Zanzibar

Part of Tanzania, Zanzibar is located just off the coast of Tanzania in Indian Ocean on the Eastern Coast of Africa. It has many small islands and two large ones - Unguja island and Pemba island.

Formerly, it was a soverign state that eventually combined with Tanganyika to form the present day United Republic of Tanzania in 1964. Inhabited for over 20k years, in terms of its recent history, Vasco de Gama's 1498 visit began European influence. It has been in the hands of Portugese, Oman sultanate, and eventually British control. It found its constitutional monarchy in 1963, and then a month later succumbed to a revolution which led to the formation of People's Republic of Zanzibar which later merged with Tanganyika. Ethnically diverse, the small island has a bloody history in its revolution.

My recent readings from Abdulrazak Gurnah led me to look this part of Africa up. Here's his nobel lecture breifly referring to the bloody revolution on 1964.

To contextualise it further, of Tanzania's ~73 million population, less than 2 million people reside in Zanzibar. Tanzania's economy/GDP is ~$95 billion, and Zanzibar, relying mainly on tourism and spice trade is around $3.6 billion. Zanzibar used to be the main producers of cloves in the world, (after having been introduced to cloves in 19th century), now supplying third largest (7%) to Indonesia's 70% market share. 

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Here are some interesting readings -

• CIA Reading Room on Zanzibar Revolution
• https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/201102/zanzibar.cloves.and.stone.htm
• Further, to Paradise (Gurnah), Tanzania: https://journals.openedition.org/pla/4295
• The Cloves of Zanzibar (paid)

PERSONAL NOTES:

Gurnah's book is set in early 20th century. And the political, cultural, social, economic world is carried on the shoulders of its narratives. I find it is easier to understand history as illuminated by works of fiction set in those periods. And perhaps a little research along the edges. Wondering about other such neighbors to Tanzania, there's Doris Lessing with Rhodesia and parts of Africa, and then Modiano (?) with islands. And then Gordimer & Coetzee with South Africa. Ben Okri with Nigeria and Central Africa. Others too, like Achebe. 

As one reads good literature and fiction from a place, the place comes alive in a way which is different to just fact based research. I used to have a side project at times, 'education of a global leader' - I would strongly recommend a book or two (literary fiction) from each geography to appreciate the prevailing logic of the land and further illuminate it with personal research. It is like Glass Bead Game of a different kind... to know this world of ours better. 

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The other thought tangent this led to was on leadership. The quality of a leader of a place determines the fate of its people.  The modern world is becoming more defined, compared to the relative indifference of times past, and the weight of those definitions can't be or shouldn't be borne by the individual. That is perhaps for a system, with its priorities and purposes, and then a leader with their courage determines how the people fare under that system.

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A good book generally opens up these conversations, leads you in a world which is different. The more one reads, the more I realise that the 'Western styled middle classes' is just a microcosm of a way of existence. From where I've grown up to where I live now, although world tends to become more and more alike, there is a fundamental logic to a place which is its very own. And the way of democracy is to negotiate for outcomes, to find the path of least resistance, and the more one reads, the more one perhaps begins to interrogate this system of being as well. Times are always changing, things are always in a churn, we live through waves that rise and fall, but at any time, the mediocrity or the avergaing out of a democratic system can be countered by the exceptional courage and excellence of its leader.

... half formed, still evolving thoughts, mere opinions, but just glad for these new channels in thought that open up with reading and research.

Generally time tells the best tales, and settles most questions, but sometimes time too is in so much flux... what I am keen to explore, converse about, or interrogate is the times that we live in, times that we have lived in, and times we are headed to live in. What one needs for living well are perhaps a few things, such as livelihood, work, tolerance to be the way one needs to be, and maybe something to look forward to. But what makes it possible is the fabric of social organisation, and the way it has been political, empire-led, colonial, democratic, religious, and now, more and more economic and clearly defined ways of being, losing its indifference and ambiguity. And hence, although what one needs is a few values in the system, the organisation of the system has been in so much flux - and that makes most of our global history, which perhaps is illuminated best by tales set in those times and places.