Memory about the Arab Slave Trade in Modern-Day Tanzania: Between Family Trauma and State-Planted Tolerance

Abstract

The article discusses the results of field research conducted in Tanzania from August 24 to September 14, 2018, which focused on the historical memory of the Arab slave trade in East Africa and the Indian Ocean in the 19th century, as well as its influence on the interethnic relations in the country today. Structured and nonstructured interviews (mostly in-depth) were conducted in Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo and Zanzibar. In general, opinions were almost equally divided: half of the respondents were convinced that the relations were good overall, while the other half believed that there are some tensions. Since both positions are well-argued and substantiated, it is possible to trace a number of patterns in the people’s perception. The history of the Arab slave trade lies between family trauma on the one hand, and tolerance, non-discrimination imposed by the state, on the other. Two ways of reproducing the historical memory largely oppose each other: the school system places the blame on Europeans, promoting peaceful interethnic relations, presenting the slave trade as an essential part of colonialism, and subsequently emphasizing the story of overcoming the colonial past; meanwhile, the oral tradition censors nothing and tells the history of the ancestors’ suffering in its entirety. Thus, bearers of the oral tradition with a low level of education turn to be the most vulnerable category; they become the least tolerant to the Arab-Tanzanian part of the country’s population.