Zanzibar
In all the tourist towns, curio shops sell wooden animals, batik, jewellery, pottery and wickerwork (bags and baskets made of sisal fibre). Masai handicrafts (shields, beads, lances, carved gourds) are available everywhere that tourists roam. Whatever you buy, make a habit of haggling, even if some shopkeepers accept with bad grace (especially in Zanzibar): the prices are generally inflated to outrageous levels.
If you buy Makonde sculptures, make sure you're getting the genuine article: many pieces are carved from lighter wood and dyed with boot polish. Real ebony weighs a ton.
You can also bring home African cottons-brightly coloured kikoi with printed patterns, which the men knot round their waist like a skirt-and precious or semi-precious stones. As well as rubies, sapphires, rhodolite (a kind of garnet) and malachite, you will find tsavorite, which looks something like an emerald, and the highly prized violet-blue tanzanite.
Zanzibar used to produce beautiful articles in gold and silver filigree, but you'd be lucky to find any now. However, you may discover a genuinely old carved chest studded with brass fittings, ancient porcelain or ceramics, or yellowing photographs from the turn of the century.
Spices are readily available; take home a bag or two and put some sun into your cooking.
