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Abstract
Within the last three years the political situation in Zanzibar has undergone a staggering transformation, from the enduring division which has beset the islands since independence in 1963, to a harmonious Government of National Unity (GNU) formed by two previously antagonistic parties. This change, however, has been overlooked by both academia and the international media. In light of persisting historiographical disagreements and the lack of evidence and analysis referring to the past decade, this paper takes considerable care to set the previous political environment in context. Having done so, the paper draws from interviews with inhabitants of the long-marginalised island of Pemba and senior political figures in order to document the development and effect of the reconciliation process, known as Maridhiano, at both parliamentary and local levels. It shows the GNU to have improved both democratic practices and community relations.
Notes
1. Uki, Maridhiano. The International Law and Policy Institute has carried out extensive research on Maridhiano, though its reports are private.
2. The Moyo Committee of Six was a cross-party group which initiated and delivered a draft reconciliation agreement (see “Development of Maridhiano”).
3. Interviews were conducted in English and recorded. They lasted between 30 and 40 minutes, though the interview with Hamad was an hour long, and with Jussa two hours.
4. These anonymous interviews were undertaken in Swahili with the assistance of a university-educated Swahili-English teacher. Nine were male and nine female, and the age range was 18 to 75, though 12 were aged between 35 and 52. Only one had been to university, six had taken O-levels, one had left school after primary school, and the remaining ten had never attended school. Seven were subsistence farmers or fishermen, two worked in a workshop, one was a teacher, and eight were unemployed.
5. Cameron, Protest and Cooperation.
6. Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, Human Development Report 2009.
7. ASP merged with Tanganyikan African National Union in 1977, forming CCM. The ideology of CCM and CUF in 1995 was broadly similar (Ali, Democratisation Process in Zanzibar, 87).
8. Mapuri, 1964 Revolution; Maliymakono, Political Plight of Zanzibar; Mukangara, “Race, Ethnicity, Religion and Politics”; Killian, “State and Identity Politics in Zanzibar”; and Killian, “Do Elections Matter?”
9. Mukangara, “Race, Ethnicity, Religion and Politics”, 43–5.
10. Mapuri, 1964 Revolution, 59.
11. Mukangara, “Race, Ethnicity, Religion and Politics”, 46.
12. Mapuri, 1964 Revolution, 74–7; Maliyamkono, Political Plight of Zanzibar, 246; Mukangara, “Race, Ethnicity, Religion and Politics”, 45–46; Killian, “State and Identity Politics in Zanzibar”, 113.
13. An example is Mrina and Mattoke, Mapambano ya Ukombozi Zanzibar.
14. Mapuri was the Deputy Chief Minister at the time of his publication. He and Maliyamkono are labelled by Cameron as “members of the CCM intelligentsia” (Cameron, “Political Violence”, 107).
15. Maliyamkono, Political Plight of Zanzibar.
16. Mukangara, “Race, Ethnicity, Religion and Politics”, 44.
17. Killian, “State and Identity Politics in Zanzibar”, 106.
18. Mukangara, “Race, Ethnicity, Religion and Politics”, 46.
19. Killian, “Do Elections Matter?”, 83.
20. Sheriff, “Race and Class”; Hashim, Language and Collective Mobilisation.
21. Ali, Democratisation Process in Zanzibar; Chachage, Environment, Aid and Politics.
22. Ali, Democratisation Process in Zanzibar, 107.
23. Anglin, “Political Impasse”, 42.
24. Mukangara, “Race, Ethnicity, Religion and Politics”, 46.
25. Cameron, “Tanzania General Election”, 283.
26. Cameron, Protest and Cooperation, 4.
27. Figures from Myers, “Democracy and Development”, 234.
28. Cameron, Protest and Cooperation.
29. Cameron, “Political Violence”, 105.
30. Ali, Democratisation Process in Zanzibar, 73–6.
31. Lofchie, Background to Revolution, 240–50.
32. Such as Mapuri, 1964 Revolution, 77. See Ali, Democratisation Process in Zanzibar, 48–87.
33. Cameron, Protest and Cooperation, 231.
34. Burgess, Race, revolution, and the struggle for human rights.
35. Anglin, “Political Impasse”, 42.
36. The key electoral office is the Zanzibar Presidency. Constitutionally the President appoints ten of the House's 81 representatives, virtually ensuring legislative support. CCM wins the Union Presidency comfortably.
37. Mansoor was Minister for Water Construction, Energy and Lands, 2005–2010.
38. Tidemand, “Local Good Governance Strategy”.
39. Arnold et al., “Bullets were Raining”, 37.
40. Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, Human Development Report 2009, 19.
41. Anglin, “Political Impasse”, 42; Commonwealth Observer Group (COG), Elections in Zanzibar 2000, 14; COG, Elections in Zanzibar 2005, 22; and Tanzania Election Monitoring Authority (TEMCO), 2005 General Election, 20.
42. For an extensive account of the post-electoral 2000 crackdown, see Arnold et al., “Bullets were raining”.
43. Anglin, “Political Impasse”, 43; TEMCO, 2005 General Elections, 52.
44. Anglin, “Political Impasse”; Cameron, “Tanzania General Election”; Cameron, Protest and Cooperation; Cameron, “Zanzibar's Turbulent Transition”, and Cameron, “Political Violence”.
45. COG, Elections in Zanzibar 2005; TEMCO, 2005 General Elections.
46. Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, Human Development Report 2009, 16.
47. Anglin, “Political Impasse”; Ali, Democratisation Process in Zanzibar, 249–296.
48. Anglin, “Political Impasse”, 60.
49. Rawlence, “Zanzibar Election”.
50. This is a translation of the Swahili “Je,unakubali kuwepo kwa muundo mpya wa Serikali mara baada ya Uchaguzi Mkuu, 2010?”
51. The ILPI has not made its findings on the early Maridhiano process publicly available.
52. ILPI, Process of Voter Registration.
53. ILPI, 2010 Elections, 10–11.
54. ILPI, 2010 Elections, 17.
55. Mzalendo.net, Matukio ya Uchaguzi Zanzibar.
56. ILPI, 2010 Elections, 19–25.
57. ILPI, 2010 Elections, 19–25.
58. ILPI, Comparing the Manifestos, 9.
59. Ali Mzee was the chair of a further Committee of Six, which has been acclaimed as a major driving force of Maridhiano, receiving the Martin Luther King Drum Award from the United States for their work. In reality this committee did little, embarking on a minor civic education programme and visiting examples of coalition governments abroad. It was actually the Moyo Committee which was the genesis of reconciliation.
60. Shein is the first President to come from Pemba.
61. This was the case for four interviewees, two of whom said they were not satisfied with the GNU, and two unsure.
62. ILPI, Comparing the Manifestos, 4.
63. Cheeseman and Tendi, “Power-sharing in comparative perspective”, 204.
64. Spears, “Limits of Power-sharing”; Lemarchand, “Consociationalism”; Mehler, “Peace and power sharing”; Cheeseman and Tendi, “Power-sharing in comparative perspective”.
65. It is on this basis that this paper has not entered the debate between the ‘consociational’ and ‘integrative’ approaches, supported by Arend Lijphart (Lijphart, Thinking about Democracy) and Timothy Sisk (Sisk, “Power sharing”) respectively. In any case, Maridhiano fits conveniently into neither.