Zanzibariness in the Shadow of an Ambiguous Documentary State

This chapter aims to explain why, in Zanzibar, the division between Zanzibaris and Mainlanders (i.e. people from Tanzania Mainland) has become the dominant language of today’s political scene, pioneering particular ideas about what it takes to be Zanzibari. Focusing on identification procedures and the use of identity documents, it uses a historical approach to show that the Zanzibari state has attempted to use identity documents as tools for defining and controlling Zanzibariness, yet in ambiguous ways that fed into the authoritarian and arbitrary exercise of power through one-party dominance, the deployment of faulty instruments and defective infrastructures of paper-based registration, and anxiety over race and class. While explicitly designed by the state as instruments to prevent vote rigging and, more broadly, ensure that the rights and privileges of Zanzibaris are secured, ZAN ID s introduced in the 2000s have instead turned against Zanzibaris’ interests and sense of belonging, being at the core of bitter controversies over unlawful enfranchisement and disenfranchisement

Aesthetics · Art · Authoritarianism · Democracy · Dominance (genetics) · Identity (music) · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Shadow (psychology) · Sociology · State (computer science) · African history and culture analysis · African history and culture studies · Computer Science · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Law · Psychology