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Welcome, wherever you're listening to us.

My name's Hugh Sykes.

And this is Africa Surprising, the second of two programs about a new spirit of optimism

across the continent. As Barack Obama put it on his recent visit to Kenya, Africa is

on the move. I travelled from South Africa to Ethiopia, visiting

Mozambique and Tanzania on the way. First port of call this week,

Zanzibar, the ancient Indian Ocean Spice Island off the coast of mainland Tanzania.

I wanted to find out more about what I'd heard were serious tensions between the very small minority of Christians on the island

and the vast majority of Muslims there, including alarming reports of bombs, a murder, arson and growing fears of what people were calling Islamism.

Hysteria or warning signals.

Arriving at the Zanzibar capital, Stonetown,

by high-speed jetfoil ferry from Dar es Salaam,

it didn't feel tense at all.

From this stone town rooftop you can see and here but this is not a powder keg of fundamentalist extremism.

Across the roofs one way, the stone spire and clock tower of the Anglican Cathedral.

Right next door here, the White Spire, of a Hindu temple.

And in the narrow alleyways of Stone Town, occasional reminders of the days when this was a major source of spices for India.

And when the sun has set into the sea the town is bathed in the voices of imams calling from the mosques.

Sansobar is about 98% Muslim, mostly entirely peaceful, but in the past three years

...