Zanzibar All Tanzania, based at Dodoma. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Zanzibar was created in 1980. An apostolic vicariate of Zanzibar had been created in 1906, out of part of a much larger east African jurisdiction. This was suppressed in 1953, with the territory coming under Kenyan church control, but was restored once more in 1964. It was created a diocese just before Easter 1980. The current bishop is Augustine Ndeliakyama Shao. It is part of the Province of Dar es Salaam, under the Archbishop of Dar es Salaam. As a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, Zanzibar has its own government, known
History of Zanzibar Portuguese Empire was the first European power to gain control of Zanzibar, and kept it for nearly 200 years. In 1698, Zanzibar fell under the control of the Sultanate of Oman, which developed an economy of trade and cash crops, with a ruling Arab elite and a Bantu general population. Plantations were developed to grow spices; hence, the moniker of the Spice Islands (a name also used of Dutch colony the Moluccas, now part of Indonesia). Another major trade good was ivory, the tusks of elephants that were killed on the Tanganyika mainland - a practice that is still in