Воспоминания об арабской работорговле и межэтнические отношения в современной Танзании: между семейной травмой и государственной политикой толерантности

Антропологический форум. 2020. № 44. С. 83–113.

Banshchikova A., Ivanchenko O.

The article highlights the results of field research conducted in Tanzania from August 24 to September 14, 2018, focused on the historical memory of the Arab slave trade in East Africa and the Indian Ocean in the 19th century and its influence on the interethnic relations in the country nowadays. Structured and non-structured interviews (mostly in-depth) were done in Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo and Zanzibar. In general, opinions divided almost equally: half of respondents are convinced that the relations are completely good, the other half believe that there are some tensions. Both opinions are well-argued and substantiated, it is possible to trace some patterns in people’s perception. The history of the Arab slave trade lies between family trauma on the one hand, and tolerance, non-discrimination, imposed by the state, on the other. Two ways of reproducing the historical memory largely oppose each other: the school system lays the blame on Europeans, promoting peaceful interethnic relations, presenting the slave trade as an essential part of colonialism, and after that emphasizing the story of overcoming the colonial past, while the oral tradition censors nothing and tells the history of the ancestors’ sufferings in its entirety. Thus, connoisseurs of the oral tradition with a low level of education turn to be the most vulnerable category, they become the least tolerant to Arab-Tanzanians part of the country’s population.

Keywords: Танзания, работорговля, Tanzania, slave trade, Arabs, арабы, cultural (collective) trauma, construction of collective image, культурная (коллективная) травма, конструирование группового образа