Zanzibar Island - Tanzania

Zanzibar Island - Tanzania, a photo by ~[Śøphĭštiςatëd BĬЬa Bërlin]~ on Flickr.

Zanzibar: "Brown coast," says Wikipedia.

Zanzibar's main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism.[4] In particular, the islands produce cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper. It was East Africa's main slave-trading port in the 1700's and 1800's.

Today Zanzibar exports spices, seaweed (used as thickeners in ice cream, toothpaste, cosmetics) and fine raffia. It also has a large fishing and dugout canoe production. Tourism is a major foreign currency earner.

Zanzibar's local people are from a mixture of ethnic backgrounds,[41] indicative of its colourful history. Zanzibaris speak Swahili (known locally as Kiswahili), a language which is spoken extensively in East Africa. Many[who?] believe that the purest form is spoken in Zanzibar, as it is the birthplace of the language.[citation needed] Many locals also speak English.

In the National Geographic film "The Leopards of Zanzibar," the free-diving fisherman Issa learns to grab lobster when the octopus become over-fished or otherwise reduced in numbers.