Zanzibar and Tanganyika:The (Un)Making of a Union

Introduction: Thinking in Metaphor

• Horticulture metaphor –seeds of nationalism• Historical writing on Zimbabwe– Cecil Rhodes and the Chimurenga of 1896,

“seeds of nationalism”– Anti-colonial seeds – 1930s – “seeds put down roots” – economic

conditions– Post-WWII – growing discontent, “flowering”– “Second Chimurenga” of the 1970s v. Ian Smith– 1978, end of colonialism – “fruits of

independence”

Introduction: Thinking in Metaphor

• Horticulture metaphor –seeds of nationalism• Misleading:– Believe nationalism sprung from resistance of

1890s– Zimbabwe – legitimating for Robert Mugabe –

power resides in people of 1890s– 1950s/1960s – school of historians – “roots of

nationalism”– Simplicity attractive – story much more complex– Complexity and post-independence Africa

East Africa and Zanzibar• Zanzibar and colonial rule in E. African context• Germany – mainland of Tanganyika (until WWI)• British Protectorate (1890) – Zanzibar and 6 mile

coastal strip– British/German trade for islands in the Baltic Sea

• British colonial rule in Zanzibar– Economically viable – agricultural production and taxation– Politically – Busaidi Sultanate (like Kabaka, Uganda)– Bombardment of Stone Town (August, 1896), succession

crisis– Destruction of Beit al-Sahel and Beit al-Hukm– Shortest war in history, 38 minutes

East Africa and Zanzibar• British colonial rule– “Divide and Rule”– Colonial Institutions – categories of race and

ethnicity codified– Executive Council – Arab and Asian representation– Legal codes and African customary law– Historic fluidity now reified

East Africa and Zanzibar• British colonial rule– Economy and free market principles

• Arab Indebtedness to Asian lenders. Threat of insolvency and fear of agricultural collapse

• British agricultural subsidies failed. • Marketing Board – Clove Growers Association (CGA) in

1928 – controlled prices and export (1937)• Protection of Arab landlords at expense of Asians. Forbid

Asian land ownership of plantations• Boycotts in India on demand side• 1938 – “Heads of Agreement” – guaranteeing export to

Asians, but prices remained fixed• NOT a free market – interference of state in economy, put

another way, economy embedded in institutions

Growth of Anti-colonial Politics

• World War II – Turning Point– Fighting in Southeast Asia– African conscriptions, self-determination and

British invincibility• East African Politics– Kenya – Violence and Mau Mau• Settler Society• Anti-colonial and Civil War

– Tanzania – Comparatively Peaceful

Mainland Tanzania• Julius Kambarage Nyerere and TANU– Studied at Makerere University and University of

Edinburgh; devout Catholic– Founded Tanganyika African Association (TAA) in 1929

– civic organization for civil servants– 1954 – transforms into the politically oriented

Tanganyika African National Union (TANU)• Demand of national sovereignty• Registration, leading political organization• British ultimatum – school teacher or politician• Oratory skills – speech to United Nations• First elections 1958-59 – entered LegCo; 1960 chief minister• Tanzanian independence, Dec. 9, 1961 – Prime Minister

Zanzibar• Trade Unions – 1948 – dockworkers protest British and

Arab domination– Influenced by strikes in Mombasa and Dar– Spreads in Stone Town – Government and domestic servants,

ex-slaves, migrants, indigenous Zanzibari population– 1958 – Spreads to rural areas – formation of Zanzibar

Nationalist Party (ZNP)• Planters, Arab minority, formed out of Arab Association of the

1920s

• 1957 Elections – Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP)

• Formed with African Association and Shirazi Association• Shirazi identity – challenge Arab hegemony• “The trees are yours, the land is ours”• Cooper – Class consciousness

Zanzibar• Increasingly rigged elections (1959/1961) –

Increasingly acrimonious political party conflict– ZNP minority – disproportionate representation– 1961 election riot – Stone Town, spread to rural areas

68 dead, 381 injured– Assaults at polling stations, groups targeting Arabs,

settling of old scores• June 1963 vote – British introduce limited self-

government– ASP lost, despite winning 54% of the vote

(gerrymandering)– December 10, 1963 – Sultanate of Zanzibar

established

Zanzibar Revolution

• John Okello – – Similar to Clement Khadalie in South Africa– Born in Uganda, orphaned– Peripatetic life – moved to Kenya, unskilled jobs – gardener,

house servant, office clerk, laborer– 1959 – travels to Pemba for work (cloves)– Joins ASP, begins amassing following– Message from God to unite the struggle and overthrow

oppressors in Zanzibar– Moves to Unguja – joins trade union – builds mass following– Not a major player in ASP, nor close to its head, Abeid Amani

Karume

Zanzibar Revolution

• January 11th, 1964 - Revolution • ASP – Committee of Fourteen plans revolution• Karume tries to warn British police, not taken seriously• “Field Marshall” Okello leads some 600 supporters• Some 12,000 Arabs and Indians killed • Arabs and Indians flee, together with their capital• Zanzibar’s last Sultan, Jamshid ibn Abdullah, flees to

Britain in exile

• Creation of new Zanzibar Government• Okello lacked support• Karume made himself President of the People’s Republic of

Zanzibar and Pemba

Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar

• Aftermath of Zanzibar Revolution– Nyerere fear of destabilization. Himself survived an

army mutiny– Act of Union – provide Nyerere power to intervene

unilaterally – Karume – economic devastation of Revolution; lack of

foreign aid for leftist organization – Union his only option

– April 26, 1964 – United Republic of Tanzania• Nyerere – President• Karume – one of two Vice Presidents• Okello – barred from returning from mainland to Zanzibar

United Republic of Tanzania

• National Assembly– 343 seats, 50 for Zanzibar– Union matters – foreign affairs, taxation, education– Laws passed applicable to Zanzibar on Union matters –

increasing number of Union matters defined by fiat• Legal system

– Five-level judiciary– Combination of English common law, African customary law, and

Islamic law• Zanzibar House of Representatives

– 76 members – jurisdiction over all non-Union issues– “Semi-autonomous” government – unique– Islamic courts still govern many matters

Arusha Declaration• February 1967 – Socialist economic program/African socialism.

One-party state, no ethnic organizations. Ally with China in Sino-Soviet rivalry/TANZAM railway.

• “Ujamaa” – “Familyhood”– Collectivization, or villagization, as country’s agricultural policy– 1970s – Forcible transfers into collective farms. By 1977, 80% of

population uprooted– Food denial to those who resisted– Abandonment of crops and structures– Food production plummeted – once one of largest producers now

one of largest recipients of food aid– Ujamaa villages – 90% population, 5% of production

• Nationalization– Banks, retail, import-export– Corruption and repression extreme – “Wabenzi”

Zanzibar after Union

• Divisions, including pro-government Unguja and pro-opposition Pemba

• Karume– Economic ruin similar to mainland– Paranoid and dictatorial – mass deportations of Asians and

remaining Arabs– April 1972 – assassinated

• Creation of Chama Cha Mapinduzi – CCM (Revolutionary Party) – February 1977– Aboud Jumbe – successor to Karume– Merger of Zanzibar’s ASP with Mainland’s TANU

End of African Socialism• 1980s – Tanzania in economic ruin– IMF and World Bank impose structural adjustment– Nyerere forced to step down; Ali Hassan Mwinyi

handpicked successor– Forced privatization of industries – Nyerere – left Tanzania one of poorest, least developed,

and most dependent on foreign aid– “Father of the Nation”– End of one-party system – first multiple party elections

in 1995 – Mkapa to power, followed by Kikwete– Zanzibar – Continued fraught politics and violence

• Police brutality, arbitrary arrests, “treason trial”• 2000 Elections – 26 demonstrators killed, brought Karume

Conclusion• Hardening of ethnic and racial categories under British

colonial rule• Creation of institutions and structures, both political and

economic, to facilitate preferential access to state and wealth

• Tensions created and heightened in colonial period gifted to independent government

• African nationalism not a neat, heroic story• Nyerere and African socialism– Failure economically, but…– High literacy rates– African conceptions of modernity– Contemporary culture