🇹🇿 Tanzania
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (Unguja — the local Swahili name; the main island of the Zanzibar Archipelago; population 900,000 on Unguja island; the semi-autonomous region of Tanzania (the United Republic of Tanzania = Tanganyika (the mainland, independent since December 9, 1961) + Zanzibar (independent since December 10, 1963; united with Tanganyika on April 26, 1964 to form Tanzania — the name a portmanteau of "Tanganyika" and "Zanzibar"); the Zanzibar Revolution of January 12, 1964: the violent revolution in which the mainly Arab and Indian ruling class of Zanzibar was overthrown by the Afro-Shirazi Party (the "Shirazi" — the Swahili peoples of mixed African-Persian descent who claimed ancestry from the Shirazi (Persian) settlers who came to the East African coast from Shiraz in the 10th century): the revolution resulted in the deaths of 5,000-17,000 Arabs and Indians (the most violent revolution in post-colonial African history); the union with Tanganyika was negotiated under international pressure in the weeks after the revolution) is the most historically layered island in East Africa: an island at the intersection of the Indian Ocean trade routes (the monsoon trade system connecting the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent and the East African coast — the "Swahili Coast") that was successively controlled by the Swahili city-state culture (the Shirazi period: 10th-15th century), the Portuguese (1503-1698: the Portuguese "Estado da India" (the Portuguese Indian Ocean empire): the Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Zanzibar (Vasco da Gama rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1497 and reached the Zanzibar coast in 1498)), the Omani Sultanate (1698-1890: the Sultanate of Oman under the Al-Busaidi dynasty conquered Zanzibar from the Portuguese in 1698 — the decisive Battle of Fort Jesus (Mombasa, 1698) ended Portuguese dominance of the East African coast; the Omani Sultan Seyyid Said moved his capital from Muscat (Oman) to Zanzibar in 1840, making Zanzibar the capital of the Sultanate of Oman — one of the most geographically remarkable political arrangements in history: an Arabian sultanate whose capital was an African island), and the British Protectorate (1890-1963: the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1890 — the Anglo-German agreement by which Britain ceded the North Sea island of Heligoland to Germany in exchange for German recognition of British protectorate over Zanzibar and Kenya). The Stone Town of Zanzibar (UNESCO World Heritage Site 2000) is the most intact example of a Swahili-Arab-Indian trading city in East Africa: the labyrinthine warren of narrow streets and coral-stone buildings with the carved wooden doors (the most elaborate carved wooden door tradition in East Africa — the Zanzibari door (the "mlango" — the carved door): the most prestigious element of the traditional Zanzibari house (the Arab and Indian merchant houses competed in the elaborateness of their carved doors as expressions of wealth and status: the most elaborate doors have over 3,000 separate hand-carved pieces in the frame and panel combination)); and the birthplace of Farrokh Bulsara (born September 5, 1946 in Stone Town to Parsi (Zoroastrian) parents from Gujarat, India — who became Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the rock band Queen (the most theatrically flamboyant and vocally powerful rock frontman in the history of rock music)).