| History
The Zanzibar
Archipelago has a total area of 1,000 square miles
distributed over 50 islands, the largest being Unguja
and Pemba, and it has a total population of over half
million people. Although small in size, Zanzibar has
played a significant role in the history of the East
African coast.
From the beginning
of the Christian era, populations along the coast
developed a farming and fishing civilization that
included commercial exchanges with other Indian Ocean
markets and, marriages of traders from the Arabian
Peninsula with local women were common. As a result, a
cosmopolitan society evolved along the coast and
islands over the centuries.
By the 10th century
A.D., Islam had spread along the coast and islands.
This process is considered to be the origin of the
Swahili Civilization. ‘Swahili’ was the name given
to the coastal peoples by the Muslim traders - a word
that means ‘coast shore’ (sahel, in Arabic). Thus,
Waswahili are the people of the coast.
The Swahili
civilisation prospered until the arrival of the
Portuguese at the end of the 15th Century; the
Portuguese took political and economical control of
the coast by force, the Swahilis fought them for 200
years.
Zanzibar became the
main centre of East African economic and cultural life
from the end of the 18th century, when the Omani Arabs
joined with the coastal towns to drive the Portuguese
from the coast. The Omanis decided to settle: In 1840
the Al Busaidi ruling dynasty of Oman situated the
base of his East African operations in what at that
time was just a small fishing village in Unguja
island, and which later became Stone Town. they
created a vast trading empire, and a large number of
Omani families moved to Zanzibar.
From Zanzibar the Al
Busaidi family gradually created and extended their
empire, Zanzibar’s economy at the time was based on
growing cloves and coconuts on the islands using slave
labour, and also on the East African transit trade for
which Zanzibar was virtually the only port. thus the
archipelago became the centre of a vast trading
empire. during the 19th century The demand for the
total suppression of the slave trade at the end of the
19th century led Great Britain to progressively
increase their influence over the sultan. And in 1890
Zanzibar became an official Protectorate of the
British empire.
In 1879, Bawe Island
was given by Seyid Barghash bin Seyid, 3rd Omani
Sultan of Zanzibar, to the Eastern Telegraph Company
to be used as the operations station for the
underwater telegraphic cable linking Cape Town with
Zanzibar, Seychelles and Aden. The agreement was
extended ten years later, in 1889, by the next Sultan,
Seyid Khalifa bin Seyid. To accommodate the Cable
& Wireless staff, Bungalows were built on the
island, which were used also to host weekend parties
when other town-based staff would visit and enjoy the
beach with their families.
The Protectorate
lasted until 1963, when Zanzibar gained its
Independence as a kingdom, with the sultan as the head
of the State. But only one month later, on January
12th 1964, a revolution transformed Zanzibar into a
Republic. Three months later, a Union Treaty between
the Government of Zanzibar and Tanganyika formed the
United Republic of Tanzania. |
