Spare a thought for the families of the British volunteer who have to face TINDIKALI in Zanzibar in the line of duty educating our kids. brave girls.
Lat me teach you little history about Zanzibar and the religious tolerance which was there since 1400 yrs ago.
Christianity was first introduced to Zanzibar by the Portuguese. Moving up the from the south after successfully rounding the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 they staged a violent and ultimately unsuccessful bid to lay claim to the harbors, trading routes and resources of almost 2000 miles of African coastline.
Reaching Zanzibar in 1499 the Portuguese soon established a Catholic Mission and trading station in Zanzibar Town. For the next 200 years they dominated the shipping lanes of East Africa and strived to establish a string of coastal settlements. Ruins of Portuguese settlements can still be found near on Pemba Island.
The Fortress that stands today near the harbor in Zanzibar City was built over top of an earlier catholic chapel located there; after it was captured by Omani forces. These forces are said to have been invited to Zanzibar and Pemba by the islanders to help drive out the overbearing Portuguese. after the Portuguese retreat only a few Goan Christians remained on Zanzibar. They had no church but maintained their community through private devotions. Later in the 1800's the influx of westerners began to include the occasional passing missionary and clergy from ships in the harbor.
In 1844 more permanent Christian missionaries arrived in East Africa in the form of the Lutheran minister Joseph Krapf and two companions who were working for the English Church Missionary Society. Based in Mombasa, they visited Zanzibar.
The growing anti-slavery movement in Britain encouraged more Christian missionary fervor; spurred most famously by the speech David Livingston gave in 1857 appealing for England to send missionaries, workmen and poor relations to Africa. He preached that the end of slavery could come only through "commerce and Christianity." Livingston himself later spent many days on Zanzibar, where he was given the use of a house by the Sultan .
But shortly after Zanzibar gained its independence in 1963, ASP and Umma parties overthrew the elected government in a bloody revolution.
Zanzibar formally joined its neighboring mainland nation -- the former German and British colony of Tanganyika -- in 1964 to become today Tanzania.
The country implemented a multiparty democratic system in 1992 and has enjoyed relative stability since then, but tensions between the mainland and Zanzibar have always been an issue.
The conflict has taken on political dimensions. Tanzania’s most powerful party, the Chama cha Mapinduzi or CCM, was championed by most residents of the mainland; a rival group called the Civil United Front, or CUF, is favored by most people in Zanzibar. CUF won election in 1995 national election and losses in 2000 and 2005 prompted violent protests on the archipelago, in 2010 there was reconciliation and government of unity was formed
The discord is exacerbated by Tanzania’s reliance on tourism. Zanzibar, famed for its mix of Arab and African cultures, is a prime vacation spot for Westerners. Luxury hotels and trendy bars are situated just miles away from scenes of endemic poverty, and this jarring juxtaposition has helped to spur extremist sentiment.
The threat of violence in Zanzibar has grown in recent years with the rise of un employment but government is blaming a group called the Association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation, also known as Uamsho, which means “awakening” in Swahili. Though founded in 2001 as a charitable organization, Uamsho has evolved to become a strong critic of union with Tanganyika , as well as an advocate for Zanzibar secession.
RECENT EVENTS
Later on .Father Evarist Mushi was on his way to lead a service at the Betras Catholic Church in Mtoni -- an area not far from Stone Town, a World Heritage Site -- when assailants cornered and killed him. The incident echoes a similar attack in December, when attackers shot and seriously wounded another Catholic priest in the Tomondo area to the south of Stone Town.
Mushi’s death spurred condemnation from security officials on the island, who urged calm and vowed to apprehend the perpetrators.
The police have called those causing chaos “criminals." Even our President has called them criminals. The strange thing is that these “criminals” do not behave like criminals at all they in fact behave more like people who are out to cause chaos. If your objective was just to loot the last thing you would want to do is kill a policeman let alone hurl grenades into the opposition meeting . What is even more telling here is the timing of many resents events. ARAB Popular Business man was put in ACID trauma like British girls later flown to South Africa for treatment and later transferred to Germany.
When you examine these unfolding events next to the assassination of Arusha Business man this week it becomes crystal clear that there is more than meets the eye in the whole saga. For starters it is highly likely that the radical sheikh Ponda was Planned to be killed by authorities. Actually the possibility that makes the no sense now is that he was gunned by his own people who already had the grenades and the well laid plans to cause chaos ready and finalized. It is highly unlikely that the shooting and planning all happened hours after the he was shot , after all such weaponry is not are a staple of Bongo) that chapati , or ugali which you just walk to the market and purchase on demand.
Secondly the attacks on churches were clearly designed to provoke some kind of retaliation. Fortunately this seems to have been planned by somebody who does not know Bongo Christians too well and was operating on assumptions that Tanzania is similar to Nigeria. That gives us yet another important clue that may help point to the source of the troubles. There are those who have said that since Sheikh Ponda radical teachings were against churches, it is only natural that his followers would burn churches after his death. A more believable angry retaliation would be against the government rather than churches. Few days after the attack of two British Citizens there have been no arrests and police admit they have only questioned “six or seven people”.
Bill Cash, Tory MP , who sits on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tanzania, urged the Foreign Office to upgrade its travel advice for tourists visiting both Zanzibar and Tanzania, warning that the acid attack was "more than just an ordinary criminal event".
Following this train of thought the next question is who would want to bring trouble to Tanzania ? Who would have the most to gain from such troubles? Or who would have a motive?
In previous there have been spirited efforts to spread rumors of radical elements of UAMSHO but who will gain if our economy is depending on tourism almost by 40% revenue from this revenue . According to the Government the current troubles are the work of locals working alone. And yet it is a well known fact that these radical Job less youth and have been very busy in recent years “how they can be “better” to save our country but violence has been embraced by the young, the jobless .
P.S. Is it only me who has noticed that no senior Government leader has appeared in the media to explain the shooting of this Sheikh Ponda Instead Ponda was put under Police guard to be arrested in the hospital and next day was transferred to PRISON with out court appearance. .. What are they fearing this Leaders ?
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