Blind eye on Pemba source of Z'bar turmoil

Zanzibar President Ali Mohamed Shein (L), Zanzibar Electoral Commission ( ZEC) Chairman Jecha Salim Jecha (M) and Seif Sharif Hamad (R)

 Zanzibar has been in turmoil long enough with numerous accounts surfacing in attempts to describe the situation and explain the reasons behind the never-ending squabbles.

 

On the surface level, the problem seems to be all political with the 1964 revolution power-shift culminating into hatred between the allegedly deposed pro-Arab rule and non-Arab residents of the Islands.

 

By early 1990s the trend trickled down to the citizenry and culminated into the ongoing political alignment in the country, now that political affiliation equals adversity toward a rival political party.

 

 The incumbent Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) are notably at loggerheads and so are their members. 

 

In attempting to account for the proximate events taking place mostly during elections when political contest reaches its peak, typical of the scholarship on democracy most analysts overlook some substantive issues significantly producing the Isles’ political hiccups. 

 

Given the time the Zanzibar impasse has lasted, perhaps it is time for scholars and analysts to think of it a little differently by bringing up the factors which were considered minor in electoral-related tensions emerging in nearly every five years. 

 

Some analysts tend to attribute Zanzibar’s problems to ethnicity, and in fact, racism drawing lines between Arabs and non-Arabs. 

 

But more alarming is the fact that the number of Arabs or Arab-looking people in Zanzibar is quite low, making it easy to quash the claim that they could be more harmful although sometimes numbers say little about power and influence people could have. 

 

Most stories about Zanzibar that people hear in the Mainland, especially ones centered on racialized politics, can be equated to hearsay or cheap politics given the fact they do not depict the truth. They rather polarize the people in an era of intense political contestation. 

 

Worse still is that a word has been circulating that Pemba is predominantly Arab while Unguja is non-Arab, and along these lines there come claims alleging that Pemba favors opposition for its being Arab and Unguja is pro-CCM for its being non-Arab.

 

Having attached race to the age-old political rivalry, some of the real problems affecting the Isles’ people happen to be deliberately or otherwise overlooked thus inflicting more suffering to the needy electorate. 

 

Poor development in the Isles, especially in Pemba, is in the centre of discord, thus shaping the politics in the Isles. Most Zanzibaris hold it that the social well-being could have been better had politics been caring.

 

Given its small size and manageable population, the little income that Zanzibar makes could have been used to strengthen social services and areas where they are needed most, including Pemba which is treated as a stepsister island to Unguja, having its transport infrastructure, water, sanitation and healthcare services in extreme poor condition.

Researchers Linda Kaljee, Alfred Patch and others found in their 2013 typhoid study that low education among residents and little access to healthcare services in Pemba had led to increasing illiteracy and health problems. 

 

Given the small size of the island and her population, it makes little sense if at all to have construction of a short road network of 35km in Pemba delayed until two years ago, pending US donation. It is equally puzzling that about five-decade existence of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar has failed to provide access to safe and clean water in Pemba using internal revenue until after receiving an external funding from the African Development Bank in 2012.

 

These are just but a few instances that would raise a question over status of the people of Pemba given the pseudo-racialized Zanzibar politics that has made them victims despite being holders of the major Isles’ clove crop economic basket. 

 

The decline of the clove economy starting the mid-1980s for which Pemba was pretty famous should not be taken as an isolated factor given the fact that Zanzibar was relatively fiscal independent prior to the 1995 Union revenue centralization, a situation that made it collect more revenues domestically prior to establishment of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). But the two Islands are also known for tourism whose income does not fall under the Union mandate, giving no ground to justify unfair treatment on the people of Pemba. 

 

In comparative terms though, it can be said that the better situation in Unguja is a result of its being perceived as a pro-ruling party. Should that be the case, it could be surmised that Pemba is on its feet for its being predominantly pro-opposition. 

 

But bringing up the chicken and the egg question, the opposite could also be true as and lead to a further legitimate claim that it is for their being neglected that the people in Pemba have chosen the opposition hoping to get themselves rid of the current second-class citizenry status.

 

This may also explain the subtle and under-reported age-old move for the people of Pemba to demand autonomy from Zanzibar.  

 

Should this be the case, Isles’ democracy as it has been, will always be in shambles as a politics of unprovoked retaliation would prevail over the genuine need for substantive development to the electorate.