History of Zanzibar

People have lived in Zanzibar for 20 000 years; history proper starts when the islands became a base for traders voyaging between Arabia, India, and Africa. Unguja offered a protected and defensible harbour, so although the archipelago had few products of value, 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.

During the Age of Exploration, the Portuguese Empire was the first European power to gain control of Zanzibar, and 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 moniker of the Spice Islands (a name also used of Dutch colony the Moluccas, now part of Indonesia). Another major trade good was ivory, the tusks of elephants killed in mainland Africa. The third pillar of the economy was slaves, giving Zanzibar an important place in the Arab slave trade, the Indian Ocean equivalent of the better-known Triangular Trade. The Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the East African coast, known as Zanj, and extensive inland trading routes.

Sometimes gradually, sometimes by fits and starts, control came into the hands of the British Empire; part of the political impetus for this was the movement for the abolition of the slave trade. In 1890 Zanzibar became a British protectorate. The death of one sultan and the succession of another of whom the British did not approve led to the Anglo-Zanzibar War, also known as The Shortest War in History.

The islands gained independence from Britain in December 1963 as a constitutional monarchy. A month later, the bloody Zanzibar Revolution, in which several thousand Arabs and Indians were killed and thousands more expelled and expropriated, led to the Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba. That April, the republic merged with the mainland Tanganyika, or more accurately, was subsumed into Tanzania, of which Zanzibar remains a semi-autonomous region. Zanzibar was most recently in the international news with a January 2001 massacre, following contested elections.

Prehistory

Zanzibar has been inhabited since the Paleolithic. A cave containing traces of microlithic tools revealed 20,000 years of human occupation of Zanzibar (Sinclair et al 2006). These tools are common to Later Stone Age hunter-gatherer communities. Archaeological discoveries of a limestone cave used radiocarbon techniques to prove more recent occupation, from around 2800 BCE to around the year 0 (Chami 2006). Traces of the communities include objects such as glass beads from around the Indian Ocean. It is a suggestion of early trans-oceanic trade networks, although some writers have expressed pessimism about this possibility.

No cave sites on Zanzibar have revealed pottery fragments used by early and later farming and iron-working communities who lived on the islands (Zanzibar, Mafia) during the first millennium CE. On Zanzibar, the evidence for the later farming and iron-working communities dating from the mid-first millennium CE is much stronger and indicates the beginning of urbanism there when settlements were built with mud-timber structures (Juma 2004). This is somewhat earlier than the existing evidence for towns in other parts of the East African coast, given as the 9th century CE. The first permanent residents of Zanzibar seem to have been the ancestors of the Hadimu and Tumbatu, who began arriving from the East African mainland around 1000 CE. They had belonged to various mainland ethnic groups, and on Zanzibar they lived in small villages and did not coalesce to form larger political units. Because they lacked central organization, they were easily subjugated by outsiders.

Early Arab rule

Ancient pottery demonstrates existing trade routes with Zanzibar as far back as the ancient Assyrians. Traders from Arabia (mostly Yemen), the Persian Gulf region of modern-day Iran (especially Shiraz), and west India probably visited Zanzibar as early as the 1st century CE. They used the monsoon winds to sail across the Indian Ocean and landed at the sheltered harbor located on the site of present-day Zanzibar Town. Although the islands had few resources of interest to the traders, they offered a good location from which to make contact and trade with the towns of the East African coast. A phase of urban development associated with the introduction of stone material to the construction industry of the East African coast began from the 10th century CE. Historians have associated the beginning of this period with Persian/Shirazi traditions.

Traders began to settle in small numbers on Zanzibar in the late 11th or 12th century, intermarrying with the indigenous Africans. Eventually a hereditary ruler (known as the "Mwenyi Mkuu" or "Jumbe"), emerged among the Hadimu, and a similar ruler, called the "Sheha", was set up among the Tumbatu. Neither had much power, but they helped solidify the ethnic identity of their respective peoples.

The Yemenis built the earliest mosque in the southern hemisphere in Kizimkazi, the southernmost village in Unguja. A kufic inscription on its "mirhab" bears the date AH 500, i.e. 1107 CE.

Portuguese rule

Vasco da Gama's visit in 1499 marks the beginning of European influence, and the Portuguese established control over the island four years later. In August 1505, it became part of the Portuguese Empire when Captain John (João) Homere, part of Francisco de Almeida's fleet, captured the island. It was to remain a possession of Portugal for almost two centuries.

Later Arab rule

In 1698, Zanzibar became part of the overseas holdings of Oman, falling under the control of the Sultan of Oman. The Portuguese were expelled and a lucrative trade in slaves and ivory thrived, along with an expanding plantation economy centring on cloves. The Arabs established garrisons at Zanzibar, Pemba, and Kilwa. The height of Arab rule came during the reign of Seyyid Said (more fully, Sayyid Said bin Sultan al-Busaid), who in 1840 moved his capital from Muscat in Oman to Stone Town. He established a ruling Arab elite and encouraged the development of clove plantations, using the island's slave labour. Zanzibar's commerce fell increasingly into the hands of traders from the Indian subcontinent, whom Said encouraged to settle on the island. After his death in 1856, his sons struggled over the succession. On April 6, 1861, Zanzibar and Oman were divided into two separate principalities. Sayyid Majid bin Said Al-Busaid (1834/5–1870), his sixth son, became the Sultan of Zanzibar, while the third son, Sayyid Thuwaini bin Said al-Said, became the Sultan of Oman.

The Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the east African coast, known as Zanj, and trading routes extending much further across the continent, as far as Kindu on the Congo River. In November 1886, a German-British border commission established the Zanj as a ten-nautical mile (19 km) wide strip along most of the coast of East Africa, stretching from Cape Delgado (now in Mozambique) to Kipini (now in Kenya), including Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, all offshore islands, and several towns in what is now Somalia. However, from 1887 to 1892, all of these mainland possessions were lost to the colonial powers of the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy, although some were not formally sold or ceded until the 20th century (Mogadishu to Italy in 1905 and Mombasa to Britain in 1963).

Zanzibar was famous world-wide for its spices and its slaves. It was East Africa's main slave-trading port, and in the 19th century as many as 50,000 slaves were passing through the slave markets of Zanzibar each year. [http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/10/01/html/ft_20011001.6.html National Geographic article] (David Livingstone estimated that 80,000 Africans died each year before ever reaching the island.) Tippu Tip was the most notorious slaver, under several sultans, and also a trader, plantation owner and governor. Zanzibar's spices attracted ships from as far away as the United States, which established a consulate in 1837. The United Kingdom's early interest in Zanzibar was motivated by both commerce and the determination to end the slave trade. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6510675.stm Remembering East African slave raids] In 1822, the British signed the first of a series of treaties with Sultan Said to curb this trade, but not until 1876 was the sale of slaves finally prohibited.

Zanzibar had the distinction of having the first steam locomotive in East Africa, when Sultan Bargash bin Said ordered a tiny 0-4-0 tank engine to haul his regal carriage from town to his summer palace at Chukwani.

British influence and rule

The British Empire gradually took over; the relationship was formalized by the 1890 Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty, in which Germany pledged, among other things, not to interfere with British interests in Zanzibar. This treaty made Zanzibar and Pemba a British protectorate (not colony), and the Caprivi Strip (in what is now Namibia) a German protectorate. British rule through a sultan (vizier) remained largely unchanged.

The death of Hamad bin Thuwaini on 25 August 1896 saw the Khalid bin Bargash, eldest son of the second sultan, Barghash ibn Sa'id, take over the palace and declare himself the new ruler. This was contrary to the wishes of the British government, which favoured Hamoud bin Mohammed. This led to a showdown, later called the Anglo-Zanzibar War, on the morning of 27 August, when ships of the Royal Navy destroyed the Beit al Hukum Palace, having given Khalid a one-hour ultimatum to leave. He refused, and at 9 am the ships opened fire. Khalid's troops returned fire and he fled to the German consulate. A cease fire was declared 45 minutes after the action had begun, giving the bombardment the title of The Shortest War in History. Hamoud was declared the new ruler and peace was restored once more. Acquiescing to British demands, he brought an end in 1897 to Zanzibar's role as a centre for the centuries-old eastern slave trade by banning slavery and freeing the slaves, compensating their owners. Hamoud's son and heir apparent, Ali, was educated in Britain.

From 1913 until independence in 1963, the British appointed their own residents (essentially governors).

Independence and revolution

On 10 December 1963, Zanzibar received its independence from the United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy under the Sultan. This state of affairs was short-lived, as the Sultan and the democratically elected government were overthrown on 12 January 1964 in the Zanzibar Revolution led by John Okello, a Ugandan citizen. Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume was named President of the newly created People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba. Several thousand Arabs (5,000-12,000 Zanzibaris of Arabic descent) and Indians were killed, thousands more detained or expelled, their property either confiscated or destroyed. The film "Africa Addio" documents the revolution, including a massacre of Arabs. (Ethnic difference, and the expulsion of those who had anywhere else to go, were repeated themes in East Africa, the most prominent example being the Expulsion of Indians in Uganda in 1972 by Idi Amin.)

Union with Tanganyika

On 26 April 1964, the mainland colony of Tanganyika united with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar; this lengthy name was compressed into a portmanteau, the United Republic of Tanzania, on 29 October 1964. After unification, local affairs were controlled by President Abeid Amani Karume, while foreign affairs were handled by the United Republic in Dar es Salaam. Zanzibar remains a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania.

From this point onwards, see History of Tanzania.

Lists of rulers

Sultans of Zanzibar

# Majid bin Said (1856–1870)
# Barghash bin Said (1870–1888)
# Khalifah bin Said (1888–1890)
# Ali bin Said (1890–1893)
# Hamad bin Thuwaini (1893–1896)
# Khalid bin Barghash (1896)
# Hamud bin Muhammed (1896–1902)
# Ali bin Hamud (1902–1911) (abdicated)
# Khalifa bin Harub (1911–1960)
# Abdullah bin Khalifa (1960–1963)
# Jamshid bin Abdullah (1963–1964)

Viziers

# Sir Lloyd William Matthews, (1890 to 1901)
# A.S. Rogers, (1901 to 1906)
# Arthur Raikes, (1906 to 1908)
# Francis Barton, (1906 to 1913)

British residents

# Francis Pearce, (1913 to 1922)
# John Sinclair, (1922 to 1923)
# Alfred Hollis, (1923 to 1929)
# Richard Rankine, (1929 to 1937)
# John Hall, (1937 to 1940)
# Henry Pilling, (1940 to 1946)
# Vincent Glenday, 1946 to 1951)
# John Sinclair, (1952 to 1954)
# Arthur George Mooring, (1959 to 1963)

Sources

* [http://www.allaboutzanzibar.com/indepth/history/id-01-01-01-01.htm AllAboutZanzibar.com] In-depth history of Zanzibar

References