ZanZi

nonglib:

Zanzibar…here I thought it was just a bar in Hell’s Kitchen. It’s actually an island off the coast of Tanzania with a lot of interesting history and a gorgeous little township on the tip, called Stonetown, that’s a delight to wander through!

We arrived at the Dhow Palace hotel, as selected by the…

dynamicafrica:

If you talk to Zanzibaris of Omani origin who had returned to their home country after the revolt of 1964, many of them are likely to refer to Zanzibar as the other Andalus that Arabs lost, as they had lost Spain. Najib al-Rayyis, in his book Sahafi wa madinatan: rihla ila samarqand wa zanjubar, made a similar comparison.

The comparison may be far-fetched but both places shared common historical features and, to some extent, a similar fate. They had come under Arab-Muslim rule, flourished as economic and intellectual centers known for their cosmopolitanism and relative tolerance, and boasted an ethnic and religious mosaic. Both also witnessed a bloody end to Arab-Muslim rule as a result of a complex political economy and conflicting social and cultural structures within their respective societies. Islam, however, barely a minority religion in Spain, remains the majority religion in Zanzibar.

It took about three decades after the revolt for Zanzibar to recover some of that history and share it with the rest of the world. Now it is the top destination for tourism in East Africa. Tourists flock there to walk the narrow streets of the charming historical Stone Town, to swim, dive, shop for local artifacts, and visit the island’s historical monuments, most of which stand as living testimonies to past al-Busaidi rule. A major attraction remains the islanders’ sense of humor, joyful spirit, tolerant attitude, and hospitality.

Zanzibar refers to an island off the East African coast locally known as Unguja, with its capital city also called Zanzibar City. It also refers to the archipelago that consists of the two main islands, Zanzibar and Pemba, in addition to some islets. It is part of modern day Tanzania, a portmanteau referring to a union in 1964 that brought (many would say forced) together mainland Tanganyika and Zanzibar after gaining their independence from the British, with Zanzibar retaining a degree of political autonomy within this union.

The union followed a revolt in 1964 with deep racial and ethnic tones that put an end to Omani rule on the island. While the Omani rule at the time was no more than a shadow of its past, it became the target of anti-Arab polemics and racial violence that echoed the racially and ethnically stratified nationalist politics on the island, where various groups made claims to different ancestries and cultures. The bloody events of January of that year led by those who claimed to represent what is nationally ‘African’ resulted in massacres against those categorized as Arabs and Indians, and the confiscation or destruction of their properties.

Since much of the population on the island consisted of diasporas, many survivors returned to their countries of origin, whether Oman, Yemen, India or the Comoros. The policies adopted by the regime established after 1964 attempted to erase the cosmopolitan fabric of the island and cast on it a particular nationalist identity that further pitted ‘African’ against ‘Arab.’

(continue reading)

(Source: )