Kamati ya Maridhiano Six: Hali ya Zanzibar ilivyokuwa kipindi alipopotea Amir Farid

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Uamsho, Zanzibar and the Mainland (by Thembi Mutch)

Thembi Mutch has a very good article on Uamsho and the increasingly restive political climate in Zanzibar. She helpfully avoids using the phrase "Islamist" to characterize Uamsho's reform efforts. Uamsho needs to be understood on its own terms and in terms of its own goals: autonomy for Zanzibar,  addressing corruption and drug use, and the failure of tourism to translate into quality of life improvement for ordinary Zanzibaris. The anti-mainlander rhetoric, however, is xenophobic and counter-productive to Uamsho's goals, but it has a long history in Zanzibar's political discourse. I also disagree with the idea that "forgetting" the past is somehow a solution to the problems plaguing the island. On the contrary, what is needed is a skillful and honest look at the past, so islanders can move forward productively out of that knowledge. There is a need not for more ignorance about the past but for more sagacity. Battles over a bloody history need not turn Zanzibari politics into a blame game; I would argue that ignorance about the past has contributed to, rather than alleviated, this blame game.

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Getting Around in Muscat

On my fourth visit to Oman, I am starting to catch the hang of this taxi thing. And until I get a car, that is a very important thing. You see, Muscat has public transportation and it comes in three basic forms:

 1) Public bus, run by the Oman National Transport Company I have only ever taken these between cities (like Dubai to Muscat, for example), but ONTC does run in Muscat, albeit with very spotty service and only at certain designated spots. Other than that, my experience (perhaps in ignorance) is that it is basically useless for getting to points around the city quickly and efficiently. If you have an hour (or two) to wait, then I think it is decent alternative.

 2) Bus/Van These run on many of the large roads in Muscat, and are incredibly cheap. 200-300 baisa. You wait (overpasses are often the best spot), board, and pay. You bang the roof or get the driver's attention when you want to stop. The busses are often crowded (typically with South Asian expats), you are liable to be subject to some pretty awful music choices (usually of the shab3ab variety), and if speeds over 120 kilometers per hour are not your thing, then I recommend another means. Nevertheless, they will get you cheaply and efficiently to most destinations along the main road, including al-Hail, al-Athaibah, as-Seeb, al-Khuwair (not inside), Mutrah, and Ruwi.

 3) Taxis The average taxi is orange and white with a light on the top. My experiences with taxi drivers in Muscat have generally been positive. Drivers are generally professional, courteous and helpful. It helps to speak some Arabic (and they generally get very curious if you do), although many speak passable English. If you share a taxi, the price will go down; but drivers typically want you (especially if you are a white expatriate) to "engage", that is, to rent the whole taxi out from your pickup to your destination. This generally means the price will go up, but for out of the way places (such as Sultan Qaboos University) it is the only way to get them to take you. If you are new, ask the price beforehand, if not, they may ask you to pay an outrageous price at the end of the ride. I have found it is better to guesstimate the price, give them what you think is fair, and if they think it is unfair, they will tell you.

Here are some typical (fair) prices, based on my own experience.
from al-Mabailah to al-Khuwair: 3 Omani riyals
from al-Khuwair (Safeer Continental) to Grand Mall: 1.5-2 riyals
short distances within a neighborhood: 300-500 baisa (1/2 riyal)
from al-Hail to Sultan Qaboos University: 1.5 riyals

 Your experience may vary, but these are some generally agreed upon prices. As a rule of thumb, if you are staying in the neighborhood for the ride, you should not pay over 1 riyal. The exception is leaving malls. This is a class issue. The drivers assume that since you have enough disposable income to be shopping at the mall, you have enough to pay them quite generously. I have been charged upwards of 5 riyals to leave Grand Mall and go to my apartment in al-Khuwair. If you don't mind walking through some parking lots to the main road, you can get a much cheaper price.

 And that, my friends, is transportation in Muscat. A subway or train system would be a welcome addition. I wonder if the government is planning to install one? A train running from Mubailah to Mutrah (or even from Sohar to Muscat), would be an amazing and welcome addition to public transport options in this beautiful city.

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Back in Muscat (Nimerudi Muscat) رجعت مسقط

Dear Azanian Sea Readers, I apologize for the long time away. I have been very busy writing exams, defending my dissertation prospectus, passing my language proficiency in Arabic (reading at least), and preparing for my Fulbright Fellowship. I will be in Muscat, Oman from 2012-2013, under the aegis of the Fulbright Fellowship. The Fulbright Program sponsors students and professors from the United States to conduct research and also teach abroad. It also sponsors foreigners to study in the US (more on that later). I am very grateful to the Fulbright Program for this wonderful opportunity. I will be conducting dissertation research on the Swahili-speaking Omanis (euphemistically known as "Zanzibaris" in Oman). I will essentially be creating an oral archive of stories of migration from East Africa and return to Oman, since their stories have never been told. I am very excited for this journey to begin, just as soon as I get some details out of the way--like student visa, resident ID card, apartment, and car.

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The Yacoubian Building (Book Review)

The Yacoubian Building is a rich and multi-layered examination of the intersections of sex, race, class, and state violence in modern Egypt. The building's complex and morally ambiguous tenants rise, fall and scrabble to their feet again from various circumstances. On the one hand, this novel is a brilliantly executed tapestry of interconnected stories--Taha's lost love Busayna gets used by another character, Malak to trick a third character Zaki el-Dessouki, into giving up his lavish apartment. One common thread through the characters and their stories is, the cynicism with which people, particularly men, use others, to achieve happiness. On the other hand, The Yacoubian Building is a revealed archive of Egypt's layered pasts--the linguistic and cultural legacies of French and British colonialism, the contested figure of Gamal Abdel Nasser as hero or heretic, the multiple registers of Arabic language, and the rising influence of Islamist organizations on Egyptian society. Aswany, as a secular intellectual, is obviously quite skeptical of how far the newfound piety in Egypt really penetrates, but his faith is nevertheless strong in the "everyday goodness" of Egyptians. It is this flexibility that allows people like the closeted gay newspaper editor Hatim to flout certain social conventions within well-defined limits. The elasticity of this commonsense piety is what Aswany seems to admire, in contrast to the more austere piety of the Islamists. Nevertheless Aswany refuses to caricature Islamists. On the contrary, he gives the reader a very moving and convincing portrait of how a young Egyptian becomes radicalized, and the instrumental role of state violence in that process. This fictional portrayal shows, far better than most policy reports I have read, the step-by-step process by which the lower-class Taha is denied access to the traditional routes to respectability and begins to be pulled into the ambit of the Islamists at his university. Aswany shows how Islamist rhetoric works on the young man, pulling at his desire for Busayna. We can symphathize with how Taha becomes an activist, and we understand his desire for revenge, not as a brainwashed youth marching into Paradise, but as someone who has experienced very real torture at the hands of state security forces. It is this factor of torture that proples him into the violent act that ends the novel. There are numerous clues that he, (like his first love Busayna and others) is a victim of cynical manipulation by those who were supposed to be his closest compatriots. Finally The Yacoubian Building is a heartbreaking commentary on the venality of everyday life, and a look into the heartbreaking choices that people must make in these conditions. Aswany's book is a critique of power and the raw urge to dominate and use others that lies at the core of violence. When Hatim tosses racist slurs at his lover Abduh, when Hagg manipulates his mistress into an abortion, we see that the Islamists are not the cause but a symptom of a society profoundly sickened by corruption and greed. Women and men wear masks over their feelings, performing a lie, just as the state wears a mask of piety and order cloaking its brutal forms of repression, hypocricy and violence. Aswany ends the novel on a note of optimism--the wedding of Zaki and Busayna, the old aristocrat and his young lover. In spite of evil, Aswany seems to be saying, love, fragile but persistent, can bloom out of degradation and humiliation.

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Pambazuka - The downside of the Kony 2012 video

If you live in the United States, you've probably heard about Kony 2012. I am curious to know more about how readers of this blog outside the US respond to the Kony video. I watched a powerful Youtube response from Ugandan journalist Rose Kagumire that raised many important points. I invite readers to watch "Kony 2012" and Rose's response, and then make your own decision.

The video itself is powerfully shot and edited, but its message is incredibly problematic. Kony 2012's message is: If only we (US citizens) could mobilize enough pressure to convince certain powerbrokers, they could take steps to eliminate Kony, and then things in northern Uganda would return to normal. You can google the many critical responses to this "white savior" mentality. Mahmood Mamdani makes an essential point in the following piece: that further militarizing an already over-militarized conflict will not solve the problem.

Pambazuka - The downside of the Kony 2012 video

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Martin Walsh: East African Notes and Records

Martin Walsh's blog on East African history, culture, and ethnography is an unusual combination of travelogue, self-reflection, and quirky topics from frogs to circumcision cycles. What I really like about Martin's blog is how he is using the web to talk about and publicize his academic work. You can read his papers on Scribd, you can see his publications, and he has apparently even scanned and posted his research notebooks. I like this commitment to "open source academia", if you will. Check him out at East African Notes and Records

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Arab World Diasporas in Historical Perspective - Panel at CCAS Annual Conference, Georgetown University, 2011

In March, I had the privilege to speak on a panel with a group of distinguished historians at Georgetown University. I spoke about my research into Sheikh al-Amin Mazrui and his project of Islamic reform through the Swahili-Arabic newspaper "al-Islah". Here is the full panel:

2011 Symposium - Arabia to Africa: Reassessing the Omani Trade Diaspora in East Africa, 1861-1920 from Georgetown CCAS on Vimeo.

2011 Symposium - Reimagining Communities: Sheikh al-Amin Mazrui, al-Islah and Transnational Arab Muslim Identity in Kenya, 1897- from Georgetown CCAS on Vimeo.

2011 Symposium - Syrian Migrants to the Colonial Philippines, 1880s to 1940s from Georgetown CCAS on Vimeo.

2011 Symposium - A World of Their Own: Algerian Diaspora and the Making of Algerian Nationalism from Georgetown CCAS on Vimeo.

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Music in Oman - Panel at CCAS Georgetown University

Music in Oman from Georgetown CCAS on Vimeo.

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Voyage to Oman and Zanzibar (interactive)

A Voyage to Oman and Zanzibar with Cleveland Plain-Dealer photographer Peggy Turbett

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