Zanzibar - Bud's Big Blue

1896-98 Zanzibar in Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Observations

(From Jim: Bud is well, but has a lot of non philatelic obligations and responsibilities at the moment. With his permission, I will upload  country pages in his complete '69 Big Blue that so far has not been shown. He might add his observations later. Enjoy!)

Jim's Observations

Stone Town,(old part of Zanzibar Town), on the main island (Zanzibar Island) of the Zanzibar Archipelago (Spice Islands in the Indian Ocean, off the eastern African coast), was the 19th century home to the Zanzibar Sultanate, the spice trade (cloves), ivory trade, and, of a more sinister nature, the center of the Arabic slave trade. Every year, 40,000 slaves from East Africa were packed into Dhows for Zanzibar, where they were stripped, inspected, cleaned, sold, and transported to Persia, Arabia, the Ottoman Empire and Egypt. Some worked the clove and coconut plantations of Zanzibar and Pemba. The conditions were so harsh, a third of the male slaves died every year.

The British became involved for humanitarian reasons ( abolishing the slave trade by agreements with the Sultans (1822 - 1897)), and.naturally, for commerce.

Britain had recognized the sovereignty and the sultanate of Zanzibar in 1886.

But then Germany and the British Empire mutually played the East African lands like it was a monopoly board (Scramble for Africa), and, with the 1890 Heligoland-Zanzibar treaty, the British had clear access to Zanzibar.

Zanzibar became a British protectorate when Ali bin Said ascended to the Sultanate in 1890.

The population was estimated at 60,000 in 1891 (17,000 slaves).

Hamid bin Thuwani was the successor Sultan in 1893, and he established a close relationship with the British - too close in the eyes of many of his subjects.

Stamps (British India-Overprinted) were introduced November 14, 1895.

Overprinted stamps from British East Africa were issued on May 23, 1896.

The Sultan Hamid bin Thuwaini was honored (posthumously) with Zanzibar's own vignette issues of 1896 and 1898.

Sultan Hamid bin Thuwaini died unexpectly (poisoned?) on August 25, 1896, and his nephew (the suspect), the anti-British leaning Khadid bin Barghash, moved into the palace complex to assume the sultanate.

As Khalid had not obtained permission of the British consul to assume the sultanate, as required by the agreement (treaty) of 1886, the British issued an ultimatum for Khalid to leave the palace.

What followed was a bombardment and subsequent fire of the palace complex by the British on August 27, 1896, which lasted all of 40  minutes (shortest recorded war in history), and caused 500 to be killed or wounded (mostly as a result of the fire) among the sultan's forces, and men and women who inhabited the palace.

The British then installed Hamud bin Muhammed Al-Said as nominal head Sultan, with the British retaining the real power.

The vignette stamps of 1899-1901 show him.

Of interest, there was no further rebellion during the remaining years of the British protectorate, lasting until 1963.

n 1963, the protectorate was ended. There then existed a short one month constitutional monarchy, then the Zanzibar Revolution, and then the short lived three month People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba. In April, 1964, the Republic joined with mainland Taganyika (United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar). The country was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania, of which Zanzibar remains a semi-autonomous area.

The 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for Zanzibar 1895-1952, 238 major number descriptions. Of those, 84 are CV <$1-$1+, or 35%. Although a reasonable selection is available to the WW collector without much expense, the truth is, as a former British protectorate, interest is high, and expense is likewise for the earlier and higher denomination stamps.

To say nothing about the attraction of an exotic name and location. Zanzibar- the very name congers intrigue as the former center of the Arab slave trade and clove producer.

Stamps of India were used in Zanzibar from 1875-1895.

Stanley Gibbons lists some 108 catalogue numbers for known "Zanzibar" cancellations on various regular and official India stamps from 1865-1895.

The initial issues (1895-1896) were overprints of British India and British East Africa.

British East Africa took over responsibility of the postal service from India on November 10, 1895.

The Zanzibar stamp designs betray their British roots (De la Rue & Co.), and bear some similarities to those from the Federated Malay States, including the "Rosette" and "Multiple Rosettes" watermarks.

Big Blue '69, on two pages, has 66 stamp spaces. Subtracting for the 24 stamps post 1940-52 in the Scott 1840-1940 catalogue not covered in BB, yields an overall  coverage of 31%. Not too bad for a representative album for a popular British protectorate. Most of the issue spaces stop well short of completeness, but Zanzibar's higher denominations tend to be expensive ($hundreds). 

There are five spaces that require a CV $10-$30+ stamp, but none cross into the "most expensive" (CV $35+) category.

As typical, there is competition for a BB space from multiple watermarked varieties.

For more on the stamps and checklist, click on the link below.

Zanzibar Blog Post & BB Checklist

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Supplements

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