The state and identity politics in Zanzibar: challenges to democratic consolidation in Tanzania

A group of islands off the coast of East Africa, Zanzibar has been a semiautonomous part of the United Republic of Tanzania since 1964. Despite a common language (Swahili), religion (Islam), and a high rate of intermarriage among the islands? multi-racial communities (including Africans and individuals of Arab, Persian, and Indian descent), Zanzibar politics has been marred by political conflicts that have culminated into political stand-offs, violence and lack of social and civic peace. At the core of these conflicts is the politicization of racial identity by leaders seeking the legitimacy to rule. Thus, unlike in Tanzania mainland, struggle for the control of the state in Zanzibar has been intense, deadly and zero-sum. Indeed, the distinctive character of the Zanzibar state itself makes it appealing for the political elites to politicize ethno-racial identities in order to claim legitimacy to rule. Two other things are at stake regarding the Zanzibar state: namely, the identity of the state (whether it is an Arab or African state) and sovereignty of the state (Zanzibar vs. Tanzania). This political instability threatens not only Zanzibar?s relatively new democratic institutions, but also the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar and the prospects for democratic consolidation in Tanzania.