Following his birth Salum was taken to live in a place called Michenzain where he lived until the age of four years. Michenzani is a large neighbourhood of Ng'ambo, the more modern part of Zanzibar City. It is located just across Creek Road, that separates the historical part of the city, Stone Town (to the west) and Ng'ambo (to the east). The place is mostly known for the Plattenbauten, i.e., the large apartment blocks that have been built here in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the aid of East Germany.