Community engagement course brings students to Zanzibar
By Stephanie M. McPherson
Nine representatives from Boston College traveled to Zanzibar, Tanzania this summer to assist in social and environmental research in collaboration with State University of Zanzibar (SUZA), the NGOs Milele and Mwambao, and Tanzania’s Blue Economy Ministry as part of the Schiller Institute’s Working For and With Communities program.
Seven undergraduates and two mentors conducted interviews employing ethnographic methods to better understand how gender, religion, and tourism interact with and affect climate change adaptation, in order to better support policy and action frameworks in Zanzibar.
“The islands of Zanzibar are really a study in the environmental and human effects of climate change, given that local economies like fishing and seaweed farming are vulnerable to even slight changes in water temperature. On top of that, the tourism industry has boomed unsustainably in recent decades, creating tense cultural conflict and often dispossessing locals of their land and access to the beach,” says Caitlyn Bolton, Assistant Professor in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, and the faculty lead on the course.
Working For and With Communities is offered by Schiller every spring semester, with travel to locales around the world for three weeks during the summer break. Summer 2023 saw eight students working in Cambodia in conjunction with the Jesuit Refugee Service there. This year’s program in Zanzibar was put together by Bolton in collaboration with the Schiller Institute. Bolton’s work in the region extends back to her doctoral research and she has maintained close friendships with professionals in the region. This reflects the ethos of the class, which teaches the students that working alongside locals is more productive than attempting to impose their own external ideas.
“How you relate on an individual level I think is as important as the project itself, because it sets the tone for how you interact and conduct the project,” says Kaley McCarty, Assistant Director of Programs at the Schiller Insitute and a co-lead on the class.
The students prepared for the trip during the spring semester through a lecture series that taught them how to conduct ethical ethnographic research, which emphasizes understanding the culture they will be entering and making genuine connections once there. Guest speakers discussed the history of Zanzibar and its relationship to mainland African countries, and how an explosion of tourism has damaged local ecosystems and endangered livelihoods that depend on the environment.
The group spent their first week in Zanzibar Town, meeting with representatives from NGOs, SUZA, and Dr. Zakaria Khamis, Director of Zanzibar Fisheries and Marine Resources Institute (ZAFIRI) in the Blue Economy Ministry (BEM) – a governmental entity working to increase environmentally aware economic growth. The students heard how they could help the BEM gather data needed to create solutions to the issues affecting the coastal communities. They then set off for two weeks of interviews and research conducted in the village of Paje.
Zanzibar is a Muslim-majority region. One point of contention between the locals and the tourists involves a lack of modest dressing when those from other countries leave the resorts and visit the towns. Bolton and McCarty made sure their students would show respect for the culture by dressing modestly and wearing a hijab while walking around the village.
“I was very happy to see that they appreciated the culture of Zanzibar and wore scarves whenever they went to villages and met community members. I didn't count on this,” says Mary Khatib, lecturer in the Department of Geography at the State University of Zanzibar and one of Schiller’s local partners for this project.
The students were given full control over their interview days. They visited the resorts and talked with managers and employees, to understand their needs and motivations. They walked around the village to witness day-to-day life and interview residents who have seen their worlds change. For example, a group of students approached an older woman on her break from work to ask about her experiences growing up and growing old in the village.
“I really appreciated her taking the time to share her story with us as we were complete strangers,” says Julia Wowkun, a junior Environmental Studies major with a minor in Finance. “I was really nervous about going up to her because I felt like I was going to be burdening her, asking to hear about her life. But it was really rewarding to be able to establish that connection with her and really connect through hearing and listening to her experiences.”
Students followed wherever interviews took them, giving them a broad, strong understanding of the situation on the ground.
“The topic of tourism in Zanzibar, students had a unique perspective by monitoring the opinions of community members (old and young), the opinions of workers in the tourism sector who are foreigners such as the Maasai and even foreigners and government officials. This was able to provide a real picture of Zanzibari tourism from different perspectives,” says Khatib.
By the end of the trip, they had enough information to draw up two policy briefs with recommendations for initiatives that could aid in bridging the gap between locals and the tourist economy. They presented their initial ideas to Dr. Zakaria before returning to the United States. The students met again in early September to finalize their policy brief, and will formally present it to the Blue Economy Ministry later this fall.
Their ideas include teaching locals how to take advantage of the new economic opportunities that tourism brings. They also suggest creating a document that can help tourists understand both how to be respectful in the villages and that damage to nearby seaweed beds affects the livelihood of local women.
They also uncovered that a lack of communication was a root cause of a lot of the conflict in the area.
“We found that, let's say a man who worked in the village thought that the hotel was maybe getting unfair advantages from the government, but the hotel feels like the government is unfairly burdening them and that they want to try to help the community but don't know how,” says Wowkun. “They're all kind of saying the same thing, but they don't realize it.”
This led them to suggest the creation of a local Blue Economy Ministry council in the villages to aid in the communication between stakeholders, to see if they can come to mutually agreeable solutions to their issues.
The Schiller Institute will offer Working For and With Communities again in the spring. Some students will travel to Chile to embark on a new collaborative community-inspired project, while others will continue the Zanzibar project. Student representatives from State University of Zanzibar will come to Boston College to further the work done this summer, and another cohort of BC students will travel back in the summer of 2026.
“I'm thankful that Schiller is committed not only to outcomes, but also, fundamentally, to process,” says Bolton. “To reciprocity and a deep, meaningful collaboration that will be impactful on many levels.”