zanzibar — Grace Stanley

I wanted to give you guys a VERY BRIEF historical timeline of Zanzibar that formed it into what it is today because I was so fascinated by it's historical/political events. Zanzibar played a massive part in history due to its easy access to traders traveling down the east coast of Africa from Arabia. By the 11th century Islam was established in this region.

16th - 17th century and The Portuguese

In the 16th century a new type of visitor arrived in Zanzibar, the Portuguese. By establishing friendly relations they had established a trading post and mission there by the end of the century. The colony of Zanzibar also joined the Portuguese Empire during this time By the late 17th century this Christian presence is ended thanks to a campaign by the Muslims of Oman.

1698-1856: Oman and Zanzibar

In the 1960's Saif bin Sultan, the imam of Oman, was forcing his way down the east African coast. After years of battle on the mainland, the Portuguese's rule fell to Saif in 1698. The Omani's then easily ejected Portuguese from Zanzibar.

Zanzibar was a valuable property to say the least because it was main slave market of the east African coast. The island become more and more important to the Omani empire, displayed by the greatest 19th-century sultan of Oman, Sa'id ibn Sultan, who moved there in 1837 to make it his main residence. This Sultan worked to improve the island's economy by introducing cloves, sugar, and indigo. Although he did take a financial loss when cooperating with British attempts to end Zanzibar's slave trade.

Zanzibar's relationship with Oman is broken at the death of the Sultan in 1856. Tension between his sons was resolved by harsh British diplomacy.

Photo by me, The Sultan's bath house, Stone Town

1856-1885: British Involvement

Once Majid took his place on the throne of Zanzibar the British were very involved in the island. Majid was succeeded by his brother in 1870, by that time the British had a consul in Zanzibar. This consuls job was to end Zanzibar’s centuries old and massive slave trade. This is goal is achieved in 1873 by a treaty with Zanzibar’s new ruler Barghash.

This is the same year that David Livingstone (Africa’s notorious anti-slavery explorer) died and his embalmed corpse was transported to Zanzibar. The consul, John Kirk, that received Livingstone’s body had been Livingstone’s good friend that accompanied him on expeditions from 1858 to 1863. Kirk had also witnesses the brutal Arab place trade in the interior of Africa.

Kirk, recognizing that Zanzibar needed to replace the revenue of slaves with legitimate economic activity, he prompted Barghash to export rubber and ivory from the continent. By the middle of he 1880’s the sultan was earning a fortune via these exports.

Then in 1884 there are reports of Germans snooping around the trade routes to the Great Lakes. In March of 1885, Germany claimed a protectorate on this region!

These intricately designed doors found in Stone Town were a symbol of the home owners wealth in regards to trading, predominately in the slave trade. As you can see on this door frame there are chains symbolizing this trade. Photo by me, Stone Town

1885 - 1886: The German Demand

August 7th, 1885 German warships arrived in Zanzibar with their guns pointed at the sultan's palace, demanding the sultan give his mainland territory to the Germans or face their wrath. The British were notified promptly and in an attempt to keep peace with Germany they proposed an agreement. The agreement was that the two nations would share the territory stretching inland to the Great Lakes. The British consul in Zanzibar was then forced to persuade the sultan to give up the majority of his mainland territory, he was left with a strip of land ten miles along the coast.

This door style was brought from Indian's on the island. The pointed knobs were a meant to stop elephants from knocking down doors, elephants that were prevelant in India but nowhere in Zanzibar. Photo by me, Stone Town

1890 - 1963: British Protectorate

Britain was the only colonial power well established in Zanzibar and the island was declared a British protectorate in 1890. The Arab sultans rule came to an end in Zanzibar when the island gained independence in the 1960's with self government and complete indepedence being gained in 1963. The political that formed in this new nation were split along ethnic lines, Arabs and Africans (the slave traders and the slaves). The first government was formed by a coalition of Arab parties with a sultan as the head of state. Within a month of independence a revolution led by communists toppled this regime, replacing the sultan with a republic. This revolution was extremely brutal, where many thousands of Arabs and Indians were murdered or forced to flee. The first step by the new president was a union with neighboring Tanganyika. The two nations are merged in April 1964, becoming the United Republic of Tanzania. Ever since Zanzibar has functioned as a semi-autonomous region.