The music is upbeat, the crowd, a vibrant mix of tourists, villagers and beach boys; for most, it is a night of drinking and drugs. Every month there is the celebration of the full moon in Zanzibar: the ideal hunting ground for hustlers to hit on the newly arrived women from Europe. These tourists of all ages often leave seduced by the romantic idea of the lover in paradise. But they don't know they are playing with fire ...

By Lotte Vermeij, Zanzibar

These women are not fully aware of the risks posed by a relationship with these exotic beach boys. German Sandra says: "When I met Patrick at the Full Moon Party, I found him too cute. He had long dreadlocks and remarkably cool. We danced all night, with me gazing at his beautiful dark eyes! We had a blast. We're drunk and he accompanied me to my room. We made love without condoms. It was so romantic, I could not resist." But Sandra did not think: most beach boys have sex with many partners and they hardly protect themselves.

AIDS
"The beach boys have countless girlfriends and sometimes they sleep with a different woman every night,” says doctor Muhammed. “It's terrible. According to our estimates, two thirds of those gigolos are HIV positive. I followed their transformation over the years: they seemed young and healthy, until they started losing weight dramatically. Their health deteriorated noticeably and yet they refused to undergo the test.”

Dr. Muhammed carries on: “They know the fate that awaits them, but they prefer to ignore it. Most of them continue to go out with Western women, in an attempt to break away from our society. They do everything to get the ladies to fall in love. They pretend to be serious and many tourists return home, thinking they have a lover in Zanzibar.”

In fact, these men have several European girlfriends who come back to see them. Many of them even succeeded to move to Europe. Unfortunately, it does not turn out to be that romantic. The change in environment and lifestyle soon worsens the addiction to alcohol and drugs that already existed on the island."

Miserable
Some European tourists are so seduced that they even chose to stay on the island.

Linda, a Dutch woman has been living in Zanzibar for four years. She was on holiday and fell in love with a beach boy and decided to live on this paradise-like island. A few months later she was pregnant. Linda and her boyfriend have two children together. From the ideal beach boy, he gradually changed into this terrible man who beats her and makes her miserable.

"At first Jimmy was really the man of my dreams: romantic, caring, fantastic! But the longer we were together, the more I noticed he was transforming into somebody different. He drank a lot, he smoked cannabis all day. He slept out and when I asked him to stay with me, he got very angry. Being pregnant, I refused to see the reality. I did not want to be a single mother. I wanted to believe in this romantic and paradisiac love."

Soon after the birth of their first child, Linda started to get abused. "He yelled at me and beat me when I criticised his behaviour. But since my children were born here, I'm not allowed to leave the island without the permission of their father. Jimmy does not want them to go. Iam unable to flee. I am a prisoner. And I will not return to Holland without my children."

Unconscious
Linda's story is only one story among many others. Dr. Muhammed, who for years has treated venereal diseases, concludes harshly: "The Europeans are unaware of the risks of a lover's paradise. Admittedly, Zanzibar looks like heaven, but it hides a lot of problems to do with the beach boys. I have unfortunately seen too many women who have ruined their lives by falling in love with these hustlers. They don't understand that Zanzibar is an African island and that AIDS is a serious problem here. It is a pity that even well-educated European women cannot see this."

Read Part 1 to this story here.

The names mentioned in this article have been changed for confidentiality reasons.