They bewitched the generator: state power and religious authority at the New Year’s festival in Makunduchi, Zanzibar

Abstract

The New Year’s festival in Makunduchi, Zanzibar, has been one of the central sites for the interaction between state power and religious authority. It has changed considerably since colonial times, as political rituals were grafted onto religious ones, and a commercial fair developed. In this article, it is argued that these changes can be explained in part by the renegotiation, both in conflict and co-operation, of the relationship between local religious experts and state officials. First the New Year’s rituals as central practices for the production of local religious authority is analysed. Then the colonial history of the festival is discussed, before finally turning to the interactions between state power and local authority at the festival in post-colonial times.