‘The backbone of the village’: gender, development, and traditional authority in rural Zanzibar

Abstract

Recent processes of political decentralisation and the parallel movements asserting indigenous identity and autochthony have led to a resurgence of academic interest in ‘traditional’ and local forms of leadership and authority. Based on ethnographic research on the hirimu age-set system and related forms of traditional authority in the Zanzibari village of Jongowe, this article explores how these systems rooted in local history and identity are mitigated by contemporary national and international political circumstances. By examining how ‘traditional’ systems both create and circumscribe space for gendered expressions of power and how they work with the emerging forms of non-governmental organisation characteristic of contemporary development, the article considers how these dynamic local systems of governance maintain their legitimacy through both association with the past and engagement with contemporary politics. It argues for an understanding of ‘traditional authority’ that expands beyond hereditary leadership positions, and suggests that such forms of power, though embedded in historical collective identity, are expressions of contemporary forms of governance.

Keywords:

• traditional authority
• autochthony
• gender
• hirimu
• Zanzibar

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the generous residents of Jongowe for their support and assistance, as well as Makame Muhajir and the anonymous JCAS reviewers for their thoughtful comments on this article. She also gratefully acknowledges COSTECH in Tanzania for research permission and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Dar es Salaam for research support and affiliation. Funding for this research was provided by the Fulbright-Hayes Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) fellowship and New College of Florida faculty development funds.

Notes

1. Much of the most recent interest has been stimulated by emerging debates about the role of traditional leadership in national governance in South Africa, whose government recently passed a series of legislative acts and created a Department of Traditional Affairs to focus on integrating traditional leaders. However, the ‘resurgence’ of traditional forms of authority is evident across the continent. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) explicitly addressed the role of traditional authority in 2004 during its Fourth African Development Forum with the theme ‘Governance for a Progressing Africa’.

2. This is made apparent by a letter circulated after the local Mwenyi Mkuu's, Sultan Hamadi, death in 1965, proclaiming that this man, Msellam, should continue as sheha and be obeyed as such (Gray 1977). As Gray notes, ‘Perhaps it is legitimate to infer from these words that the Tumbatu were not accepting with the best of grace either Msellam as their sheha or their subordination to the Mwenyi Mkuu’ (1977, 151).

3. Under Section 17(1) of the Regional Administration Authority Act No. 1 of 1998, the sheha is described as a government employee who is accountable to all laws, circulars, policies, and directives of the government

4. This pattern of conflict reconciliation is different from the practice of taking disputes to Islamic Kadhi courts in other parts of Zanzibar in that baraza members are not usually scholars of Islamic law and are not part of the official judicial structure of the island. It is notable as a local process rather than an adjudication of religious law.

5. Loimeier (2009) notes similar generational learning patterns in Qur'anic schools in Zanzibar, but these cohorts are not labelled as hirimu and do not have the same functions.

6. The tension over the use of this contested land was exacerbated by rumours of an NGO in the neighbouring village planning to sell nearby beach property (whose ownership is also contested) to a hotel developer. The tension has escalated to the point that Zanzibari national authorities intervened and prohibited farming in this area until a settlement could be reached.

7. Though women hold most of the leadership positions in Banki Jamii, the main director of the programme is a man.

8. Thin plastic bags were banned in Tanzania and Zanzibar in 2006.

9. Part of the money was also spent on a tree planting project. The original decision by Jongowe villagers was for dairy cattle, but the project managers from PADEP decided that the environment of the village could not support cattle. This is a controversial project, and many Jongowe intellectuals (most of whom no longer reside in the village) worry about the environmental consequences of introducing goats, known to be voracious and indiscriminate eaters.

10. In 2010, a power-sharing agreement was reached between the two parties, and following elections in November of that year, the CCM candidate was installed as President with the CUF candidate taking the post of 1st Vice President. Residents of Jongowe are warily hopeful about this new arrangement.