Zanzibar, a British Protectorate under a native sultan, consisting of the African islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. With the British East Africa Protectorate (the territory of the I. B. E. A. Company, dissolved in 1896) and the Uganda Protectorate, it constitutes British East Africa. As delimited in 1886, the kingdom comprised the islands of Zanzibar (625 sq. m.), Pemba (360), Mafia (200), and Lamu (35), and a strip of coast, extending 10 miles inland, from Cape Delgado to Kipini. In 1888, however, the German East African Association acquired the right to administer the mainland portion from the Umbu River southward, and the British East Africa Company obtained all the coast northward, for an annual payment. In 1890 the British portion was extended to the mouth of the Juba (q.v.), and the islands were made a British protectorate; at the same time Germany bought its portion of the mainland outright for four million marks. Zanzibar Island (Unguja), separated from the mainland by a deep channel, rests upon a coral foundation, and rises in the interior to 425 feet. The hills bear oranges, cloves, &c., and on the plains rice, manioc, sugar-cane, sorghum, &c. are grown. Of a total population of some 125,000 nearly 100,000 are in the town; the people are mostly negroes, but the governing class are Arabs, and many foreign traders are settled in the capital—about 100 British, many Germans and French, several hundred from Goa, &c. The religion is Mohammedanism, but a number of Christian missions have been established, both here and on the mainland. The capital, situated on an island-studded bay on the west side of the island, is the only large town and trading-port on the east coast of Africa; it is a station of the British India Steam Navigation Company, and of the Messageries Maritimes, and numerous craft flying the French flag trade to Madagascar. The imports (about a third from Bombay) average £1,300,000—cottons, coal, hardware, kerosene, soap, rice, flour, &c., and products from German East Africa; the exports of African products sent abroad and of European goods distributed along the coast are returned at £1,350,000, but this excludes goods transshipped in the harbour, and moreover no trustworthy record is made of the dhow trade. In African produce passing through Zanzibar ivory takes the first place; next follow rubber, hides, copal, tortoise-shell, wax, cloves, archil, &c. The sultan's privy purse is fixed at three lakhs of rupees, derived mainly from customs dues, &c.; the balance of the state's income is applied for police, public works, and the like. The police, along with the army of 700 men, are under a British officer. The prime-minister is English. Most civil causes are tried in the English Consular Court, with appeal to Bombay. In 1892 Zanzibar was declared a free port. The legal status of slavery was abolished in 1897, not without complications and complaints in parliament.
Zanzibar means 'land of the Zenj,' a reigning dynasty, probably of Swahili origin, who ruled a somewhat indefinite area of the African coast regions. Ultimately Zanguebar was the term usually given to the continental portion as distinguished from the island. There were Arab settlements in various places as early as the 10th century. By the end of the 15th century the Portuguese made their influence felt, and in 1503 were recognised by the Mohammedans on the island as paramount. In the 17th century the Portuguese lost most of their dominions north of Mozambique to the imam of Muscat, and many small states were founded. About 1856 Seyid Medjid, a son of the imam of Muscat, became practically independent sultan of Zanzibar, and consolidated a considerable state, which in 1870 descended, gradually dwindling, to his brother Bargash, in 1888 to another brother Khalifah, and in 1890 to still another, Sayyid Ali.
See Stanley's and Joseph Thomson's books; Burton, Zanzibar City, Island, and Coast (1872); Rabaud, Zanzibar (Marseilles, 1881); K. W. Schmidt's Sansibar (Leip. 1887); and Silva White's Development of Africa (1890); also the articles UGANDA, WITU.