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One Square Mile - Zanzibar
Zanzibar off the mainland of East Africa is an island the size of London that has seen its fair share of upheavals over the years - slavery, colonialism, a bloody revolution in 1964 and the collapse of the market for its mainstay, cloves.
And yet today this multi-ethnic island, which is an autonomous part of Tanzania, is an oasis of stability in a region blighted by ethnic troubles, piracy and religious tensions.

BBC news anchor, Zeinab Badawi, spent two days wandering the seafront, alleyways and markets of the island's capital, Stone Town, to try and find out why modern-day Zanzibar has escaped conflict.
In a succession of spontaneous encounters – the purpose of the BBC’s One Square Mile format - with politicians, traders, craftsmen, fishermen, students, musicians and tourists she finds that a sustained investment by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in the restoration of the architectural glories of the old town has helped revive the economy which is 80% dependent on high-end tourism.

Badawi also discovers that in this predominantly Islamic island, the women she comes across are on equal footing with men. She meets women plasterers who have re-acquired traditional building skills and tackles the female head of a Madrassa on why she allows girls as young as six to cover their heads? She is told it’s the custom on the Island and learns that at this Madrassa the kids get the kind of early school development that you’d find in advanced school systems anywhere in the world. The economic upturn, though, is fragile and Badawi meets a top student who says she might have to leave the Island to find employment.

Badawi is encouraged by what she finds but in her programme sign off the Sudan-born Reporter refers to the danger of poverty and ‘dashed hopes and aspirations’ to the stability of the Island.

Watch "One Square Mile - Zanzibar" on BBC World News
Saturday 10th April - 01:30 GMT and 08:30 GMT
Sunday 11th April 14:30 GMT and 20:30 GMT


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