Zanzibar Channel km south of Dar es Salaam. In 2015, the 29km solo swim across the Zanzibar Channel starting at the Pungume Sandbank was completed in 9 hrs 1 minute by Jean Craven (SA) , Robert Dunford (Kenya), Megan Harrington Johnson (SA), Samantha Whelpton (SA) and Emil Berning (SA) Zanzibar Channel The Zanzibar Channel is a strait in south-eastern Africa, separating the island of Unguja (also known as Zanzibar) from mainland Tanzania. The channel is 120 km long and 29-37 km wide, with depth varying from a few dozen metres (in the centre) to a few hundred metres to the north and
History of Zanzibar place to this day. The third pillar of the economy was slaves, which gave Zanzibar an important place in the Arab slave trade, the Indian Ocean equivalent of the better-known Triangular Trade. The Omani Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the African Great Lakes coast, known as Zanj, as well as extensive inland trading routes. Sometimes gradually, sometimes by fits and starts, control of Zanzibar came into the hands of the British Empire. In 1890, Zanzibar became a British protectorate. The death of one sultan and the succession of another of whom the British did not approve later