Unless you are from south Zanzibar, then you probably would end up in jail hitting someone hard with a banana stalk as an expression of taking out grudges and starting the year on a clean slate. Americans are familiar with the concept of spring cleaning, but government sanctioned "violence" is certainly not part of it.

Every year, around the third week of July, the people of Makunduchi in southeastern Zanzibar exorcise all evil spirits and carry on their age-old tradition of ritualized aggression to celebrate the end of the old growing season and the beginning of spring. The date coincides with "Nairuz" or the Persian New Year, although the event itself predates the arrival of Shirazi immigrants who were the first foreign settlers in this part of Africa.