Maryam Abdallah - Club Zanzibar

Zanzibar on the waterfront (a club in the US that used to play hit tunes from the Caribbean, the African Diaspora and Latin America, and featured live shows with artists from those areas - click for more info http://www.zanzibar-otw.com/ )

Growing up, I always dreaded 2 things, explaining where I was from and being asked why I can't speak Arabic. The reason for this was because I never had the answer and being asked where you're from  is an excruciating exercise for anyone from a mixed race background living in a foreign country. I never thought Zanzibar was a well known country to be found online or in books so I somehow just gave up on finding an answer and found ways to lie like a politician and change the subject very tactfully (if you are wondering why I didn't just ask my parents, it's because they would give me hell for having not taken any initiative in learning about my roots). 

Zanzibar, the way my mother remembers it from her childhood

Thank the good Lord, last semester, I was blessed to be given a place on the Multi-platform Storytelling course and was subsequently forced to learn about diasporas, my diaspora in particular (many of you may remember this pleasant experience and are perhaps grateful for it now that there is a sequel to it). Lost for inspiration (at the start), I decided to speak to a source more credible than Wikipedia, my mother. After learning about the bloodshed and racism and intolerance towards the Omanis (among other origins) in Zanzibar, I was quite upset (yes, I almost cried, but that is not the point of this blog). At the end of our little (heavy) chat, my mom still looked back at Zanzibar quite amiably and when I asked her why she still liked Zanzibar in spite of the fact that her brother was killed during the revolution, she said, 'let by gones be gones' (a slang saying forgive and forget in order to move on and remain positive), Zanzibar is a place aiming for hope and betterment and everyone who was once part of Zanzibar, still longs to be there, no matter how comfortable their lives have become. Now that a lot of the Omanis had to flee, they still wanted to be attached to life the way they once knew it, and the websites I will introduce to you, does just that (and a little more).

A woman in Kanga

Now, researching for online communities related to the Zanzibar diaspora, I came across many websites focusing on tourism, and how everyone in Zanzibar is so friendly and they just want to welcome you and feed you some cultural goodies and dress you in Kanga. But there's more to that... The websites that somehow piqued my interest focused on celebrating cultural Zanzibar the way it is today yet seeking a way to make the country stronger and a lot of it also focused on Zanzibari politics. It kind of reminded me of a cultural club, you attend to enjoy the food and company and have lots of laughter and meet up with your buddies on the weekend but during the week, we need to work hard to fix and keep the community ensemble. By the way, I would just like to point out that according to the names I have seen in the forums and posts on these website, most of the people seem to have some link to Oman (and if some of you are saying, and who cares?, it's simple, I am choosing to focus on Zanzibari/Omani diaspora and to learn about their online community).

Zanzinet

http://www.zanzinet.org/ab_znet.html

Zanzinet is an online forum where people from Zanzibar from all over the world can communicate together regarding any matters affecting Zanzibar. The website also looks to inform Zanzibaris regarding influential people and their latest news. As dark as this seems, I quite like the Memorial page, which is dedicating to updating news on who has died recently, this generates a lot of condolences for the family of the deceased and just creates a global community. The forum also has information for people who are learning about Zanzibari culture, food, attire and the island in general.

Zanzibar Institute for Research and Public Policy

http://zirppo.wordpress.com/

This weblog is dedicated to interacting with people from Zanzibar who reside within and outside of Zanzibar. Those featured in the weblog are mostly influential and highly intellectual citizens who are concerned with bringing together a form of Zanzibari work force who will bring about a brighter future for Zanzibar.

Zanzibar History

http://www.zanzibarhistory.org/

This website dedicated to covering the events that shaped the Zanzibar diaspora and gives an insight into the current culture of Zanzibar. This website really offered me a tremendous background when I was researching about Zanzibar and although it may not be an online community or a blog per say, it is written in a rather personal style and really gets the events across, as they were. Now I know thanks to growing up with horror films such as SAW (the sequels) most of us may be immune to graphic content, but please be warned, there are a few disturbing images on this website.

Thank you for reading my post, I hope you did not feel painfully bored!

ps. the picture you saw at the start of my blog inspired the title of my blog (related to the idea of how I see Zanzibari Diaspora as a club).