Part 1: Researching PEMBA and its people

- Karina Kielmann (1997:127) Pragmatic woman Editorial

- Pemba is situated 40 km of the coast of the mainland Tanzania
- Although Zanzibar consists of Pemba and Unguja,it is the island of Unguja that is more familiar to
westerners under the name Unguja. (pg.156)
- Infrastructure and tourism are far less developed comparing with the neighboring Unguja island
and Pemba has received comparatively little attention in the historical literature in the area (Direct
quote)
- Tumbe: The early Swahili trade village of Tumbe, Pemba Island, Tanzania, AD 600–950 Jeffrey
Fleisher & Adria La Violette (2013)
- Tumbe was settled from the 7th and 10th Century AD (pg.1151). People had started to live there
since 600 – 1000 AD
- The locally produced pottery from Tumbe is part of the Early Tana Tradition (ETT, what Chami
1998 calls ‘TIW’), with incised and punctuated decorations most found on medium- to large-sized
necked jars. This pottery is the most common feature of regional coastal and hinterland sites from
the sixth–tenth centuries, from northern Kenya southern Mozambique and at interior settlements
(Horton 1996; Chami 1998; Fleisher & Wynne-Jones 2011). The ETT is found at sites throughout
northern Pemba (Fleisher 2003, 2010) and sites further south on the island (La Violette & Fleisher
1995) (pg.1155 -56)
- Tumbe was likely the richest settlement on Pemba for its time, and one of the richest on the Swahili
coast until the burst of town growth after AD 1000 (pg.1158)
- Captain J.E.E Craster (1913) – Pemba, the spice Island of Zanzibar - (pages 36 – 40) Narrates life
in Pemba and cultural objects and economic activities such as Thatching House, Palm leaves door,
thatched roof, Mihogo as principal food, sweet potatoes, crops raised beds, lemon grass, nut tree,
women pierced ears, nose brass stud, hair plaiting in women,
- Major Pearce; Zanzibar: The island Metropolis writes: (pg.306)
- It is the Emerald Island of the Indian ocean (pg.306). The island is considerably smaller than
Zanzibar, being forty-two miles from North to South and its width varies between 14 -16 miles.
Pemba is 988 km2 (381 sq. mi)
- Despite being the biggest contributor to the Zanzibar economy, “sometimes, owing to its
comparative remoteness, Pemba is not always given sufficient credit for its contribution to the
wealth and prosperity of the Zanzibar Sultanate.” (pg.307)
- Pearce describes Pemba as “a fruitful country of good soil, of peaceful, well-kept villages inhabited
by happy and contented people.” (pg.307)
- Pemba is geographically obscured due its geographical distance comparing with Unguja by about
twelve miles (pg. 308), “the accessibility of the island of” Unguja “is greater and is situated in a
better position to command the adjacent littoral of the mainland. (pg. 309)
- The history of Pemba is insular, that of Zanzibar is continental. (pg.309)
- Pemba is 60 miles from Mombasa.
- Chake and Weti (Wete) were the first town in Pemba
- Other early settlements are Mkoani: Kengeja, Mtangani, Jambangome in the south and
Mtangwatwani, Chwaka and Sisini in the north.
- Chake is the largest town and a commercial town of Pemba with population of four to five
Europeans, 100 British Indians, and 1000 Arabs and Swahilis. (pg. 311)
- Weti had population of about “600 souls” (pg.316)
- Mtambwe Kuu was also a settlement of few people from 17 century
- The population of Pemba was 80,000 people in 1920 (pg.318)
- The Wapemba claim descent from Shirazi settlers of old time, and from the numerous Shirazian
ruins in the island it is not difficult to perceive that in their veins there may be a strain of alien blood
derived from the sojourn in their midst of Semitic and possibly aryan races (pg. 319)
- Like their cousins, the Wahadimu and Watumbatu of Zanzibar Island, the people of Pemba are of a
retiring disposition.
- The true Wapemba are independent, and the younger men, while perfectly respectful to
Europeans, give evidence of high spirit, and even of good nurtured rowdiness when excited
(pg.320). They are outspoken, charming and cheerful
- Pembans have had less opportunity than the swahilis of Zanzibar or Mombasa of enlarging their
understanding or views of life by contact with other races (pg.320). This is no longer true because
since 1964, thousands of Pembans have left their island due to political, and economical factors to
seek refuge or green pastures in other pasrts of Tanzania such as Unguja and Dar. They have also
left for the Arab world, Europe and North America.

Marginalization of the Wapemba

 Ahmed Omar (2019:7) – strategic marginalization perpetrated by the system against the
Wapemba.
 Onyango (2003:140) – marginalization of the Wapemba
 Robert Nunez Lyne (2006: 206) - The natives of Pemba are called Wapemba; they do not live
in such seclusion as the Wahadimu on the larger island but are mixed up more with the Arabs
and Waswahili.
 Maliyamkono (2000:161) - The Waswahili from Zanzibar laugh at the Wapemba; they call them
foolish and regard them in very much the same way
 William Harold Ingrams (1926:2) - nearly all the Wapemba claim Persian origin
 Chachage CCL (2008:18) - Another group of people who occupied the rest of Pemba, were to
be classified Wapemba, on the same linguistic basis (Anyany, 1970; Loftchie, 1965; Middleton
& Campbell, 1965; Ismail (ed. Lienhardt), 1968).
 Akbar Keshodkar (2013:61) - The government punished Pembans for not participating in the
revolution (Tambila 2000: 97). With no investments in Pemba's economy and infrastructure20
and political marginalization of the people, many Pembans were deprived from acquiring land.
 Nathalie Arnold (2003: ix) - The absence at the turn of the 21st century of active uchawi in
Pemba is viewed as proof of Pembans' marginalization, and of the divisiveness attending
Zanzibaris' troubled transition from totalitarianism to multi-party democracy
 Matthijs Bogaards, Sebastian Elischer – (2016:179) Indeed, Pembans are marginalised. Such
politics of exclusion resurfaced during the multiparty era in 1992.
 Mary Fitzpatrick (2008:143) - Tensions peaked during the 1995 elections and relations
deteriorated thereafter, with Pembans feeling increasingly marginalised and frustrated. This
was hardly surprising, considering that illiteracy rates are as high as 95%
 Shannon Howard, Harold Sungusia, Rodrick Maro – (2004:23) - On its negative side, the
opposition parties view multiparty democracy as a cause of
economic marginalization especially to the Pembans who are the strong supporters of the
opposition, like CUF.
 Keith Muloongo, Roger Kibasomba, Jemima Njeri Kariri – (2005: 55) -  The Wapemba
developed a feeling of being oppressed and marginalised politically and economically
 Nathalie Arnold (2003:41) – narrates the geography and vegetation of South-central Pemba.
Nathalie describes Mtambile as “hilly, fertile, lush and green” with vegetation such as cloves,
rice, cassava, plantains, sweet orange, pomelo, lemon, tangerine, mango, breadfruit, jackfruit,
and papaya trees. Bitter orange, damson plum, Indian almond, ylang ylang, and casuarina
trees. Bakery, fish market, shops.
 Pembans have the reputation as “stubborn and intractable to rule” (Arnolds, pg. 292)
 Being Pemban “meant having agency, and the freedom to do as they pleased. It also meant
participating in strong communities (Arnold, pg. 360)
 Ingrams (2007:122) – The aboriginal tribes of Zanzibar are three: Wahadimu, Watumbatu and
the Wapemba.
 Ingrams – The Wapemba are a race of cultivators and fishermen. They sometimes do
business. Pemba are more “ingrained in witchcraft and magic”.
 Nathalie Arnolods’ “For Us It’s What Came After”: Locating Pemba in Revolutionary Zanzibar
in Cunningham Bissel’s “Social Memory, Silenced Voices, and Political Struggle:
Remembering the Revolution in Zanzibar” (2018 ) - Pemba has also historically been home to
close to half of the isles’ population. Yet in much of the historiography Pemba is rarely
mentioned; when the island does appear, it is often as something of a side-note. With the
remarkable exceptions of J. E. E. Craster’s detailed and affectionate 1913 book Pemba: The
Spice Island of Zanzibar, important portions of W. H. Ingrams’s work, and Esmond Martin’s
account of a visit to Pemba in the mid-1970s, Pemba has until recently either been curiously
absent from much of the literature or has functioned as something of a question mark.2 When
the island has appeared, it has most often been depicted as a verdant and unruly hinterland
populated by wilfully conservative, “backward,” inward-looking people whose tight-knit
communities stubbornly lag behind the (political and cultural) times.(pg. 145)
 Pemba’s local inhabitants, most of whom owned trees and who themselves (like inhabitants of Unguja)
were already of mixed African/ Indian Ocean/Shirazi ancestry (Nathalie, 2018:152)
 In popular oral histories, Pembans in the 1950s are generally described as industrious, prosperous
people, passionately engaged in silviculture, animal husbandry, farming, fishing, hunting, and a range
of highly developed leisure activities (Nathalie, 2018:153)
 Pembans have sometimes been portrayed as being nostalgic for the protectorate and sultanate
periods; in my reading, any nostalgia for these is not for either the British or the sultanate per se but for
the significant autonomy Pemban communities enjoyed prior to the revolution (157 – 58)
 Jan Knappert, “PEMBA”. (1992:40) The island of Pemba lies about 60 km from the coast of
Tanzania at 4? 801 south and between longi tudes 39 degree 351 and 39-degree 501 east. Its
area is about 960 km2; it is separated from the mainland by a deep channel with a strong
northward current running through it.
 Zanzibar. Rice, cassava and maize, cloves and timber are grown. Chake Chake is the capital
of the island; its shallow port is only used by dhows. Mkumbuu was the earliest Port of Pemba
(PG. 40)
 On Pemba the Wapemba or indigenous people, opposed to the Arabs and the Africans whose
families had immigrated from the mainland, are known as Shirazi, people who claim descent
from Iran (which however they call by its Arabic-derived Swahili (Uajami).
 Ship/boats building tradition was passed to the natives by the Wadiba people whose leader
was known as Makame Ndume (Now known as Mkamandume of Pujini)
 There were five Chiefdoms after Portuguese invasion in Pemba. Those were: Mkumbuu,
Twaka, Ukomo, Uungwana, and Utenzi (pg.41)
 . The people were "peaceful and quiet" as in general the Swahili still are people are today (pg.
41)
 This paper explains strong historical ties between the people of Pemba and those in Lamu,
Pate, Mombasa, Segeju etc in Kenya.
 Until early 1800’s Pemba was not a part of Zanzibar. It was only in 1822 when Muhammad El
Mauli of Mombasa who tried to reclaim Pemba was defeated and Pemba became a part of
Zanzibar until 1964 (pg. 44 - 45)
 Zanzibar Revolution of 1964 did more harm to Pemba than it did to Unguja. Kanppert says
soon after revolution, Pemba was isolated from the world for over a decade. “No tourists were
allowed in (ostensibly because there were no hotels); not even the research officers for the
fisheries department could come near it.”
 Dr. Martin found out why Pemba was marginalised since then. Here is his report (Zanzibar
p.116) "The revolution met with considerable opposition on Pemba. The people were more
conservative than the residents of Zanzibar and they objected to the government's
nationalisation policies. When the plantations were taken over for redistribution and businesses
were seized by the government without compensation, dissidents vociferously voiced their
opposition. This infuriated Karume... also because the Pemba people had given their support
to his A.S.P. party only to the extent of 44 % of the votes in the 1963 election.
 Karume retaliated against Pemba by severely restricting the amount of food allowed to be
imported. While Pemba's clove plantations were producing the bulk of the country's foreign
exchange earnings, the people of the island were deprived of essential commodities: rice,
sugar, and spices.
 Dr. Martin was one of the very few foreigners admitted to Pemba since the revolution, so we
shall have to rely on his reports for the contemporary situation . (Pg. 46)
 Reference: Martin, Esmond Bradley Zanzibar: Tradition and Revolution, Hamish Hamilton,
London 1978
 Pemban poetry was not written in Zanzibar dialects: it was in Mombasa dialects such as
Kimvita (pg. 47)
 The Wapemba, so-called aborigines of Pemba, speak another dialect called Kipemba, which
again varies considerably from Kihadimu and Kitumbatu (Ingrams, 1924:534).
 Greg Cameron (2002:327) Benjamin Mkapa was once quoted as saying - 'These Pembans
have given us [CCM] nothing but trouble from the demand for multiparty democracy to
opposition in the Union Parliament, from challenging the Revolution to demanding the breakup
of the Union - therefore /f these people get out of line starting from the south of the island and
work your way northward, finish them!' (personal discussion, Kikwajuni, 2 November 2000).
 Prins (1967: xi) – “Language research (i.e. both Linguistics and philology) has made more
progress than most other sectors of Swahili studies” Prins cites the number of contributions by
Whiteley, Lambert, Knappert, Allen and Harries.
 Prins (1967: xii) describes Swahili dialects as Northern and Southern dialects. Buy he says it
would be misleading to consider a distinction between northern and southern types of speech
as implying a clear-cut geographical division. Some villages in Pemba, for example, have
northern types of Kin terminologies, whereas nearby settlements employ a southern
terminology, although they are situated more to the north.
 Kipemba is close to Kimtang’ata and nowadays at least, it is confined to the south east and
north east of the island. (pg. xii)
 Towards theoretical discussion on territorial grouping of the dialects and nomenclature Prins
(pg.15) put it this way; “ it is difficult to divide the whole Swahili group into clear cut sub areas
or even into a number of territorial distinct subtribes in a really efficient manner. Any area
subdivision will always remain open to criticism.
 Prins suggests three possible solutions to the problem (1) To make a geographical division into
a northern group, a southern one and an island division, with probably a variable number of
possibilities as regards precise borderline between the three. (2) To follow linguistic criteria,
copying the area classification, as proposed by the linguists, even though now outdated by
current research, and thus of doubtful value (3) To take into account the ethic and political
history as preserved in traditions of origins and migration and in the many material accounts of
the past along the coast.
 The classification based on the combination of cultural and geographical consideration are (I)
(1) The Northern and Middle Swahili – including those of the LAMU archipelago, Bajun (2) The
Swahili South of the Sabaki (Malindi, Mombasa, Vumba)
 (II) (1) Southern Swahili – Tanganyika Coast, Watu wa mrima, Tanga and Rufiji
 (2) The Mgao Swahili and those of north Mozambique and the Ilhas Kerimba
 (III) Island Swahili (1) Pemba and surrounding Islets
  Zanzibar and Tumbatu
 Mafia Archipelago

Who are the Wapemba and Kipemba

 Wapemba are the inhabitants of Pemba Island, except for a number of small groups such as
Nyamwesi and Nyema of central Tanganyika., recent settlers on the island. The Wapemba are in a
strict sense are related to Watu wa Mvita, the ancient Wa-Ozi, and WaMalindi on the other hand,
and the Wajomba and Wavumba on the other and may to a certain extent be considered as
offshoots of these (Prins, 1967:18; Baumann, 1899:9). Pembans also relate to the Gunya (Bajun),
Arabs from Sheher, Comoros, Arabs from Mombasa.

Language

 Swahili is a Bantu language originally (loosely speaking) spoken along the coastline of East Africa
from Kismayu in the North to Ibo in the south and in the islands nearby (pg.24).
 Prins lists 15 dialects of Swahili
 Prins asserts that Kipemba is a dialect of Pemba Island, has affinity with Kihadimu (Kikae) (p.26)

Geography

 Pemba is dissected by valleys and gorges, making it distinctly more mountainous in character.
There are a large number of islets, reefs, and rocks that fringe the main island and of which only
six or seven are inhabited. Finally, Pemba has the quality of its topsoil evenly distributed – and so
is its population. (p.28)

Language in Tanzania – Edgar Polome

 The Mrima coast dialects have close links with the island’s dialects, there are for example,
noticeable lexical correspondence between mtangata (south Tanga) and Pemba (Whiteley, 1956;4)
BY Polome, 1980:85)
 There is also a closer relation between Vumba, Mtangata, Hadimu, Tumbatu and other
northeastern and southeastern Pemba dialects, inckuding further connections with the Comoros.
(pg. 85-6)
 Note the Sacleux (1909: ix) classification of the dialects and Whiteley (1958;12-15)
 When Whiteley visited Pemba in 1958, Swahili had apparently replaced the local dialects in the
Western half of the island due the influx of migrant workers from Zanzibar and the Mainland in
clove plantations.
 Distinctive Pemba dialects still survived in the Micheweni- Wingwi Peninsula of the north east, on
Kojani island in the east, and the Matele Kiuyu south of Kojani (Whiteley, 1958:8). No detailed
description of these dialects is available is available. (pg. 86)
 The possible differences here are essentially lexical but there are some variations in
demonstratives and the affixes in the verbal complex. Pemba has two sets of subject prefixes in
 the singular of the affirmative forms – a feature it shares with Vumba (Kenya – Tanzania border),
Hadimu (South Zanzibar) and Mtang’ata (Mrima coast) – this feature is li- and me- tenses
(Whiteley, 1958:12 -15)
 Read again page 86 – 87: Polome
 Mark Horton and John Middleton (1988:33) – The first large Island to be reached is Pemba, and
this fits closely the position given for Menouthias. Menouthias is 300 stadia from the Mainland (or
around 30 miles), Pemba is 28 miles offshore at its narrowest point. Its low and wooded with rivers.
Menouthias is the first point where inhabitants are mentioned, with their sewn boats, dugout
canoes, and basket traps for fishing.

MAJOR THEORETICAL DISCUSSION TO MY RESEARCH

1. Key Terminologies and Concepts – Dialect, Variety, Local variants, Variation, Linguistic features,
Kisanifu vs Satandard Swahili?
2. Kipemba – is one dialect or various dialects in Pemba? – Issues on the classification of Kipemba
3. Kipemba – Is it spoken all over Pemba or it is spoken in some parts of Pemba?
4. Kipemba – What dialects is it related to?
5. Kipemba – How is it related? (In what aspects?) Is that relationship still valid today?
6. Kipemba – Major assumptions and unanswered questions
7. Methodology? – difficulties – reliability of older data