Searching for the meaning of the word Zanzibar? Zanzibar island in Tanzania is an archipelago in the Indian ocean that united with present day Tanzania in 1964. Zanzibar is comprised of many small islands but the main ones being Unguja island in which Zanzibar city is found and the other is Pemba island.
The word Zanzibar is derived from an Arabic word Zanjibar translated to mean “land of blacks”. Its believed that the islands have been inhabited by humans for at least 20,000 years. Fukuchani archeological site remains suggest that agricultural and fishing community settled in Zanzibar from the 6th century meaning the bantu people were the first inhabitants of Zanzibar.
Some evidence of limited trade was also found in Zanzibar dated between 5th to 8th centuries. The islands seemed to have engaged in Indian ocean and African inland trade, by the 10th century Zanzibar was one of the important Swahili trade towns.
Zanzibar experiences tropical monsoon climate and the weather is warm all year round, they receive to main rain seasons per year. The Zanzibar Jozani forests are believed to be the largest remaining stand of near-natural forest in Zanzibar characterised by coastal forest, mangrove forests, groundwater forests, salt marsh and grasslands.
From 1996 to 2003, CARE international sponsored a development project for the surrounding communities and the wilderness area. The local communities living around Jozani national park get a percentage from the parks revenue and this has been used for construction of schools and hospitals in the area.
Zanzibar covers an area of about 2462 kilometers squared.