungalows, which allow the island to accommodate groups of up to 28 people), with Christin designing the interiors and Dan, a civil engineer by training, collaborating with the architects.
He was also the visionary behind the villa’s most striking feature, a glass rim-flow swimming pool that gleams with blue mosaic tiles and rises up from the deck to form a luminous cube. “This pool was quite exciting to design,” he says. “I felt like I was just out of university, even though that was 40 years ago.”
The food is far better than might be expected in such a remote location. Much of it is caught nearby. Staff will harvest some of the abundant oysters on demand and serve them with champagne.
While importing luxury foods and wine comes with a carbon footprint, the island was designed to be self-sufficient. It’s constructed with sustainable materials, and there’s a field of solar panels and a desalinization plant. The house and all its infrastructure were also built in such a way that would allow them to be taken apart and leave no trace on the island.
That eco-consciousness is important to Olofsson, who has invested heavily in conservation in the marine reserve. Thanda is working with the Tanzania Marine Parks department and a leading NGO, Sea Sense, on research projects involving sea turtles, whale sharks and coral reefs. It’s a continuation of the commitment Olofsson, the biggest Swedish philanthropist in Africa (and plenty generous at home), made when he established the Thanda Foundation in South Africa in 2005. Among other achievements, its Star for Life arm has put 110,000 children through HIV-prevention education programs.
“We are at a point in our lives where we’re able to give back to society, and I think when you’re there, you have to do it,” he says.
While Thanda has made a point of hiring most of its staff from Mafia Island and is working to improve education there, marine conservation is the main focus. Not that guests would suspect that much of the wildlife is on the endangered species list. There are frequent turtle and dolphin sightings on the boat ride from Mafia, and it’s not uncommon for guests to find themselves swimming among half a dozen whale sharks, the biggest fish in the sea.
That, it turns out, is Thanda Island’s greatest luxury: the access to such an ecosystem – and a solicitous staff to make it easier to commune with it. (They’ll even drag a copper bathtub onto the beach for a sunset soak.)
“Being a big family on an island to yourself,” Olofsson says, “there is a special feeling to that.”
And if it’s a rainy day, there’s still plenty to enjoy – Thanda Island is home to what was the largest Hemingway collection in Sweden, now sitting on shelves spanning 20 feet in a clean, well-lighted place.

FO091316_018

Isle Of You

If first impressions are important then Mauritius, the new whiz kid in African business, isn’t doing too badly. Picture this, you are a foreign investor flying into Port Louis and the cabin crew hands you your landing card. Now, across Africa, this is usually a flimsy and poorly printed piece of paper that could blow away.
In Mauritius, it is a thick, bonded, full-color paper printed in two languages. You could mistake it for a share certificate or frame it, stick it on the wall, and pass it off for qualifications. Just one of the many ways the small island in the Indian Ocean, desperate to punch above its weight, wants to win over investors before they hit the arrival lounge.
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Industrious Mauritius has been busy, since it liberalized its sleepy island economy in 2006, on its way to becoming a little Singapore off the coast of Africa. This year, the World Economic Forum named fast-growing Mauritius the most competitive economy in Africa ranking 45th, above South Africa at 54.
“The only difference between Singapore and Mauritius is that they had oil and we had sugar,” smiles Ashok Kumar Aubeeluck, the head of economic research at the Bank
of Mauritius.
Those sugar days are almost over. Thirty years ago, 65,000 Mauritians worked in the sugar cane fields and made up nearly a third of the economy – these days, that number has dropped to around 14,000 with sugar making up a mere 1.2% of the economy, according to Aubeeluck.
It was almost 20 years to the day since I set foot in Mauritius and I was surprised by the changes: a spanking new airport; new roads beneath the construction cranes; a cyber-city in Ebene, south of the capital Port Louis, with a cluster of buildings that could have been imported from Silicon Valley; plus, flourishing export processing zones that attract entrepreneurs and earn around half of the country’s income. This is a place, with an independent judiciary, that not only works, but also cleanly.
“I have worked here for 15 years and I have never been asked for a bribe,” says Deyan Ristic, an analyst with Africa Practice in Port Louis.
Many of the world’s largest financial institutions, no doubt encouraged by the island’s 15% flat tax rate to look after its mere 1.3 million people, have moved in. Foreign companies can claim tax credits leaving them with no more than a 3% rate of tax.
Mauritius sees itself as very much part of Africa and more than half of investments from the island are channelled into the continent. The island is very conscious of its image and is moving to protect it.
“Despite all our efforts to be clean, NGOs and biased international media have attacked us. We have employed a reputed public relations agency to create the image of Mauritius as an international destination for investment,” says the foreign minister, Arvin Boolell, at a conference on private equity on the island, organized by the Board of Investment.
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Seventy percent of the income of Mauritius comes from services. It benefits from it colonial past in that the island works with both French and English law. A clear advantage when the giants of Asia wish to use Port Louis as a staging post for investments in both Anglophone and Francophone Africa.
Surprisingly, many in business believe Mauritius, the island prepared to meet the world halfway, is not doing enough to entice companies.
“We need economic reform more than electoral reform,” says one of the more cynical business types on the island.
Nevertheless, electoral reform is in the air as Mauritius looks to elections, expected to be announced by the end of the year, in 2015 when the tenure of Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam comes to an end. Ramgoolam is a skilled coalition builder who rules with his Labour Party, through a tenuous power sharing deal, and the new incumbent is likely to take power with a similar arrangement.
Many critics have called for an end to the island’s long standing ‘best loser’ system, whereby eight politicians – who did not win their seats – are appointed to Parliament. The doubters complain these appointments are made on ethnic grounds.
The opposition and critics also cry out for new blood in government and complain that the right politicians are not being picked for the big jobs. Whatever happens in the elections, the only near certainty is that they will be peaceful – save for a bit of badinage and posturing – another pillar of stable Mauritius.
“I have seen more verbal violence in the Scottish referendum than I have ever seen in Mauritius,” says Moussa Rawat, the Edinburgh University educated non-executive chairman of the Bramer Corporation – a top five company in Mauritius with assets of $1.5 billion.
After the elections, Mauritius will be looking to the future and business. The may have few people, but plenty of business ideas.
Aubeeluck says Mauritius is looking into getting more out of the Indian Ocean.
“At the moment we are getting around one percent of our economy from the sea, largely through seafood , but if we go ahead with plans to harvest  more marine and plant life from the sea we could be talking between five and seven percent,” says Aubeeluck.
There is also interest in green energy. Aubeeluck is excited by a German project in the North Sea that puts windmills offshore – where the wind always blows.
“The Germans have managed to power 650,000 households with six offshore windmills, we have only 275,000, so with windmills we could power the whole island and reduce our carbon footprint at the same time.”
Foreign money appears to have the same idea. Fred Sisson and his company, Synnove Energy, is sinking $150 million into generating wind and solar energy
on Mauritius.
“The infrastructure is good here and it is very stable and there is growing demand for energy,” says Sisson.
Mauritius has plans to increase its energy output from 650MW to 850MW over the next few years.
The island also plans to strengthen its position in the financial services world. Entrepreneur Dhaneshwar Damry has worked for the last two years on a plan to open the first pan-African electronic bourse in the first quarter of 2015. It will deal with companies with a market capital of $50 million and upwards from mining to healthcare. The plan needs the final approval of the Financial Services Commission.
“I think it will work. If you look at it, a Nigerian company will prefer to work with us, rather than a South African company, because there is a history of business rivalry between the two countries,” says Damry in Port Louis.
Another sign in these troubled economic times that if you could bottle optimism and sell it, Mauritius could make a fortune through export.

Paradise Found?

Gert Grobler should have retired a while ago. He is over the age, and served with distinction as South Africa’s ambassador in Spain and then Japan, prestigious appointments. Trading Tokyo’s opulence for the tarnish of Antananarivo is not considered an attractive offer.
But when Grobler was due to retire, the powers that be asked him to stay on to resolve the problematic politics of Madagascar.
“What could I do? They asked me to help,” he says, when I ask how the glitzy residence in Tokyo compares with the poverty of ‘Tana, as Madagascar’s capital is known.
Madagascan politics are fraught. The incumbent president was there because of a coup, unrecognized by South Africa, who hosted the ‘real’ president, Marc Ravalomanana, at considerable expense to taxpayers for four years.
South Africa has major mining and tourism interests in the large island state of Madagascar, a state which has been loyal to France, has been riddled with corruption, and has been run by proxy presidents whose strings are pulled by puppet masters in the five major families.
As it turned out, the elections held this January &#8211; after banning both the incumbent president and the real president from standing &#8211; resulted in the election of President Hery Rajaonarimampianina, not exactly South Africa’s choice.
It was a relatively free and fair election, so South Africa supported the outcome and Grobler had to try to exert South Africa’s influence, against fierce French rivalry.
Many ambassadors are lazy, and as many are useless. Grobler works hard. So it came about that Rajaonarimampianina, on his visit to South Africa in May for President Jacob Zuma’s inauguration, enjoyed a slew of high-level important meetings, from the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) to a private lunch at Werksmans Attorneys, a lunch I chaired.
The new president outlined his tasks, explained his attitude to the return of former President Ravalomanana, and came across as a good guy intent on ridding his country of corruption, being his own man not answerable to the five families, and having a serious grasp of his island’s finances, treasury, business opportunities and threats.
A short, friendly man, he speaks fluent French and Malagasy and is eloquent in English, only resorting to an interpreter once or twice.
He plays tennis and follows soccer, has five children, been married twice, and was the Minister of Finance under the coup administration.
“Madagascar is the land of opportunity,” he says at the lunch. A cliché, yet I believe him.
“We are creating an environment that is good for investment. On the energy front there is huge potential for solar energy, but we need capital and a return on investment.”
Asked questions on air travel, the cost of which is a sore point for tourists, he says, “We have open skies and I invite your South African companies to come to develop tourism.”
His biggest challenge?
“To eradicate the extreme poverty in Madagascar. That’s number one. Then to bring jobs is a first aim, and to create different services in education.”
Poverty, jobs, education. Good priorities.
In the interview, he suggests investment in agriculture is tops in business opportunities, then mining, tourism and renewable energy.
“We have ports, roads, airports, so you can move freely in Madagascar, but infrastructure is still a problem.”
Pretty new in the job, is he a new broom sweeping clean?
“We are in the beginning of my mandate,” he admits disarmingly. “This transition is important. A new president brings a new framework and authority to fight corruption and it is important to set up a new kind of democracy in Madagascar.”
Presumably one that doesn’t rely on patronage from the five almost-royal families or from big business or the military?
The big question is what will he do about the exiled former president, Ravalomanana?
“His return will be better if it can happen in a peaceful and fair environment. I am not sure if it is there [yet]. This is not the time for it but I am sure it can happen.”
“Ravalomanana is a patriotic person and wants the best for the country. He has a problem with justice and we have to find a solution to that before he returns.”
After being ousted in a coup, Ravalomanana was tried in absentia for ordering his troops to fire on protestors. The court sentenced him, also in absentia, in what the whole world saw as a kangaroo court decision. But the decision is still binding, although the new president probably has some legal leeway to have it rescinded.
“If I say he must stay for a while in South Africa it is a transitional thing. He also has real tax he must pay from the past and to be fair to the citizens it is the rule of law, everyone has to pay his duty. He has a debt in that and he has to pay or at least he has to come to a negotiation to settle this debt.
“The Malagasy courts are sovereign over the criminal charges. He has accepted the decisions of the court of a formal government. If he wants to be amnestied he must apply.”
But what about France’s influence?
“France is our historical partner. France has its place. But I’m not sure it has an influence on my politics. The voice of France is always listened to. But the world is now globalized.”
One of Rajaonarimampianina’s major priorities is to curb the illegal export of rosewood.
“That was my first challenge. To fight for the authority of the state and fight the illegal traffic of rosewood, gold, indigenous animals, turtles and all the endemics.”
Rajaonarimampianina has a Master’s in Economics from the University of Quebec and a Diploma of Certified Accounting. He was on the Board of Accounting of Canada. He started his own accounting firm in ‘Tana in 1995, and was then proposed in 2009 by the private sector to serve their interests as Finance Minister in the coup government.
Being president is a step up but one that Rajaonarimampianina relishes.
“I do it with pride, joy and conviction.”
The new president is a far cry from the person he replaced. Coup leader Andry Rajoelina was popularly known as a failed disc jockey, doing the bidding of a puppet master of one of the five families.
Rajaonarimampianina brings technical knowledge, university degrees in finance and a more appealing personality to the job.
It will be difficult to drag the island up from the depths to which it has descended. He may just be the man to do it. Certainly everyone in Africa wishes him and his country the very best.
As for Gert, he’ll still be there for a while.
“You get old, but you try to help where you can,” he says.

The Accountant Turned President

There is a difference between travellers  and tourists; a difference between a trip and journey.
If you fall into the latter category in both instances, then perhaps a jaunt to Jambiani in Zanzibar is worth considering. In three-and-a-half hours, direct bi-weekly flights (if traveling out of Johannesburg in South Africa to Zanzibar) transport the intrepid and the intrigued to another world distinctly different from the metropolis you have left behind. From the shopping malls and high rises of the city of gold heading northeast to six degrees south of the equator and, to some extent, back in time, you arrive in the spice islands of Zanzibar.
For most, the first impressions are that of the old-world Stone Town, a UNESCO World heritage site in Zanzibar city, where one loses oneself in excitingly-confusing narrow streets filled with vendors bent on selling you everything from cashew nuts and badly-recorded CDs of local music to local art and craft (the best of these being the wood works). You will find no malls here, no fast food franchises and very little to remind that you are actually in the 21st century. You become aware that almost every structure is made of coral stone featuring elaborate wooden doors, for which Zanzibar is particularly famous, guarding mysterious and rich cultural heritage within the walls.
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It is now time to head east, crossing the island, toward Jambiani where the melting pot of Arabic, British, Persian, Portuguese and other previous colonial influences give way to real rural Africa. Within an hour ($50 by road in a sedan), you arrive in Jambiani, the village that snakes its way for 10 kilometers up the southeast coast of the island. Leaving the only tar road and arriving in the village via bumpy dirt roads laden with goats and chickens, you are struck by two things. First, the mesmerizing colors of the ocean lightly covering the immense sandbar and, second, the village itself, which is beyond modest and a stark reminder of the fact you are now in one of the poorest parts of the planet.
This can be disconcerting at first, until you notice the smiles, the almost euphoric shouts of jambo (hello) from the children and the genuinely-welcoming demeanor of the people. Jambiani is different from other parts of Zanzibar in that virtually all the hotels are owned by locals, and where there are foreign-run properties, these are almost always in association with the natives either as landlords or equal partners. It is the latter that’s most appealing for travelers looking to support the local community but wanting a level of service and facilities that may be not be present in purely local accommodations.
The three-star Coral Rock Hotel here is roughly $100 per night, and offers the facilities (like Wi-Fi) and services one expects. It’s sandwiched between the ever-changing tides and colors of the Indian Ocean on the one side and the quaint working village of Jambiani on the other.
Whilst the villagers work the beach, ocean and sandbar, you will most likely be spending your time sunbathing, exploring, snorkeling, diving, kitesurfing, kayaking or eating fresh seafood and fruits. The food is enjoyable and the atmosphere relaxing whilst the climate seems to constantly stay sunny and between 28-32 degrees Celsius.
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No need for high heels and formal attire, they are wasted here. Just remember to cover up the bikinis whilst walking in the village or when walking past a mosque. The prime activity and raison d’etre is relaxation. A week here seems like the antidote to the fast-paced rat race in the city. It’s a place where you feel safe and can get away from it all.

Tag: Island

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Isle Of You

Paradise Found?

The Accountant Turned President

Far From The Madding Rats