©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd Zanzibar Archipelago Includes ¨ Why Go? Zanzibar .............77 Step off the boat or plane onto the Zanzibar Archipelago, Stone Town & Ng’ambo and you’ll be transported through the centuries – to ancient (Zanzibar Town) ......77 Persia and tales of Shirazi merchants that inspired Sinbad Mangapwani ........100 the Sailor, to the court of Swahili princes and Omani sul- Kendwa ............104 tans, to India, with its heavily laden scents. For over 2000 years the monsoon winds have shaped the Matemwe ...........105 landscape and culture of these islands. Stone Town’s Bwejuu .............109 Indo-Arabian architecture provides an exotic urban back- Paje ................110 drop for elderly men playing bao (traditional board game) Jambiani ........... 111 while women in their bui-bui (Islamic cover-alls) pause to Kizimkazi ...........114 chat. On Pemba, clove farms creep up the hillsides and farm- ers load crates of mangoes onto outbound boats. And, along Menai Bay ..........115 the coast, village life remains steeped in tradition as fishing Pemba .............116 dhows set sail on high tides and women farm seaweed off Chake Chake ........117 powder-white coral sand. With its tropical tableau and Wete ...............121 unique culture, the archipelago offers the quintessential Indian Ocean experience. Best for Nature When to Go ¨ Jozani Forest (p108) Zanzibar Town °C/°F Temp Rainfall inches/mm ¨ Chumbe Island Coral Park 40/104 16/400 (p101) 30/86 12/300 ¨ Pemba Flying Foxes (p124) ¨ Misali Island (p120) 20/68 8/200 10/50 4/100 0/32 0 Best for Culture J FDM A M J J A S O N ¨ Dhow Countries Music Academy (p95) Mar-May Masika, Jul A culture- Jul-Aug Kitesurf- the main rains, packed month ing season and ¨ Mrembo Spa (p82) fall; some hotels with the Interna- summer holidays ¨ Sauti za Busara (p87) close and Zanzibar tional Film Fes- bring higher ¨ Seaweed Center (p110) is crowd-free. tival and Mwaka prices and hordes Kogwa. of visitors. 76 History Mombasa 0 50 km (50km) 025 miles The archipelago’s history stretches back at least to the start of the first millennium, Sigi when Bantu-speaking peoples from the River Wete mainland ventured across the Zanzibar and Tanga Channel A14 Pemba Pemba channels. The Periplus of the Eryth- Pemba raean Sea (written for sailors by a Greek Tongoni Chake Chake merchant around AD 60) makes reference to Pangani Pemba the island of Menouthias, which many histo- River Mkoani rians believe to be Zanzibar. From around Pangani the 8th century, Shirazi traders from Persia ZAN also began to make their way to East Africa, where they established settlements on Pem- Z Nungwi IBAR IBAR Mkwaja ba, and at Zanzibar’s Unguja Ukuu. Matemwe Between the 12th and 15th centuries Tumbatu & Mnemba Mligaji trade links with Arabia and the Persian Gulf A Zanzibar RCHIPELAGO RCHIPELAGO Saadani blossomed. Zanzibar became a powerful National Zanzibar city-state, supplying slaves, gold, ivory and Park Zanzibar Stone wood to places as distant as India and Asia, Town East Coast while importing spices, glassware and tex- Chumbe Beaches Wani Island Jozani tiles. With the trade from the East also came River Ch Forest Jambiani a Islam and the Arabic architecture that still n Uzi nel HIGHLIGHTS characterises the archipelago today. Bagamoyo The arrival of the Portuguese in the early INDIAN 16th century temporarily interrupted this OCEAN golden age, as Zanzibar and then Pemba fell under Portuguese control. It was challenged A7 Dar es Salaam first by the British, and then by Omani Ar- abs in the mid-16th century. By the early 19th century Oman had gained the upper Zanzibar Archipelago hand on Zanzibar, and trade on the island Highlights again flourished, centred on slaves, ivory 1 Meeting ghosts and making friends and cloves. Trade reached such a high point on cultural tours of Stone Town (p77). that in the 1840s the Sultan of Oman relo- 2 Nabbing African print bags, bespoke cated his court here from the Persian Gulf. leather sandals and oyster-shell jewellery From the mid-19th century, with increas- on Gizenga Street (p95). ing European interest in East Africa and the end of the slave trade, Omani rule over Zan- 3 Diving Pemba’s underwater mountains, sponge beds and pristine zibar began to weaken, and in 1862 the sul- coral gardens (p116). tanate was formally partitioned. Zanzibar became independent of Oman, with Omani 4 Cycling out to spice plantations and discovering what tumeric and cinnamon sultans ruling under a British protectorate. look like in the wild (p82). This arrangement lasted until 10 December 1963, when Zanzibar gained its independ- 5 Tracking red colobus monkeys in ence. Just one month later, in January 1964, Jozani Forest (p108). the sultans were overthrown in a bloody rev- 6 Meeting dhow-builders and heading olution instigated by the Afro-Shirazi Party out on sunset cruises in Nungwi (p101). (ASP), which then assumed power. On 12 7 Sampling pweza (octopus), mhogo April 1964 Abeid Karume, president of the (roasted cassava) and rock lobster in ASP, signed a declaration of unity with Tan- Jambiani (p111). ganyika (mainland Tanzania) and the union, 8 Sailing to Chumbe Island (p101) and fragile from the outset, became known as seeing what conservation can do for coral the United Republic of Tanzania. gardens. Karume was assassinated in 1972 and 9 Chilling-out in Matemwe’s luxury Aboud Jumbe assumed the presidency of lodges (p105) and diving Mnemba’s Zanzibar until he resigned in 1984. A suc- crystal-clear waters (p100). cession of leaders followed, culminating in .