Oman and East African Connections (Zanzibar Taarab)

Oman and East African Connections (Zanzibar Taarab)

        Although Oman and East Africa are separated by 2400 km of the Indian Ocean, and they are located in totally different continents, Oman is in Asia but Zanzibar is a part of the East coast of Africa, both countries are connected from multiple aspects, religiously, politically, culturally, and economically (“Overview of Oman-Zanzibar”, 2016). This connection goes back to the 1st century CE when people from Zanzibar and East Africa were regularly trading with Indians, Persians and merchants from the Arabian Peninsula. During the 1500s, when Portugal occupied both of Oman and Zanzibar, their trade and cultural relations continued to increase, especially when Oman defeated the Portuguese and took over both countries (Oman and Zanzibar), about two hundred years later (“Overview of Oman-Zanzibar”, 2016). Zanzibar, then, became the Arab trade center for many commodities and products, including spices such as cloves and ivory, as well as trading slaves. Later on, many Arabs moved to the Zanzibar Island while bringing with them a very small school of Islamic thought called the Ibadi Islam, which nowadays represents a very important influence in Zanzibar and the core faith of Oman (“Overview of Oman-Zanzibar”, 2016).

        One of the main illustrations of the connection between Oman and East Africa is the Zanzibar Taarab (Fargion, 1993). This type of music grew up mainly from the Arab and Omani traditions in East Africa. Zanzibar Taarab went through different stages of development, in order to become one of the main music styles all along the Swahili coast, which is large area situated from the North of Mozambique to the South of Somalia (Fargion, 1993). Taarab music is a mix of different local music practices, as well as some features from India, the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East such as Egypt and Oman, which makes it a perfect “Indian Ocean” music (Fargion, 1993). Furthermore, today, Zanzibar Taarab is played in joyful events such as weddings and festivals, in order to entertain the Zanzibaris, which shows the major role that Zanzibar Taarab plays in their lives; especially that Zanzibar is usually portrayed as the “Island of Taarab” (Fargion, 1993).

        In this paper, I will examine the different aspects of the relationship between Oman and East Africa. Starting from the economic connection that consists mainly of trading slaves and commodities, as well as the political relation that involves Oman occupying Zanzibar after taking it from the Portuguese. Next, I am going to cover the cultural aspect of their connection that is primarily caused by the back and forth immigration of Omanis to Zanzibar. This connection is mainly illustrated through religion and music. For the second part of the paper, I am going to be focusing on the Zanzibar Taarab, which is great example on how the Middle East, especially Oman, influenced the island’s culture. First, I am going to discuss how Taarab got into Zanzibar, then how it became a proper component of the Zanzibari culture. Finally, I will conclude the paper by giving a brief insight on the contemporary Taarab music in Zanzibar.

        The first aspects of the connection between Oman and East Africa that I am going to cover is the economic influence that consists mainly of trade (Viswanathan, 2017). For many centuries, Zanzibar was a big source of economic wealth for the Sultanate rulers, since they used to ship products such as ivory and rhinoceros horn, to many other parts of the world, such as China, as well as trading for pearls, dates, copper and horses (Viswanathan, 2017).  In addition, the most famous commodity that East Africa owned was cloves, which made it the main exporter of it for a long time, which explains why Zanzibar supplied near 80 percent of the world’s cloves (Viswanathan, 2017). All of this is a result of the Sultan Sa'id bin Sultan development of the agriculture of cloves, since the climate of Zanzibar and the type of land were suitable (Oded, 2017).

        The economic trade in East Africa begun during the reign of Sa'id bin Sultan, who also developed it by encouraging caravans, to discover new roads and to constitute trading centers on their way (Oded, 2017). The sultan himself owned some of these caravans. Moreover, The caravans included hundreds of people , with different functions, for instance, slaves used to carry the goods and heavy ivory, and the soldiers with the firearms are there to protect everyone else(Oded, 2017). The traders kept digging deeper in the interior of East Africa, looking for more slaves and ivory, until they finally reached Eastern Congo in West Africa, as well as Buganda in the north (Oded, 2017).

        It is well known that since the 10th century, Oman had a strong political and cultural presence in different parts of East and Central Africa. This impact is still going on until today, where we can still find Omanis living and trading throughout the East Coast of Africa (Al-Harthy, 2012). The most significant political connection that we can make between Oman and East Africa, is when Zanzibar functioned as the official capital of Oman, during the reign of the Omani Sultan Sa'id bin Sultan (1807-1856), who also moved to the island as his main residence from 1840 to 1850 (Al-Harthy, 2012). The period when the Omani empire dominated the Indian Ocean trade, is considered as a historically significant golden era in Oman. It is also very talked about among Omanis, as they often like to emphasize on the political dominance of their country on Zanzibar in the 19th century (Al-Harthy, 2012).

        As I mentioned before, when Arabs moved to East Africa, they brought the Ibadi Islam, which is a school of Islamic thoughts (“Overview of Oman-Zanzibar”, 2016). This addition to the East African culture spread all over the island during the 19th century, which made Zanzibar a founding and centric place for Islamic scholarship, and an exchange area between other Muslim faith and Ibadi Islam (“Overview of Oman-Zanzibar”, 2016). In addition, religious circles in Zanzibar were the main source of inspiration of the revival of the Ibadi religious movement in Oman, during the late 19th and early 20th century (“Overview of Oman-Zanzibar”, 2016).

        No matter where an Omani’s connection with East Africa was initiated, the term used for them in Oman is “Zanzibari” (Peterson, 2004). However, this term is not sufficient to define a “Zanzibari”, because this group of people is too large and we can distinguish between at least two or three classifications (Peterson, 2004). The two main categories were the descendants of Omanis who immigrated to East Africa centuries or decades ago, and “Zanzibaris” from this category usually get married to an African woman. The second main category are the ones whose parents were born in Oman, unlike them who were born in East Africa (Peterson, 2004). Furthermore, the native language for both of these categories was the Swahili language, which is why when they came back to Oman as adults in the 1960s and 1970s, mainly due to the 1964 revolution in Zanzibar, they never really excelled in learning Arabic (Peterson, 2004).

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