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The Arabs
Zanzibar was one of the major East African
trading points for Arabs and Africans by
the 1400s. While under control of Sayyid ibn
Sultan, the Sultan of Oman and Muscat in the
first half of the 19th century, the sultan had clove
plantations created on Zanzibar.
The introduction of cloves to the island
(from the Maluku Islands, Indonesia) was
Zanzibar’s entrée into the spice trade. This
project resulted in the island becoming a major
commercial hub for the trading of goods from
Europe, America, and Africa.
The Sultan maintained control of the region
through economic domination of most of
the neighboring coastland and a heavy military
occupation of Zanzibar. An effect of the Arab’s
presence on Zanzibar was that the island became
a source of Arabian cultural influence on the
east-central African continent.
The British
Because of Britain’s colonial dominance
in the Indian Ocean region in the 19th century,
Zanzibar’s economic rise didn’t escape British
notice. They had already operated in close cooperation
with Sayyid’s government in Oman, so
were aware of – and interested in – the sultan’s
projects on Zanzibar and the island’s growing
status in the world trading market.
British influence on Zanzibar began in
1841, when British administrators started to
assist the Arab leaders with organizing and
running the island. The British opposed the
Arab use of African slaves on the plantations,
as well as Zanzibar’s active slave trade under
Sayyid’s rule: East and Central Africans were
forcibly taken to Zanzibar from where they
would be exported for sale as slaves, primarily
to southwest Asia.
Plantation working conditions were so
harsh that there was a regular breakdown of the
health of the slaves. The Sayyid administration’s
response to this situation was to continually import
more people from East and Central Africa
to replace slaves who were ill or had died.
The British continued to pressure Sayyid
and his successors to stop using slave labor
and trade in slaves, finally succeeding in their
efforts in the 1870s. At times perhaps as much
as 90% of Zanzibar’s populace was comprised
of African slaves.
The British oversaw the division of Zanzibar
and Oman into separate sultanates in
1860. As Britain and Germany gained imperial
hegemony over East Africa in the 1880s, the
sultanate of Zanzibar lost dominion over its
territories on the mainland. In 1890, Zanzibar
became a British protectorate. The British reorganized
the government and constructed the
Legislative Council, though its policies favored
Zanzibar’s Arabs over its Africans.
As the economies of the European colonies
on the East African mainland grew, that of Zanzibar
diminished. Though the British nurtured
trade on the island, Zanzibar slowly devolved
into a backwater of the British Empire.
Post World War II, as many African
colonies made advances toward independence,
Zanzibar’s political system evolved. The first
free elections for seats in the Legislative Council
were held in 1961. Because of the domestic
African-Arab hostilities, members of the African
populace rioted after the elections.
In the 1963 elections, the Arabs prevailed
and won independence for Zanzibar. A violent
African-supported coup in 1964 led to the
evacuation of the last sultan and the bulk of
the Arabian inhabitants. Zanzibar’s plantations
were subdivided and dispersed to smaller-scale
property owners, reorganizing the island’s agricultural
systems.
After uniting with Tanganyika to create
the union called Tanzania, Zanzibar reserved
its own government to administer island issues.
The Port City of Zanzibar
Zanzibar City is the capital of the Urban/
West Region of the Zanzibar Archipelago. It was
founded perhaps in the 8th century as a trading
port for Indian Ocean commerce. Sayyid ibn
Sultan moved his principal home from Muscat,
Oman to Zanzibar City in 1840, when trading
traffic from North America, the Indian Ocean
region and Europe was on the increase. It became
the main slave trading market of the East
African coast.
When under British colonial administration
from 1890, Zanzibar City functioned as
the capital for Zanzibar and Pemba. Because
the island evolved into a major world trading
hub, the port drew an international population
of not only East Africans and Arabs, but South
Asians as well.
One of the shortest conflicts in military history
occurred in 1896 with the Anglo-Zanzibar
War: When the island’s Omanis rebelled, the
Royal Navy began to fire on Stone Town, resulting
in the sultan’s surrender 45 minutes later.
Through the 1964 revolution, Zanzibar
City continued as the seat of administration of
the island and archipelago. The port exports
cloves and clove oil, citrus fruits and coconuts.
The port can serve large ships and the island’s
road network extends from it.
Programming
Though the ZBC is a domestic broadcaster
(“regional broadcaster” might be more accurate),
you will surely hear news in their English
segment you won’t find anywhere else, and their
news coverage isn’t limited to domestic topics.
Notes from my past loggings of Radio Tanzania
(all done via a Degen DE1103 and an indoor,
very random-wire antenna) reveal that, much
like a major international broadcaster, ZBC’s
news coverage was often of a global scope.
From notes taken over several broadcasts, all on
11735 kHz at 1800 UTC, I recorded a dizzying
list of 27 countries, from Latvia to Venezuela,
covered in Zanzibar’s English news program.
Of the varied music you’ll hear on ZBC,
some of it will be of a genre called taarab, an
Arabic word meaning “feeling joy with music.”
The influences in this musical melting pot are
not only Middle Eastern, but European, North
and Sub-Saharan African, and South Asian. Traditional
taarab uses poetry – sometimes ancient
texts – as lyrics.
Taarab became especially popular in the
The House of Wonders, Stone Town, Zanzibar,
in the early 20th century, built by the Second
Sultan of Zanzibar in 1883.
late 1920s, and later began to absorb aspects of
Lebanese and Egyptian art music and Indian
movie soundtracks. Following the revolution,
East African and Latin rhythms entered the
genre. The instruments which make up a traditional
taarab orchestra include European guitar,
East African percussion, and various East Asian
and Middle Eastern stringed instruments.
In a general sense, when you tune into
ZBC’s broadcasts, you’ll usually hear what
sounds like traditional Middle Eastern instrumental
or call-and-answer music, alternated
with that which sounds like percussion-heavy
East African music, and some which seems to be
a blend of both. You can really feel the heritage
of the island through the traditional music which
ZBC plays.
Tune in and Contact
Though sign-on and sign-off times seem to
vary, the invaluable resource www.eibi.de.vu/
lists the following schedule for ZBC Radio:
1500-2100 UTC 11735 kHz Swahili to East Africa
1800-1810 English
0300-0600 UTC 6015 kHz Swahili to East Africa
The antennas for both frequencies are
reportedly Chinese, and of recent vintage. The
power of each shortwave transmitter is apparently
50 kW. Now that they are recently back
on air, the ZBC might be interested to hear how
their signal is doing, even if you are outside
their target zone. If you’d like to send a reception
report or just let them know they are being
heard in your area, you can reach them via:
Sauti Ya Tanzania Zanzibar
P.O. Box 1178
Zanzibar, Tanzania
karumehouse@tvz.co.tv
Be prepared to include cash, gifts, postage,
and a pre-prepared card if you want a QSL from
Zanzibar. As the sometime destination of pirates
such as George Booth and John Bowen, one of
the famous Spice Islands with a rich history
of influences from Arabian and Portuguese to
East African and British, there could hardly be
a more exotic location than Zanzibar to listen
to on your shortwave receiver.
And, though it might refer to the ocean
breezes carrying the sound coastward, when
you tap the rich vein of music which the ZBC
offers, you can consider the island’s proverb,
“When you play the flute in Zanzibar, all Africa
dances”
August 2012 MONITORING TIMES 13