Ordinary childhoods and everyday Islamic practices of protection and care in Zanzibar

Abstract

In Zanzibar, religiously framed practices impact children�s socialisation. Many actions that frame Zanzibari children�s everyday lives�from birth rituals, to poetry recitation, to formal education�are closely tied to Islam. With ninety-nine percent of Zanzibaris identifying as Muslim, this sense of identity is fostered and transmitted from when a child is born. This article explores how conceptions of the �everyday� and the �ordinary� reflect in early socialisation practices that address Muslim Zanzibari children�s lives, centrally by drawing on knowledge published in three booklets on Islam and child rearing acquired in Zanzibar Town in 2014 and 2021. It thereby shows how religious practices co-construct childhoods and underlines the need to pay attention to less extraordinary aspects and meanings of how being young and pious in contemporary African settings are made.