Paper short abstract:

Suggesting that politicised rituals of grief can shift existing narratives to create new geographies of affect and action, this paper explores the live-streamed funeral of Zanzibari opposition leader Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad, who died of Covid-19 on February 17, 2021 in Tanzania.

Paper long abstract:

Suggesting that politicised rituals of grief can shift existing narratives to create new geographies of affect and action, this paper explores the live-streamed funeral of Zanzibari Vice-president and opposition leader Seif Sharif Hamad, who died of Covid-19 on February 17, 2021. Commonly known as 'Maalim', teacher, Hamad had galvanised Zanzibari and mainland opposition for over forty years, first within the government, then as the beloved leader of the Civic United Front, an opposition party that would for several decades be the strongest in the country. To the ruling powers, Maalim was a constant irritant; worse, he came from – and his support was strongest in – Pemba, a remote, impoverished island the existence of whose people, while frequently written out of history, threatens the origin myths of both Zanzibar and Tanzania. Winning the presidency in every election since 1995 but consistently prevented from taking office by the joint military forces of Zanzibar and Tanzania, Maalim persisted. To his supporters, Maalim was nearly saint-like, and thousands stood by him despite the extreme state violence directed at them for doing so. His death marked the end of a political era, sending cataclysms of despair across oppositional Zanzibar and Tanzania. Unexpectedly, the televised ritual of his funeral offered the nation a new script for the future, defining a new political geography in which the interests of mainlanders and islands, including Maalim’s remote and systematically marginalized home island of Pemba, might be effectively enfolded in a new vision of the state.