Zanzibar
Beneath the Roof of Africa
The name Tanzania melds the "tan" of Tanganyika with the "zan" of the offshore island of Zanzibar, separated from the mainland by a 37-km (23-mile) channel. The two entities united into one country in 1964 (along with Zanzibar's sister island Pemba and some other small islets). Once the trading centre for the whole of East Africa, Zanzibar is part of a coral reef stretching down Africa's Indian Ocean coast. As early as the 10th century, Persian merchants migrated here. Portuguese influence secured a foothold with Vasco da Gama's visit in 1499. Later came the Germans and the British. The main language is Swahili, a tongue belonging to the Bantu family that is strongly tinged with Arabic, but English is also fairly commonly understood. When they settled here, the Persians introduced Islam, which most Zanzibaris still practise strictly.
Countless memories, at once romantic and cruel, crowd into this small island. Over the centuries it shipped out fortunes in ivory, rhinoceros horn, gold, copper and spices. But to its infamy, it also provided the market for the great slave route which ran from Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika to the coastal port of Bagamoyo. Dr David Livingstone, the 19th-century Scottish missionary-explorer who fought so hard against slavery, made Zanzibar the base camp for his last expedition.
Zanzibar Town, and the splendid, squalid streets of its Stone Town heart, is set on a small peninsula, once cut off by a creek. There's usually a sea breeze to temper the sizzling heat. The island has several fine, white sand beaches. Inland, the smoke from fires drying coconuts for copra hangs hazily over the countryside, and bananas thrive in the red clay soil. So do spice trees: cloves were planted on the order of Seyyid Said bin Sultan, the ruler of Oman, who held court on the island in the 19th century.
From the heady fragrance of the spice groves to the restful sight of a dhow's triangular sails billowing in the wind, the charms of Zanzibar make it one of Africa's most fascinating islands.
