Hassanali Nazarali Punja

"Prior to 1928, the island of Pemba was furnished with movies “at infrequent intervals (by) Indians travelling with a cinematograph”, the most prominent among them being a certain Hassanali Nazarali Punja, who from 1928 operated the Regal Cinema in Wete, which seated an audience of 500 and was attended by an average of 800 people per week, followed by the Imperial in Chake-Chake with a capacity of 400 and an average weekly attendance of 700 people, which was run by Soni Narandas Zaverchand, a goldsmith and pawnbroker.

While the colonial authorities apparently approved the increase in cinematic amusement in the urban surroundings of Unguja and Pemba provided cinema owners paid their license fees and observed the fire security rules, they were not prepared to tolerate a similar development in the rural areas. This became obvious in 1939 when, dismayed by the growing popularity of “moving pictures” among the rural workers, clove plantation owners in Pemba petitioned the British representatives “that no licence [for a travelling cinema, B.R.] be issued, which, in 1934, caused considerable loss to them and to pickers who flocked into the cinema at all hours of the day and night”. Complying with their request, the District Commissioner of Pemba consequently rejected Hassanali Nazarali Punja’s application “to carry on a portable travelling cinema in Pemba” and to erect a temporary cinema tent in Mtambile, a township particularly busy during the clove season. He hastened to add that “a campaign has been carried on and broadcast throughout Pemba advising people to save their money : a cinema in the clove area would not be, in my opinion, to the best interests of the public. "District Commissioner Pemba to Provincial Commissioner Pemba,…”.

Repeated attempts by the indefatigable Punja and his legal advisers, a law office based in Unguja, were similarly unsuccessful. Nor was the patriotic promise made by Punja in 1941 to “get war films and to show shambas [sic!] people and out of the income of war Films [sic!] show I will pay 20% from the net income to the Fighter Fund Aid. "H.N. Punja to District Commissioner Pemba, 22/08/1941 in ZNA AB…” likely to win the favour of the protectorate government and the clove growers. Their spokesman was the influential Sheikh Said bin Ali el-Mugheiri, “Arab” representative on the Pemba Film Licensing Board, a body that consequently confirmed its unanimous opposition “to the showing of films in country districts at the present time [24] Ibid., District Commissioner Pemba to H.N. Punja, 09/09/1941.”.

“Tonight at the Empire” Cinema and urbanity in Zanzibar, 1920s to 1960s" Brigitte Reinwald: Dans Afrique & histoire 2006/1 (vol. 5), pages 81 à 109