AFRICA TANZANIA - Zanzibar

Tanzania is an East African country that formed in 1964 when mainland Tanganyika and the archipelago of Zanzibar joined forces and became independent from the British. Zanzibar is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean just off the African coast of Tanzania that consists of two main islands — Zanzibar, known logally as Unguja, and Pemba, and several smaller islets. For nearly a thousand years Zanzibar has been a trading and travel center where Persians, Arabs and Indians blended economically, linguistically and culturally with East Africa.

In 1964 Zanzibar, at the time a British protectorate, united with the mainland country of Tanganyika to form Tanzania (the “Tan” from Tanganyika and the “Zan” from Zanzbiar — a portmanteau). Under the Pan-Africanist leadership of Julius Nyerere, Zanzibar joined Tanzania in pursuing “Ujamaa” socialism, which emphasized egalitarianism, extended family, cooperative agriculture and communal ownership of the economy, and was supposed to enable Tanzania to become independent from foreign aid. Despite Ujamaa socialism — or because of it? — Tanzania has run a rocky economic and political road since independence. The country functionally dismantled most Ujamaa policies after Nyerere left the presidency in 1985.