Zanzibar

On the monsoon routes

Zanzibar Island, also called Unguja, lies 35 km off the East African coast; Pemba is the other main island.^[3][1] The prevailing winds put the islands on the Indian Ocean trade routes, open to traders and settlers from Arabia, south Asia and the African mainland.^[3] Persians arrived from the 10th century and merged into the local population, and many Africans on the islands still call themselves “Shirazi”.^[3]

Arabs from Oman became the islands’ landowning aristocracy. In 1832 Sultan Said ibn Sultan made Zanzibar his capital, and it became the hub of the slave and ivory trade into the African interior, as well as a producer of cloves and coconuts.^[3] In 1861 Zanzibar was split from Oman as a sultanate of its own.^[3]

Protectorate, revolution and union

In 1890 Britain declared a protectorate over Zanzibar that lasted more than 70 years. On 27 August 1896 it fought the Anglo-Zanzibar War to remove a sultan it didn’t want; the fighting took less than an hour, and it is considered the shortest war on record.^[3]

Zanzibar became independent in 1963 as a constitutional monarchy. Its government was led by the mainly Arab Zanzibar Nationalist Party, although the mainly African Afro-Shirazi Party had won more votes.^[1] In January 1964 a revolution overthrew the sultan. Many Arabs were killed, mutilated or imprisoned.^[1][3] On 26 April 1964 Zanzibar and Tanganyika united to form what was soon named Tanzania.^[1][3]

Two governments, not three

Tanzania’s constitution splits government into “Union Matters” and everything else. The Union government handles the Union Matters for the whole country, and all other matters for the mainland only; the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar handles all other matters for the islands.^[2] Union Matters include the constitution, currency and banking, income tax and customs, harbours, air transport and posts, oil and gas, and political parties.^[2]

Zanzibar has its own constitution of 1984, its own judiciary, and a House of Representatives whose laws on Union Matters are void, just as the national parliament’s laws on Zanzibar’s own matters are.^[2] If the president of Tanzania comes from one side of the union, the vice-president must come from the other.^[2] The authority of Zanzibar’s government can only be changed by two-thirds of the MPs from each side.^[2]

“Legislative power in Tanzania Zanzibar over all matters which are not Union Matters is hereby vested in the House of Representatives.”^[2]

A contested union

Zanzibar’s first president, Abeid Karume, negotiated the union with Julius Nyerere. He was assassinated in 1972.^[1] The ruling parties of the two sides then merged into Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which took back some of the islands’ autonomy, especially over security and banking. Some still question whether Karume had the authority to sign the union.^[1]

Elections in Zanzibar have often been disputed and violent.^[1] In 2010 CCM and the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) agreed to share power in a government of national unity. In 2015 the Zanzibar Electoral Commission annulled the election, which CUF said it had won. CUF boycotted the rerun in March 2016, CCM won every seat, and the unity government effectively ended.^[1]