MARYAM JAFFAR ISMAIL

SOMETIMES I GO TO SCHOOL HUNGRY

Urban and Rural Children in

INTRODUCTION This chapter describes the school experiences of a number of children in Zanzibar. Unlike the other studies in this collection, these children are not refugees or migrants. Nor are they part of an indigenous minority. Despite this, their stories fit well with the others in this text. Zanzibar is one of the poorest areas in one of the poorest countries in the world. Within this context of poverty, children from the rural parts of the country live in even more extreme poverty than those in urban areas. Most people know very little about Zanzibar and yet some knowledge is necessary to understand the context within which this study took place. For this reason I start the chapter with a brief description of Zanzibar, past and present.

BACKGROUND Zanzibar is an island situated on the coast of . Zanzibar is made up of two major islands, and Pemba, plus approximately fifty smaller islands. Many of the smaller islands are inhabited only on temporary basis. Historically, the Unguja municipality developed into two major distinct areas, the Stone Town area and the Ng’ambo area. The development of these areas from the 19th century was along economic lines. Stone Town, which is the principal capital, was for the rich elite and the Ng’ambo slums for the poor. Zanzibar was a trading destination for ships from Persia, Arabia, , and China for about 2,000 years. According to the Zanzibar Commission for (2001) by the end of the 7th century, had made its way to Zanzibar by way of Arab and Persian migrants who were fleeing political strife, war, and famine in their own lands. In the 10th century, groups of migrants from Shiraz (Persia) settled in Zanzibar in large numbers and mingled with the local indigenous population. Omani seafaring traders also took an interest in the island and established a naval outpost. In 1499, the Portuguese arrived. They forcibly occupied the island. In the early 16th century the Portuguese evicted the Omanis and established a trading station on the site of Zanzibar Stone Town. The convergence of all of these groups in an African environment gave birth to the , a lingua franca that is now one of the twelve great languages of the world. At the end of the 17th century,

E. Alerby and E. Brown (eds.), Voices From the Margins: School Experiences of Refugee, Migrant and Indigenous Children, 163–173. © 2008 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved. MARYAM JAFFAR ISMAIL the army of the of ousted the Portuguese from the island and re- established Zanzibar as an important Omani colonial possession. In 1840, Sultan Seyyid Said of Oman moved his capital from to Zanzibar. The island became an Arab state, an important centre of regional politics, and the focus of a booming slave trade. By mid 19th century, Zanzibar was the world’s leading clove exporter as well as a large exporter of slaves. About 25,000 slaves passed through Zanzibar every year. Britain developed interests in Zanzibar due to their Indian Ocean and East African foreign policy and this interest continued throughout the 19th century. Britain made numerous efforts to end the slave trade which finally ended by treaty in 1890. In that same year Zanzibar became a British . Zanzibar remained a protectorate for many years, gaining independence from Britain in December 1963. In 1964, the Zanzibar government was overthrown by an internal revolution, the Sultan deposed, and a republic proclaimed. Zanzibar and united to form the United Republic of Tanzania. Zanzibar is now an autonomous part of the United Republic of Tanzania. The population of Zanzibar at the 2002 census, was approximately 980 000 people, with 49% male and 51% female. More than half of the population lives in areas with a population density of 398 persons per sq. km. The population growth rate is high at 3.1 per cent per annum and family size is large with an average of 5.3 per household (Economic Research Bureau, 2003). Zanzibar is rapidly becoming one of the most densely populated countries in Africa with the vast majority of the population living in urban areas. The population is expected to double its 1988 level by 2011 (ZPRP, 2002). The population is ethnically diverse with a mix of native African, Arab, and Indian ethnicities of which 95% is Muslim. The remaining 5% are Christian and Hindu. The native people of Zanzibar are Waswahili, a blend of different origins and cultures who trace their ancestry from African Bantu, the Persians, the Assyrians, the , Chinese and other far-east people mixed together for years. The majority of the people are of Bantu origin with many Arab strains found throughout the island. They are not as tribal as may be found in Kenya or South Africa due to a policy introduced by the Tanzanian Government in the late 1960s of relocating and breaking up tribes. The intention of the government was to prevent the tribal warfare, which has been seen in other parts of Africa. Swahili is the most commonly spoken language on the island and is the official language of Tanzania. It is derived from Kiswahili, a language formed by intermarriage between Arabs, Omanis, Persians and the Zanzibar Bantus. Kiswahili is the national and official language in Zanzibar. It is also the medium of instruction in primary schools while and English are offered as foreign languages. Post-primary education is offered entirely in English. However, the transition in the language of instruction from Kiswahili in primary schools to English at secondary level has not been smooth because of the difficulty many students experiences in following instructions in English.

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