With and without Zanzibar

Abstract

Abstract This paper explores discursive narratives as inextricably linked to the construction of identity, place and history by a number of interviewed individuals. From an interactional sociolinguistics (cf. De Fina & Georgakopoulou, 2012 ) perspective, the study explores the context of the East African diaspora ( Georgiou, 2006 ; Manger & Assal, 2006 among many others) as the interviewed participants are all Zanzibar-born individuals for whom the relationship with the island and its history is crucial to their construction of selfhood. The study analyses the narrative voices ( De Fina & Georgakopolou, 2008 ) of those individuals who decided to leave Zanzibar at the time of the 1964 violent political upheaval never to return and those who, on the contrary, decided to go back after a lengthy period abroad. However, more than establishing a division between these two groups, the paper highlights how these individuals take a different positioning ( Bamberg, 1997 ) towards Zanzibar and its history and construct a range of identities in the context of the interview.