The Creation of a Collective Memory of the Zanzibar Revolution in Modern Oman

Abstract This article analyzes the collective memory of the Zanzibar Revolution in Oman, historicizing its evolution from a collection of representations in exile into disembodied online debates among Omanis and Zanzibaris about the violence and killings that occurred during January 1964. The collective memory of the revolution is an ever-shifting assemblage of experiences, interpretations, and imagination that continually obtains new social significance in relation to the living horizon of an event, the point beyond which no one alive has experienced that event. The collective memory of the revolution nurtured outside of Zanzibar and in Oman has also been transformed by its reception in new media, where it influences those who never experienced the original events.