On October 23, 2024, as part of the Culture and Society seminar of the Center for History and Cultural Anthropology, two reports were held dedicated to the island part of the United Republic of Tanzania, the islands of Zanzibar, and Pemba.

The report of a senior researcher, A.A. Banshchikova "Pemba Island: a photo tour of the monuments of the Swahili Middle Ages and the Portuguese New Age" presented descriptions and photographs of such monuments as Ras Mkumbuu, Tumbe / Chwaka, Msuka Mjini, Mkia wa Ng'ombe, Mtambwe Mkuu and Pujini (Mkama Ndume), taken during a visit to the island; the recorded oral tradition about the arrival of the Portuguese to Pemba in the late 15th – early 16th centuries and the associated burials of local residents in the Ngezi forest in the north and in Vitongoji on the east coast of the island were also covered.

Paper of Valentina N. Bryndina "Christians of Zanzibar and Pemba: History and current state" presents the main results of the field and archival research conducted by the author on Zanzibar and Pemba (Tanzania) from 2020 to 2024. The study focused on understanding the attitudes of Muslims and Christians towards the current state of interfaith relations. A total of 105 respondents were interviewed (63 in Zanzibar and 42 in Pemba), of which 70 were Muslim and 35 were Christian. An analysis of the collected interviews revealed significant differences in the perceptions of interreligious relations between the residents of the two islands. In Zanzibar, where Christians are a long-standing and significant minority, their presence cannot be ignored. In Pemba, where Christians are a hyperminority, their presence is completely erased, both from statistics and public life. The attitude of the Muslim majority towards them is much worse due to the more traditionalist and less cosmopolitan character of Pemba society. Meanwhile, the issue of Muslim-Christian relations is more acute in Zanzibar, where it is inextricably linked with other problems, such as intensive labor migration and the union problem, which leads to the long-standing political conflict between the CCM party and the islands’ opposition (CUF and ACT-Wazalendo). This paper outlines the main milestones in Christianity’s spread on these two islands. It also presents the results of a study of Muslim-Christian relations in the context of the modern political situation in the country.