2008 Zanzibar power blackout 2008 Zanzibar power blackout The 2008 Zanzibar Power blackout was an extensive power outage on Zanzibar, Tanzania. A similar and longer event happened in Zanzibar in 2009. The island was without power for more than three months. During May and June 2008, Zanzibar suffered a period of almost one month without mains electricity due to a grid failure which left the entire island dependent on alternative methods of electricity generation (mainly diesel generators). Power failed on 21 May 2008 after a wide-area grid failure across the Tanzanian network was followed by a power surge which damaged the submarine interconnector cable
Sultanate of Zanzibar Sultanate of Zanzibar The Sultanate of Zanzibar (, ), also known as the Zanzibar Sultanate, comprised the territories over which the Sultan of Zanzibar was the sovereign. Those territories varied over time, and at one point included all of what is now Kenya as well as the Zanzibar Archipelago of the Swahili Coast. Later, the kingdom's realm included only a ten mile wide coastal strip of Kenya and Zanzibar. Under an agreement concluded on 8 October 1963, the Sultan relinquished sovereignty over his remaining territory in Kenya. On 12 January 1964, Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah was deposed and lost sovereignty