The Alpha-Bestiary
Z is for Zenobia,
A zebra from Zanzibar
Who invented a zoological brassiere
With cups numbering four for bovine grace and elegance.
She sold them from Zanzibar to Zimbabwe.
Her fortune made, Zenobia tried other product lines,
With little success.
None could bear her lacy teddies,
Her gator garter belts she could not sell,
No crocodiles would buy her corsets.
Impoverished by products no one would buy,
Zenobia retired to pasture in poverty.
Z is for Zenobia,
A zebra from Zanzibar
Who invented a zoological brassiere
With cups numbering four for bovine grace and elegance.
She sold them from Zanzibar to Zimbabwe.
Her fortune made, Zenobia tried other product lines,
With little success.
None could bear her lacy teddies,
Her gator garter belts she could not sell,
No crocodiles would buy her corsets.
Impoverished by products no one would buy,
Zenobia retired to pasture in poverty.
Persian, Indian, and Arab traders used Zanzibar as a base for voyages between the Middle East, India, and Africa. Unguja, the larger island (probably the Menuthias mentioned in the "Periplus Maris Erythraei," The Periplus of the Indian Ocean written in the mid-1st century) offered a protected and defensible harbor, so although the archipelago offered few products of value, traders found Zanzibar a convenient place from which to trade with other Swahili coastal towns. The name THE Arabic "zanjibar" was derived from the Persian "zangbar" (black coast). In 1503 or 1504 Ruy Lourenço Ravasco Marques received tribute from the local sultan in exchange for peace, and Zanzibar remained a Portuguese possession of Portugal for almost two centuries. At 1st it was part of the province of Arabia and Ethiopia but became part of the western division of the Portuguese empire in 1571, administered from Mozambique.
ReplyDeletePortugal established a fort on Pemba island in 1635, in response to the sultan of Mombasa's slaughter of Portuguese residents in 1631, and the authority of local leaders was replaced by European rule. The Swahili elites in Mombasa and Zanzibar sought Omani assistance against Portugal, and the sultanate of Oman took power in 1698. In 1832 sultan Said bin Sultan of Muscat and Oman moved his capital to Zanzibar, and at his death in 1856 his son Thuwaini took power in Oman, while another son Majid became the 1st sultan of Zanzibar, which included Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. However, before the end of the 19th century most of the mainland was taken over by Germany and the UK. In 1890 Zanzibar and Pemba became British protectorates, but in 1896 a 38-minute war ended Zanzibari sovereignty. The protectorate was formally abolished in 1963, a constitutional monarchy was established and quickly replaced by the People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba, which merged in 1964 with mainland Tanganyika to form Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania.
Beginning with the kingdom of Mapungubwe in the 11th century, Zimbabwe in southern Africa has been the location of several organized Shona states, including especially the kingdoms of Zimbabwe and Mutapa and the Rozvi empire. Around 1821 Mzilikazi revolted against Zulu king Shaka and established a new clan, the Ndebele, who fought their way northwards into the Transvaal. When Dutch trekboers converged on the Transvaal in 1836 they drove the tribe further northward. By 1838 the Ndebele had conquered the Rozwi empire and smaller Shona states. After losing his remaining South African lands in 1840, Mzilikazi permanently settled in Matabeleland in southwestern Zimbabwe. In 1888 Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company obtained mining rights from Mzilikazi's son Lobengula and, in 1890, sent the "Pioneer Column" into the kingdom to establish BSAC rule. The territory was named Rhodesia in 1895, divided in 1898 into Southern Rhodesia (moden Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). The UK annexed Southern Rhodesia in 1923 and, in 1953 consolidated the 2 Rhodesias with Nyasaland (Malawi) to form the Central African Federation. A decade later the union was dissolved. In 1964 Ian Smith declared Rhodesia's independence, but Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe launched a guerrilla war against his white minority rule. In 1978 Smith agreed to multiracial elections in 1979, and Zimbabwe Rhodesia was formed, again under temporary British control. New elections in 1980 installed Mugabe in power, and the colony formally declared its independence as Zimbabwe.