As Britain
slowly lost control of the last of its colonies in the early 1960s, political
unrest grew exponentially. Zanzibar was no exception. With American and Soviet
forces competing for influence in former British colonies, conflict and
violence became an inevitable aspect of third world politics.
The death
of Sultan Khalifa in 1960, triggered a period of such conflict in Zanzibar.
Khalifa had reigned in Zanzibar for almost 50 years. Three years later, British
rule ended when the last Governor departed for Britain on December 12, 1963. As
a result of these events, Zanzibar was left without leadership and a government
evenly split between two political parties, the ZNP (the Zanzibar Nationalist
Party) and the ZPPP (the Zanzibar and Pemba Peoples Party). Independent
Zanzibar, a full member of the British Commonwealth, and a newly enrolled
member of the United Nations was destined to last only 33 days.
On the
night of January 12, 1964 a band of some 300 people violently seized the Island
of Unguja. They were led by a little known Ugandan Radical named John Okello,
who had been trained in Soviet-controlled Cuba.
Okello’s
Revolution unleashed a period of extreme violence and instability. Law and
order disappeared from the streets of Zanzibar. Landowners and merchants were
dragged from their houses and shops, looting and killing spread throughout
Stone Town. Approximately 20,000 Arabs and Asians, who had opposed
Okello, were killed in a single night, while they waited for boats to rescue
them. The next day thousands who had survived the massacres fled the Islands
with only what they could carry.
John Okello
established for himself the rank of "Field Marshall" and, with his
Soviet-funded army, established a reign of terror on the Islands. He broadcast
bizarre threats and promises of death to all who might oppose him. Okello
believed that mystical forces were guiding him and demonstrated an eccentric
attachment to symbolic numbers. For example on January 13, 1964, he broadcast
the following messages: "The government is now run by us....should you be
stubborn and disobey orders I will take measures 88 times stronger than at
present." and, "If anyone fails to comply... and locks himself in a
house, as others have done...I have no alternative but to use heavy weapons.
We, the army have the strength of 99,099,000."
His threats
and his ability to act on them, panicked citizens, especially minority groups
of all types. On January 14, 1964 he broadcast these chilling words. "Here
is the Field Marshall of Zanzibar and Pemba....I am thinking of going to
Mtendeni village to destroy it if the people there do not obey orders. After 40
minutes I am coming to finish you off, especially the Comorians". And
"To all Arab youths living in Malindi; I will pass through Malindi armed
with weapons of which I alone know. I want to see everyone stripped to his
underpants and laying down. I want to hear them singing...father of Africans.
God bless him in his task and that of the Field Marshall."
When the
dust settled the multi-cultural diversity of the Islands was radically altered.
A One Party State was decreed. Still nervous regarding the possibility of
resurgent opposition from their now exiled opponents, the
"revolutionaries" further secured their positions by signing an agreement
of confederation with mainland Tanganyika. This would allow thousands of
mainland political allies to intervene in any future struggle. The police
forces on the Isles were virtually replaced by mainland police loyal to the
Party and an isolationist curtain fell over the Isles which was destined to
persist for more than 20 years.
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