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Zanzibar Revolution

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Zanzibar Revolution
Date12 January 1964
Location
Zanzibar
Result Revolutionary victory
Belligerents
Mainly African revolutionaries The government of Zanzibar
Commanders and leaders
John Okello Jamshid bin Abdullah
Strength
600–800 men
Casualties and losses

At least 80 killed and 200 injured during revolution (the majority were Arabs)

Up to 20,000 civilians killed in the aftermath

The Zanzibar Revolution was the 1964 overthrow of the Sultan of Zanzibar and his mainly Arab government. The key leader of the revolution was Ugandan John Okello who commanded 600–800 men, largely members of the African Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP). The revolutionaries were frustrated by their party's lack of representation in parliament, despite winning 54% of the vote in the July 1963 election. The revolution occurred early on the morning of 12 January 1964 when the revolutionaries overran the country's police force and took their weaponry before proceeding to Zanzibar Town and overthrowing the Sultan and government. The revolutionaries then attacked the Arab and South Asian civilians in the country. The death toll is disputed, ranging from several hundred to 20,000. The ASP worked in collaboration with the left-wing Umma Party, which led to a poor reception from the Western Powers then engaged in the Cold War. Abeid Karume became the country's new president and head of state.

As Zanzibar lay within the British sphere of influence, several plans were drawn up for military intervention but these were not put into action. Instead, the communist powers of China, East Germany and the USSR opened friendly relations by recognising the country and sending advisors to its government. In an attempt to maintain stability in East Africa, which had seen several army riots sparked by the revolution, Karume entered Zanzibar into a merger with Tanganyika to form the new nation of Tanzania. The event ended 200 years of Arab dominance in Zanzibar and is commemorated on the island by anniversary celebrations.

Origins

Zanzibar

Zanzibar was a country lying in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Tanganyika. It consisted of the main island of Unguja, the smaller island known as Pemba to the north of Unguja, and numerous minor islands. Prior to the revolution the country was governed as a constitutional monarchy under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah who was liked by the majority of population.[1] At the time of the revolution the country contained around 230,000 African and Persian people, the latter known locally as Shirazis.[2] There was also a significant minority of 50,000 Arabs and 20,000 Asians who were prominent in business and trade.[2] By 1964 these ethnic groups were becoming mixed and the distinctions between them blurred.[1] However, the major political parties were still organised largely along ethnic lines with the Arab Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP) and the African Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP).[1] Despite this, both parties contained some members of the opposite group.[1]

The Arabs on the island were the major landowners and were generally paid more than the Africans.[3] Zanzibar had been a part of the British Empire and, as part of the process of decolonisation, British authorities drew up constituencies and held elections in 1961.[3] Despite winning a majority of the vote in the 1961 elections, the ASP, led by Abeid Amani Karume, did not win the majority of seats.[3] Upon taking power the ZNP, governed as a coalition with the Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party (ZPPP).[3] Facing growing anger at their election, the ZNP/ZPPP banned the more radical opposition parties, filled the civil service with their own supporters and politicised the police.[3]

The Umma Party was formed in 1963 from disaffected radical Arab socialist supporters of the ZNP.[4] The ZNP/ZPPP coalition won the next election in July 1963 and set about strengthening their power still further.[3] Despite winning 54% of the votes polled the ASP gained just 13 of the 31 seats in the parliament.[5] The government outlawed the Umma Party, which had fielded no candidates, and fired all policemen who were originally from the African mainland.[6][5] This move removed a large portion of the only security force on the island, and left an angry group of ex-policemen with paramilitary training and knowledge of police buildings, equipment and procedures.[7]

The ZNP-led government requested a defence agreement from Britain and asked for a battalion of British troops to be stationed on the island for internal security duties.[8] This was turned down by the British government as it was considered inappropriate for British troops to be involved in the maintenance of law and order so soon after independence.[8] It was also known by the government that a civil disturbance in the near future was likely and that the deployment of troops might inflame the situation further.[8] Despite the transition to self rule, many foreign nationals still worked on the island and 130 Britons were direct employees of the Zanzibar government.[9]

The revolution

File:Zanzibar revolution troops.jpg
Some of Okello's revolutionaries

Around 3 am on 12 January 1964 600–800 poorly armed revolutionaries, aided by some of the recently dismissed African police, attacked Unguja's police stations, both of the police armouries and the radio station.[10][8] The new Arab police had received almost no training and, despite sending a mobile police force, were soon overcome.[10][11] The revolutionaries armed themselves with hundreds of captured automatic rifles, submachine guns and bren guns and took control of the strategic buildings in Zanzibar Town, the capital.[12][13] Within six hours of the revolution the town's telegraph office and main government buildings were under revolutionary control.[13][14] The island's only airstrip was captured at 2.18 pm.[13] The Sultan, Prime Minister Muhammad Shamte Hamadi, and members of the cabinet fled the island onboard the royal yacht Seyyid Khalifa.[15][13] The Sultan's palace and other property was seized by the revolutionary government.[16]

At least 80 people were killed and 200 injured during the 12 hours of street fighting following the revolution, the majority of these casualties were Arabs.[16] 61 American citizens, including the 16 men staffing a NASA satellite tracking station on the island, fled to the English Club on the Zanzibar Town waterfront for safety.[13] Four US journalists were also detained by the new government.[17]

The Zanzibari government's history of the revolution claims that Karume was its leader.[8] However, at the time of the revolution Karume was on the African mainland, as was Abdulrahman Muhammad Babu, the leader of the Umma Party.[15] The leader was actually John Okello and his revolutionaries were mainly unemployed members of the Afro-Shirazi Youth League.[8][6] Okello was a Ugandan who had arrived in Zanzibar from Kenya in 1959 and had served as a branch secretary for the ASP on Pemba.[1][10] He claimed to have been a Field Marshal for the Kenyan rebels during the Mau Mau Uprising but actually had no military experience.[10] He also claimed to have heard a voice that commanded him, as a Christian, to free the Zanzibari people from the Arabs.[1] It was Okello that removed Karume to the mainland for safekeeping.[15]

Aftermath

After the revolution the ASP and Umma party established the Revolutionary Council to temporarily govern the country.[15] Karume became President and Babu the Minister of External Affairs.[15] The country was then renamed the People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba.[10] The first act of the new government was to permanently banish the Sultan and to ban the ZNP and ZPPP.[16] Okello appeared to be too unstable to play any role in government of the new country and was quietly sidelined from the political scene by Karume, who allowed him to retain his title of Field Marshal.[10][15]

File:Zanzibar grave.jpg
A mass grave of Arabs killed following the revolution as captured by the Africa Addio film crew

Following the revolution Okello's men began attacking Arab and Asian people on the island, taking the form of beatings, rapes and attacks on properties.[10][15] Okello claimed in radio speeches to have killed or imprisoned tens of thousands of his "enemies and stooges".[10] Estimates for the number of deaths caused by this vary greatly from hundreds[10] to 20,000[18], the higher estimates may be inflated by Okello's own radio broadcasts and the Western and Arab press.[19] The New York Times ran with a figure of 2,000–4,000 deaths.[17] The killings of Arab prisoners and their burial in mass graves was documented by an Italian film crew, filming from a helicopter, in the film Africa Addio.[20] The victims of the attacks were mainly Arabs and, by Okello's order, no Europeans were attacked.[15] Many surviving Arabs fled to safety in Oman.[18] The post-revolution violence was confined to Unguja and there was no trouble on Pemba.[19]

By 3 February Zanzibar was finally returning to normality and Karume had been accepted, almost unquestionably, as its president.[21] A police presence was on the streets, looted shops were re-opening and unlicensed arms were being surrendered by the civilian populace.[21] The revolutionary government also announced that political prisoners, which numbered 500, would be tried by special courts.

Okello formed a paramilitary unit, known as the Freedom Military Force (FMF), from his own supporters which is known to have patrolled the streets and become involved with looting.[22] [23] In addition Okello's violent rhetoric, Ugandan accent and Christian beliefs alienated many in the largely moderate, Zanzibari and Muslim ASP.[24] By March many of his FMF had been disarmed by Karume's supporters and an Umma Party militia.[24][23] Okello was denied access to the country when he tried to return from a trip to the mainland and deported to Tanganyika and then to Kenya before returning, destitute, to his native Uganda.[24] He was officially removed from his post as Field Marshal on 11 March.[25]

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) was formed by the government in April and completed the disarmament of Okello's remaining FMF troops.[24] On 26 April Karume announced that he had negotiated to enter into a union with Tanganyika to form the new country of Tanzania.[26] Karume, a moderate socialist, may have agreed to the merger to reduce the influence of the radically left wing Umma Party or to prevent subversion by a foreign communist entity.[22][27][26] Despite this, many of the Umma Party's socialist policies on health, education and social welfare were adopted by the government.[19]

Foreign reaction

British military forces in Kenya were made aware of the revolution at 4.45 am on 12 January and, following a request from the Sultan, were put on 15 minute standby to conduct an assault on Zanzibar's airfield.[28][10] However, British High Commissioner to Zanzibar Timothy Crosthwait reported no instances of British nationals being attacked and advised against intervention — as a result the troops in Kenya were reduced to four hours readiness by the evening. Within hours of the revolution, the US ambassador to Zanzibar had announced his intentions to evacuate the US citizens in the country. The British ambassador chose to wait, as many of the British citizens held key government positions and a sudden evacuation would further damage the economy and government of Zanzibar.[28] A timetable was agreed with Karume for an organised evacuation in order to avoid possible bloodshed. The American destroyer USS Manley began to withdraw US citizens from the country on 13 January but was delayed by a group of armed men at the harbour.[29] These men had confronted the sailors from Manley as the US authorities had not sought the permission of the Revolutionary Council to begin the withdrawal of citizens. This permission was granted on 15 January and Manley completed the remainder of its mission without further event. The British authorities considered this armed confrontation to have caused much ill will against the Western powers in Zanzibar.[30]

The Western powers were concerned about the situation in Zanzibar as it was considered by their intelligence services that the revolution had been organised by communists supplied with weapons by the Warsaw Pact countries.[10] Their suspicions were strengthened by the appointment of Babu as Minister for External Affairs and Abdullah Kassim Hanga as Prime Minister as both were known to be leftists with possible communist ties. Further, Britain believed that Hanga and Babu were close associates of Oscar Kambona, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Tanganyika, and that former members of the Tanganyika Rifles had been made available to assist with the revolution.[10] There was evidence that Zanzibar was aligning itself closely with the Communist powers in that it was the first African country to recognise the German Democratic Republic and also recognised North Korea.[23] Some members of the Umma Party had been trained by Cuba and wore Cuban military fatigues and beards in the style of Fidel Castro.[15] Just six days after the revolution the New York Times stated that Zanzibar was "on the verge of becoming the Cuba of Africa"[17], but on 26 January denied that there was communist involvement.[31] By February Zanzibar was known to be receiving advisors from the USSR, East Germany and China and by July 1964 just one Briton, a dentist, remained in the employ of the Zanzibari government.[32][9]

File:Karume and chinese.jpg
Karume with advisors, including some from the People's Republic of China

The Sultan also appealed to Kenya and Tanganyika for military assistance but was again turned down.[28] Tanganyika responded to a request from the new government for support and sent 100 paramilitary police officers to Zanzibar to contain rioting.[10] These, with the Tanganyika Rifles, were the only armed force in the country and the transfer of the police sparked a mutiny of the entire regiment on 20 January.[10] This mutiny was caused by the soldiers' dissatisfaction with the slow process of replacing their British officers with Africans and a low rate of pay.[33] The mutiny in Tanganyika spread though East Africa causing similar events in Uganda and Kenya. All three riots were quelled without serious incident by the British Army and Royal Marines.[34]

The Western Powers were still concerned by the possibility of a communist state emerging. In February the British Defence and Overseas Policy Committee said that whilst British commercial interests in Zanzibar were "minute" and the revolution by itself was "not important" the possibility of intervention must be maintained.[35] The committee was concerned that Zanzibar could become a a centre for the promotion of communism in Africa much like Cuba had in the Americas.[35] Whilst much of the communist bloc had already recognised the country Britain, the US and most Commonwealth withheld recognition until 23 February.[36] In Crosthwait's opinion this contributed to Zanzibar aligning itself with the USSR. Indeed Crosthwait and his staff were expelled from the country on 20 February and were only allowed to return once recognition had been agreed.[36]

British military response

File:RFA Hebe .1972.jpg
RFA Hebe

Following the evacuation of its citizens on 13 January, the US government stated that it would recognise that Zanzibar lay within Britain's sphere of influence and that it would not intervene.[37] The US did, however, urge that Britain cooperate with the other East African countries to restore order.[37] The first British military vessel on the scene was HMS Owen, a survey ship diverted from the Kenyan coast, which arrived on the evening of 12 January.[30] Owen was joined on 15 January by the frigate HMS Rhyl and Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship RFA Hebe. The lightly armed Owen proved able to project the Royal Navy's power in the area without acting as a threat to the revolutionaries but the Hebe and Rhyl were different matters.[30] The Rhyl carried a company of troops from the first battalion of the Staffordshire Regiment from Kenya due to inaccurate reports that the situation was deteriorating, whilst the Hebe had just finished removing stores from the naval depot at Mombassa and was loaded with weapons and explosives. The latter fact was not known to the revolutionary council but the Royal Navy's refusal to allow a search of the Hebe created suspicion ashore and there were rumours that she was an amphibious assault ship.[30] The embarkation of the troops had, however, been widely reported in the Kenyan media and hindered negotiations with Zanzibar.[30]

HMS Centaur

The British forces completed a partial evacuation of British citizens on 17 January.[38] Rhyl was later dispatched to Tanzania with the company from the Staffordshire Regiment to help quell the army riots there, a company of the Gordon Highlanders was loaded aboard Owen to replace them.[39] The aircraft carriers HMS Centaur and HMS Victorious were transferred to the region as part of Operation Parthenon.[36] This operation would have been enacted if Okello or the Umma party radicals attempted to seize power from the ASP moderates.[24] In addition to the two carriers the plan involved three destroyers, Owen, 13 helicopters, 21 transport and reconnaissance aircraft, the second battalion of the Scots Guards, 45 Commando of the Royal Marines and one company of the second battalion of the Parachute Regiment. Operation Parthenon would have involved troops landing by parachute and helicopter to take the island of Unguja, and its airport, before occupying Pemba. If implemented it would have been the largest British airborne and amphibious operation since the Suez Crisis.[24]

Operation Parthenon was replaced by a new intervention plan known as Operation Boris. Boris would have made use of airfields in Kenya to launch a parachute assault on Unguja. The plan was later abandoned due to poor security and a lack of secrecy in Kenya, the Kenyan government had also made clear its opposition to the use of its airfields for the operation.[40] To replace Boris Operation Finery was developed. This called a helicopter assault by Royal Marines from HMS Bulwark, a commando carrier then stationed in the Middle East.[27] Bulwark was not available until 23 April and so an interim plan, Operation Shed, was drawn up in case the Umma Party attempted a coup over the merger with Tanganyika.[27] Shed would have required a battalion of troops, with scout cars, to be airlifted to the island to seize the airfield and protect Karume's government.[41] The danger of a revolt over the merger soon passed and the troops required were stood down to 24 hours notice on 29 April, the same day that Finery was cancelled.[41] Shed and Finery were never revived and Britain resolved that intervention was not required in Zanzibar.

Legacy

A parade held to mark the 40th anniversary of the revolution

The revolution was a turning point in Zanzibar's history that ended 200 years of Arab dominance in the country.[42] The event caused concern to the Western powers that communism might gain a foothold in East Africa and was one of the main causes of the army riots in Tanganyika, Kenya and Uganda which saw the modernisation of their armed forces. The revolution is a firm part of Zanzibar's culture and has been marked by the release of 545 prisoners on its tenth anniversary and by a military parade on its 40th.[43]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Shillington 2005, p. 1716
  2. ^ a b Speller 2007, p. 4
  3. ^ a b c d e f Parsons 2003, p. 106
  4. ^ Bakari 2001, p. 204
  5. ^ a b Speller 2007, p. 5
  6. ^ a b Sheriff & Ferguson 1991, p. 239
  7. ^ Speller 2007, p. 5–6
  8. ^ a b c d e f Speller 2007, p. 6
  9. ^ a b Speller 2007, p. 27–28
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Parsons 2003, p. 107
  11. ^ Clayton 1999, p. 109
  12. ^ Speller 2007, p. 6–7
  13. ^ a b c d e Conley, Robert (13 January 1964), "African Revolt Overturns Arab Regime in Zanzibar", New York Times, pp. p.1, retrieved 2008-11-16 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  14. ^ Speller 2007, p. 6–7
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Speller 2007, p. 7
  16. ^ a b c Conley, Robert (14 January 1964), "Regime Banishes Sultan", New York Times, pp. p.4, retrieved 2008-11-16 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  17. ^ a b c Conley, Robert (19 January 1964), "Nationalism Is Viewed as Camouflage for Reds", New York Times, pp. p.1, retrieved 2008-11-16 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  18. ^ a b Plekhanov 2004, p. 91
  19. ^ a b c Sheriff & Ferguson 1991, p. 241
  20. ^ Africa Addio, Gualtiero Jacopetti, 1970
  21. ^ a b The Times (of London) (4 February 1964), "Zanzibar Quiet, With New Regime Firmly Seated", New York Times, pp. p.9, retrieved 2008-11-16 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  22. ^ a b Speller 2007, p. 15
  23. ^ a b c Sheriff & Ferguson 1991, p. 242
  24. ^ a b c d e f Speller 2007, p. 17
  25. ^ Conley, Robert (12 March 1964), "Zanzibar Regime Expels Okello", New York Times, pp. p.11, retrieved 2008-11-16 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  26. ^ a b Conley, Robert (27 April 1964), "Tanganyika gets new rule today", New York Times, pp. p.11, retrieved 2008-11-16 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  27. ^ a b c Speller 2007, p. 19
  28. ^ a b c Speller 2007, p. 8
  29. ^ Speller 2007, p. 8–9
  30. ^ a b c d e Speller 2007, p. 9
  31. ^ Franck, Thomas M. (26 January 1964), "Zanzibar Reassessed", New York Times, pp. p. E10, retrieved 2008-11-16 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  32. ^ Speller 2007, p. 18
  33. ^ Speller 2007, p. 10
  34. ^ Parsons 2003, p. 109–110
  35. ^ a b Speller 2007, p. 12
  36. ^ a b c Speller 2007, p. 13
  37. ^ a b Speller 2007, p. 13–14
  38. ^ Speller 2007, p. 9–10
  39. ^ Speller 2007, p. 11
  40. ^ Speller 2007, p. 18–19
  41. ^ a b Speller 2007, p. 20
  42. ^ Speller 2007, p. 1
  43. ^ Kalley, Schoeman & Andor 1999, p. 611

Bibliography

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