ZANZIBAR
The presence of
microlithic tools attests to at least 20,000 years of human occupation of Zanzibar. The islands became part of the historical record of the wider world when Arab traders discovered them and used them as a base for voyages between
Arabia,
India, and
Africa.
Unguja offered a protected and defensible harbour, so although the archipelago offered few products of value, the Arabs settled at what became
Zanzibar City (Stone Town) as a convenient point from which to trade with
East African coastal towns. They established garrisons on the islands and built the first
mosque in the
Southern hemisphere.
[1]
During the
Age of Exploration, the
Portuguese Empire was the first European power to gain control of Zanzibar, and the Portuguese kept it for nearly 200 years. In 1698, Zanzibar fell under the control of the
Sultanate of Oman, which developed an economy of trade and
cash crops with a ruling Arab elite. Plantations were developed to grow spices, hence the term
Spice Islands. Another major trade good for Zanzibar was
ivory. 1 The
Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the East African coast, known as
Zanj; this included
Mombasa,
Dar es Salaam, and trading routes that extended much further inland, such as the route leading to
Kindu on the
Congo River.
https://www.jamiiforums.com/wiki/File:Monument_to_slaves_in_Zanzibar_.jpg
Sometimes gradually and sometimes by fits and starts, control of Zanzibar came into the hands of the
British Empire; part of the political impetus for this was the 19th century movement for the
abolition of the slave trade. The relationship between Britain and
the nearest relevant colonial power, Germany, was formalized by the 1890
Helgoland-Zanzibar Treaty, in which Germany pledged not to interfere with British interests in insular Zanzibar. That year, Zanzibar became a
protectorate (not a
colony) of Britain. From 1890 to 1913, traditional
viziers were appointed to
govern as puppets, switching to a system of British residents (effectively
governors) from 1913 to 1963. The death of the pro-British
Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini on 25 August 1896 and the succession of Sultan
Khalid bin Barghash of whom the British did not approve led to the
Anglo-Zanzibar War. On the morning of 27 August 1896, ships of the
Royal Navy destroyed the
Beit al Hukum Palace. A
cease fire was declared 38 minutes later, and to this day the bombardment stands as the shortest war in history
[2].
The islands gained independence from Britain in December 1963 as a
constitutional monarchy. A month later, the bloody
Zanzibar Revolution, in which thousands of Arabs and Indians were killed in a
genocide and thousands more expelled,
[3] led to the establishment of the
Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba. That April, the republic was subsumed by the mainland former colony of
Tanganyika. This United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar was soon renamed (as a
portmanteau) the United Republic of
Tanzania, of which Zanzibar remains a semi-autonomous region.
The main island of Zanzibar, Unguja, has a fauna which reflects its connection to the
African mainland during the
last ice age.
[4][5] Endemic mammals with continental relatives include the
Zanzibar red colobus, a full species; the
Zanzibar leopard, which is critically endangered and possibly
extinct; and the recently described
Zanzibar servaline genet.
Pemba island is separated from Unguja island and the
African continent by deep channels and has a correspondingly restricted fauna, reflecting its comparative isolation from the mainland.
[4][5] Its best-known endemic is the
Pemba flying fox.
Main article:
Zanzibar Archipelago
The Sultan's Palace in Stone Town, as seen from the House of Wonders
Zanzibar has its own
Revolutionary Council and
House of Representatives with 50 seats, directly elected by
universal suffrage to serve five-year terms; these make up the semi-autonomous
Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar. Unguja comprises three administrative regions:
Zanzibar Central/South,
Zanzibar North and
Zanzibar Urban/West. Pemba has two:
Pemba North and
Pemba South.
There are many political parties in Zanzibar, but the main Parties are the
Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the
Civic United Front (CUF). Since the early 1990s, the politics of the archipelago have been marked by repeated clashes between these two political parties. Contested elections in late 2000 led to a massacre in Zanzibar in January 2001 when the government shot into crowds of protestors, killing 35 and injuring 600.
[6] Violence erupted again in 2005 after another contested election, with the CUF claiming that its rightful victory had been stolen from them. Following 2005, negotiations between the two parties aiming at the long-term resolution of the tensions and a power-sharing accord took place, but they suffered repeated setbacks. The most notable of these took place in April 2008, when the CUF walked away from the negotiating table following a CCM call for a referendum to approve of what had been presented as a done deal on the power-sharing agreement
Zanzibar, mainly
Pemba Island, was once the world's leading
clove producer during the 1970s, but annual clove sales have since plummeted by 80%. Explanations given for this are a fast-moving global market, international competition and a hangover from Tanzania's failed experiment with
socialism in the 1960s and 1970s, when the government controlled clove prices and exports. Zanzibar now ranks a distant third with Indonesia supplying 75% of the world's cloves compared to Zanzibar's 7%.
[7]
Zanzibar exports spices, seaweed and fine
raffia. It also has a large fishing and
dugout canoe production. Tourism is a major foreign currency earner.
The Michenzani apartment blocks near Stone Town, once the pride of
East German development cooperation with Zanzibar.
During May and June 2008, Zanzibar suffered a
major failure of its electricity system, which left the island without electricity for nearly a month. The Mainland, where the fault originated, managed to be restored at the same time, but the Islanders stayed powerless and entirely dependent on alternative methods of electricity generation from May 21 to June 19 (mainly diesel generators). This led to a serious and ongoing shock to the island's fragile economy, which is heavily dependent on foreign tourism.
Generally, Zanzibaris live in worse conditions than in mainland Tanzania. Most people in Zanzibar subsist on incomes of less than US $0.50 per day, with tourism being the only major provider of employment.
Some foreign embassies have relocated to Zanzibar to serve both Zanzibaris and their own citizens, who find it hard to travel to Dar Es Salaam for consular services.
Zanzibar has a total road network of 1,600 kilometers of roads, of which 85 percent are termaced or semitermaced. The remainder is earth road, which is annually rehabilitated to make it passable throughout the year. Zanzibar now has a thriving improved sea transport network, by which public owned ships and private speed boats serve the ports of Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Pemba, Tanga, Mtwara and Mombasa. The most recently accident was May 2009 where a cargo vessel sunk before departing to Dar-es Salaam,it is still unclear how many people lost their life as well as the source of the accident,it took more than a week to rescue and lift the vessel, Zanzibar is well connected to the rest of the world. Zanzibar's main airport,
Zanzibar International Airport, can now handle larger planes, which has resulted in an increase in passenger and cargo inflows and outflows.
Zanzibar is well served by the newly restructured public telecommunication company (TTCL) and four privately owned mobile systems. Through these systems the whole of Zanzibar (Unguja and Pemba) is widely covered and connected to most parts of the world.
The energy sector in Zanzibar is constituted by electric power, petroleum and petroleum products; it is also supplemented by firewood and its related products. Coal and gas are rarely used for either domestic and industrial purposes. Zanzibar gets 70 percent of its electric power needs from mainland Tanzania through a submarine cable, and the rest (for Pemba) is thermally generated. Between 70-75% of the electricity generated is domestically used while less than 20 percent is industrially used. Fuel wood, charcoal and kerosene are widely used as sources of energy for cooking and lighting for most rural and urban areas. The consumption capacity of petroleum, gas, oil, kerosene and IDO is increasing annually, with a total of 5,650 tons consumed in 1997 to more than 7,500 tons in 1999.[
citation needed]
This section
does not cite any references or sources. Please help
improve this article by adding citations to
reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and
removed.
(February 2009)
The island is home to
Zanzibar University, the former Institute of Kiswahili and Foreign Language (TAKILUKI) that was transformed to The State University of Zanzibar in 1999 (SUZA). A prominent school in Zanzibar is Lumumba Secondary School, also known as Lumumba College; most of Zanzibar's prominent people have attended the school, including the current President Amani Karume.
The education system in Zanzibar is slightly different than that of the Tanzanian mainland. Compulsory education in Zanzibar is from Standard One to Form Two, while on the mainland it is from Standard One to Seven.[
clarification needed] The national examination of Tanzania is shared by both mainland and Zanzibar during O. Level education. Fewer students from Zanzibar pass the exam than students from the mainland.
In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s,
national service after secondary education was necessary, but it is now voluntary and few students volunteer. Most choose to seek employment or attend teacher's colleges.
Indians, in Zanzibar
Zanzibar is a conservative,
Sunni Muslim society. Its history was influenced by the
Arabs,
Persians,
Indians,
Portuguese,
British and the
African mainland.
The most famous[
citation needed] Imams and Scholars in Zanzibar and East Africa include the late Abdullah Farsy, who was the first person to translate the Qur'an into the Swahili language; the late Amir Tajir, the Late Bakathir; Sheikh Ally-ane; and Sheikh Nassor Bachoo, an influential Imam popular in Zanzibar for his lectures and opposition to the government.[
citation needed]
In September 2006, a
radical Islamic group on the archipelago,
Uamsho, forced organizers to abandon plans to mark the 60th birthday of the late
Freddie Mercury, who was born Farrokh Bulsara in the
Indian Parsi community of Stone Town. Uamsho claimed that Mercury had "violated Islam" with his openly bisexual lifestyle (see
Islam and homosexuality).
[8]
Important architectural features in
Stone Town are the Livingstone house, the Guliani Bridge, and the House of Wonders. The town of
Kidichi features the
hammam (Persian baths), built by immigrants from
Shiraz,
Iran during the reign of
Barghash bin Said.
Zanzibar was the first region in Africa to introduce
color television in 1973, but it currently ranks low among African countries due to poor services offered and lack of modern production tools as well as experienced staff. The current TV station is called
TVZ. Among the famous reporters of TVZ during the 1980s and 1990s were the late
Alwiya Alawi 1961-1996 (the elder sister of
Inat Alawi, famous Taarab singer during the 1980s), Neema Mussa, Sharifa Maulid, Fatma Mzee, Zaynab Ali, Ramadhan Ali, and Khamis Faki. The first
television service on mainland Tanzania was not introduced until some twenty years later. There is currently no privately owned media in Zanzibar.
Association Football is the most popular sport in Zanzibar, Zanzibar has its own national team that participate in non-FIFA tournaments, their club sides participate in
Confederation of African Football organised tournaments