A few interesting facts about Zanzibar
Geographically
Zanzibar, also known as the Spice Island of the Indian Ocean, is located about 35km off the east coast of Africa, 6 degrees south of the equator and belongs to Tanzania. The Zanzibar archipelago consists of the main island of Unguja, the sister island of Pemba, and many other small islands. The total population is about 1 million people. They are a colourful mix of Africans, Arabs, Indians and Persians.
Language
The immigrant ethnic groups mixed with the Africans, resulting in a new culture. This culture, which became known as "Swahili" (from the Arabic word sahil = "coast"), even developed its own language: Swahili. It is one of the Bantu languages and is the first official and widely used official and common language throughout Tanzania, and the second in Uganda and Kenya.
History
Zanzibar's history is marked by the trade with spices (mainly cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper), ivory and slaves. Even today, many clove trees can be admired, which were already cultivated on the island from 1818. Zanzibar reached a heyday from 1850 onwards, when the archipelago was the world's largest producer of cloves, but unfortunately also the largest slave trans-shipment centre in East Africa. It was not until 1873 that the then Sultan of Zanzibar, under pressure from Britain, signed a treaty declaring the slave trade illegal in his dominions. But it was not effectively enforced, not putting a definitive end to slavery in East Africa until 1909, a full 36 years later.
We started our projects in Zanzibar because:
We started our projects in Zanzibar because:
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there is a great lack of clean drinking water and electricity and diseases such as malaria, cholera and typhoid are widespread.
- the child mortality rate is very high due to the lack of medicines and poor hygienic conditions.
- life expectancy is on average 45 years.
- 80% of the local inhabitants live on less than 1 US Dollar per day.
- kindergartens and pre-schools are practically non-existent.
- extremely high unemployment, as the mainland population speaks better English and is thus preferred over the locals.
