Tomorrow, 12th January, 2024, will be the 60th anniversary of the Zanzibar glorious Revolution, which removed the Arab Sultan’s Government from power. The said government had been in office for just over a month; and installed a new Revolutionary Government, led by President Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume. As will be revealed in this presentation, the British Government, under extremely controversial circumstances, had granted the ‘Instruments of independence’ to Sultan Jamshid Abdullah of Zanzibar on December 9th, 1963, as a result of a seriously disputed general election which was held earlier that year. And that was, undoubtedly, the raison d’etre, or root cause, of the successful revolution which took place during the night of 11th January, 1964.
The relevant background : Zanzibar under Arab rule.
The History books show that Zanzibar was, for quite a long time, an Arab colony, initially ruled from Oman by the Sultan of the then vast Arab-dominated Oman commercial Empire in East Africa. But around the beginning of the nineteenth century, as a result of the “wars of succession” which had erupted in Muscat when Sultan Sayyid Said died in 1856; strong factions emerged, which refused to recognize his successor in Zanzibar, then Sultan Seyyid Bargash bin Said as their Sultan; and, instead, made it known that they wanted to secede from the Zanzibar Sultanate.
They were successful in that demand, with the intervention and help from the British Government, through what became known as “the Lord Canning Award of 1861”. Thus Zanzibar and Oman became separate Sultanates. It is further recorded that “the Sultan of Zanzibar, apprehensive of the encroachments by the European powers, agreed to British Protection on February 17th, 1890”. That is when Zanzibar became a “British Protectorate”, under the Administration of an official called “the British Resident”.
And this is the same British Administration which, after a series of seriously disputed elections which they had administered and unfairly managed in favour of the Arab political parties, they eventually decided, against wise advice, to hand over the Instruments of Independence to the Arab Sultan Jamshid Abdullah in December 1963; thus precipitating the resolve by the Afro-Shirazi Party, to throw that Government out of power.
As we shall see below, this revolution took place primarily because the Afro-Shirazi Party had been continuously cheated, through the British Administration’s gerrymandering of constituency boundaries and through other uncouth election malpractices, aimed at ensuring the success of the Arab political parties the Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP), and the Pemba Peoples’ Party (ZPPP), at the relevant elections.
The ugly face of elections in Zanzibar.
Zanzibar has an unfortunate long history of controversial, closely fought, and violent elections. Consequently, it has always been haunted by its troubled past, based on politics of hatred and animosity, that had divided that country into two warring parties, which appeared to be unable, or unwilling, to cooperate and work together.
Except for the praise worthy reconciliation pact which was successfully worked out by President Amani Abeid Karume, who boldly crafted an innovative reconciliation pact with Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad, which enabled the two sides to form a ‘Government of national Unity (GNU) after the 2010 general elections, with Dr. Shein (CCM) as President of Zanzibar, and Maalim Seif (CUF) as First Vice President. Initially, it all went smoothly, with no indications of conflicts within.
But, indeed sadly, the old politics of animosity soon reappeared as the 2015 general elections approached. It would appear that there were certain extremist politicians there in Zanzibar, whose vested personal interests were seemingly being served by the continuation of the political stalemate therein. This appears to be so because the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU), was very short lived; as the next following general elections of 2015 sent Zanzibar right back to its old politics of hatred and animosity.
The 2015 elections in Zanzibar actually amounted to what may be described as ‘organized chaos’, which led to the annulment of the election results, and the holding of a fresh general election. But this action itself made the situation even worse; for these repeat elections were boycotted by the Civic United Front (CUF), which, refused to recognize the legitimacy of the CCM Zanzibar Government of Dr. Ali Mohamed Shein that was formed after that disputed election.
Thus, in view of the violence, and other nasty conflicts which continuously erupted after every general election in Zanzibar since 1957, one could justifiably even describe those previous elections as a “curse”; that is to say, ‘something that magically causes harm or evil’.
No wonder therefore, that soon after assuming power following the successful revolution of 1964, President Abed Amani Karume declared that “there will be no elections in Zanzibar for the next fifty years”. He must have been utterly frustrated, and hugely disappointed, by the negative experience of those pre-independence elections.
What follows below, is a historical narrative of the British administered pre-independence elections in Zanzibar.
The first general election, July 1957.
The process started, as was also the case in Tanzania Mainland during the same decade, with the formation of political parties which would compete in the proposed elections. The first to be formed was the Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP), which was established in December 1955, consisting mainly of the Arab subjects of the Sultan, also known as ‘Hizbu’.
On the African side, a Union was formed between the ‘African Association’ and the ‘Shirazi Association’, which gave birth to the ‘Afro-Shirazi Union’, which was later renamed the ‘Afro-Shirazi Party’. For the purpose of that first election, Zanzibar was divided into six constituencies, which were: Zanzibar North and South; Pemba North and South; Ng’ambo, and Stone Town.
The newly formed Afro-Shirazi Party won in five of those constituents, and lost only in Stone Town, which was won by a candidate fielded by ‘The Muslim Association’, one of the two Indian Associations. The Arab Zanzibar Nationalist Party did not get any seat.
It is reported that “this resounding defeat of the ZNP (with the resultant disappointment to its supporters), greatly contributed to the rise in the political temperature, which, from there onwards, continued to gain momentum”.
The Report of the Provincial Administration for the year 1958, recorded that “the year was notable to the extent to which politics infested almost every side of life in Zanzibar. Traders, cultivators, laborers, fishermen, and even house wives, were all affected. Villagers in the rural areas argued among themselves. Funerals and religious functions were boycotted by rival political parties. Women even pawned their clothes in order to raise funds for the bus fare to political meetings.
Such were the immediate results of the first common roll elections for these formerly peaceful islands”.
The second general election, January 1961.
For the second Zanzibar general election, the number of constituencies was increased to twenty two, and that is when the first gerrymandering activity in favour of the Arabs took place; when the tiny Stone Town constituency, a predominantly Arab and Indian residential area with only 1,622 registered voters, was split into two constituencies; instead of Ng’ambo constituency, a predominantly Africa residential area with 4,853 registered voters.
By then, some positive constitutional changes had been introduced, including the enfranchisement of women, and the lowering of the voting age from 25 years to 21 years. Those two measures considerably increased the voting population, from a total of 39,833 in July1957; to 94,310 in January 1961. In the meantime, a new Arab party had been formed, known as the ‘Zanzibar and Pemba Peoples Party’ (ZPPP).
This second general election was held in January, 1961. Its results were that the Afro-Shirazi Party obtained a total of ten Legislative Council seats, eight in Zanzibar, and two in Pemba. The Zanzibar Nationalist Party obtained nine seats, all in Pemba; while the newly formed ZPPP won three seats, all in Pemba. Two of the elected ZPPP members formed a coalition with the ZNP, while the remaining ZPPP member joined the ASP. Thus, producing a stalemate, because each side now had eleven seats.
The third general election, June, 1961.
In those circumstances, a fresh election was quickly organized, which took place on 1st June, 1961, after an extra constituency was created in Pemba, in order to make an odd total of twenty three constituencies. This was explained as an effort to avoid a repeat of the stalemate which had been caused by the even number of twenty two constituencies.
But again, the additional constituency was deliberately created in Pemba in favour of the Arab parties, which had their greatest strength in Pemba. The results of this third general election were that the ASP, and the ZNP, tied with ten seats each; while the ZPPP retained its three seats, whose members again divided themselves as they had done previously. This therefore gave the ZNP twelve seats, while theASP got eleven seats. The British Government granted Self- government to the majority ZNP/ZPPP coalition. But there quickly ensured bloody riots that reportedly left sixty eight people dead, and more than 350 injured.
The fourth general election, July 1963.
Thereafter, a Constitutional conference was held in Lancaster House, London, in 1962; in order to determine the constitutional way forward. The Afro-Shirazi Party insisted on two conditions: one that another general election be held before the granting of independence; and two, that independence be granted in 1962. The second demand was rejected by the British Government. But it was agreed that fresh elections be held in 1963.
For that general election, which was held on 8th July, 1963; eight new constituencies were added, making a total of thirty one. The results of this election were that: the ASP secured thirteen seats; the ZNP got twelve seats, and the ZPPP got six seats.
This election is what demonstrated very clearly, the effects of the gerrymandering of constituency boundaries in favour of the ZNP; for ASP polled a majority 54% of all the valid votes cast (it had obtained 13,000 votes more than the total of the votes obtained by the ZNP and the ZPPP combined). And yet it obtained only 13 seats, while the other two, with a combined lesser number of votes, won a total of eighteen seats.
It is on record the Sir George Mooring, the last British Resident in Zanzibar; as well as Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the President of Tanganyika, both warned the British Government against granting independence in such controversial circumstances, but their warning was ignored. The British went ahead and granted the Insruments of independence to Sultan Jamshid Abdullah, on 9th December, 1963; who thus became the Head of State of independent Zanzibar.
Talking about “fee elections”? This presentation gives an illustration of elections which were far from being “free and fair”, a situation which should always be avoided by our election managers.
The final straw
As far as the Afro-Shirazi party was concerned, this British action of granting independence to Sultan Jamshid must have been the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. Preparations for the overthrow of the Sultan’s Government must have started very soon thereafter, which culminated in the successful revolution which is being proudly celebrated tomorrow.
By God’s grace, tomorrow’s celebrations are being held in very peaceful circumstances, that have been created by the current Government of National Unity, under the able leadership of Zanzibar President Hussein Mwinyi. piomsekwa@gmail.com /0754767576.
Source: Cde Pius Msekwa.