Poet. Multimedia Journalist. Author
He left Zanzibar some 50 years ago with a heavily broken heart after his country was invaded and his people, including his own father, massacred. More than a half century later, he sits with me in GUMZO to recall the bitter days but, quite amazingly, appealing for reconciliation and new beginnings for this generation.
Reading his verses and stanzas written in pure coastal Swahili, one can hardly notice that Bashiru Abdallah was born and raised far away from the sea shores of Tanzania. His mastery of the language is mind-blowing.
As one of the founders of Maridhiano, Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad, now the first vice president of Zanzibar, is laying down his vision and mission on the process of political reconciliation started in November 2009 by him and the then-president, Amani Karume. The speech was made in Pemba in the early days of January 2021.
There are a few people who have been blessed with so many talents as Ali Hilal, a Zanzibari novelist, poet, Qur’an reciter and Nasheed composer and singer. He is my guest in today’s CHAT, in which he speaks about his coming album to be released tomorrow in Unguja.
Quite often, politics is perceived as a male territory all over the world. While this chauvinistic perception is associated to the fact that politics is dirty, there are also many good men and women who have been at the very center of political struggle. In Zanzibar is also the case, where women have been active in politics even before some Western nations gave their women rights to vote. Fat-hiya Zahran ‘Warowaro’ is one of those Zanzibari women political activists and in today’s chat, she speaks her mind on the recently political reconciliation on the Indian Ocean Islands.
NJOO uniulize Mohammed Khelef Ghassani ni nani na nitakupa vitambulisho vyake kadhaa. Kila kimoja kati yavyo kitamsibu. Kitajaa kama pishi. Continue reading “Mfalme Yuko Uchi: Diwani Mpya ya Mohammed Ghassani”
In the CHAT today, history professor Abdul Sheriff, is talking on the historical perspectives of reconciliations in Zanzibar, emphasizing on the need for a such cosmopolitan society to embrace the spirit of tolerance, harmony and co-existence.
