Cosmopolitan Zanzibar

Meeting place of cultures

Almost all the introductions to Zanzibar begin with a phrase: “Zanzibar has for centuries been at the crossroads of many cultures”. And yes, thanks to the monsoon wind blowing to and from favourable directions, flourishing trade did develop in Zanzibar and brought with it loads of immigrants, traders and seafarers from around the world. It is a mix made of all these influences and genes that construct Zanzibari people of today.

Besides Zanzibaris, other Swahili-speaking peoples along the East African coast have also been multicultural by essence. The rich history can be seen in several cultural traits, such as language (Kiswahili has loan words from several languages: Bantu languages, Arabic, Portuguese, English, Hindi, Gujarati…), music (the most popular local music, taarab is a mixture of Arab, African and Indian influences) or food (Swahili food has a lot of Indian style spices, but they blend into a delicious mix of their own - I will have to do a posting on the food here later!).


Music crossing borders

During Ramadan the opportunities for music listening were somewhat limited. I finally had the chance to hear taarab music live in a luxurious Serena Inn hotel's bar last Tuesday. The group consisted of only male musicians that night, and only two songs in the end were actually (beautifully!) sung, others were just instrumentals. But what instrumentals! Violins, accordeon, drums and oud...so enchanting. Often I could distinguish sounds of Mediterranean music in general (from the Balkans, Italy, Spain...), sometimes I could swear I heard some notes of tango in the end. I enjoyed it a lot anyway. But this was traditional taarab - I've also heard the modern one, with very loud synthesizers and women singing even louder. People got crazy in Bagamoyo when they heard their favourite modern taarab songs and jumped to the stage immediately! I have to say that I prefer the one with less volume and real instruments. Tonight maybe, the next taarab concert for me...

I heard some music even during Ramadan though. One of my favourite places so far in the whole of Zanzibar Town is Kaya Tearoom (kaya = homestead) – the fact that it offers the most delicious mango ice-cream I have ever tasted might have something to do with it! The owner is an extremely friendly guy, who also happens to play excellent music. It is nice to hear something else for a change than just religious songs or one of the five top hit bongo flava (see article in Wikipedia on the music style: Tanzanian rap / r’n’b / taarab / everything possible). Last time when I was having a coffee with the mango ice-cream at Kaya I heard a mix CD with songs from bands such as Belle & Sebastien and Arcade Fire…me like!

Finnish in Zanzibar

I have encountered already several times people who speak disconcerting amounts of Finnish. It felt very strange to have our school-sponsored (go State University of Zanzibar!) spice tour guide Abeid telling us all the spice names also in Finnish: “This is ‘kardemumma’, that you use for making ‘pulla’…”

Indeed, the presence of Finnish missionaries, politicians and development workers in Tanzania has had an effect. I have met almost no-one who would’ve not known Finland and not had somewhat positive views on our country - quite the opposite from West African experiences (“Irlande? Hollande? Finland c’est quoi?”). I've also heard some Finnish on the streets of Stone Town and beaches of Zanzibar: one of the most popular hotels in the north, Kendwa Rocks is even Finnish-owned!

‘Foreign’ threats

Despite absorbing lots of external influences, resulting in a hybrid culture, unity and segregation rival each other constantly. There are those who preach of tolerance and the importance of uniting all the people of faith (this being Islam here), no matter what their origin or skin color is. But then there are those who prefer dissonance and making clear-cut distinctions between people. ‘Arabs’, ‘Africans’, ‘Indians’, ‘Europeans’ – they can all be neatly classified under a specific name. It feels especially ridiculous in Zanzibar, the place where all of those groups have happily intermarried and mixed for if not several centuries, at least for several generations.

'Race' began to be a big issue during the last decades of the colonial rule. It culminated in the 1964 Revolution in Zanzibar, which overthrew the Sultan (originating from Oman, since the 1830s) and put the 'African' people into power, instead of 'foreign' Arab rulers. Except that most of these 'Arab feudalists' were quite ordinary farmers and shop-keepers, living in Zanzibar if not for centuries, at least for several generations. Many, many of them were killed during the short but violent revolution, and many fled afterwards the persecution of the new, 'African' government. In the 1970s things got a bit out of hand: all foreign cinema and clothing such as bellbottoms and miniskirts were banned. In 1972 even all foreign food was banned from importation, in the name of self-reliance - resulting in massive food shortages and people starving, especially in Pemba island.

Nowadays the growing tourism industry is reviving kind of similar preservative attitudes towards external, corruptive influences. Although now it isn’t anymore African culture that is under threat, but a Zanzibari culture and its “traditional values”. The defensive attitudes of many people here towards tourism and tourists show that the tolerance for new things among Zanzibaris is quite low. It is an awkward situation, both for the tourist and for the local people. I will deal with these very one-sided (or both-sided!) representations in the next post: tutaonana baadaye, see you later!