Ten Years of ‘Dhow culture’:The Evolution of an Idea at the

Zanzibar International Film Festival,1998-20071

J. David Slocum, New York University

The Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) was established in 1998 as a sitefor celebrating the cosmopolitan culture of the Indian Ocean basin.2 With the

subtitle, “Films of the Dhow Countries,” the inaugural event featured film screeningsbut also other activities including “Village Panoramas, Youth and Children’s Events,Indian Panorama, Music, Drama, and an “Intellectual Property Rights Workshop.”For its second incarnation, in 1999, ZIFF, as a non-profit, non-political, non-governmental organisation, elected to call its main annual cultural event and

Ziff Journal 2007 25

Launch of ZIFF’s 10th Anniversary Book : by editor & ZIFF Vice-Chairperson Fatma Alloo;CEO Martin Mhando, and Publisher Javed Jafferji of Gallery Zanzibar

(Courtesy: Peter Bennett)

1A slightly different version of this paper was presented at the “Celebrating Memories & VisualCultures” Conference, ZIFF 10th Festival of the Dhow Countries, 3 July 2007. My thanks to theparticipants, especially Fatma Alloo, Rustom Bharucha, Jan-Georges Deutsch, Abdulaziz Lodhi, andFarida Sheriff, for their helpful questions and comments. Research for this paper was made possiblethrough the gracious access and support provided by ZIFF; thanks to Dr. Martin Mhando, FatmaKassim Makundi, and Maria Aida Mwala. I am also grateful to Professor Abdul Sheriff, ImruhBakari, and Jakub Barua for their time and for sharing insights into the history of ZIFF and Dhowculture.

2 ZIFF, as a non-governmental and non-profit organization, was chartered on March 18, 1998. Thefirst Zanzibar International Film Festival event was held from July 11-18, 1998.

production the “Festival of the Dhow Countries” (FODC). That arrangement haspersisted to the present day. Importantly, the second-year shift also institutionalisedthe expanded range of cultural programmes and performances featured at the festival,including literature, music, and crafts as well as film. In the years since, theconception of “Dhow people” constituting a “Dhow culture,” with Zanzibar as itscrucible, has continued to orient the event and reflected important changes in itsapproaches to cinema, culture, and tourism.

The objective here is to track the development of “Dhow culture” as an organisingconcept for the annual Zanzibar festival.3 To do so, this paper will critically discussthe institutional history at ZIFF of “Dhow culture” as a discourse for approaching andcomprehending the traditions, experiences, and perceptions of the diverse peoples,communities, and publics of the Indian Ocean region.

“Dhow culture” has been employed and developed as a concept in relation to ZIFFand its programming against the historical backdrop of a much older cosmopolitanIndian Ocean culture. Yet delving into that history raises both linguistic andmethodological challenges. The “dhow,” of course, is a sailing vessel. The Englishterm itself, though, – possibly an anglicized word of a possibly Swahili word, refers toa great variety of boats in a way not used by the local people; moreover, the Englishusage occurs in a region that, while multilingual, tended more to speak Arabic andSwahili. The corresponding words in those languages, respectively, sambuq andjahazi, likewise refer to various types of vessels marked by size, construction and design(sewn versus nailed, for example, or tapered versus square-sterned), and especially sailshape (lateen, or triangular, versus rectangular) whose prominence on the sea laneshas changed over time. For some, now, the term “dhow” stands generally for “awooden sailing ship with a lateen sail and a forward raking mast.”4 The larger point isthat the “dhow” has come to epitomise longstanding processes of circulation andlegacies of interaction among diversity in the Indian Ocean region that transcend thehistorical reality of any single type of vessel.

More difficult is the dating, even in modern times, of a self-conscious sense of aculture ranging across the region and known by whatever name. Abdulaziz Lodhirecalls from growing up in Zanzibar in the 1950s and 1960s explicit reference to theshared experiences and ideas of the Indian Ocean region that are now captured underthe rubric, “dhow culture.”5 Professor Abdul Sheriff has used the term generically todescribe “the culture of people on the move” in the region. Distinctively, he writes,the social history of the Indian Ocean turned on the seasonal monsoons that required

Ziff Journal 200726

3Capitalization of “dhow” and “dhow culture” in ZIFF institutional usage has been inconsistent. Inthis paper, original spellings will be followed in quotations. Otherwise, “Dhow culture” will be used.

4Roosje de Leeuwe, “Swahili Ships in Oceanic Perspective,” ZIFF Journal 3 (2006): 49. Other essaysin this journal issue, drawn from the 2006 Festival Conference on “Sails of History: Citizens of theSea,” further describe the diversity of dhows over time.

5Interview with Abdulaziz Lodhi, Zanzibar, July 3, 2007.

dhows (and crews) “to spend a long time” in their destination ports and the “tramptrade” that saw dhows travelling “from port to port seeking a market” rather thansailing straightforwardly from a home port to single destination. A result was thecreation of “a dense network of inter-communication” whose social, cultural, andeconomic dynamics were expressly recognised by many.6 Once again, “Dhow culture”increasingly designates a set of shared tendencies, experiences, and understandingsthat resonate in the contemporary era of early twenty-first century globalisation butthat also inscribe and draw meaning from earlier histories of the Indian Ocean region.

The embrace of the “dhow” and of “Dhow culture” by ZIFF, detailed here,emerged at an historical moment in the mid- and late-1990s shaped by particularconditions. Why the dhow specifically emerged as emblematic of ZIFF, theorganisation, and the unifying principle for the region is not clear from archives thatdo not consistently include deliberations of the Board or documents from theformative period before the first festival in July 1998. However, conditions existingat that time suggest a variety of possible explanations.7 After three decades of one-party rule, Tanzania held multi-party elections in 1995 that marked a liberalisation ofvarious sectors in the country. Mainland Tanzania [or Tanganyika] and Zanzibarcontinued to have vexed relations in the years immediately following these electionsand many on the island sought to celebrate the island’s separate identity and cultureand to showcase its historical linkages not only to the African mainland but to theIndian Ocean region as a whole. Among these efforts was the drive to open upZanzibar to tourists, particularly at that industry’s high end, through the developmentof new hotels both on the island’s east coast and in and around Stone Town. Whatfor some was the apparent “branding” of Zanzibar as an “exotic” travel destination forEuropean and U.S. tourists in the midst of post-Cold War globalisation occurred atthe same time that it emerged as a cultural or heritage site raised attention to thepossibly positive effects of “cultural tourism” on local communities like Stone Town(which was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000). As Fatma Alloo, afounder and inaugural board member of ZIFF puts it, the board in 1998 was not“homogenous” and its motivations for creating and organising the festival weretherefore likely not either.8 It also seems fair to remark that such multiplicity isapposite for a region long known for its celebration of diversity.

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6 Abdul Sheriff, “Dhow Culture: People on the Move,” in 10 Years of ZIFF, ed. Fatma Aloo (Zanzibar:Gallery Publications-ZIFF, 2007), p. 101.

7 Al Qaeda’s bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam (and in Nairobi) on August 7, 1998 is anhistorical coincidence but occurred after the first festival and, hence, ZIFF’s initial planning.

8 Public Comment at “Celebrating Memories and Visual Cultures” Conference, Zanzibar, July 3, 2007.

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ZIFF Posters 1998-2007

1. 1998-1999: Launching the Dhow

Both the summary planning document and eventual festival programme for thefirst Zanzibar International Film Festival in 1998 thoughtfully if variously focused onthe peoples and countries of the Indian Ocean region united by the emblematicseagoing vessel, the dhow. The “Dhow,” the planning document begins, is “anancient sea going vessel powered by trade winds [that] has for centuries been sailingin the Indian Ocean, bringing together, in trade, commerce and culture the peoplesof Africa, Arabian countries, Iran, Pakistan, India, Srilanka [sic] and the Islands of theIndian Ocean.” Tellingly, as some later debates would question, the opening of thedocument emphasises how the regional interactions enabled by the dhow “broughtthe people and their cultures into Zanzibar, and over time, out of these cultures, theSwahili culture was born” (emphasis in orig.).9 “The dhow is still plying all over theregion and remains the principal means of communication and unifying symbol,” the“Executive Summary” goes on. “The dhow continues to unite this diverse group ofcountries that we have now chosen to call the ‘Dhow Countries’” (emphasis in orig.).The regional priority of the festival is re-stated elsewhere in the document, whichemphasises linkages between African and other countries through film, andestablishing ZIFF as a major cultural event for the Indian Ocean basin.10

The 1998 Festival Programme offered four statements of welcome that, again,varied in their emphases. Festival Coordinator Mark Leveri acknowledged the peopleof Zanzibar as “People of the Dhow” from whose history and culture the festival wasborn. Issa Mohammed Issa, the Zanzibar Minister for Information, Culture, andTourism, referred differently to “the countries bordering the Indian Ocean, [which]reflect the various cultures that together make the hybrid Swahili culture of EasternAfrica and beyond.” The Tanzanian Minister of Tourism and Natural Resources,Zakia Hamdan Megji, celebrated the “unique ties of Africa and our neighbours, thecountries of the Indian Ocean basin,” that is, the “countries of the dhow.” EmersonSkeens, then Chairperson of the ZIFF board, did not use the word “dhow” in hisopening “note,” referring instead to the prospect of reviving Zanzibar as a majorcultural centre and making it possible so “the citizens of Zanzibar & Tanzania can seefilms that reflect their own culture and provide a spark for self-examination.”11

The founding statement of “Dhow culture” is the report of the 1998 ZIFF FilmJury.12 By the end of that first festival, and faced with what they took to be their task“to consider the essential ideas which inform” the event, the seven-person juryproduced a brief if pointed position paper for the festival itself and for evaluations to

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9 “1st Zanzibar International Film Festival, July 1998” (Summary Planning Document), ZIFFArchives, AA5/46, p. 1.

10 “1st Zanzibar International Film Festival, July 1998” (Summary Planning Document), p. 4.11 “1998 Programme: The Zanzibar International Film Festival, July 11-18,” pp. 1, 3, 5, 6.12 The members of the 1998 jury were Penina Mlama (Chair, Tanzania), Imruh Bakari

(Caribbean/UK), Kenyalyn Makone (Kenya), Abdullah Makungu (Tanzania-Zanzibar), BrigetteReinwald (Germany), Abdulkadir Ahmed Said (Somalia), and Matias Xavier (Mozambique).

be made about films and other programming. As we shall see, that report’s briefconceptualisation of “dhow culture” would not only powerfully shape theprogramming and judging of future film programmes and Festivals of the DhowCountries, but also influence the objectives and other activities of the managingorganisation, ZIFF. The Jury Report of the inaugural festival unambiguously assertedthe need for a festival mission statement. Identifying the dhow as central to theregion’s identity, they put it thus:

“The Dhow as the icon of the festival is the symbol of a long history ofcommunication, migration and interaction which has produced a cosmopolitanculture as the manifestation of human experience and expression of the region.This we understand as ‘Dhow Culture.’ It is a culture owned by no one and byeveryone”.13

The report recommended that the next festival include a workshop “on the issue ofDhow Culture.”14 In their concluding remarks about meritorious films and performers,the jury also made clear that “Reconstruction of Dhow history and culture” and“Universality/ transcendence of national, religious and ethnic boundaries” wereamong the five criteria outlined for awards.15

A three-day “Dhow Culture” Workshop was organised the following year at thefirst ZIFF Festival of the Dhow Countries. Two aims guided that workshop. Theywere, first, “to better understand the historical development of ‘dhow culture’ and itsimpact, both past and present, on the region’s people and artistic expression,” and,second, “to use this understanding to develop concrete ways to stimulate and supporton-going cultural work in the region.”16 The workshop ran concurrently with the filmscreenings and was open to academics, film and other cultural producers, and artsprofessionals. Of basic concern to participants were “the question of the validity ofthe dhow theme, its relationship to African culture, and…questions about how far thedhow culture extended. For example, are Mali, Zaire, and South Africa part of thedhow culture?”17 As Professor Abdul Sheriff would later write, the discussions alsoaddressed a wide range of other issues: the flow of ideas, ideologies, and aesthetic forms(as well as commercial goods) throughout the region; the dynamism of tradition,change, and understandings of the past; the need to examine commonalities anddifferences in the dhow region; specific notions of sharing, borrowing, and exchangein the region, particularly in terms of categories like “indigenous,” “African,” and“Swahili”; and the relationship between sea or seacoast and hinterland.18

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13“ZIFF Jury Report 1998,” p. 2.

14“ZIFF Jury Report 1998,” p. 2.

15 “ZIFF Jury Report 1998,” p. 3.16

“ZIFF Festival of the Dhow Countries, 2-10 July 1999” [Programme], p. 917 Zulfikar Hirji, “Managing Director’s Report: A Summary and Analysis of Findings,” “Zanzibar

International Film Festival – Festival of the Dhow Countries 1999,” September 1999, p. 4; ZIFFArchives, AA2/19.

18 Abdul Sheriff, “ZIFF Workshops on the Dhow Culture: A Historical Review and Assessment,”ZIFF Journal 1.1 (2004): 60-64.

2. 1999-2003: Explorations and Expansion

Especially following the drafting of the 1998 Jury Report, the early years of the festivaland of the ZIFF’s strategic planning relied heavily on varied usages of “Dhow Culture”as an organising rubric and priority. The 1999 Workshop was but one of severalactivities that aimed to clarify and advance understanding of the idea bothconceptually and functionally.19 By 2002, in a thorough review of the first four yearsof the festival conducted by the consulting firm KPMG, the following summarystatement of the prevailing “mission/vision” appeared: “ZIFF is a Zanzibar-based not-for-profit organisation that exists…To promote the culture of the Dhow region to thepeople of Zanzibar, the Dhow region and the world through film and other art forms,festivals and other cultural activities.”20 While some variability nevertheless persistedin both internal and external documents in the usage of “culture,” “countries,” and“region,” the importance of the “dhow” in shaping the meaning each of these otherterms grew.

A good part of that variability may be grounded in the enormously complex word“culture” itself and the resulting attempts by ZIFF organizers to conceptualise “dhowculture” both historically and for the present. The 1998 ZIFF Jury Report took painsto address the question of culture:There is an understanding that ZIFF will reflect the various traditions and expressionsthat make up the Swahili culture of Eastern Africa and beyond. The concept beingproposed here recognizes culture in the singular rather than cultures in the plural.This refers to a group of similar although distinct lifestyles. Each cultural arenaconsists of several distinct cultures which are confined within a given geographicalterritory and comprise behaviour which is similar in several important aspects. Wegroup them together and speak of culture in the singular. In this way, we can permitourselves to speak of the Dhow Culture and to signify the numerous cultures of theIndian Ocean Basin.21

Yet the very helpfulness of attending to relations between the singular and theplural begs further questions about how the grouping together might occur. In thecase of Dhow culture, the linkages between East African and Omani or Indiancultures, for example, remain in need of evaluation. More specifically, the relationshipbetween Swahili culture and Dhow culture in the report belies a conceptual ambiguity

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19 Subsequent programmes included a one-day workshop on “Taarab Traditions” in 2000;photographic exhibition on “Zanzibar Style” in 2001; “Living Together: Who Matters, WhatMatters?”, a two day PCF/ZIFF Workshop, and the “Twilight of the African Dhow” photographicexhibition, both in 2002; the two-day workshop on “Swahili Culture vs. Dhow Culture: In Searchof a Musical and Verbal Aesthetic of the Indian Ocean World,” and “Sidi Goma: The Tradition ofan Indian Ocean Diasporic Community,” both in 2003; and “The Cross Currents of Culture”Workshop in 2004. See the excellent account of these programmes in Sheriff, “ZIFF Workshopson the Dhow Culture,” pp. 59-73.

20 “KPMG Report on an Organizational Review of the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF),”n.d. [otherwise confirmed to have been received on March 13, 2002], p. 6; ZIFF Archives, AA14/7.The review was recommended and then funded by the Ford Foundation’s Office for East Africa.

21“ZIFF Jury Report 1998,” p. 1.

that would recur in ZIFF documents and provide the basis for a conference workshopat the 6th ZIFF festival in 2003.

Connections between Dhow culture and the wider world were also recognisedearly as essential. In 2000, for the third FODC, Festival Director Imruh Bakari wrotesimply that, “the idea of Dhow Culture is an old reality given a new name, rooted inthe reality of the African continent, the Gulf States, India, Pakistan and the IndianOcean islands, from the perspective of the twenty-first century.” But he went on toobserve that, “the Festival programme is a celebration, and equally a challenge, toconsider the significance of the cultural products of the region and those from otherparts of the world in terms of how they give meaning to our everyday existence.”22

The FODC film programme, in particular, has regularly included productions frombeyond the dhow countries themselves. The description of the 2001 film screeningsindicated that, “We are also pleased to be able to make connections beyond theIndian Ocean region to the diaspora and other global experiences that reinforce thefestivals [sic] principle of celebrating cultural diversity.”23 While suggestive of morefar-reaching solidarities in the global South and to emergent discussions aboutcultural diversity, those connections and that principle have arguably been pursuedmore in the practice of programming and institutional alignments than in thecontinuing formulation of a theoretical foundation for Dhow culture.

Succeeding festivals and conferences explored and emphasized different facets ofdhow culture, history, and experience. A consistent emphasis has been the centralrole of history, memory, and heritage in articulations of Dhow culture. In 1999, the“Festival Overview” cast the first FODC as “a remembrance and celebration of thisrich legacy [of Indian Ocean interactions over the centuries] as it is expressed in themusic, film, crafts, dance, video, photography, sculpture, painting, and other art formsof people from the dhow region.”24 Opening the 5th festival in 2002, ManagingDirector Michael Gibbs presented “dhow culture” as “a heritage shared by the people”of the Indian Ocean region.25 Underscoring historical linkages and shared legacies inthis way was complemented by Film Director Imruh Bakari’s introductory remarksthat same year about both celebrating the past and addressing contemporary issueslike HIV/AIDS, globalization, and youth in crisis as “experiences shared by Africanand dhow countries in the global community.”26 The ineluctable relationship is notonly between past and present but between understandings and ideas rooted in historyand the issues and expressions of today.

Ziff Journal 200732

22Imruh Bakari, “Karibu/Welcome,” Festival of the Dhow Countries/Tamasha la Nchi za Jahazi,Programme 2000, p. 4.

23 “Film Screenings,” ZIFF Tamasha la Nchi za Jahazi/Festival of the Dhow Countries, Programme2001, p. 9.

24 “Festival Overview,” Festival of the Dhow Countries, 2-10 July 1999, Zanzibar, p. 5.25 Michael Gibbs, “Karibu,” 5th Festival of the Dhow Contries/Tamasha la Nchi za Jahazi,

Programme 2002, p. 2.26 Imruh Bakari, “Film Screenings,” 5th Festival of the Dhow Contries/Tamasha la Nchi za Jahazi,

Programme 2002, p. 5.

3. 2003-2006: Transitions and Coming Home Again

A series of developments between late 2002 and the July 2004 festival signalled amajor transition in the conceptualisation of “Dhow culture” at ZIFF. These includedthe recommendations made in the 2002 KPMG report, the priorities spelled out in the2003-2006 Strategic Plan, a strategic planning workshop led by Professor D.N. Rao inNovember 2003, and the departure following the 2004 festival of Imruh Bakari asFestival Director after five years in the position. The Strategic Plan and the planningmeeting built on the KPMG report and addressed what it termed the “second phase”of ZIFF’s existence, which would “transform the organisation into a regional resourcecentre for arts and culture.” In doing so, they called for an explicitly “East AfricaFocus” in efforts to build “a self sustaining and dynamic cultural environment withinwhich arts, education, and technology are brought together in a process of socialdevelopment and product creation.” This focus was broken down into five objectives,the first three of which concretely spoke to questions of region and culture:

1. Consolidating the East African linkage where Kiswahili, a language evolvingout of cross cultural interaction is used.

2. Nurturing an awareness of the Dhow region and the historical and culturalinteraction that has shaped the cultural memory of its peoples.

3. Being a prime mover of the concept, seeks to expand the conversations aroundand about ‘dhow culture.’ Towards this end, ZIFF envisions a role in bringingthe significance of what the Dhow symbolises into the contemporarydiscussions of globalisation in all its ramifications for development.27

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Address by Professor Abdul Sheriff

Compared with some earlier formulations, a telling separation exists here betweenDhow culture and both the regional emphasis on East Africa and regional (and, withKiswahili, as linguistic) organising principle, and the more general approach tohistorical understanding and the cultural past of the Dhow region. When “dhowculture” is referenced explicitly, in the third objective, the reason is to help shed lighton globalisation and presumably social and economic development rather than basicresearch on the topic. At least for the present analysis, these changes appear to markan evolutionary shift rather than a cycle of critical attention.Imruh Bakari had worked intensely and imaginatively to explore what he called the“dhow culture theoretical framework” of ZIFF and FODC since serving on theinaugural jury and contributing to their seminal report in 1998.28 Writing for theworkshop at the 2004 festival, his last as director, he offered the following:

“The engagement with dhow culture has become a vocation for the integrated andsustained preservation, discourse on and growth of the region’s cultural heritageand seeking meaning from contemporary struggles. The Festival of the DhowCountries is a contemplation of the myriad fusions, traditions and expressionsthat engendered the Swahili culture of East Africa and the cultures of the IndianOcean as a whole. The Festival and its associated programmes are a gateway forthe articulation and expression of Dhow Culture, the interrogation of itsrelevance, and its comments on the contemporary world space”.29

ZIFF itself becomes here, through the Festival of the Dhow Countries, more thana facilitator of research on cultural forms or practices of the past or even a venue forshowcasing film and other contemporary art forms. Instead, Bakari suggests that theorganisation and festival were positioned to serve as a laboratory for refiningunderstandings of Dhow culture and then as a platform for communicating thoseunderstandings to others. The discourse of “Dhow culture,” as he would later say morebasically, is “a means to express our location and perceptions thus making acontribution to the meaning of our own life [sic].”30

That 7th Festival of the Dhow Countries in 2004 also witnessed what the ZIFFChairman’s message referred to as a “key turning point in the direction of ZIFF witha definite East Africa focus.” Hassan Mitawi asserted that, “In the Dhow Culturedialogues, situated as they are in East Africa, it has become apparent to us that thereis a need to consolidate the base and extend the message widely within East Africa.”31

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27 “ZIFF Strategic Plan, 2003-2006,” November 2003, p. 8. As this document makes clear, thepriorities themselves draw from a paper, “Arts and Culture: An Institutional Vision,” drafted byYvonne Adhiambo, shortly after she became Executive Director, in May 2003. The creation ofthat position, separate from the director of festival and other programming, was a materialoutgrowth of the KPMG report and subsequent strategic planning discussions.

28 Imruh Bakari, “ZIFF Festival of the Dhow Countries 2004: Exploring the Currents; Feeling theWinds,” ZIFF Journal 1.1 (2004): 3.

29 Bakari, “Exploring the Currents,” p. 3.30 Imruh Bakari, “Opening,” “Dhow Culture and the Visual Imagination,” A Report of the

Symposium, Mazsons Hotel, Stone Town – Zanzibar, 25-26 September, 2004, p. 2; ZIFF Archives,AA/219.

31 Hassan Mitawi, “Karibu: ZIFF Chairman’s Message,” 7th Tamasha La Nchi Za Jahazi/Festival of theDhow Countries; ZIFF 2004, Programmeme June 25-July 4, p. 5.

A highlight of that festival was the launch of the East African Film Academy, a jointEast African and Danish initiative facilitated by ZIFF, and dominating the industryevents and workshops was the East African Filmmakers Forum. Together, the effortsconstituted not only a specific regional focus cast in terms other than those of “Dhowculture,” but also a more practically oriented shift from analyses of the concept andhistory to active service provision, networking, and capacity building. Theseactivities, in turn, while informed by understandings of the region’s past, assumedheretofore acknowledged but undertheorised linkages between the development ofculture and that of society, politics, and the economy.32

The arrival in 2005 of Jakub Barua as Festival Director appeared to consolidate thediscursive emphasis away from explicit consideration of “Dhow culture” and toward“Swahili culture” as a guiding rubric. In his opening message that year, Barua wrote,“Swahili, perhaps as few other cultures and languages, epitomizes a successful fusion ofthe various influences from the whole Indian Ocean region.”33 Yvonne AdiamboOwuor, who served as ZIFF Executive Director, wrote a page in the FODC programmeon “Dhow Culture and ZIFF,” in which she emphasised the unusual transitionsbetween festivals seven and eight – the “structural evolution, new key staff, brandclarification, strategic reviews, departmental rationalization” – but, notwithstandingthe title, did not reference “dhow culture” once.34 Barua’s message the next year, forthe 9th FODC, was similar, and observed that a lasting effect of the long history of“cultural, social and economic exchange on the Indian Ocean” has been “the allembracing coastal Swahili culture and language.”35

4. 2006-2007: The Politics of Development

If the KPMG Report of 2002 served to take account of the opening years of ZIFF andshape the planning of its mid-term growth, a subsequent external evaluation,conducted from December 2005-February 2006 by Nigerian consultant, Ben Zulu, setmany of the terms for the organisation’s strategic planning for its ten-year anniversaryand the years beyond.36 The “Ben Zulu Report” specifically sought to assess thehistorical contribution of ZIFF to “the arts and culture sector” of Zanzibar, Tanzania,and East Africa. It concluded that while the organisation had succeeded in providinginfrastructure for the public exhibition of films and the promotion of cinema, and thefilm component of the FODC had risen to the level of a major annual “film centred

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32 See, for example, “Strategic Plan Overview: 2004-2006,” in “ZIFF Strategic Plan, 2003-2006,” p.12.

33 Jakub Barua, “A Message from the ZIFF Festival Director,” 8th Festival of the DhowCountries/tamasha la nchi za jahazi, 1-10 July, Zanzibar [Programmeme], p. 3.

34 Yvonne Adiambo Owuor, “Dhow Culture and ZIFF,” 8th Festival of the Dhow Countries/tamashala nchi za jahazi, 1-10 July, Zanzibar [Programme], p. 4.

35 Jakub Barua, “A Message from the ZIFF Festival Director,” 9th ZIFF Festival of the DhowCountries, 14th-23rd July 2006: Sails of History, Citizens of the Sea [Programme], p. 5.

36 Ben Zulu, “Zanzibar International Film Festival: External Evaluation -- Project NumberTA04403,” December 2005 & 20-24 February 2006; ZIFF Archives [electronic file; no locator].(Hereafter, the “Ben Zulu Report.”) The evaluation and report were commissioned by ZIFF

multi disciplinary arts and culture festival,” the building of sustainable capacity in thelocal and regional film sector had been more limited. Among the keyrecommendations of the report were that ZIFF give priority to “stimulating productionand screening of Tanzanian movies,” “cut back the size of the [FODC] and develop ayear-round plan of activities,” and “continue building a festival programme thatbalances between international outlook and the African film sector.”37

“Dhow culture” does not figure prominently in the Ben Zulu report. Though theconcept is explicitly raised in the discussion of ZIFF’s mission and then in passingreference to the “cultural discourse” component of the annual festival conference, thereport speaks more directly to the film, arts, and culture sectors of the East Africanregion and applauds the outreach to, and participation of, people from Dhowcountries. The ZIFF festival, the report goes, noting especially the brandingopportunities possible for cultural tourism, “is developing a reputation of [being] theonly place in the world where audiences go to experience the Dhow culture.”38 Yetwithout having elaborated the concept (beyond its passing mention as part of theZIFF mission), the report leaves rather undefined the possible parallels between“Dhow culture” and the culture of the Dhow countries and people, on the one hand,and Swahili culture, on the other. In fact, accompanying the call for ZIFF’s greaternurturance of “cultural awareness of the region” is a curious claim about the past thatrecalls previous festival workshop debates about how “the Kiswahili (sic) people nowvalue their culture more and want it preserved and promoted.”39 Whether Dhowpeople could be used interchangeably for the Swahili people here or how ZIFF mayhave played a role in raising greater awareness of culture are questions leftunaddressed.

In its ninth and tenth years, the ZIFF Festivals of the Dhow Countries referenced“Dhow culture” but largely relegated explicit consideration of the concept to the workof the annual workshops. This is not to suggest that previous, often intensiveexplorations were less directly brought to bear on film and other cultural programmingor the overall shaping of the festivals’ priorities. Indeed, the problematics of Dhowculture illuminated in previous workshops, festivals, and planning documents appearvery much to continue to inform these later formulations that specifically citedZanzibari, East African, or Swahili cultures or the culture of the Indian Ocean orDhow regions. Such interchangeability of signifiers was not without its costs andimprecision. Particularly for peoples that define themselves in terms of diversity andhybridity, the recourse to more conventional geographical and national or linguisticcategories can be seen to miss an opportunity to highlight the complexity of fields ofcultural activity and productions as well as the many-sidedness of political orlinguistic associations and encounters.

Another kind of change was evolving in contemporary international culturalpolicy and funding circles. While debates about the importance of cultural activity asa form of, or contributor to, social and economic development had long been argued

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37 “Ben Zulu Report,” p. 8.38 “Ben Zulu Report,” p. 18.39 “Ben Zulu Report,” p. 18.

qualitatively, new quantitative strategies were emerging for the evaluation andassessment of the contributions.40 ZIFF had from its beginnings demonstrated acommitment in programming to the complicated linkages between culturalproduction and the social and economic conditions in which they operate. At thevery first festival in 1998, for example, was a workshop to address issues of intellectualproperty rights. Among other activities, including regular production workshops, aFilm/TV Industry Forum was held at ZIFF 2001, and the years 2003-2004 saw majorefforts to build a technical production infrastructure that would enable ZIFF moreeffectively to produce its own events and to become a better resource for other culturalevents and producers in the region.41 By 2006, however, culture came to be seensquarely as “an opportunity to engage with the pressing task of rationalizing the roleof creativity and innovation in the interest of economic empowerment and socialwell-being.”42

The 10th ZIFF festival sought to make this revised understanding a reality. Inaddition to a further instalment of the East African Filmmakers Forum and animationfilm production and film and video distribution workshops, the 2007 event includeda new initiative, the Zanzibar Soko-Filam Film Market, which aimed to be amarketplace for the promotion and distribution of regional films. Perhapsappropriately for a tenth anniversary event, Festival Director Martin Mhandoemployed words that both look back to previous formulations of the concept of Dhowculture without naming it explicitly (“alternatives [to Western models] governed byfairness, solidarity and respect for human dignity”) while also underscoring newlycrafted standards of excellence (“the preferred and effective partner to artists, donoragencies, the corporate citizen, policy makers, and development advocates”).43

Elsewhere, Mhando unambiguously positioned the festival geographically: “Zanzibaris African not because it is on the continent of Africa but because the cultures thatdefine its identity are African in essence and fact.”44 The programming featured a

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40See, for instance, Michelle Reeves, “Measuring the Economic and Social Impact of the Arts: AReview,” Community Development Journal 38.4 (October 2003): 310-22. Relatedly, anacknowledged shift occurred in Dhow culture discourse toward “producing frameworks of culturalindustry”; as Martin Mhando wrote in 2007, “cultural diversity is the theory and the culturalindustries is the product.” See Martin Mhando, “Zanzibar International Film Festival: A History,A Vision,” in 10 Years of ZIFF, ed. Fatma Aloo (Zanzibar: Gallery Publications-ZIFF, 2007), p. 48.

41 These early efforts quite carefully positioned themselves geographically. As Imruh Bakari wrote ofthe 2001 Forum, “ZIFF, though based in Zanzibar, has a regional concern. We are thereforecommitted to the development of the Film/TV industry in particular, along with the rest of Africaand the Dhow countries.” See Imruh Bakari, Invitation Letters to “ZIFF 2001 Film/TV IndustryForum,” 21 March 2001; ZIFF Archives, “Workshops/Seminars/External Reports” Binder, AB2/8.During these same years, a corresponding effort was made in the literary realm, most obviouslythrough the introduction in 2004 and the expansion of the FODC Literary Forums, to establishZIFF as a regional resource for “the creation of arts products, continuing education and interactiveskills sharing as a means of building linkages and enhancing abilities in the region” and, finally, asa “gesture towards structural development.” “ZIFF Literary Forum 2005 (at ZIFF Festival of theDhow Countries),” p. 1; ZIFF Archives, A2/50.

42 “Zanzibar International Film Festival: 2007-2010 Strategic Plan” [ZIFF Archives; electronic file, nolocator], p. 2.

strongly African emphasis, from the focus on films about slavery and representation inthe Festival of Festivals programme from around the continent to tributes to the lateSenegalese director (and “father of African cinema”) Ousmane Sembene and the ZIFF“Featured Guest,” filmmaker Gadallah Gubara, from Sudan. What could possibly bean overt shift away from a guiding explicit usage of “Dhow Culture” in festivalplanning and programming documents might be associated, at least in part, with themore far-reaching African ambitions of current programming.

When cited directly, “Dhow culture” was by this time being conceived differently.In a new formulation for the 2007-2010 Strategic Plan, the “Dhow region” wasrecognized as having “a significant historical and cultural tradition, largely expressedin the Swahili culture.”45 Besides the geographical (and linguistic) shift taking placehere, the idea of culture being employed is, again, one inextricably linked to economicand social conditions and the possibility of change. “By adopting the dhow as theorganizational symbol,” the document continues, “ZIFF seeks to participate in adevelopment process which strives to build on the regions [sic] common heritage inlanguage and culture, given the recognized economic and social value of media, artsand cultural products.”46 The final phase of the “road map” outlined in the StrategicPlan is consequently for ZIFF to become a “Cultural Industry Consolidator” able to actas a “cultural steward” and coordinate “cultural development activities” throughoutthe region.47 The region in focus in this strategy is explicitly East Africa, with fourcountries in particular, beyond Tanzania, at one point being named (“Kenya, Uganda,Rwanda, Burundi”), and no further differentiation offered among Africa, IndianOcean, or Dhow countries, or certainly those lying beyond.

ConclusionTo conclude this overview, it may be useful to summarize some of the issues that haverecurred in explorations of Dhow culture at ZIFF over the last ten years. Bothmethodological and more conceptual, they include:

1. Geographical and Regional Vectors. Considerable attention has been given tothe geographical positioning of Dhow culture. Originally referring to the IndianOcean region, the term has also been used to emphasise East African coastal andSwahili regions and cultures, the conjuncture of Indian Ocean and East Africancultures, and East Africa in relation to the whole of the African continent and eventhe African diaspora. These shifts in emphasis, typically with Zanzibar as their

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43 Martin Mhando, “Message from the Festival Director,” “ZIFF Zanzibar International Film Festival,10th Anniversary Tamasha La Nchi Za Jahazi: ‘Celebration of Waters and Dreams,’ 29th June –8th July 2007” [Programmeme], p. 7. In the same programme, Chairman of the ZIFF Board HassanMitawi, in his welcome “Message,” mentions in passing that festival-goers “are here to celebrate thesurvival and continuity of dhow culture” before moving to remark on his celebration of the“diversity of the world’s indigenous cultures”(p. 6).

44 Mhando, “Zanzibar International Film Festival: A History, A Vision,” pp. 46-47.45 “ZIFF 2007-2010 Strategic Plan,” p. 2.46 “ZIFF 2007-2010 Strategic Plan,” pp. 2-3.47 “ZIFF 2007-2010 Strategic Plan,” p. 21.

crucible, have important consequences to conceptualising the parameters of Dhowculture.

2. Relations with Regions and the World beyond Africa, the Indian Ocean, andthe Dhow countries. Whatever the specific regional dimensions of Dhow culture, itsrelations to still more wide-ranging geographical processes and phenomena have beenvariously emphasised. Globalisation has been invoked both to suggest that the historyof an interactive and tolerant Dhow culture offers an alternative model for theengagement of diversity to contemporary trends and to underscore how, in thecontemporary world of homogenising tendencies, the Dhow region can retain itscomplexity. Likewise, the Dhow countries have been linked to the rest of the GlobalSouth, often in solidarity, in confronting issues such as migration and sustainablesocial and economic development. HIV/AIDS and slavery are among other globalissues addressed by ZIFF, often with special consideration of their status in Zanzibarand the region.

3. Cultural Forms and Activities. Film has enjoyed pride of place among culturalforms at ZIFF since the organisation’s founding (and naming). Yet approaches to filmhave been varied and included exhibition, writing and production workshops,criticism seminars, and regional distribution and marketing initiatives. Besides film,workshops and panoramas dedicated to a range of forms and practices (arguably)constitutive of Dhow culture, from literature and music to textiles and children’sstorytelling, have been celebrated at ZIFF events. How these diverse activities andproductions together constitute a given culture remains under-theorised. Scholarlyworkshops, as well, have addressed how Dhow culture can be understood throughhistorical and other research into specific events and customs.

4. Fixity versus change. The recognition of Dhow culture’s long history hasprompted discussions of whether essential and possibly fixed qualities have definedthe concept over time. In particular, attention to the histories of social, economic,linguistic, and cultural flows that have shaped the Indian Ocean region over the pastmillennium suggests analysis of possible parallels to contemporary conditions in theregion and beyond. Another specific concern, as evidenced in this paper, is thematter of whether Dhow culture as conceived by ZIFF has retained essentialcharacteristics over the last ten years or fundamentally evolved.

5. Culture and/as economic empowerment, social development, and capacity-building. Dhow culture has been articulated both as values, ideas, and beliefs thatinscribe shared identity and as forms, practices, and products of creative and socialactivity. Both these shared ideas and creative practices, moreover, can be linked toeconomic empowerment, social development, and capacity building in the region.For example, theoretical frameworks of Dhow culture may shape films that, in turn,have been approached as practical efforts to support regional filmmaking and advancethe development of cultural industries.

6. Relationship between Dhow Culture and illustrative studies or individualproducts. Running though the foregoing issues is the question of how to relate orreconcile theoretical frameworks for historical or contemporary Dhow culture andspecific artefacts, instances, or events of that culture. Importantly, this question

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works both ways: the conceptualisation of Dhow culture relies on specific historiesand products and the analysis of specific histories and products depend for theircoherence on some relationship to the idea of Dhow culture. The epistemologicalstakes here raise concerns about how to use such a category as “Dhow culture” forgenerating (or delimiting) meanings and understandings of past and present lives andexperiences.

The closing suggestion here, then, is not that shifts in recent festival discourseaway from explicit usage of “Dhow culture” somehow diminish the relevance of thatdiscourse or the complexity of cultural and regional concerns it conveys. On thecontrary, the development of the concept appears to be advancing more recentlythrough practice and the multifaceted efforts to support individual and institutionalcultural capacity-building. Indeed, the understanding refined in early festivalworkshops and programming that Dhow culture is defined by both identifiablehistorical tendencies and ongoing processes of exploration would seem reflected inlater attempts to nurture cultural production and marketing. Or, as Imruh Bakarireflected recently, Dhow culture has always been engaged on “separate tracks,” bothby scholars and historians in conferences and by industry and business professionals inproduction and supporting activities like training and workshops.48 Like ZIFF and theFODC themselves, “Dhow culture” and the ideas and values it represents continue toserve as an evolving and multifaceted rubric, rooted in Zanzibar but informed by muchwider experience, for meanings and aspirations that can be developed andcommunicated in multiple forms.

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48 Imruh Bakari, Interview, Dar es Salaam, March 18, 2007.