91-year-old Bhanubahen Babla, née Kapadia - reminiscences of some of her experiences as a girl of 11 in Zanzibar (1940s). 

by  Bhadra Vadgama née Kapadia

https://youtu.be/8XuKWEjXmOc

Bhanubahen Babla

The video in Gujarati (1hr 5min) is a recording of Bhanubahen when she was invited by Gujarati Literary Academy of UK [GLA] on 16 January 2021 to share her experiences with their members. Basically, Bhanubahen describes the items presented in an annual concert that took place at the end of the year in her Hindu Girls’ School in Zanzibar. Although the school was on the Main Road in Shangani, and because it didn’t have a big enough hall, the concert used to be held in what was then King George VI Secondary School for Boys opposite Mnazi Moja Grounds.

To begin with, the facilitator of the event Anil Vyas introduced Bhanubahen as one who was born and brought up in Zanzibar but had spent part of her life in India, Muscat in Oman and now residing in Mumbai, India. As a result she shared cultures of three different countries. Then I, Bhadra, her sister took over and introduced her in these words:

Eldest of 11 siblings, Bhanubahen was born in Zanzibar in December 1929, and I congratulate her for having completed 91 years of her life. She is never too old to learn new tricks and uses modern technology to keep in touch with her extended family and the vast number of friends she has globally.

She keeps fit by doing yoga and pranayam [yogic breathing exercises]; she sings, dances, and wins prizes in competitions; she reads spiritual and religious material, analyses what she has read and sends a small article in the form of an audio recording to some 75 ladies daily. Thus keeping them enlightened and encouraging them to have a dialogue with her about what they have heard.

Bhanubahen then started by saying that although 91 years old, in her heart she feels like she is 19. She then describes 8 items of various nature that were performed in a concert when she was 11 years old - first was a prayer to Sharada, Hindu Goddess of knowledge and arts, or to Mother India; then a welcome song, followed by dances. She sang the song that went with each item.

Two songs she commented on were about nature and women. She said they were taught to respect nature at a very early age. But humans have abused nature for ages. Now Covid-19 has reminded us harshly to take care of her.

The song about women says that women are the mothers of the world. They are the ones who have given birth to great men.

Finally, she recited the dialogues of 9 characters in a play about Lord Rama’s exile from the Hindu epic of Ramayana. Bhanubahen described how her song as Rama’s mother, bidding farewell to her son, had brought tears to many eyes in the audience. Later when her dad complimented her for her performance, she felt she had done justice to her role.

Because of her multi skills in singing and acting, Bhanubahen used to be a participant in 8 out of 10 items in the concert. She even played the old-fashioned upright harmonium to accompany an item performed by younger girls, multitasking by pressing the bellows with her feet, moving her fingers on the keyboard and singing at the same time, while concentrating on the dancing girls.

She then described the prizes given to girls at the end of the concert. Once her father had given a shilling to each of the participants and there were 60 of them. 80 years ago Shs. 60/= was a big sum of money. Bhanubahen said that prizes were given to the girls who stood first, second and third in their annual examinations. Not only she got prizes for standing first in her class, but an extra prize for her outstanding performance in the concert.

Here she was thanked by the current President of GLA, Vipool Kalyani.

 Hindu Girl Guides, Zanzibar 1952/53

Then, I asked her about her experience as a Girl Guide. She said her Guider was an English lady, Mrs Morley. She said she hardly spoke any English as the medium of instruction in her school was Gujarati. So, it was a delight for her to get a little practice of speaking English with Mrs Morley. She was promoted from being an Assistant Leader of Rose Patrol to become the Leader of Daisy Patrol. She then recited the Guide Promise and the 10 Laws and sang the Taps song.

She said she still does a good deed everyday by sending an audio reading to her friends daily.

 

Ibāḍī Muslim Scholars and the Confrontation with Sunni Islam in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Zanzibar

by Prof. Valerie J. Hoffman, Head of Department of Religion

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Published: in Bulletin of the Royal Institute of Inter-Faith Studies 7, 1 (Spring-Summer 2005): 91-118

THIS IS A LONG (21 PAGE) ARTICLE. HERE IS A PART WITH SECTION HEADINGS. IF YOU WISH TO RECEIVE THE WHOLE ARTICLE, PLEASE SEND A COMMENT BELOW WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.

The Origins and Distinctiveness of Ibāḍī Islam        

Bū Sa‘īdī Rule in Zanzibar

            The first sultan of Zanzibar, Sayyid Sa‘īd ibn Sulṭān,[1] was the grandson of the last recognized Imam, Aḥmad ibn Sa‘īd al-Bū Sa‘īdī, whose reign from 1741-1783 (he was elected Imam in 1753-4) inaugurated the Bū Sa‘īdī dynasty, which remains in power in Oman to this day. Omanis had long settled in East Africa, and city-states ruled by Omani families emerged in Mombasa and Pate. Successive Omani rulers were only able to subject these city-states to Omani rule temporarily. Periodically the ruler of Oman would be invited to repel the Portuguese from Mombasa, but the Mazrū‘ī family that ruled Mombasa would withdraw their fealty to Oman once the immediate threat had passed and the Omani ruler had gone. Perhaps this is why Sayyid Sa‘īd (ruled 1806-1856) decided to settle in East Africa, a pleasant region with great potential for trade and agriculture. He first visited Zanzibar, then a small town of little consequence, in 1828, and decided at that time to make it his permanent residence. He transferred his council from Muscat to Zanzibar in 1832, officially making Zanzibar the capital of the Omani empire.  Hundreds of Omanis accompanied him in his move to Zanzibar. After his death in 1856, however, the Bū Sa‘īdī empire was divided, with the rule of Oman passing to his son Thuwaynī, and the rule of Zanzibar passing to another son, Mājid. The Bū Sa‘īdīs remain in power in Oman to this day, but were overthrown in Zanzibar in January 1964.

Although Zanzibar’s rulers were Ibāḍī, the vast majority of their subjects were not. The overwhelming majority of the indigenous population of Zanzibar and the East African coast follow the Sunni school of al-Shāfi‘ī. Zanzibar was an extremely complex society during the period of Omani rule, consisting not only of Omani overlords and African subjects and slaves, but a sizable and mixed community of people originating from other parts of the Indian Ocean: Ḥanafī soldiers from Baluchistan, Ismā‘īlī, Bohorā, and Hindu merchants from India, Shāfi‘ī scholars and traders from the Ḥaḍramawt, and Twelver Shī‘a of Arab, Iranian, and Indian background. The Ḥaḍramīs frequently intermarried with the local population and became integrated into Swahili society, who were also Shāfi‘ī Sunnis, but the Omanis did so less often, and the Indians formed a very separate set of religious and social communities that married only among themselves, and tried to preserve their native languages. 

Considering the Ibāḍī attitude that non-Ibāḍī Muslims are of doubtful Islamic status and ought to be avoided, what attitude did they take toward the different sects of Zanzibar, especially the Shāfi‘ī majority? Whereas in the Omani interior Ibāḍī scholars engaged the questions of walāya and barā’a in relative isolation from contact with non-Ibāḍī Muslims, in Zanzibar the situation was entirely different. Ibāḍī scholars had to rethink the meaning of barā’a in a context in which they were required to work closely with Sunni Muslims. Furthermore, Sunni scholars on the Swahili coast were critical of Ibāḍī doctrine, and succeeded in attracting converts to Sunni Islam from among the Ibāḍī population of East Africa. The ubiquity and challenge of Sunnism confronted Ibāḍī scholars of Zanzibar with dilemmas that could be ignored in the Omani interior.

It appears that the Zanzibar sultans were usually quite tolerant of Sunni Muslims, that indeed they honored Sunni scholars in a manner similar to the way they honored Ibāḍī scholars. Sayyid Sa‘īd encouraged both Ibāḍī and Sunni scholars to come to his new capital. Scholars migrated there from the coasts of Somalia and Kenya, from the Comoro Islands, and from Oman itself. Qāḍīs were appointed for the Sunnis as well as for the Ibāḍīs, and there are cases in which Sunni and Ibāḍī qāḍīs delivered joint adjudication.[2] The first sultan of Zanzibar, Sa‘īd ibn Sulṭān, directed his governors in the provinces to have Sunni subjects ruled by Sunni judges, specifically mentioning in one of his letters “the shaykh and scholar Muḥyī ’l-Dīn al-Qaḥṭānī” as the authority to be consulted in matters of dispute.  He also told the Ibāḍīs of Pemba to greet non-Ibāḍī Muslims living on their island with courtesy, just as the Ibāḍīs in Zanzibar did.[3] In his account of the Shāfi‘ī scholars of East Africa, Abdallah Saleh Farsy (d. 1982) made a point of emphasizing the great honor various Sunni scholars received from sultans, to the point that some of them served as trusted counselors, and, if we are to believe him, virtual ministers of the realm.[4] Some of more prominent scholars so honored included Muḥyī ’l-Dīn al-Qaḥṭānī (d. 1869), ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn ‘Abd al-Ghanī al-Amawī (1838-96), his son, Burhān ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Amawī (1861-1935), Sayyid Aḥmad ibn Sumayṭ (1861-1925), and ‘Abdallāh Bā Kathīr (1860-1925).  Zanzibar became a center of Sunni religious scholarship during the reign of the Bū Sa‘īdī sultans, and it appears that Sunnis and Ibāḍīs, for the most part, coexisted amicably.  

The greatest Sunni scholars of nineteenth-century Zanzibar came from outside Zanzibar. Of the four who are considered the greatest Shāfi‘ī scholars of Zanzibar, two came from Somalia (an interesting fact considering that Farsy mentions very few Somali scholars among those who worked in Zanzibar): Muḥyī ’l-Dīn al-Qaḥṭānī and ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn ‘Abd al-Ghanī al-Amawī were both born and studied in Brava;  the latter originally came to Zanzibar for the purpose of studying with al-Qaḥṭānī, and Sayyid Sa‘īd appointed him judge in Kilwa at the age of sixteen. Sayyid Aḥmad ibn Sumayṭ was born of a Ḥaḍramī scholar residing in the Comoro islands, and Abdallāh Bā Kathīr came from Lamu. Large numbers of students and teachers in Zanzibar came from the Comoros. Sa‘īd al-Mughayrī wrote that “the wars of the sultans of Ngazija led to the emigration of many Comorians to Zanzibar. In 1899, fifteen thousand Comorians migrated to Zanzibar, where they became part of the upper class, holding fast to the commands of their Islamic religion and spreading knowledge.”[5] The trend toward mobility among the scholars of Zanzibar diminished in the twentieth century; by mid-century, scholars who studied or taught in Zanzibar tended to come from Zanzibar, and those born in Zanzibar were less likely to travel for the sake of study.

Sayyid Sa‘īd’s attitude toward Ibāḍism may be discerned from his checkered relationship with the family of the aforementioned Abū Nabhān, the most powerful religious scholar of his day in Oman. Al-Sālimī wrote, “Abū Nabhān was the most outstanding scholar of his time in knowledge, virtue, and nobility (sharaf), and the people had taken him as an example for guidance in all matters of their religion as well as their worldly affairs. The virtuous people obeyed him, because they knew his knowledge and piety.”[6] Abū Nabhān publicly denounced Sayyid Sa‘īd and declared him unfit to lead the Muslims. His authority constituted a direct challenge to Sayyid Sa‘īd, but the latter dared not act against him, not only because of Abū Nabhān’s popularity, but even more because of his well-known skill in ‘ilm al-sirr—the knowledge of hidden things, such as divination, the writing of talismans, and other esoteric secrets.[7] After Abū Nabhān’s death in 1822, his son, Nāṣir ibn Abī Nabhān, says that Sayyid Sa‘īd was deceptively kind to him in order to convince him to write a talisman that would protect him from all other talismans. He did so, only to find that Sayyid Sa‘īd commenced an all-out assault on their fortresses, which forced them after seven months to abandon their homes and property. Nāṣir’s family beseeched him to write a talisman to protect them against Sayyid Sa‘īd and his local governor. Nāṣir was able to concoct a talisman even more powerful than the one he had given to the sultan, although it took a year and a half to prepare it, because of the previous talisman he had written protecting Sayyid Sa‘īd. His work on this talisman was supported by the “pious people of Nizwā,” who kept him awake with coffee to enable him to recite his incantations through the night. The purpose of the talisman was to cause the kingdom of the sultan to be destroyed. “I did not want the sultan to die,” Nāṣir is quoted as saying, “out of fear that the tyrannical Muḥammad ibn Nāṣir al-Jabarī would come to power instead, and he is a Ḥanafī [a follower of the Ḥanafī school of Sunni Islam], and one could not be sure that if he came to power he would not force the people of Oman to convert to his rite.” Finally the talisman was completed, and the sultan began to experience defeats in his military engagements in Oman and overseas. Sayyid Sa‘īd’s fear of Nāṣir grew to the point that he took him into his inner circle and brought him on all his military expeditions, and finally to Zanzibar.[8] Upholding Ibāḍī ideals was clearly not Sayyid Sa‘īd’s priority, but neither could he afford to ignore the many dimensions of the potency of religion.

Sayyid Sa‘īd’s chief Ibāḍī judge belonged to a family with deep roots in East Africa, the Mundhirīs (al-Manādhira). The Mundhirīs were a wealthy family originally from the Omani interior, who had become major plantation owners in Mombasa, Pemba and Zanzibar. Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad al-Mundhirī (d. 1869) was a man of towering intellect. His known works include a book on theology entitled Al-Khulāṣa ’l-dāmigha,[9] another book dealing specifically with the theological problem of the vision of God, which the Ibāḍīs deny but the Sunnis affirm,[10] a book on etiquette,[11] a teacher’s text on grammar,[12] and a Sufi-style prayer of petition bearing special instructions for its recitation and promises of its efficacy in revealing divine secrets.[13] Shaykh Muḥammad served under Sayyids Sa‘īd ibn Sulṭān (1828-56) and Sa‘īd’s son Mājid (1856-70), until the shaykh died in 1869. His position was inherited by his younger brother, ‘Abdallāh. Shaykh Muḥammad’s cousin, Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān ibn Muḥammad al-Mundhirī, was chief Ibāḍī judge during the reign of Sayyid Barghash ibn Sa‘īd ibn Sulṭān (1870-88) and was among those who accompanied Sayyid Barghash during his visit to Europe in 1875.[14] Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī’s son, ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī al-Mundhirī (born in 1866, only three years before his father’s death), later became the chief Ibāḍī judge during the reigns of Sayyids ‘Alī ibn Ḥammūd (1902-11) and Khalīfa ibn Ḥārib (1911-60), until he died in 1924-5.

---

[1] Sayyid was the common title of the rulers of Oman and Zanzibar, until the British began referring to them as sultans. It does not refer to descent from the Prophet, whereas the use of the title Sayyid preceding the name of Aḥmad ibn Sumayṭ and other Sunni scholars does indicate descent from the Prophet.

[2] E.g. Sunni judges Aḥmad ibn Sumayṭ (1861-1925) and Burhān ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Amawī (1831-1935) heard cases jointly with Ibāḍī judges.  Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Amawī explained in a conversation with an adviser to Sultan Ḥamad ibn Thuwaynī (1893-96), “The sultan of Zanzibar rules according to all the sects and customs and laws, because he is entrusted with the guardianship of all the Muslims, and they follow many sects—Shāfi‘īs, Mālikīs, Ḥanafīs, Ḥanbalīs, and Shī‘a.  Each must be judged according to the requirements of his sect.  His judgment also extends to the Hindus, Banyans [Indian traders], and Zunūj (non-Muslim Africans), and they are people who have customs and laws; he should not compel any one to follow what he does not approve.”  This conversation was recorded by Amawī and I found it in some miscellaneous papers owned by the Amawī family and found in Dar Es Salaam by Mwalimu Muḥammad Idrīs Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ of Zanzibar.

[3] Mughayrī, Juhaynat al-akhbār, 271.

[4] Abdallah Saleh Farsy, The Shāfi‘ī ‘ulamā’ of East Africa, ca. 1830-1970, trans. and ed. Randall L. Pouwels  (Madison: University of Wisconsin African Studies Program, 1989).

[5] Mughayrī, Juhaynat al-akhbār, 524-5.

[6] Sālimī, Tuḥfat al-a‘yān, 2: 192.

[7] Sa‘īd ibn Sulṭān’s predecessor, Imam Sa‘īd ibn Aḥmad, offered a handsome bribe to anyone who would kill Shaykh Abū Nabhān. The shaykh wrote a talisman that his son Nabhān hung over the water of the canal by the mosque where Abū Nabhān was staying. He ordered his son not to let the talisman touch the water, because if it touched the water the Imam would die, and the shaykh did not want that; he merely wanted to weaken him. Then, Sālimī tells us on the authority of Nāṣir ibn Abī Nabhān, “the ambition of the sultan failed and his strength weakened and his kingdom left him. His brother, Sulṭān son of Aḥmad ibn Sa‘īd, rebelled against him and took every place in his kingdom except Rustāq. He [Imam Sa‘īd] lost the respect of the people to the point that fish would be taken from a dish in his hand as he carried it from the market, and he could not stop them.  He became a warning to onlookers and a sign to passersby. All the people knew this came from the shaykh’s work against him, and they all humbled themselves before the shaykh, and he became the most highly respected person. The shaykh then ordered his son to stop the work of the charm and to destroy it, lest it kill him.” After that the Imam left him in peace. Sālimī, Tuḥfat al-a‘yān, 2: 202-203.

[8] Ibid., 2:196-205.

[9] Mentioned by Abdallah Saleh Farsy in the context of a Sunni book written in response to it, to be discussed below. I have not found any copies of this book, either in Zanzibar or in Oman.

[10] Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī al-Mundhirī, Jawāb al-sā’il al-ḥayrān al-mushtabah ‘alayhi fahm āyāt al-Qur’ān fī jawāz ru’yat al-bārī ta‘ālā, ‘Alī ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Mazrū‘ī [Answering the bewildered questioner, ‘Alī ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Mazrū‘ī, who is unable to understand the Qur’anic verses concerning the permissibility of seeing the exalted Creator] (Muscat: Ma‘had al-Qaḍā’ al-Shar‘ī wa-al-Wa‘ẓ wa-al-Irshād, 1997), 160 pp. This book was written in response to a question put to him by ‘Alī al-Mazrū‘ī, the same Omani convert to Sunnism who wrote a response to Al-Khulāṣa ’l-dāmigha (see below).

[11] Manuscript ZA 9/1 in the Zanzibar National Archives, a response to questions regarding: teaching and disciplining students (among other things, the shaykh recommends contests between students, in which the winner is allowed to beat his opponent!); the legality of buying what is hidden in the ground, like onions, carrots and garlic; whether it is permissible for a woman to adorn her body with things like henna; the necessity of waiting for permission before entering someone’s house; and the necessity of giving a proper greeting. The Arabic Literature of Africa, ed. John O. Hunwick and R.S. O’Fahey (Leiden: E.J. Brill), vol. 3: The Writings of the Muslim Peoples of Northeastern Africa, compiled by R.S. O’Fahey and currently under preparation, calls this collection Risālat al-irshād.

[12] Kitāb tashīl al-muta‘allim, the third manuscript in a collection listed as ZA 8/40 in the Zanzibar National Archives.

[13] Ms. ZA 2/4 in the Zanzibar National Archives is a hodgepodge of mixed papers of magic and medicine belonging to and written by Muḥammad’s brother, Sulaymān, and dated 27 Rabī‘ al-Ākhar 1274 (14 December 1857). For some reason, someone has marked an X over the text on pp. 4-10 that has the du‘ā’ of Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad al-Mundhirī. The X stops precisely at the point where the prayer stops. This is followed by instructions for the care of the du‘ā’: it should be written on a piece of silver or white silk on a night of full moon at a particular sign of the Zodiac, fumigated with musk and amber, carried on the head, kept clean of all contamination, and recited seven times a night with incense, but 21 times on Friday nights. “Whoever does this will have divine proofs revealed to him.”

[14] Mughayrī, Juhaynat al-akhbār, p. 361. 

Ibāḍī Conversions to Sunni Islam

‘Alī al-Mundhirī’s Defense of Ibā∙ism

Ibāḍī-Sunni Interactions

Conclusion

            Ibāḍī theological doctrines emerged from the heat of the political disputes of early Islam and were nurtured in relative isolation from people of other Islamic sects, in the mountainous interior of Oman and remote areas of North Africa. The cosmopolitan character of East Africa brought Ibāḍīs into close contact with Sunnis, Shi‘a, Hindus, and followers of other faiths. The Ibāḍī sultans of Zanzibar ruled over a highly diverse population, who were mostly Sunni Muslims. Bū Sa‘īdī rule in Zanzibar inaugurated the development of a scholarly Islamic culture in Zanzibar, where scholarship was fostered and attracted both teachers and students from other parts of East Africa. Ibāḍī doctrine excludes Sunni Muslims from the category of “Muslim,” so theoretically Ibāḍīs should abstain from religious friendship with them, although they are included in the ahl al-qibla, and are accorded all the rights of a Muslim. In practice, Ibāḍī–Sunni relationships were very friendly, and the Bū Sa‘īdī sultans sponsored Sunni as well as Ibāḍī scholars and appointed them as judges, and some Sunni scholars have been among the sultans’ closest confidants. During the reign of Sayyid Barghash (1870-88), there were some prominent conversions of Ibāḍī scholars to Sunni Islam, provoking a severe reaction from the monarch, who established the first printing press devoted to the publication of Ibāḍī works. The brief treatises by Shaykh ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad al-Mundhirī indicate the real sense of threat late-nineteenth-century Ibāḍī scholars in Zanzibar felt from the attraction Sunni Islam held for many Ibāḍīs. Nonetheless, Ibāḍī scholars had cordial and collegiate relationships with their Sunni counterparts, and in the second half of the nineteenth century some scholars crossed sectarian lines for the purposes of study and adjudication. Religious conflict was remarkably absent from the domains of the sultans of Zanzibar.  

Memories of the great Dhows of Zanzibar

A great fleet of dhows rode at anchor for 3-4 months of the year in the harbour of Zanzibar in the early 1960s. As a child, I marvelled at them, they were the biggest wooden boats that I had ever seen. We sailed past them with our dingy taking in their strangeness and gazing at their vast solidness in awe. These were vessels of the wild open sea. Festooned with ropes made of sisal, their masts slanted at an angle, they spoke of journeys by men who knew the sea like no others. Sometimes I would see lithe dark sailors shimming up the masts with their bare feet. We always complained about the smell of the dhow fleet. Later I learnt that they used fish oil to season the wood. Aging fish oil is not recommended for its smell.

Off the stern of the boat hung a large box, big enough for a person to sit in. It had a hole in the bottom and we knew it was the toilet also called the thunder-box. Strange inscriptions and twirling designs were carved as decorations along the hull and over the stern hung the plain red flag of the Sultans of Zanzibar. On their prow would hang an oculus or talisman. The oculus is the ‘eye’ of the boat and was often in the form of a brightly painted eye, rather like a Cyclops eye from Greece. No human or animal replications were portrayed - as the Koran dictates.

I knew that this dhow fleet plied an ancient triangular route, from India to the Arabian Gulf and then on to the East African coast. India was the connection to those fabulous trading countries even further east. From ancient times the monsoon winds had made this route feasible and as boats become more sophisticated its importance grew. The monsoon winds were not reliable further south than Zanzibar and our harbour, tucked into the western coast of the island, was very protected when the northern monsoon was blowing.

The Arab dhow captains were superb seamen. In 1939, Australian adventurer, Alan Vickers, travelled on a dhow from Aden to Zanzibar and back. In his book, ‘Sons of Sinbad’ he recounts how he found a nakhoda or captain of a boum dhow and arranged his passage south with the north-east monsoon on a boat called The Triumph of Righteousness. Alan believed he was living through the last days of sail. He tells of the journey and it is a window into the past. With western eyes he found the filth the accumulated on the overcrowded main deck difficult to stomach but recognised that these sailors were tough men:

‘the constantly cramped quarters, the crowds, the wretched food, the exposure to the elements, the daylong burning sun, the nightlong heavy dews, if they continued to be disadvantages, were far offset by the interest of being there….’

You were always aware of the monsoon in Zanzibar. There was no summer and winter on the islands. It was one monsoon or the other or the time in-between when the rains came. The northern monsoon blows from late November to February and the long rains, or masika, come in March as the winds become variable. If you were a girl child born during the rains, you might be called Masika – born in the time of the rains.

April is the start of the south-west monsoon. This wind is more violent during the months of June and July so the boats leave with the first winds or stay to the last weeks of the monsoon. It was hard to get insurance for your boat if you left during June and July when many seasoned dhow captains would stay put in a safe harbour. By late September the winds become variable again and Zanzibar experiences the short rains or vuli. Monsoon is a word that English has copied from Arabic.

They were not called the ‘trade winds’ for nothing. Zanzibar was a trading nation, perfectly positioned and blessed with the richness of its spices and the produce of the African hinterland. In the 1800s when Zanzibar was the centre of a maritime commercial empire, the cargo used to be gold, gum copal, ivory and slaves. In my days it was spices, predominantly cloves, mangrove poles, Persian carpets, dates and dried fish that plied its way to and from Arabia. In the narrow streets of Zanzibar’s Stonetown could be found a cornucopia of riches. Small open fronted shops or dukas were filled with wares from east and west. The shopkeeper sat cross-legged at the shop front on the elevated concrete ledge talking to his neighbours. On the main street were the gold and silver merchants with worked semi-precious stones from Ceylon and India.

My father wanted to buy some Persian carpets directly from a dhow captain so he put out the word and a little while after the dhow fleet arrived from the Gulf my mother and he went on board to view the cargo. They discussed the weather and the health of their families until much strong sweet coffee or kahawa had been imbibed and general pleasantries had been exhausted.

‘The red dust of the desert was still in the carpets,’ my father said, ‘each one that they brought up from the hold seemed more beautiful than the one before. It was impossible to choose!’

The dhow fleet were intrinsic to the old Zanzibar, when the Omani Sultans ruled and controlled the east African shores. When Sultan Said bin Sultan of Oman and Muscat had moved his capital to Zanzibar in 1840, he travelled with his fleet of dhows to take possession. His family would rule Zanzibar till 1963 and the revolution that ousted the newly independent Zanzibar. Sultan Jamshid escaped while many other Arab Zanzibaris did not. Survivors tell of how many Arab people were forced to embark on overloaded and under provisioned dhows and sent to sea. The revolutionaries wanted them to go back to Arabia. Some of those dhows did not survive the trip.

Recently someone told me of a story he had heard while travelling down the East African coast 50 years ago. The first mate of a large cargo boat woke the captain early one morning and asked him to get to the bridge urgently.

‘Look,’ he said, ‘look at our bow!’ There over the bow was draped a huge sail. Both realised what it was: the tremendous triangular sail of a dhow.

‘Get if off, quickly,’ the captain replied, ‘Throw it away’.

The cargo boat had ploughed down a dhow in the night. They did not turn around to see if they could find any survivors clinging to bits of wooden hull. It was just one more hazard of the open sea.

Some dhows have been converted to motor and still trade along East Africa. Still trading and still involved in smuggling. But the ancient stories of the dhow captains’ bravery and seamanship are lost to us. The great fleet under sail travels no more. The beauty of the lateen sails on the horizon with the monsoon behind them is now a mirage from history. 

Tolerance. Principal Foundation of the Cosmopolitan Society of Zanzibar by Mohamed Ahmed Saleh

Tolerance.

Principal Foundation of the Cosmopolitan Society of Zanzibar.

 By Mohamed Ahmed Saleh

For a substantial number of people, notably in the northern hemisphere, the name Zanzibar sounds mythical and makes people dream. However, in reality, it has a physical existence and a particular place in the world map. It is an island country, which consists of Unguja and Pemba islands and a multitude of other islets (approximately fifty). The archipelago has an average area of 2 460 square kilometres[1] and almost one million of inhabitants. Zanzibar[2] lies in the north western part of the Indian Ocean about 40 miles off the shore of the African continent, at 6 degrees of latitude south of Equator. Zanzibar was for a long time an important island metropolis whose name became legendary and was very often confounded with the whole region. For instance, the Arabs called the eastern coast of Africa bar of the Zangh, meaning coast of the black people. In Arabic it became Zinjbar and later Zanjibar, a name that was used by navigators and geographers – somewhat loosely – to connote the island, the archipelago and, in early documents the entire East African coast[3]. 

The geographic situation of Zanzibar could be compared with countries and cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, in South East Asia, Bombay, Cape Town, Aden, Malta, and Gibraltar. These countries and cities, given sound policies, because of their strategic position, always benefit from whatever the prevailing world economic trend[4]. Zanzibar’s geographic situation, located “off shore” at the crossroad of maritime world and at the proximity of hinterland, for many centuries enabled Zanzibaris to play a role of middlemen in the commercial exchanges in the region, and in the process benefit from the civilizing influence of the international maritime expansion. Professor Abdul Sheriff, a well known and respected Zanzibari historian, is very clear in this sense: “the Swahili (Zanzibar) history is about adaptation and incorporation. We have always been middlemen – between the land and the sea, the producers and the buyers, the African and the Arabian. That is not a concern; it is our strength”[5]. This is why, Zanzibar remains to date, in many ways, very much a product of an ancient pattern of maritime trade and settlement.

A SEAFARING AND MERCHANT PEOPLE

 Geographically and culturally,  Zanzibar belongs to that string of islands which extends all along the east African coast, from Lamu to Comoros, where for many centuries the Swahili culture and civilisation took shape and flourished[6].  This civilisation which developed around the City-States, trading posts, ports or islands, was based on commercial maritime activities, conducted principally between the peoples from the two continents of Indian ocean basin : Africa and Asia[7]. Zanzibar not only played a crucial role in the development process of this mercantile civilization, but it had also constituted an important human bridge between these two continents of the Indian ocean basin. In its prime Zanzibar was among a string of ports along the East African coast that evolved into powerful City States as they grew rich from Indian ocean trade. Those were the days when it was commonly said “if you play the flute at Zanzibar, all Africa as far as the Lakes dances”[8]. 

As one of the former important City-States in the Swahili World, Zanzibar’s history was essentially written by the monsoon winds[9], which, for centuries, propelled the dhows[10] to and from the two continents. From November to February, the northeast monsoon, the kaskazi, brought traders from Arabia, Persia and India with products such as dates, whale oil, carpets, incense, pots, glassware and clothes, as well as porcelains from China. From June to September the southwest monsoon, the kusi, brought vessels from the south and returned the others to their home ports north and east, around and across the Indian ocean carrying with them ivory, mangrove poles, spices, coconuts, tortoise, cowries, shells and sometimes even slaves, captured from the interior of the continent. In the course of these maritime activities, people from Africa and Asia were brought together through not only commercial and cultural exchanges but also intermarriage. Zanzibar developed into an important melting pot, where migrants from Arabian peninsular, particularly from Oman and Yemen, and migrants from Persian Gulf, especially from Shiraz province of Iran, were integrated into Zanzibari society. It is interesting to note here that shirazi identity remained to date one of the major components of Zanzibari Swahili identity[11]. A substantial number of Zanzibari indigenous people claim to be descendants from the ancestors from Shiraz, ancient capital of Persia[12]. People from Indian sub continent also very early took part in this human construction. People from other parts of the globe, whether, initially, they were invaders or merchants, were also integrated in the society and ultimately became part of the social, cultural as well as political construction underlying Zanzibari identity and nationalism. This connote one of the important characteristics of Zanzibari as “a seafaring and merchant people, nurtured by contact”[13].

It was through the interplay of different elements of populations, languages and customs, the mingling of blood and ideas that permeated every aspect of life that led to the development of Zanzibari identity and culture. With all its complexities, Zanzibar emerged as one of the major plural societies of East Africa, composed of a large diversity of communities. Despite of socio-economic contradictions prevailing in the society, notably in terms of class and status, Zanzibar remained one of the few plural societies in Africa that have been successful in crystallising various diverse cultural communities into a single all-encompassing culture. Zanzibari culture is representative of a very rich repertoire with a number of compartments within which one can identify different origins in what is now a homogenous Zanzibari Swahili culture. The various Zanzibari communities were further cemented together by their linguistic and religious unity.

Modern Zanzibari identity is primarily based on the Kiswahili language and the culture associated with it. Bantu by its grammatical structure, Kiswahili language has incorporated in its vocabulary more than fifty percent of words of foreign origin, particularly of oriental background[14]. Kiswahili is the national and official language of the country. It is the mother-tongue of all Zanzibaris and the variant local dialect (kiunguja), spoken in Zanzibar town, served as the basis  of standard Kiswahili. It is one of the most important unifying force in Zanzibar and beyond its boundaries. The common language helped to cement the communities and accelerated the process of awareness of a common belonging and a common destiny; endowing Zanzibaris with a healthy and wealthy national consciousness. Non ethnic language, a language of trade, Kiswahili remained to date, the richest and the most important lingua franca in East Africa. It is the second largest spoken language in Africa after Arabic. It is the language of tolerance whose evolution was very much determined by the adaptation and integration of different vocabulary from different elements of populations which compose the present Zanzibari society. This is why the concept of tolerance in this language can be expressed in different ways. There are three words which express the notion of tolerance in Kiswahili: kuvumiliana, kustahamiliana, and kuchukuliana. The first two words kuvumiliana and kustahamiliana are synonymous and could only be distinguished by their lexical origin. The former is of African origin and the latter of Arabic origin. Both of them revolve around the question of patience. Patience is one of the source of imani (faith, uprightness and integrity), reinforcing the notion of tolerance. However, the third word kuchukuliana seems to be larger and seems to best represent the concept of tolerance. It puts more emphasis in its action on the question of consideration, and incite people to be considerate towards one another[15]. As we progress we will see that the concept of tolerance in Kiswahili, contrary to other languages, does not have a negative connotation. It is a part and a parcel of Zanzibari and Swahili mode of life.

TOLERANCE AS A TRADITIONAL VALUE

 Islam is the religion of the majority of Zanzibaris, representing more than 90% of the total population. It is one of the important factors of inter-communal interaction. The majority of Zanzibaris belong to the sunni branch of Islam, and are followers of Imam Shafii[16] school of thought. The two other branches of Islam are Kharijism (Ibadhism) and Shiism. There are no fundamental contradictions between these different branches of Islam in Zanzibar, and hence, do not constitute any form of obstacle for inter-communal integration. The majority of Zanzibaris believe in unity in diversity and see in these different branches of Islam as well as the existence of other religious confessions as a factor of enrichment rather than a deficit. It is important to note here that Islam was never imposed by the sword in Zanzibar and in any other East African coastal societies. It is a religion which arrived by the dhows and developed through social and commercial contacts. The Swahili coast has been part of Islamic World from the eleventh century. The earliest ruin identifiable as a mosque is at Shanga, and the oldest known inscription on a mosque is the Kufic one at Kizimkazi in the south of Zanzibar island, dating from A.D 1106. Throughout its history Zanzibar has never experienced religious intolerance at a community level, neither between Christians and Muslims nor among Muslims of different obedience. Traditionally, the followers of the Ibadhi and Sunni had less religious interaction, but today particularly for the young generation they rarely express reservations with each other. They pray in the same mosques and perform almost all religious functions together[17].

Some Zanzibaris allegorically compare this prevailing situation in Zanzibar with that of flowers which are varying in colours but in essence do not change their nature, they remain flowers. An important number of Zanzibaris are also active members of Suffi movements, turuq (Islamic Brotherhood), i.e., mystical group or group of ecstatic performance.  The two most important groups in Zanzibar are Shadhiliyya Yashrutti and Qadiriyya. The former finds its origins in Palestine while the latter was introduced from Iraq. These religious or mystical orders include men and women, performing their rituals separately, meet for devotional purposes and attend funeral and other rites involving their members. Their rituals consist of invocations and supplications. They invoke the names of God and other supplications, following a particular rhythm with over-breathing and other physical exercises that induce trance and possession[18].

Although Islam and the Swahili language constitute the cultural fundament of the islands’ social fabrics, other religions such as Christianity (Catholics as well as protestants), Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Parsee Zoroastrians, as well as languages such as Hindi, Gujareti and Arabic, coexisted peacefully and respectfully. Irrespective of individual confessions, all Zanzibaris have always congregated together in celebrating Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (Maulid)[19], Christmas, the Birthday of the Great Buddha as well as the Hindi Diwali[20]. Zanzibar has a long tradition of religious tolerance. It is worth noting that more than a century ago Seyyid Said bin Sultan[21] forbade his Muslim subjects to slaughter cows in the residential areas of Hindus, few though they were, in deference to their religious sensitivities[22]. Communities of all religious denominations were free to follow their own laws of marriage, divorce and inheritance. In 1860 Seyyid Majid bin Said bin Sultan[23], a Muslim Sultan of Zanzibar allowed the French Roman Catholic Mission from Reunion to settle in the country and establish their religious and humanitarian activities including building a Cathedral[24].  Less than two decades later, in 1877 Seyyid Barghash bin Said bin Sultan[25], another Muslim Sultan  of Zanzibar, allowed the construction of Anglican Cathedral at the site of the old slave market and provided the tower bell as a gift. The first University Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) was established in Zanzibar around the same period.

A true Zanzibari has always been a polyglot, with a capacity of communicating at least in three different languages. S/he would naturally be appreciative of a variety of music: african, oriental (arab and indian) or western (jazz and classical). These different influences appear also in the Zanzibari-Swahili music, taarab, which incorporates in its composition a mixture of african, oriental and western melodies. The evolution of Zanzibaris history and culture was very much marked by the liberty of movement of its population and freedom of expression and press. More than 40 newspapers were established in the country since the first newspaper in East Africa, The Gazette, was established in 1892[26]. All these factors are a clear expression of Zanzibari traditional spirit of openness and tolerance, which constituted the foundation stone of the Cosmopolitan Society of Zanzibar. The Zanzibari traditional spirit of openness and tolerance allowed the isles to be an important meeting point for explorers and missionaries in Africa. Burton, Krapf, Livingstone, Stanley, and other western explorers and missionaries set their journey inside African continent from Zanzibar.

This spirit of tolerance, kuchukuliana, which in Kiswahili means mutual understanding made the Zanzibari society a cultural mosaic, which has always been open towards integrating not only traders but also invaders. Tolerance has always been one of the major components of Zanzibari social and cultural values. This concept has demonstrated in different periods of Zanzibar history its crucial role in the cultural, social and political processes leading towards the definition and the development of Zanzibari identity and nationalism.  Tolerance is not only a concept of the Swahili language[27], it is also and especially a mode of life and culture. It is a social system which is developed and inculcated into the society through the observation of different passage rites as well as religious and moral teachings, most of which start right from the birth. It is worth noting that non-islamic items of rituals, mila, which means traditions in Kiswahili, were incorporated into the corpus of religious behaviour. They form part of permitted Swahili religious practice[28].

Kuadhiniwa[29] ‘a call for prayers’ to a new born is one of the most important passage rites. This action consists of holding a new-born while taking an orientation of the Mecca and say in his/her right ear the first call for prayers (adhana), and then in his left ear the second call for the prayers (iqama). This signifies that the child is born Muslim and will have to follow the precepts of Islam. Religious and moral teachings are highly emphasizing on uaminifu (honesty) and uadilifu (ethics), which are the two major components of what is commonly known as imani, (faith, uprightness and integrity). Imani presupposes constant effort to surpass one’s ego and acquire a capacity of consideration and generosity in the most positive way towards the others[30].

Kushindiliwa[31] is another fundamental passage rite that encourages in its teachings humility, humbleness, moderation and restrain from greediness, over temptation and jealousy. The action takes place by putting a thumb on the neck of a newborn while repeating to him/her that s/he has to be humble in life, resist temptations and all what is beyond his/her means, and should not be jealous or envious of others. These teachings, transmitted through the kushindiliwa passage rite, have an important place in the Swahili concept of tolerance[32]. They constitute a cornerstone on which other elements are relaying. In the place of power games, the Swahili concept of Tolerance  incites for a generalised humility, patience and mutual consideration, which ultimately lead to a mutual understanding and enrichment. Tolerance is a virtue, a value which implies open-mindedness and total abandon of selfishness. It is a constant effort of consideration towards one another as if it was a part of you. The difference with the “other” should not be considered as a deficit, but on the contrary should be seen as an element of enrichment, a common tool, which could eventually led to a mutual understanding. 

First hair shaving marks the end of the uterine life of the child and  provides an opportunity of communion, around a feast, between family members, friends and neighbours. Traditional teachings encourage good neighbourly relationships. Neighbours are considered to be one’s second family. If charity always begins at home, in the traditional teachings it is highly recommended that it should be extended to one’s neighbours. This is why in the occasion of traditional or religious festivities neighbours usually exchange meals. Circumcision[33] is another ritual which has a particular importance in the society. It surpasses the physical sense of operation, i.e., the ritual consisting of removing the prepuce: it marks the end of the cycle of perinatal ceremonies[34] and announces the effective entrance of the child into the social life of the community. The passage rites reach their climax at the time of wedding celebrations. The brides by accomplishing the most important tradition of the Prophet, obtain a status of adults, and are considered as accomplished persons.  Weddings provide platform for the demonstration of inter-communal solidarity. Members of extended families of the brides, friends and neighbours interact together at the occasion of grand feasts and of dances. The more numerous the participants, the more praise worthy the marriage. Hence, customary ceremonies play a crucial role in cementing Zanzibaris communities together. They remain strong moments in the society, which provide the Zanzibaris with the means of consolidating their affective and social ties. It is an occasion for the exchange of gifts between individuals and different traditional networks. These ceremonial exchanges provide a framework for the development of social relationships[35].

Through customary rites and moral teachings one is brought up into understanding life in all its complexities and into believing in the universality of human race. Very often moral teachings encourage the society to stretch out their hands and to reach out to other peoples, other races; and to regard one another with the same respect, affection and dignity, for they all belong to the same human race. The Koran (and the Islamic Faith) is very explicit in its social teachings and endows racial as well as cultural diversity with sacred status as a divine creation: “O Mankind, we have created you male and female, and appointed you nations and tribes so that you may know one another” (Koran 49; 13).

Regardless of colour, creed or background, traditional teachings encourage people to judge the other entirely on his/her merits. Multiracialism or multiculturalism should be viewed as Nature’s way of harmonisation, for variety lends enchantment, beauty and novelty. This is very well reflected in a poem entitled Our Colours[36], by Shaaban Robert, a famous Swahili poet of our time:

Colour is God’s ornament, far from being a demerit,

All are the same whether they eat millet or wheat bread,

Eaters of wheat and lentils, living and dead,

Colour is God’s ornament, far from a mark of demerit

He adorns the stars and the Heavens, roses and jasmines,

Colour is God’s majesty and on the body it’s not uncleanness.

It is neither a mark of bitterness, nor sin nor blemish,

Colour is the beauty of the Perfect God Almighty. 

Folk tales, poetry and taarab music were three elements which played an important role in the construction of the national symbols of Zanzibari culture. They were the vehicles which have always helped to convey messages of peace and tolerance. They have always propelled holistic values of love; of emotional world of fantasy, and moral values which tend to teach that the good will always triumph and the bad will always fail. They were the major weapons used to fight obscurantism. This is why it was very common to hear people judging a man not by his material wealth but by what s/he has in her/his brain, as a poet, a jurist, or a teacher. Knowledge was the major aspect which allowed a person to obtain that renown respect in the society which in Kiswahili is called heshima. 

 

Zanzibar is by all standards a cultural community whose development was made possible thanks to the spirit of tolerance.  As an important component of Zanzibari culture, tolerance played a vital role in merging together all the different elements of Zanzibari society. By discouraging all kind of discriminations and encouraging mutual understanding tolerance was an important source of strength for Zanzibaris. It allowed them to be together as a people and survive different invasions throughout the history. Today as yesterday Zanzibaris future lies on their capacity to surpass the political manipulations which tend to divide them along racial lines. There is no future for Zanzibaris out of their Zanzibariness. This is clearly emphasised by Professor Sheriff  “It has a history of invasions, and of assimilations of the invaders in the integrated culture of Zanzibar. It is a cultural mosaic that has a pattern and a meaning that would be lost if the pieces were separated and identified individually as African, Arab, Indian, etc, it can only be identified as Zanzibari”[37].

  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ali Muhsin AL BARWANI, Conflicts and Harmony In Zanzibar (Memoirs), Dubai, 1997.

Juma ALEY, Enduring Links, Zanzibar Series, Union Printing Press, Dubai, 1994.

Abdulrahman Mohamed BABU, “Zanzibar and the Future”  Change vol. 2 No. 4/5 April/May, Dar Es Salaam, 1994, pp. 28-33.

Mohamed Ali BAKARI, The Democratisation Process in Zanzibar : A Retarded Transition, Institut für Afrika-Kunde, Hamburg, 2001.

N.R. BENNETT, History of the Arab State of Zanzibar, Methnen, London, 1978.

Richard BURTON, Zanzibar : City, Island and Coast, (2 volumes), Tinsley Brothers, London, 1872.

Robert CAPUTO, Swahili Coast: East Africa’s Ancient Crossroads, National Geographic Magazine, October 2001, p. 104-119.

Tominaga CHIZUKO and Abdul SHERIFF, « The Ambiguity of Shirazi Ethnicity in the History and Politics of Zanzibar » in Christianity and Culture, N° 24, 1989.

Richard HALL, Empire of the Monsoon : A History of the Indian Ocean and Its Invaders, Harper Collins, London, 1996

W.H. INGRAMS, Zanzibar : its history and its people, Frank Cass Ltd., London 1967.

W.H. INGRAMS, Arabia and the Isles, John Murray, London, 1942.

Colette LE COUR GRANDMAISON et Ariel CROZON (sous la direction de), Zanzibar aujourd’hui, Karthala-Ifra, Paris, 1998.

Françoise LE GUENNEC-COPPENS et Pat CAPLAN (sous la direction de), Les Swahili entre Afrique et Arabie, Karthala, Paris, 1991.

Abdulaziz Yussuf LODHI, Oriental Influences in Swahili: A Study in Language, Culture Contacts, Orientalia et Africana Gothoburgensia 15, Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2000.

Abdulaziz Yussuf LODHI, National Language, Culture and Identity: The Role of Kiswahili in the context of Zanzibar, International Conference on the History and Culture of Zanzibar, Zanzibar, 14 – 16 December,1992.

Michael LOFCHIE, Zanzibar : Background to Revolution, PUP, Princeton, New Jersey, 1965.

Robert Nunez LYNE, ZANZIBAR in Contemporary Times, Darf Publishers Ltd., London, 1905.

B. G.  MARTIN, « Notes on Some Members of the Learned Classes of Zanzibar and East Africa in the Nineteenth Century, African Historical Studies, IV, 525-545, 1971.

S. H. MAULY, “Evil Is Not The Monopoly Of Any One Race: Zanzibar Political History And Development In Perspective”, Change vol. 3 No. 1/2 January/February, Dar Es Salaam, 1995, pp. 18-27.

Alamin M. MAZRUI, and Ibrahim Noor SHARIFF, THE SWAHILI, Idiom and Identity of an African People, Africa World Press, Trenton, 1994.

John MIDDLETON, The World of the Swahili, An African Mercantile Civilization, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1992.

Derek NURSE and Thomas SPEAR, The Swahili : Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 800-1500, University of Pensylvannia Press, Philadelphia, 1985.

David PARKIN, (Ed.) Continuity And Autonomy In Swahili Communities, Inland Influences And Strategies Of Self-Determination, SOAS, AFRO-PUB, London, 1994.

F.B. PEARCE, Zanzibar, the Island Metropolis of East Africa, T. Fisher Unwin Limited, London, 1920.

Michael N. PEARSON, Port Cities and Intruders. The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1998.

A H.  J. PRINS, The Swahili-Speaking Peoples of Zanzibar and the East African Coast, IAI, London, 1961.

Mohamed Ahmed SALEH, Kiswahili : Patience, humilité et dépassement moral, in Paul Siblot (Coordonné par), Dire La Tolérance, UNESCO-Praxiling, Paris, 1997, pp. 65-66.

Mohamed Ahmed SALEH, “Zanzibar et le monde swahili”, Afrique Contemporaine, No. 177, 1er trimestre, La Documentation Francaise, Paris, 1996, pp. 17-29.

Mohamed Ahmed SALEH, Les Pêcheurs de Zanzibar : Transformations socio-économiques et permanence d’un système de représentation, mémoire pour le Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies (DEA), EHESS, Paris, 1995.

Mohamed Ahmed SALEH, Le Grand Mariage “Ada” : La creation des notables à la Grande Comore (Ngazidja), Mémoire de l’EHESS en anthropologie sociale, Paris, 1992.

Abdul SHERIFF, Slaves, Spices and Ivory in Zanzibar, (Integration of East African Commercial Empire into World Economy 1770-1873), Eastern African Studies, James Currey, London; Heinemann Kenya, Nairobi; Historical Association of Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam; Ohio University Press, Athens; 1987.

Abdul SHERIFF, Historical Zanzibar - Romance of the Ages, HSP Publications, London, 1996.

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Zanzibar A Plan for the Historic Stone Town, 1996.

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[1] The main island (Unguja) has an average area of 1 464 square kilometres and its sister island, Pemba, 868 square kilometres.

[2] The name « Zanzibar » has a triple usage. It is the name of (i) the country, (ii) the main island (which is also known as Unguja), and (iii) the Capital city of the archipelago.

[3] The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Zanzibar: A Plan for the Historic Stone Town, (1996), p. 11.

[4] Abdulrahman M. BABU, Zanzibar and the Future, in Change vol. 2 No. 4/5 April/May, Dar Es Salaam, 1994, pp. 28-33.

[5] In Robert CAPUTO, Swahili Coast: East Africa’s Ancient Crossroads, National Geography Magazine, October 2001, p. 118.

[6] The Swahili cultural influence extends about 3 000 kilometres all along  the east African coast, from Brava (Somalia) up to Sofala (Mozambique), including adjacent islands, notably Lamu, Mombasa, Pemba and Unguja (Zanzibar), Mafia, Kilwa and the Comoros

[7] Michael N. PEARSON, Port Cities and Intruders. The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1998. Alamin M. MAZRUI, and Ibrahim Noor SHARIFF, THE SWAHILI, Idiom and Identity of an African People, Africa World Press, Trenton, 1994. Mohamed Ahmed SALEH “Zanzibar et le monde swahili”, Afrique Contemporaine, No. 177, 1er trimestre, La Documentation Francaise, Paris, 1996, pp. 17-29.

[8] Harold INGRAMSs (1942), Arabia and the Isles, p. 10.

[9] See Richard HALL, Empire of the Monsoon : A History of the Indian Ocean and Its Invaders, Harper Collins, London, 1996

[10] Lateen-rigged wooden vessels still used today.

[11] Abdul SHERIFF and Chizuko TOMINAGA, “The Ambiguity of Shirazi Ethnicity in the History and Politics of Zanzibar”, in Christianity and Culture, N° 24, 1989.

[12] The Shirazi tradition has existed for at least five centuries. The concentration of people claiming Shirazi origin occurs along the Mrima coast and the offshore islands. There are some so-called Shirazi villages where a majority consisted of such families, or where the people identified themselves with the ruling or social elite. On the offshore islands of Unguja and Pemba, the indigenous population has come to identify itself as Shirazi in contradistinction from the more recent African  and Arab immigrants. In general an important number of Zanzibaris can claim to have a foreign ancestry : persian, arab, indo-pakistanese, goanese, chinese, comorian, seychellese, mainland african. See Abdul SHERIFF and Chizuko TOMINAGA, “The Ambiguity of Shirazi Ethnicity in the History and Politics of Zanzibar”, in Christianity and Culture, N° 24, 1989.

[13] Abdul SHERIFF, in Robert CAPUTO, Swahili Coast: East Africa’s Ancient Crossroads, National Geography Magazine, October 2001, p. 113.

[14] Abdulaziz Y. LODHI, Oriental Influences in Swahili: A Study in Language, Culture Contacts, Orientalia et Africana Gothoburgensia 15, Acta Universitatis Go thoburgensis, 2000.

[15] Mohamed Ahmed SALEH, , “Kiswahili : Patience, humilité et dépassement moral”, Dire la Tolérance, UNESCO – Praxiling, Paris, 1997, pp. 65-66

[16] Inside the Sunni branch, there are four other schools of thought: Shafi, Hambal, Malik and Hanafi.

[17] Mohamed Ali BAKARI, The Democratisation Process in Zanzibar : A Retarded Transition, Institut für Afrika-Kunde, Hamburg, 2001. p. 89

[18] John MIDDLETON, 1992, The World of the Swahili: An African Mercantile Civilization, Yale University Press, New Haven,  p. 170.

[19] Maulid: Elegy of Prophet Muhammad which gives its name to the ceremony of the celebration of his birth and to the religious text celebrating his life. The Maulid day is celebrated all over the Muslim World.

[20] Barwany (Ali Muhsin), 1997, Conflict and Harmony in Zanzibar, (Memoirs), Dubai.

[21] From Al-Busaidy dynasty he was the first Sultan of Oman who moved the Capital of his Empire from Muscat (Oman) to Zanzibar in 1832.

[22] Mohamed Ali BAKARI, The Democratisation Process in Zanzibar : A Retarded Transition, Institut für Afrika-Kunde, Hamburg, 2001. p. 89

[23] Sultan of Zanzibar from 28 October 1856 to 7 October 1870.

[24] N. R. BENNET, 1978, Arab State of Zanzibar, p. 82-83

[25] Sultan of Zanzibar from 7 October 1870 to 27 March 1888.

[26] To date, Zanzibar has a sole government-owned weekly, Nuru.

[27] The mother-tongue of all Zanzibaris

[28] John MIDDLETON, 1992, The World of the Swahili: An African Mercantile Civilization, Yale University Press, New Haven,  London, p. 170.

[29] Call for prayers insufflated into a newborn. It is a common practice in the whole Swahili World. See Mohamed A. SALEH, 1992, Le Grand Mariage “Ada” : La creation des notables à la Grande Comore (Ngazidja), Mémoire de l’EHESS en anthropologie sociale, Paris, p. 58

[30] The case of  Mzee Mwanze is a very eloquent example. His pragmatism, his kind heart, his spirit of openness, popularised him in Zanzibar where he was very well known for his humanism. He devoted one day of his week visiting all the sick people admitted at the V. I. Lenin Hospital at Mnazi Mmoja, Zanzibar, and praying for them, notably for their early recovery.    

[31] Apprenticing of sentiment of humility, of reservation, of moderation and of self-retaining. It is a common action in the whole Swahili World; see Mohamed Ahmed  SALEH, 1995, Les Pêcheurs de Zanzibar: Transformations socio-économiques et permanence d’un système de représentation, Mémoire pour le Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies, EHESS, Paris, p. 81.

[32] Mohamed Ahmed SALEH, 1977, “Kiswahili : Patience, humilité et dépassement moral”, Dire la Tolérance, UNESCO – Praxiling, Paris, pp. 65-66

[33] It is important to note here that Zanzibaris do not practice female excision.

[34] Ceremonies organised before, during and after the birth of a child.

[35] See for example Evans-Pritchard (1973) for the case of Nuer in Sudan.; Mohamed Ahmed SALEH, 1992, Grand Mariage “Ada” : La creation des notables à la Grande Comore.  

[36] Shaaban Robert, « Our colours », in Ali A. Jahadhmy, Anthology of Swahili Poetry – Kusanyiko la Mashairi-, African Writers Series N° 192, Heinemann, London, Nairobi, Ibadan, Lusaka, 1977, p. 4-5

[37] Abdul SHERIFF, Historical Zanzibar: Romance of the Ages, HSP Publications, London, 1996.