Race, Revolution, and the Struggle for Human Rights in Zanzibar: The Memoirs of Ali Sultan Issa and Seif Sharif Hamad - Hardcover

Burgess, G. Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0821418513 ISBN 13: 9780821418512

Publisher: Ohio University Press, 2009

Synopsis

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. 

About this title

About the Author

G. Thomas Burgess is an assistant professor at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Review

“This extraordinary book is not yet available in Tanzania, nor in Swahili, but requests are beginning to trickle in for copies to be shipped, photocopied, begged and borrowed by those who have heard of its explosive contents.... Prefaced by an excellent introduction that demonstrates mastery of Zanzibar’s tangled history, this book will be a key text in Tanzanian history for many years to come.”
― Tanzanian Affairs

“(Race, Revolution, and the Struggle for Human Rights in Zanzibar should...be commended for representing two different interpretations of, and positions within, the grander historical narrative, reminding the reader that historical and political events are always influenced and interpreted by individuals.”
― African Affairs

“The two narratives provide distinctive and complementary perspectives on the Karume years during which they were politically active: the years between Hamad’s political awakening and Issa’s imprisonment. The introductory material by Burgess himself concisely but competently provides a framework that contextualizes the biographies for those unfamiliar with Zanzibar, while at the same time filling in the relevant details for those who are familiar with the island but less so with the finer details of recent political history.”
― The Journal of Modern African Studies

“Issa’s voice is engaging in its contradictions: mischievous, preening, and as generous toward others as toward himself. His amanuensis is to be commended for capturing it on the page.... The memoir by Seif Sharif Hamad is more sober and substantive, if only because it recounts a more impressive resume.... (A)lthough Burgess admits to having fallen for Issa’s personal charms, he clearly is more sympathetic to Hamad’s political vision. And indeed, the final pages of his introduction set out the context of that vision in an admirably concise overview of Zanzibar history.”
― International Journal of African Historical Studies

Edition details

• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0821418513
• ISBN 13: 9780821418512
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320