Constitutional Development of Zanzibar, 1890 - 2005: An Overview

Abstract

The history of Zanzibar’s constitutional development from the colonial days to date offers many lessons and challenges. It has been marked by progress and retrogression. This article revisits that history from 1890 when Zanzibar became a British protectorate. The main argument advanced is that post-colonial Zanzibar has experienced a series of constitutional crises which are more or less a replica of pre-independence constitutional struggles. In spite of the inception of multiparty politics in 1992 the fundamental issues of governance in the Zanzibar polity such as the form of government, electoral system, representation, Zanzibar’s status within the Union still remain unresolved. Consequently, Zanzibar remains a politically polarized society. The author suggests that any constitutional designing initiative in Zanzibar should take into account the imperatives of power-sharing arrangements due to the fact that that the political history of Zanzibar has been characterized by political hatred between the two main political groups, which are almost equal in numerical terms.