“We are part of Zanzibar”-translocal practices and imaginative geographies in contemporary Oman-Zanzibar relations

Abstract

Particularly since the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964, relations between Oman and Zanzibar have been marked by contested political views and conflicting versions. While from the perspective of Oman the relation to Zanzibar meanwhile often seems to be of only minor significance, in Zanzibar it has been of high ideological and imaginative value and is a dominant argument in political controversies until today. However, instead of engaging in the wider and more macro-level political and economic debates about the relationship between Oman and Zanzibar, the aim of this paper is to ground these in the everyday practices and imaginative geographies of those actually constituting the translocal connections. Focusing on emotional, material and individual business ties between the two places, we illustrate how contemporary connections are lived and experienced by Zanzibari Omani. Only this, we argue, can provide a deeper understanding of the ambiguity and complexity of these personal relations, thus adding an important but often ignored dimension to the current discussions of Oman’s translocal relations.