People's Republic of Zanzibar

Overview

The People's Republic of Zanzibar (Swahili: Jamhuri ya Watu wa Zanzibar) was a short-lived socialist state on the Zanzibar Archipelago (Unguja and Pemba) off the East African coast, existing for less than six months in 1964 between the Zanzibar Revolution and the union with Tanganyika that created Tanzania. The table's dates (1856–1889) reflect the deeper history the islands are usually associated with: Zanzibar had been ruled from Oman since the late 17th century, and in 1856, after the death of Said bin Sultan, the Omani empire was split between his sons, creating a separate Sultanate of Zanzibar that became a British protectorate in 1890. That Arab-ruled, clove- and slave-trading sultanate—whose African majority was long dominated by an Arab elite—set the stage for the revolution that produced the People's Republic.

History

On 12 January 1964, barely a month after Zanzibar's independence from Britain, the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) and the left-wing Umma Party, joined by the volatile self-styled field marshal John Okello, overthrew Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah in a violent revolution. A Revolutionary Council formed the interim government, renaming the country the People's Republic of Zanzibar, with Abeid Karume as President, Abdullah Kassim Hanga as Prime Minister, and Abdulrahman Mohammad Babu as Minister of External Affairs. Its first acts permanently banished the Sultan and banned the Zanzibar Nationalist Party and the Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party.

The revolution unleashed bloody reprisals against the islands' Arab and South Asian populations—beatings, murders, and property attacks, with death estimates ranging from hundreds to 20,000 (Western papers reported 2,000–4,000); an Italian film crew documented mass graves for Africa Addio. Many Arabs fled to Oman. Karume, a moderate, soon sidelined Okello, whose Christian faith, Ugandan accent, and violent rhetoric alienated the largely Muslim ASP; in March 1964 Okello was stripped of his rank and deported, and his Freedom Military Force was disarmed in favor of a new People's Liberation Army.

Decline and legacy

Western governments feared "a Cuba of Africa": Zanzibar recognized East Germany (the first African state to do so) and North Korea, and received Soviet, East German, and Chinese advisers. Britain and the US withheld recognition until 23 February 1964. On 26 April 1964 Karume announced a negotiated union with Tanganyika—partly to contain communist subversion and the radical Umma Party—forming the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, renamed Tanzania that November. Zanzibar retains autonomy within Tanzania to this day, and the revolution's memory still shapes its fractious politics.