Race, revolution, and the struggle for human rights in Zanzibar : the memoirs of Ali Sultan Issa and Seif Sharif Hamad

Zanzibar has had the most turbulent postcolonial history of any part of the United Republic of Tanzania, yet few sources explain the reasons why. The current political impasse in the islands is a contest over the question of whether to revere and sustain the Zanzibari Revolution of 1964, in which thousands of islanders, mostly Arab, lost their lives. It is also about whether Zanzibars union with the Tanzanian mainlandcemented only a few months after the revolutionshould be strengthened, reformed, or dissolved. Defenders of the revolution claim it was necessary to right a century of wrongs. They speak the language of African nationalism and aspire to unify the majority of Zanzibaris through the politics of race. Their opponents instead deplore the violence of the revolution, espouse the language of human rights, and claim the revolution reversed a century of social and economic development. They reject the politics of race, regarding Islam as a more worthy basis for cultural and political unity. From a series of personal interviews conducted over several years, Thomas Burgess has produced two highly readable first-person narratives in which two nationalists in Africa describe their conflicts, achievements, failures, and tragedies. Their life stories represent two opposing arguments, for and against the revolution. Ali Sultan Issa traveled widely in the 1950s and helped introduce socialism into the islands. As a minister in the first revolutionary government he became one of Zanzibars most controversial figures, responsible for some of the governments most radical policies. After years of imprisonment, he reemerged in the 1990s as one of Zanzibars most successful hotel entrepreneurs. Seif Sharif Hamad came of age during the revolution and became disenchanted with its broken promises and excesses. In the 1980s he emerged as a reformist minister, seeking to roll back socialism and authoritarian rule. After his imprisonment he has ever since served as a leading figure in what has become Tanzanias largest opposition party As Burgess demonstrates in his introduction, both memoirs trace Zanzibars postindependence trajectory and reveal how Zanzibaris continue to dispute their revolutionary heritage and remain divided over issues of memory, identity, and whether to remain a part of Tanzania. The memoirs explain how conflicts in the islands have become issues of national importance in Tanzania, testing that states commitment to democratic pluralism. They engage our most basic assumptions about social justice and human rights and shed light on a host of themes key to understanding Zanzibari history that are also of universal relevance, including the legacies of slavery and colonialism and the origins of racial violence, poverty, and underdevelopment. They also show how a cosmopolitan island society negotiates cultural influences from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.

Zanzibar has had the most turbulent postcolonial history of any part of the United Republic of Tanzania, yet few sources have emerged that explain the reasons why. The current political impasse in the islands is a contest primarily over the question of whether to accept and sustain the Zanzibari Revolution of 1964. Defenders of the revolution speak the language of African nationalism and aspire to unify the majority of Zanzibar through the politics of race. Their opponents claim, instead, that the revolution undermined the islands’ cosmopolitan cultural heritage and espouse the language of human rights.

Ali Sultan Issa was an early Zanzibari nationalist. As a minister in the first revolutionary government he became one of Zanzibar’s most controversial figures, responsible for some of the government’s most radical policies. Later imprisoned, he has reemerged as one of Zanzibar’s most successful property developers. Seif Shariff Hamad came of age during the revolution, becoming disenchanted with its broken promises and excesses. Having served in Tanzania’s ruling party, he is now a leading figure in Zanzibar’s opposition. Together these two memoirs trace Zanzibar’s postindependence trajectory and reveal how Zanzibaris continue to dispute their revolutionary heritage and remain divided over issues of ethnic identity.

These memoirs, edited with an introduction by G. Thomas Burgess, will provide scholars and teachers with highly readable first-person narratives in which two African postindependence leaders describe their public and personal achievements, conflicts, failures, and tragedies. They will give students and scholars unique access to life, culture, and politics of Zanzibar.

From its start in the nineteenth century as a small midwestern college to its transformation into a twenty-first-century international university, Miami University has stood for two centuries as a model of public higher education. With hundreds of illustrations and contributions from many hands, Miami University,
1809–2009: Bicentennial Perspectives reviews how national social forces and academic culture interacted in the college town of Oxford, Ohio, yielding five different eras of campus life over two hundred years.
This special bicentennial book celebrating one of Ohio’s premier universities considers how Miami leaders responded to moments of conflict, controversy, and change, and how lasting achievements emerged from unexpected challenges. It suggests that interactions between Miami and Oxford’s educational institutions for women played a role in forming the character of the university that eventually absorbed them. Accounts of key turning points in Miami history; biographies of important figures; the emergence of new curricula, professional schools, and campuses beyond Oxford and abroad; and development of a focus on student learning are blended with stories revealing the character of daily life in different eras, the growth of student traditions, the architectural heritage that became Miami University today, and the creation of a distinctive sense of the Miami past. 

Introduction. Cosmopolitanism And Its Discontents -- Pt. 1. Walk On Two Legs: The Life Story Of Ali Sultan Issa -- 1. Origins -- 2. Student Days -- 3. Expanding World -- 4. London -- 5. Struggle -- 6. Cairo -- 7. Expulsion -- 8. Vanguard -- 9. Revolution -- 10. Maria -- 11. Nation Building -- 12. Discipline -- 13. Power -- 14. Arrest -- 15. Imprisonment -- 16. Reconstruction -- 17. Pilgrimage -- 18. Final Thoughts -- Pt. 2. Enduring Trust: The Life Story Of Seif Sharif Hamad -- 1. Beginnings -- 2. Student Politics -- 3. Revolution -- 4. Crocodile Tears -- 5. Karume The Terrible -- 6. Dar Es Salaam -- 7. Serving The Revolution -- 8. Ascendancy -- 9. Reform -- 10. Old Guard Intrigues -- 11. Prison Graduate -- 12. Multipartyism -- 13. Principles -- 14. Impasse -- 15. Violence -- 16. People's Power. G. Thomas Burgess. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 313-328) And Index.