Emerging routes for framing Muslim roots in Zanzibar in the era of tourism1

Abstract

As Zanzibaris cope with the marginalization of their cultural beliefs under the hegemonic power of western leisure tourism, finding themselves increasingly vulnerable to the new values and lifestyles promoted through tourism, the paper examines how they are striving to develop new routes to reconceptualize their Muslim roots and identities in Zanzibar. The paper traces how their association with Islam has shifted with the emergence of new contact zones, first in the aftermath of the 1964 Revolution, which sought to replace it with visions of African civilization and most recently under tourism, where practices associated with tourism and arrival of large number of Christian migrant laborers from mainland Tanzania has led to growing socio-economic and political displacement of the local community. The paper examines how, under growing conditions of ‘involuntary immobility’, Zanzibaris are reconfiguring their association to Islamic culture and practices as they search for new pathways of mobility to survive today. The paper argues that the different routes for projecting association with Islam reflect efforts of Zanzibaris to seek pathways of mobility under the hegemony of tourism, which contributes to the growing deterioration of living conditions and quality of life for majority of the population, and recodify notions of ustaarabu (civilization) with new meanings to formulate their roots and identities in Zanzibar.