Zanzibar Between the Wars
Political change in Zanzibar in the period from 1918 to 1945 was slow. The British colonial regime had developed a fairly efficient bureaucracy, and the financial policies of the sultanate had been reformed. In 1926 the Executive Council and the Legislative Council were introduced. The latter, chiefly an advisory body, had limited lawmaking responsibilities. Except for the highest posts, which were filled by European officials, the senior positions in the bureaucracy were held by Arabs and a number of the minor ones by Asians.
The Shirazi, descendents of Middle Easterners and Africans, and other Africans of mainland origin were not involved. a situation that in part reflected the British conception of Zanzibar as an Arab state, in part the fact that the largely rural Africans (including the Shirazi) had little access to the available educational facilities. Africians were also excluded from the unofficial side of the Legislative Council until 1946 when the first Shirazi was ap-pointed.
As they had been since the nineteenth century, clove and coconut plantations held by Arabs remained the significant elements in the agricultural sector of Zanzibar's economy; earlier attempts to develop other crops had failed. Commercial activity was chiefly in the hands of Asians, some of whom also held large mortgages on many Arab-owned plantations.
Several ethnic organizations emerged in the interwar period. but they did not become bases for political party formation until after World War II. The Arab Association was formed in the early 1920s primarily to seek compensation for losses deriving from the emancipation of slaves. The depression of the 1930s led to the increasing dependence of Arab landowners on Asian creditors, and the association turned its attention to defending their interests against the latter.
The African Association was formed by mainlanders in 1934 and the Shirazi Association in 1939. Both were essentially welfare organizations and had some of the characteristics of unions but were not active politically. At this time there was a considerable gulf between the mainlanders and the Shirazi who, unlike the mainlanders, saw themselves as subjects of the sultan and shared adherence to Islam with the Arabs. The members of the African Association, however, maintained their connections with the mainland, and in 1939 the association affiliated with the African Association in Tanganyika. The Indian Association, concerned chiefly with financial and business matters, was formed in 1910 but, unlike the others, did not become politically significant after World War II.
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