138-549: Revolutionary victory [REDACTED] Revolutionaries The Zanzibar Revolution ( Swahili : Mapinduzi ya Zanzibar ; Arabic : ثورة زنجبار , romanized : Thawrat Zanjibār ) began on 12 January 1964 and led to the overthrow of the Sultan of Zanzibar Jamshid bin Abdullah and his mainly Arab government by the island's majority Black African population. Zanzibar was an ethnically diverse state consisting of
276-808: A constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth under the Sultan. However, just a month later, on 12 January 1964 Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah was deposed during the Zanzibar Revolution . The Sultan fled into exile, and the Sultanate was replaced by the People's Republic of Zanzibar , a socialist government led by the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP). Over 20,000 people were killed – mostly Arabs and Indians – and many of them escaped
414-534: A Bantu language, the Swahili language as a consequence today includes some borrowed elements, particularly loanwords from Arabic , though this was mostly a 19th-century phenomenon with the growth of Omani hegemony. Many foreign traders from Africa and Asia married into wealthy patrician families on Zanzibar. Asian men in particular, who resided on the coast for up to six months because of the prevailing monsoon wind patterns, married East African women. Since almost all
552-578: A civil disturbance, accompanied by increasing communist activity, was likely in the near future, and that the arrival of British troops might cause the situation to deteriorate further. Many foreign nationals remained on the island, including 130 Britons who were direct employees of the Zanzibar government. In 1959, a charismatic Ugandan named John Okello arrived in Pemba, working as a bricklayer. In February 1963 he moved to Zanzibar. Working as an official in
690-565: A common means of dress amongst opposition party members in the months leading up to the revolution. The new Zanzibar government's recognition of the German Democratic Republic (the first African government to do so) and of North Korea was further evidence to the Western powers that Zanzibar was aligning itself closely with the communist bloc . Just six days after the revolution, The New York Times stated that Zanzibar
828-719: A fully autonomous state. Zanzibar has a government of national unity, with the president of Zanzibar being Hussein Ali Mwinyi , since 1 November 2020. There are many political parties in Zanzibar, but the most popular parties are the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the Civic United Front (CUF). Since the early 1990s, the politics of the archipelago have been marked by repeated clashes between these two parties. Contested elections in October 2000 led to
966-576: A little-known and barely literate house painter and minor union official. Okello was a complete mystery to the world at the time of the revolution. MI5 reported to Whitehall that he was an ex-policeman who fought with the Mau Mau in Kenya and had been trained in Cuba in the art of revolutionary violence. At a press conference several days later, Okello angrily denied ever having been to Cuba or China. He said he
1104-473: A local radio station his followers had captured two hours earlier, calling upon the Africans to rise up and overthrow the "imperialists". At the time, Okello referred to himself only as "the field marshal". There was much speculation on Zanzibar about the identity of this mysterious figure leading the revolution, who spoke Swahili with a thick Acholi accent that was unfamiliar on Zanzibar. Within six hours of
1242-477: A massacre on 27 January 2001 when, according to Human Rights Watch , the army and police shot into crowds of protestors, killing at least 35 and wounding more than 600. Those forces, accompanied by ruling party officials and militias, also went on a house-to-house rampage, indiscriminately arresting, beating, and sexually abusing residents. Approximately 2,000 temporarily fled to Kenya. Violence erupted again after another contested election on 31 October 2005, with
1380-567: A moderate socialist, to limit the influence of the radically left-wing Umma Party. Babu had become close to Chinese diplomats who had arranged for several shipments of arms to be sent to Zanzibar to allow the Umma Party to have a paramilitary wing. Both Karume and President Nyerere of Tanganyika were concerned that Zanzibar was starting to become a hot-spot of Cold War tensions as American and British diplomats competed for influence with Soviet, Chinese and East German diplomats. They believed that
1518-619: A number of islands off the east coast of Tanganyika . It had become fully independent in 1963, with responsibility for its own defense and foreign affairs, as a result of Britain giving up its protectorate over it. In a series of parliamentary elections preceding this change, the Arab minority succeeded in retaining the hold on power it had inherited from Zanzibar's former existence as an overseas territory of Oman . Frustrated by under-representation in Parliament, despite winning 54 percent of
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#17327658946931656-540: A position of supporting the Arab minority to stay in power. With the approach of the withdrawal of the British in the early 1960s, the major political parties organised largely along ethnic lines, with Arabs dominating the Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP) and Africans the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP). The ZNP looked towards Egypt as its model, which caused some tensions with the British officials on
1794-471: A possession of Portugal for almost two centuries. It initially became part of the Portuguese province of Arabia and Ethiopia and was administered by a governor-general. Around 1571, Zanzibar became part of the western division of the Portuguese empire and was administered from Mozambique . It appears, however, that the Portuguese did not closely administer Zanzibar. The first English ship to visit Unguja,
1932-613: A programme of indirect rule through the local oligarchy, creating a network of British-controlled civil service. Most British protectorates were overseen by a Commissioner or a High Commissioner , under the Foreign Office , rather than a Governor under the Colonial Office . British law makes a distinction between a protectorate and a protected state. Constitutionally the two are of similar status, in which Britain provides controlled defence and external relations. However,
2070-509: A protectorate has an internal government established, while a protected state establishes a form of local internal self-government based on the already existing one. Persons connected with a former British protectorate, protected state, mandated territory or trust territory may remain British Protected Persons if they did not acquire the nationality of the country at independence. The last British protectorate proper
2208-681: A racial revolution that was exacerbated by economic disparity between races. Zanzibar Zanzibar is an insular semi-autonomous region which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania . It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean , 25–50 km (16–31 mi) off the coast of the African mainland , and consists of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island . The capital
2346-691: A remark that enraged the black majority. Memories of centuries of Arab slave-trading in the past (some of the older black people had been slaves in their youth), together with the distinctly patronizing view of the Arab elite towards the black majority in the present, meant that much of the black population of Zanzibar had a ferocious hatred of the Arabs, and viewed the new Arab-dominated government as illegitimate. The government drastically cut spending in schools in areas with high concentrations of black people, which heightened tensions. The government's budget, with its draconian spending cuts in schools in black areas,
2484-460: A settled agricultural and fishing community from the 6th century at the latest. The considerable amount of daub found indicates timber buildings, and shell beads, bead grinders, and iron slag have been found at the site. There is evidence of limited engagement in long-distance trade: a small amount of imported pottery has been found, less than 1% of total pottery finds, mostly from the Gulf and dated to
2622-407: A smaller scale operation to protect British citizens. With the merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar on 23 April, there were concerns that the Umma Party would stage a coup; Operation Shed was designed to provide for intervention should this happen. 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. However,
2760-552: A total blockade of Zanzibar was imminent, and Barghash reluctantly signed the Anglo-Zanzibari treaty which abolished the slave trade in the sultan's territories, closed all slave markets and protected liberated slaves. The relationship between Britain and the German Empire , at that time the nearest relevant colonial power, was formalized by the 1890 Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty , in which Germany agreed to "recognize
2898-444: A union with the non-aligned Tanganyika was the best way to remove Zanzibar from the world spotlight. Many of the Umma Party's socialist policies on health, education and social welfare were adopted by the government. 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 minutes' standby to conduct an assault on Zanzibar's airfield. However,
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#17327658946933036-423: Is Zanzibar City , located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre, Stone Town , is a World Heritage Site . Zanzibar's main industries are spices , raffia , and tourism . The main spices produced are clove , nutmeg , cinnamon , coconut , and black pepper . The Zanzibar Archipelago, together with Tanzania's Mafia Island , are sometimes referred to locally as the "Spice Islands". Tourism in Zanzibar
3174-589: Is a more recent activity, driven by government promotion that caused an increase from 19,000 tourists in 1985, to 376,000 in 2016. The islands are accessible via 5 ports and the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport , which can serve up to 1.5 million passengers per year. Zanzibar's marine ecosystem is an important part of the economy for fishing and algaculture and contains important marine ecosystems that act as fish nurseries for Indian Ocean fish populations. Moreover,
3312-801: Is also an inter-religious body called the Joint Committee of Religious Leaders for Peace (in Swahili Juhudi za Viongozi wa Dini kuimarisha Amani ) with representatives from Muslim institutions such as the Islamic law ( Kadhi courts), religious property (the Wakf and Trust commission), education (the Muslim academy) and the Mufti ' s office as well as representatives from the Roman Catholic,
3450-638: Is commemorated on the island each year with anniversary celebrations and a public holiday. The toll of victims in the massacres is generally not recognized. The Zanzibar Archipelago , now part of the Southeast African republic of Tanzania, is a group of islands lying in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Tanganyika. It comprises the main southern island of Unguja (also known as Zanzibar), the smaller northern island of Pemba , and numerous surrounding islets. Merchants and traders regularly visited
3588-513: Is in turn from Persian zangbâr ( زنگبار [zæŋbɒːɾ] ), a compound of Zang ( زنگ [zæŋ] , "black") + bâr ( بار [bɒːɾ] , "coast"), cf. the Sea of Zanj . The name is one of several toponyms sharing similar etymologies , ultimately meaning "land of the blacks" or similar meanings, in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants. The presence of microliths suggests that Zanzibar has been home to humans for at least 20,000 years, which
3726-688: Is the de facto national and official language of Tanzania. Many local residents also speak Arabic , English , Italian and French . The dialect of Swahili spoken in Zanzibar is called Kiunguja . Kiunguja, which has a high percentage of Arabic loanwords, enjoys the status of Standard Swahili not in Tanzania only but also in other countries, where Swahili is spoken. Three distinct varieties of Arabic are in use in Zanzibar: Standard Arabic, Omani Arabic and Hadrami Arabic . Both vernacular varieties are falling out of use, although
3864-564: The Edward Bonaventure in 1591, found that there was no Portuguese fort or garrison. The extent of their occupation was a trade depot where produce was bought and collected for shipment to Mozambique. "In other respects, the affairs of the island were managed by the local 'king', the predecessor of the Mwinyi Mkuu of Dunga." This hands-off approach ended when Portugal established a fort on Pemba Island around 1635 in response to
4002-712: The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar . It is made up of the Revolutionary Council and House of Representatives . The House of Representatives has a similar composition to the National Assembly of Tanzania . Fifty members are elected directly from constituencies to serve five-year terms; 10 members are appointed by the President of Zanzibar ; 15 special seats are for women members of political parties that have representation in
4140-433: The 13th century, houses were built with stone, and bonded with mud, and the 14th century saw the use of lime to bond stone. Only the wealthier patricians would have had stone- and lime-built houses, and the strength of the materials allowed for flat roofs. By contrast, the majority of the population lived in single-story thatched houses similar to those of the 11th and 12th centuries. According to John Middleton and Mark Horton,
4278-1071: The 1960s, and a wide range of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian churches such as the Tanzania Assemblies of God, the Free Pentecostal Church of Tanzania, the Evangelical Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal Church of Tanzania, the Victory Church and the Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship of Africa. Pentecostal-Charismatic churches have been present and growing in Zanzibar since the 1980s in relation to economic liberalization and increased labour migration from mainland Tanzania in connection to Zanzibar's expanding tourist sector. There are also Seventh Day Adventist and Baptist churches. Since 2005, there
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4416-404: The 5th to 8th century. The similarity to contemporary sites such as Mkokotoni and Dar es Salaam indicates a unified group of communities that developed into the first center of coastal maritime culture. The coastal towns appear to have been engaged in Indian Ocean and inland African trade at this early period. Trade rapidly increased in importance and quantity beginning in the mid-8th century and by
4554-631: The African mainland was rapidly restored without serious incident by the British Army and Royal Marines. The possible emergence of an African communist state remained a source of disquiet in the West. In February, the British Defence and Overseas Policy Committee said that, while British commercial interests in Zanzibar were "minute" and the revolution by itself was "not important", the possibility of intervention must be maintained. The committee
4692-622: The Anglican and the Lutheran church. The places of worship in the city are predominantly Muslim mosques. There are also Christian churches and temples: Roman Catholic Diocese of Zanzibar ( Catholic Church ), Anglican Church of Tanzania ( Anglican Communion ), Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania ( Lutheran World Federation ), Baptist Convention of Tanzania ( Baptist World Alliance ), Assemblies of God . As an autonomous part of Tanzania , Zanzibar has its own government, known as
4830-400: The Arab world, especially Egypt, and had no interest in forging relationships with the nations on the African mainland, as the black majority wished. Slavery in Zanzibar had been abolished in 1897, but much of the Arab elite who dominated the island's politics made little effort to hide their racist views of the black majority as their inferiors, a people fit only for slavery. In Parliament,
4968-626: The Asian traders were Muslims, their children inherited their paternal ethnic identity, though East African matrilineal traditions remained key. Vasco da Gama 's visit in 1498 marked the beginning of European influence. In 1503 or 1504, Zanzibar became part of the Portuguese Empire when Captain Rui Lourenço Ravasco Marques came ashore and received tribute from the sultan in exchange for peace. Zanzibar remained
5106-494: The British High Commissioner in Zanzibar, Timothy Crosthwait, reported no instances of British nationals being attacked and advised against intervention. As a result, the British troops in Kenya were reduced to four hours' standby later that evening. Crosthwait decided not to approve an immediate evacuation of British citizens, as many held key government positions and their sudden removal would further disrupt
5244-483: The British protectorate over… the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba". In 1890, Zanzibar became a protectorate (not a colony) of Britain. This status meant it remained under the sovereignty of the Sultan of Zanzibar . Prime Minister Salisbury explained the British position: From 1890 to 1913, traditional viziers were in charge; they were supervised by advisers appointed by the Colonial Office. In 1913, this
5382-597: The CUF claiming that its rightful victory had been stolen from it. Nine people were killed. British protectorate British protectorates were protectorates under the jurisdiction of the British government. Many territories which became British protectorates already had local rulers with whom the Crown negotiated through treaty, acknowledging their status whilst simultaneously offering protection. British protectorates were therefore governed by indirect rule . In most cases,
5520-837: The Ellice Islands, and Captain Davis was requested by islanders to raise the British flag, but he did not have instructions to declare the Ellice Islands as a protectorate. The nine islands of the Ellice Group (now Tuvalu ) were declared a British Protectorate by Captain Gibson R.N., of HMS Curacoa , between 9 and 16 October of the same year. Britain defined its area of interest in the Solomon Islands in June 1893, when Captain Gibson R.N., of HMS Curacoa , declared
5658-577: The Foreign Affairs Minister of Tanganyika, and that former members of the Tanganyika Rifles had been made available to assist with the revolution. Some members of the Umma Party wore Cuban military fatigues and beards in the style of Fidel Castro , which was taken as an indication of Cuban support for the revolution. However this practice was started by those members who had staffed a ZNP branch office in Cuba and it became
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5796-563: The House of Representatives; six members serve ex officio , including all regional commissioners and the attorney general. Five of these 81 members are then elected to represent Zanzibar in the National Assembly. Zanzibar spans 5 of the 31 regions of Tanzania . Unguja has three administrative regions: Zanzibar Central/South , Zanzibar North and Zanzibar Urban/West . Pemba has two: Pemba North and Pemba South . Concerning
5934-754: The Kenyan rebels during the Mau Mau uprising . He did not have any military experience. He maintained that he heard a voice commanding him, as a Christian, to free the Zanzibari people from the Muslim Arabs, but the Zanzibaris were predominantly Muslim. Okello led the revolutionaries—mainly unemployed members of the Afro-Shirazi Youth League—on 12 January. One commentator has speculated that it
6072-696: The Malindi station until late in the afternoon and only after running out of ammunition. He marched his entire force (not one policeman had been killed or wounded) down to the Stone Town wharf to board some boats that took them out to a ship, the Salama, to take them away from Zanzibar. Throughout Stone Town, rebels had looted and destroyed shops and homes owned by Arabs and South Asians, and gang-raped numerous Arab and South Asian women. The Sultan, together with Prime Minister Muhammad Shamte Hamadi and members of
6210-516: The Minister of Finance Juma Aley responded to questions from Karume by insultingly saying he need not answer questions from a mere "boatman". Aley said in another speech in Parliament that if Arabs were over-represented in the Cabinet, it was not because of race, but rather it was because the mental abilities of blacks were so abysmally low and the mental abilities of Arabs like himself were so high,
6348-546: The Moresby Line, from Cape Delgado in Africa to Diu Head on the coast of India. Said lost the revenue he would have received as duty on all slaves sold, so to make up for this shortfall he encouraged the development of the slave trade in Zanzibar itself. Said came under increasing pressure from the British to abolish slavery entirely. In 1842, Britain told Said it wished to abolish the slave trade to Arabia, Oman, Persia, and
6486-525: The Omani one is spoken by a larger group of people (probably, several hundreds). In parallel to this, Standard Arabic , traditionally associated with the Quran and Islam , is very popular not only among ethnic Arabs but also among Muslims of various descent who inhabit Zanzibar. Nevertheless, Standard Arabic is mastered by very few people. This can be attributed to the aggressive policy of Swahilisation . Despite
6624-679: The Red Sea. Ships from the Royal Navy were employed to enforce the anti-slavery treaties by capturing any dhows carrying slaves, but with only four ships patrolling a huge area of sea, the British navy found it hard to enforce the treaties as ships from France, Spain, Portugal, and America continued to carry slaves. In 1856, Sultan Majid consolidated his power around the African Great Lakes slave trade. But in 1873, Sir John Kirk informed his successor, Sultan Barghash , that
6762-402: The Revolutionary Council was unaware of the nature of Hebe ' s cargo, the Royal Navy's refusal to allow a search of the ship created suspicion ashore and rumors circulated that she was an amphibious assault ship. A partial evacuation of British citizens was completed by 17 January, when the army riots in Southeast Africa prompted Rhyl ' s diversion to Tanganyika so that the troops she
6900-433: The Royal Marines would have been shipped to Zanzibar to launch an amphibious assault, supported by follow-on troops from British bases in Kenya or Aden to maintain law and order. Giralda was scrapped in December, ending British plans for military intervention in the country. One of the main results of the revolution in Zanzibar was to break the power of the Arab/Asian ruling class, who had held it for around 200 years. Despite
7038-529: The Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and People's Republic of China for funding for several projects and military advice. The failure of several GDR-led projects including the New Zanzibar Project, a 1968 urban redevelopment scheme to provide new apartments for all Zanzibaris, led to Zanzibar focusing on Chinese aid. The post-revolution Zanzibar government was accused of draconian controls on personal freedoms and travel, and exercised nepotism in appointments to political and industrial offices, with
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#17327658946937176-407: The Sultan and his government. The massacre of Arabs during the Zanzibar Revolution ensued, and the insurgents proceeded to loot Arab and South Asian –owned properties and businesses, and rape or murder Arab and Indian civilians on the island. The death toll is disputed, with estimates ranging from several hundred to 20,000. An estimated 10,000 people escaped from the island, with many fleeing to
7314-529: The Sultan of Mombasa 's slaughter of Portuguese residents several years earlier. Portugal had long considered Pemba to be a troublesome launching point for rebellions in Mombasa against Portuguese rule. The precise origins of the sultans of Unguja are uncertain. However, their capital at Unguja Ukuu is believed to have been an extensive town. Possibly constructed by locals, it was composed mainly of perishable materials. The Portuguese arrived in East Africa in 1498, where they found several independent towns on
7452-472: The Sultan of Oman and Majid to become the first Sultan of Zanzibar ; the brothers quarrelled about the will, which was eventually upheld by Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning , Great Britain's Viceroy and Governor-General of India . Until around 1890, the sultans of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the Swahili coast known as Zanj , which included Mombasa and Dar es Salaam . Beginning in 1886, Great Britain and Germany agreed to allocate parts of
7590-417: The Tanganyika Rifles (formerly the colonial King's African Rifles ), the police were the only armed force in Tanganyika, and on 20 January the police absence led the entire Rifles regiment to mutiny. Dissatisfied with their low pay rates and with the slow progress of the replacement of their British officers with Africans, the soldiers' mutiny sparked similar uprisings in both Uganda and Kenya. However, order on
7728-520: The UK did not intervene in the island's unrest. The Eastern Bloc powers of East Germany and the Soviet Union , along with the anti-Soviet People's Republic of China , immediately recognised the new government and sent advisors. Karume succeeded in negotiating a merger of Zanzibar with Tanganyika to form the new nation of Tanzania . Contemporary media assessed this merger as an attempt to prevent communist subversion of Zanzibar. The revolution ended more than 250 years of Arab dominance in Zanzibar. It
7866-433: The UK. The moderate ASP leader Abeid Karume became the country's new president and head of state . The new government's apparent communist ties concerned Western governments. As Zanzibar lay within the British sphere of influence , the British government drew up a number of intervention plans. However, the feared communist government never materialised. Because British and American citizens were successfully evacuated,
8004-404: The ZNP, was banned, and all policemen of African mainland origin were dismissed. This removed a large portion of the only security force on the island, and created an angry group of paramilitary-trained men with knowledge of police buildings, equipment and procedures. The new Arab-dominated government made it clear that in foreign policy, the Sultanate of Zanzibar would be seeking close links with
8142-457: The Zanzibar and Pemba Paint Workers' Union and as an activist of the ASP, Okello had built a following and, almost from the moment when he arrived on Zanzibar, had been organizing a revolution that he planned to take place shortly after independence. Around 3:00 am on 12 January 1964, 600–800 poorly armed, mainly African insurgents, aided by some of the recently dismissed ex-policemen, attacked Unguja's police stations to seize weapons, and then
8280-404: The Zanzibar sultanate for their own empires. In October 1886, a British-German border commission established the Zanj as a 10 nmi-wide (19 km) strip along most of the African Great Lakes region's coast, an area stretching from Cape Delgado (now in Mozambique ) to Kipini (now in Kenya ), including Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. Over the next few years most all of the mainland territory
8418-403: The advantages of British protection." When the British continued to occupy the Ionian Islands after the Napoleonic wars , they did not formally annex the islands but described them as a protectorate. The islands were constituted by the Treaty of Paris in 1815 as the independent United States of the Ionian Islands under British protection. Similarly, Malta was a British protectorate between
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#17327658946938556-459: The ancestors of the Bantu Hadimu and Tumbatu , who began arriving from the African Great Lakes mainland around AD 1000. They belonged to various mainland ethnic groups and on Zanzibar, generally lived in small villages. They did not coalesce to form larger political units. During Zanzibar's brief period of independence in the early 1960s, the major political cleavage was between the Shirazi (Zanzibar Africans), who made up approximately 56% of
8694-468: The architectural style of these stone houses have no Arab or Persian elements, and should be viewed as an entirely indigenous development of local vernacular architecture. While much of Zanzibar Town's architecture was rebuilt during Omani rule, nearby sites elucidate the general development of Swahili and Zanzibari architecture before the 15th century. From the 9th century, Swahili merchants on Zanzibar operated as brokers for long-distance traders from both
8832-424: The bombardment stands as the shortest war in history. On 10 December 1963, the Protectorate that had existed over Zanzibar since 1890 was terminated by the United Kingdom. Rather, by the Zanzibar Act 1963 of the United Kingdom, the UK ended the Protectorate and made provision for full self-government in Zanzibar as an independent country within the Commonwealth. Upon the Protectorate being abolished, Zanzibar became
8970-469: The cabinet, fled the island on the royal yacht Seyyid Khalifa . The revolutionary government seized the Sultan's palace and other property. At least 80 people were killed and 200 injured, the majority of whom were Arabs, during the 12 hours of street fighting that followed. Sixty-one American citizens, including 16 men staffing a NASA satellite tracking station, sought sanctuary in the English Club in Zanzibar Town, and four US journalists were detained by
9108-487: The capitulation of the French in 1800 and the Treaty of Paris of 1814. The princely states of India was another example of indirect rule during the time of Empire. So too were many of the West African holdings. Other British protectorates followed. In the Pacific Ocean the sixteen islands of the Gilberts (now Kiribati ) were declared a British Protectorate by Captain Davis R.N., of HMS Royalist between 27 May and 17 June 1892. The Royalist also visited each of
9246-520: The civil service with its own appointees, and politicised the police. In 1963, with the number of parliamentary seats increased to 31, another election saw a repeat of the 1961 votes. Due to the layout of the constituencies, which were gerrymandered by the ZNP, the ASP, led by Abeid Amani Karume , won 54 percent of the popular vote but only 13 seats. The ZNP/ZPPP won the rest and set about strengthening its hold on power. The Umma Party , formed that year by disaffected radical Arab socialist supporters of
9384-411: The civilian populace. The revolutionary government announced that its political prisoners, numbering 500, would be tried by special courts. Okello formed the Freedom Military Force (FMF), a paramilitary unit made up of his supporters, which patrolled the streets and looted Arab property. The behaviour of Okello's supporters, his violent rhetoric, Ugandan accent, and Christian beliefs were alienating many in
9522-406: The close of the 10th century, Zanzibar was one of the central Swahili trading towns. Excavations at nearby Pemba Island, but especially at Shanga in the Lamu Archipelago, provide the clearest picture of architectural development. Houses were originally built with timber (circa 1050) and later in mud with coral walls (circa 1150). The houses were continually rebuilt with more permanent materials. By
9660-427: The coast, with Muslim Arabic-speaking elites. While the Portuguese travellers describe them as "black", they made a clear distinction between the Muslim and non-Muslim populations. Their relations with these leaders were mostly hostile, but during the sixteenth century, they firmly established their power and ruled with the aid of tributary sultans. The Portuguese presence was relatively limited, leaving administration in
9798-412: The country as a consequence of the revolution. In April 1964, the republic merged with mainland Tanganyika. This United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar was soon renamed, blending the two names, as the United Republic of Tanzania , within which Zanzibar remains an autonomous region. The 2022 census is the most recent census for which results have been reported. The total population of Zanzibar
9936-523: The country on 20 February and were only allowed to return once recognition had been agreed. Following the evacuation of its citizens on 13 January, the US government stated that it recognised that Zanzibar lay within Britain's sphere of influence , and would not intervene. The US did, however, urge that Britain cooperate with other Southeast African countries to restore order. The first British military vessel on
10074-600: The country's economy and government. Within hours of the revolution, the American ambassador had authorised the withdrawal of US citizens on the island, and a US Navy destroyer, the USS Manley , arrived on 13 January. The Manley docked at Zanzibar Town harbour, but the US had not sought the Revolutionary Council's permission for the evacuation, and the ship was met by a group of armed men. Permission
10212-567: The danger of a revolt over unification soon passed, and on 29 April the troops earmarked for Shed were reduced to 24 hours' notice. Operation Finery was cancelled the same day. Concern over a possible coup remained though, and around 23 September Shed was replaced with Plan Giralda, involving the use of British troops from Aden and the Far East, to be enacted if the Umma Party attempted to overthrow President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. An infantry battalion, tactical headquarters unit and elements of
10350-583: The diocese from 1892 to the present day. The bishop is Michael Hafidh. It is part of the Province of Tanzania, under the Archbishop of All Tanzania, based at Dodoma. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Zanzibar , with its headquarters at the St. Joseph's Cathedral in Stone Town, was established in 1980. An apostolic vicariate of Zanzibar had been established in 1906, from a much larger East African jurisdiction. This
10488-468: The distinctions among them had blurred; according to one historian, an important reason for the general support for Sultan Jamshid was his family's ethnic diversity. But the island's Arab inhabitants were the major landowners, and were generally wealthier than the Africans. They enjoyed access to higher quality social services, such as health and education, than Africans. Apart from that, British authority considered Zanzibar as an Arab country and always held
10626-464: The government formed the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and completed the disarmament of Okello's remaining FMF militia. On 26 April Karume announced that a union had been negotiated with Tanganyika to form the new country of Tanzania. The merger was seen by contemporary media as a means of preventing communist subversion of Zanzibar; at least one historian states that it may have been an attempt by Karume,
10764-613: The hands of the local leaders and power structures already present. This system lasted until 1631, when the Sultan of Mombasa massacred the Portuguese inhabitants. For the remainder of their rule, the Portuguese appointed European governors. The strangling of trade and diminished local power led the Swahili elites in Mombasa and Zanzibar to invite Omani aristocrats to assist them in driving the Europeans out. In 1698, Zanzibar came under
10902-749: The hands of traders from the Indian subcontinent , whom Said bin Sultan encouraged to settle on the islands. During his 14-year reign as sultan, Majid bin Said consolidated his power around the East African slave trade . Malindi in Zanzibar City was the Swahili Coast's main port for the slave trade with the Middle East. In the mid-19th century, as many as 50,000 slaves passed annually through
11040-434: The hinterland and Indian Ocean world. Persian, Indian, and Arab traders frequented Zanzibar to acquire East African goods like gold, ivory, and ambergris and then shipped them overseas to Asia. Similarly, caravan traders from the African Great Lakes and Zambezian Region came to the coast to trade for imported goods, especially Indian cloth. Before the Portuguese arrival, the southern towns of Unguja Ukuu and Kizimkazi and
11178-556: The independence and sovereignty of Zanzibar, Tanzania Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda said on 3 July 2008 that there was "nothing like the sovereignty of Zanzibar in the Union Government unless the Constitution is changed in future". Zanzibar House of Representatives members from both the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi , and the opposition party, Civic United Front , disagreed and stood firmly in recognizing Zanzibar as
11316-498: The influence of the Sultanate of Oman . There was a brief revolt against Omani rule in 1784. Local elites invited Omani merchant princes to settle in Zanzibar in the first half of the nineteenth century, preferring them to the Portuguese. Many locals today continue to emphasise that indigenous Zanzibaris had invited Seyyid Said , the first Busaidi sultan, to their island. Claiming a patron–client relationship with powerful families
11454-428: The island for internal security duties, but this request was rejected. The UK believed it inappropriate for British troops to be involved in maintenance of law and order so soon after complete independence. And in any event many of the cabinet, who were seeking closer ties with Egypt, ruled by the radical, anti-Western nationalist Nasser, did not want British troops in Zanzibar. British intelligence reports predicted that
11592-563: The island's new government. Not knowing that Okello had given orders to kill no whites, the Americans living in Stone Town fled to the English Club, the point for evacuation. Those travelling in the car convoy to the English Club were shocked to see the battered bodies of Arab men lying out on the streets of Stone Town with their severed penises and testicles shoved into their mouths. As part of Okello's carefully laid out plans, all over
11730-443: The island, gangs of Africans armed with knives, spears and pangas (machetes) went about systematically killing all the Arabs and South Asians they could find. The American diplomat Don Petterson described this horror as he watched from his house a gang of African men storm the house of an Arab, behead him in public with a panga , followed by screams from within his house as his wife and three children were raped and killed, followed by
11868-454: The islands from Persia, Arabia and India, beginning around the millennium. Some settled there, and Islam became influential in island culture among all ethnicities. The long history of Arab rule dated to 1698, and Zanzibar was an overseas territory of Oman until it achieved independence in 1858 under its own Sultanate . In 1890 during Ali ibn Sa'id's reign, Zanzibar became a British protectorate . Although never under direct British rule, it
12006-524: The islands. On the other hand, for centuries Zanzibar had been dominated by its Arab ruling class, and the Colonial Office could not imagine a Zanzibar ruled by black Africans. In January 1961, as part of the process of British withdrawal from the islands, the island's authorities drew up constituencies and held democratic elections . The ASP and the ZNP each won 11 of the available 22 seats in Zanzibar's Parliament, so further elections were held in June, with
12144-486: The land ecosystem is the home of the endemic Zanzibar red colobus , the Zanzibar servaline genet , and the extinct or rare Zanzibar leopard . Pressure from the tourist industry and fishing as well as larger threats such as sea level rise caused by climate change are creating increasing environmental concerns throughout the region. The word Zanzibar came from Arabic zanjibār ( زنجبار [zandʒibaːr] ), which
12282-419: The largely moderate Zanzibari and Muslim ASP. By March many members of his FMF had been disarmed by Karume's supporters and the Umma Party militia. On 11 March Okello was officially stripped of his rank of Field Marshal, and was denied entry when trying to return to Zanzibar from a trip to the mainland. He was deported to Tanganyika and then to Kenya , before returning destitute to his native Uganda. In April
12420-636: The late 20th century, but it was fully restored in 2016, at a cost of one million Euros , with a world heritage visitor centre. The restoration was supported by the Tanzanian and Zanzibari governments, and overseen by the diocese in partnership with the World Monuments Fund . The restoration of the spire, clock, and historic Willis organ are still outstanding. Historically the diocese included mainland locations in Tanganyika . In 1963, it
12558-517: The local ruler, as well as the subjects of the ruler, were not British subjects. British protected states represented a more loose form of British suzerainty , where the local rulers retained absolute control over the states' internal affairs and the British exercised control over defence and foreign affairs. When the British took over Cephalonia in 1809, they proclaimed, "We present ourselves to you, Inhabitants of Cephalonia, not as invaders, with views of conquest, but as allies who hold forth to you
12696-412: The merger with Tanganyika, Zanzibar retained a Revolutionary Council and House of Representatives . Until 1992 it was run on a one-party system and has power over domestic matters. The domestic government is led by the President of Zanzibar , Karume being the first holder of this office. This government used the success of the revolution to implement reforms across the island. Many of these involved
12834-654: The moment when it was necessary" but denying there were Cuban troops present during the revolution. At the same time, western influence was diminishing and by July 1964 just one Briton, a dentist, remained in the employ of the Zanzibari government. It has been alleged that Israeli spymaster David Kimche was a backer of the revolution with Kimche in Zanzibar on the day of the Revolution. The deposed Sultan made an unsuccessful appeal to Kenya and Tanganyika for military assistance, although Tanganyika sent 100 paramilitary police officers to Zanzibar to contain rioting. Other than
12972-605: The more moderate ASP. 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 . The island of Unguja, and its airport, were to be seized by parachute and helicopter assault, followed up by
13110-406: The new Tanzanian government being powerless to intervene. Dissatisfaction with the government came to a head with the assassination of Karume on 7 April 1972, which was followed by weeks of fighting between pro- and anti-government forces. A multi-party system was eventually established in 1992, but Zanzibar remains dogged by allegations of corruption and vote-rigging . The 2010 general election
13248-535: The northern town of Tumbatu were the dominant centres of exchange. Zanzibar was just one of the many autonomous city-states that dotted the East African coast. These towns grew in wealth as the Swahili people served as intermediaries and facilitators to merchants and traders. This interaction between Central African and Indian Ocean cultures contributed in part to the evolution of the Swahili culture , which developed an Arabic-script literary tradition. Although
13386-437: The number of deaths vary greatly, from "hundreds" to 20,000. Some Western newspapers give figures of 2,000 to 4,000; however, the higher numbers may be inflated by Okello's own broadcasts and exaggerated reports in some Western and Arab news media. The killing of Arab prisoners and their burial in mass graves was documented by an Italian film crew, filming from a helicopter, for Africa Addio and this sequence of film comprises
13524-451: The number of seats increased to 23. The ZNP entered into a coalition with the Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party (ZPPP) and this time took 13 seats, while the ASP, despite receiving the most votes, won 10. Electoral fraud was suspected by the ASP, and civil disorder broke out, resulting in 68 deaths. To maintain control, the coalition government banned the more radical opposition parties, filled
13662-490: The occupation of Pemba. Parthenon would have been the largest British airborne and amphibious operation since the Suez Crisis . Following the revelation that the revolutionaries may have received communist bloc training, Operation Parthenon was replaced by Operation Boris. This called for a parachute assault on Unguja from Kenya, but was later abandoned due to poor security in Kenya and the Kenyan government's opposition to
13800-571: The only known visual document of the killings. Many Arabs fled to safety in Oman , with others becoming refugees in the UK. By Okello's order no Europeans were harmed. The post-revolution violence did not spread to Pemba. By 3 February Zanzibar was finally returning to normality, and Karume had been widely accepted by the people as their president. A police presence was back on the streets, looted shops were re-opening, and unlicensed arms were being surrendered by
13938-452: The outbreak of hostilities, the town's telegraph office and main government buildings were under revolutionary control, and the island's only airstrip was captured at 2:18 pm. In the countryside, fighting had erupted between the Manga, as the rural Arabs were called, and the Africans. The Manga were armed mainly with hunting rifles, and once the arms seized from the police stations reached
14076-414: The police were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Okello personally attacked a police sentry, wrestled his rifle from him, and used it to bayonet the policeman to death. Arming themselves with hundreds of captured automatic rifles, submachine guns and Bren guns , the insurgents took control of strategic buildings in the capital, Zanzibar Town . At about 7:00 am, Okello made his first radio broadcast from
14214-526: The political impetus for this was the 19th century movement for the abolition of the slave trade . Zanzibar was the centre of the East African slave trade . In 1822, Captain Moresby, the British consul in Muscat pressed Sultan Said to end the slave trade by signing a treaty. This Moresby Treaty was the first of a series of anti-slavery treaties with Britain. It prohibited slave transport south and east of
14352-493: The population, and the Zanzibar Arabs—;the bulk of whom arrived from Oman in the 1800s—made up approximately 17%. Today, Zanzibar is inhabited mostly by ethnic Swahili . There are also a number of Arabs , as well as some ethnic Persian , Somalis , and Indian people. Zanzibaris speak Swahili (Kiswahili), a Bantu language that is extensively spoken in the African Great Lakes region. Swahili
14490-512: The port. Many were captives of Tippu Tip , a notorious Arab/Swahili slave trader and ivory merchant. Tip led huge expeditions, some 4,000 strong, into the African hinterland where chiefs sold him their villagers at low prices. These Tip used to carry ivory back to Zanzibar, then sold them in the slave market for large profits. In time, Tip became one of the wealthiest men in Zanzibar, the owner of multiple plantations and 10,000 slaves. One of Majid's brothers, Barghash bin Said , succeeded him and
14628-569: The prestige and importance the Arabic language once enjoyed, today it is no longer the dominant spoken language. Zanzibar's population is almost entirely Muslim, with a small Christian minority of around 22 000. Other religious groups include Hindus , Jains and Sikhs . The Anglican Diocese of Zanzibar was founded in 1892. The first Bishop of Zanzibar was Charles Smythies , who was translated from his former post as Bishop of Nyasaland . Christ Church Cathedral had fallen into poor condition by
14766-477: The radio station. The attackers had no guns, being equipped only with spears, knives, machetes, and tire irons, but they had the advantage of numbers and surprise. The Arab police replacements had received almost no training and, despite responding with a mobile force, were soon overcome. Okello himself led the attack on the Ziwani police HQ, the largest armory on the island. Several of the rebels were fatally shot, but
14904-416: The rebels in the countryside, the Manga were doomed. In Stone Town, the fiercest resistance was at the Malindi police station, where under the command of Police Commissioner J. M. Sullivan (a British policeman who stayed on until a local replacement could be hired), all of the rebel attacks were repulsed, not least because the insurgents tended to retreat whenever they came under fire. Sullivan did not surrender
15042-432: The removal of power from Arabs. The Zanzibar civil service, for example, became an almost entirely African organisation, and land was redistributed from Arabs to Africans. The revolutionary government also instituted social reforms such as free healthcare and opening up the education system to African students (who had occupied only 12 per cent of secondary school places before the revolution). The government sought help from
15180-400: The same scene being repeated at the next house of an Arab, followed by yet another and another. After taking control of Stone Town on the first day, the revolutionaries continued to fight the Manga for control of the countryside for at least two days afterwards; whole families of Arabs were massacred after their homes had been stormed. According to the official Zanzibari history, the revolution
15318-564: The scene was the survey ship HMS Owen , which was diverted from the Kenyan coast and arrived on the evening of 12 January. Owen was joined on 15 January by the frigate Rhyl and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Hebe . While the lightly armed Owen had been able to provide the revolutionaries with an unobtrusive reminder of Britain's military power, the Hebe and Rhyl were different matters. Due to inaccurate reports that
15456-530: The situation in Zanzibar was deteriorating, the Rhyl was carrying a company of troops of the first battalion of the Staffordshire Regiment from Kenya, the embarkation of which was widely reported in the Kenyan media, and would hinder British negotiations with Zanzibar. The Hebe had just finished removing stores from the naval depot at Mombasa and was loaded with weapons and explosives. Although
15594-502: The southern Solomon Islands as a British Protectorate with the proclamation of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate . In 1894, Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone 's government officially announced that Uganda , where Muslim and Christian strife had attracted international attention, was to become a British Protectorate. The British administration installed carefully selected local kings under
15732-483: The streets, Okello appealed to the black majority. But as a militant Christian who claimed to hear the voice of God in his head, Okello had lesser appeal to the island's population that was 95 per cent Muslim. A Revolutionary Council was established by the ASP and Umma parties to act as an interim government, with Karume heading the council as President and Babu serving as the Minister of External Affairs . The country
15870-404: The use of its airfields. Instead Operation Finery was drawn up, which would involve a helicopter assault by Royal Marines from HMS Bulwark , a commando carrier then stationed in the Middle East. As Bulwark was outside the region, Finery's launch would require 14 days' notice, so in the event that a more immediate response was necessary, suitable forces were placed on 24 hours' notice to launch
16008-544: The vote in the July 1963 election , the African Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) early in the morning of 12 January 1964, led by John Okello , youth leader of the ASP's Pemba branch, mobilised around 600–800 men on the main island of Unguja , also known as Zanzibar Island. Having overrun the country's police force and appropriated their weaponry, the insurgents proceeded to Zanzibar Town , where they overthrew
16146-586: Was "on the verge of becoming the Cuba of Africa", but on 26 January denied that there was active communist involvement. Zanzibar continued to receive support from communist countries and by February was known to be receiving advisers from the Soviet Union, the GDR and China. Cuba also lent its support with Che Guevara stating on 15 August that "Zanzibar is our friend and we gave them our small bit of assistance, our fraternal assistance, our revolutionary assistance at
16284-526: Was 1,889,773 people – with an annual growth rate of 3.8 percent. The population of Zanzibar City , which was the largest city, was 219,007. In 2002, around two-thirds of the people, 622,459, lived on Unguja (Zanzibar Island), with most settled in the densely populated west. Besides Zanzibar City, other towns on Unguja include Chaani , Mbweni , Mangapwani , Chwaka , and Nungwi . Outside of these towns, most people live in small villages and are engaged in farming or fishing. The population of Pemba Island
16422-481: Was 362,166. The largest town on the island was Chake-Chake , with a population of 19,283. The smaller towns are Wete and Mkoani . Mafia Island , the other major island of the Zanzibar Archipelago but administered by mainland Tanzania (Tanganyika), had a total population of 40,801. The people of Zanzibar are of diverse ethnic origins. The first permanent residents of Zanzibar seem to have been
16560-569: Was a Christian and believed "Everything can be learned from the Bible". During the revolution, Africans committed an orgy of violence against the South Asian and Arab communities, including thousands of women being raped by Okello's followers, and extensive looting and massacres of Arabs all over the island. The American diplomat Don Petterson described the killings of Arabs by the African majority as an act of genocide . Petterson wrote " Genocide
16698-457: Was a strategy used by many Swahili coast towns from at least the fifteenth century. In 1832 or 1840 (the date varies among sources), Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman moved his capital from Muscat, Oman to Stone Town. After Said's death in June 1856, two of his sons, Thuwaini bin Said and Majid bin Said , struggled over the succession . Said's will divided his dominions into two separate principalities , with Thuwaini to become
16836-553: Was carrying could assist in quelling the mutiny. In replacement, a company of the Gordon Highlanders was loaded aboard Owen so an intervention could still be made if necessary. The aircraft carriers Centaur and Victorious were also transferred to the region as part of Operation Parthenon. Although never enacted, Parthenon was intended as a precaution should Okello or the Umma party radicals attempt to seize power from
16974-665: Was changed to direct rule through residents who were effectively governors. The death of the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini on 25 August 1896 and the succession of Sultan Khalid bin Barghash , whom the British did not approve of, led to the Anglo-Zanzibar War . On the morning of 27 August 1896, ships of the Royal Navy destroyed the Beit al Hukum Palace. A cease-fire was declared 38 minutes later, and to this day
17112-624: Was concerned that Zanzibar could become a centre for the promotion of communism in Africa, much like Cuba had in the Americas. Britain, most of the Commonwealth , and the US withheld recognition of the new regime until 23 February, by which time it had already been recognised by much of the communist bloc. In Crosthwait's opinion, this contributed to Zanzibar aligning itself with the Soviet Union ; Crosthwait and his staff were expelled from
17250-534: Was considered part of the British Empire . By 1964, the country was a constitutional monarchy ruled by Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah . Zanzibar had a population of around 230,000 Africans —some of whom claimed Persian ancestry and were known locally as Shirazis —and also contained significant minorities of 50,000 Arabs and 20,000 South Asians, who had long been prominent in business and trade. The various ethnic groups were becoming mixed by intermariage and
17388-637: Was eventually granted on 15 January, but the British considered this confrontation to be the cause of much subsequent ill will against the Western powers in Zanzibar. Western intelligence agencies believed that the revolution had been organised by communists supplied with weapons by the Warsaw Pact countries. This suspicion was strengthened by the appointment of Babu as Minister for External Affairs and Abdullah Kassim Hanga as Prime Minister, both known leftists with possible communist ties. Britain believed that these two were close associates of Oscar Kambona ,
17526-417: Was forced by the British to abolish the slave trade in the Zanzibar Archipelago. He largely developed Unguja's infrastructure. Another brother of Majid, Khalifa bin Said , was the third sultan of Zanzibar and deepened the relationship with the British, which led to the archipelago's progress towards the abolition of slavery. Control of Zanzibar eventually came into the hands of the British Empire ; part of
17664-470: Was incorporated into German East Africa . The sultans developed an economy of trade and cash crops in the Zanzibar Archipelago with a ruling Arab elite. Ivory was a major trade good. The archipelago, sometimes referred to by locals as the Spice Islands, was famous worldwide for its cloves and other spices, and plantations were established to grow them. The archipelago's commerce gradually fell into
17802-440: Was not a term that was as much in vogue then, as it came to be later, but it is fair to say that in parts of Zanzibar, the killing of Arabs was genocide, pure and simple". Okello frequently took to the radio to urge his followers in thunderous Old Testament language to kill as many Arabs as possible, with the maximum of brutality. As a Pan-African nationalist who made his followers sing "God Bless Africa" whenever he marched through
17940-407: Was planned and headed by the ASP leader Abeid Amani Karume. But, at the time Karume was on the African mainland, as was the leader of the banned Umma Party, Abdulrahman Muhammad Babu . Okello, in his capacity as the ASP youth branch secretary for Pemba, had sent Karume to the mainland to ensure his safety. Okello had arrived in Zanzibar from Kenya in 1959, claiming to have been a field marshal for
18078-479: Was probably Okello, with the Youth League, who planned the revolution. There appear to have been three different plots to overthrow the government, led by Karume, Babu and Okello, but it was Okello's plan that was furthest advanced and he struck the blow that brought down the Sultan's regime. Okello was not widely known in Zanzibar, and the government was more concerned with monitoring the ASP and Umma rather than
18216-455: Was renamed as the Diocese of Zanzibar & Dar es Salaam. Two years later, in 1965, Dar es Salaam became a separate diocese. The original jurisdiction was renamed as the Diocese of Zanzibar & Tanga. In 2001, the mainland links were finally ended, and it is now known as the Diocese of Zanzibar. The diocese includes parishioners on the neighbouring island of Pemba . Ten bishops have served in
18354-629: Was renamed the People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba; the new government's first acts were to permanently banish the Sultan and to ban the ZNP and ZPPP. Seeking to distance himself from the volatile Okello, Karume quietly sidelined him from the political scene, although allowing him to retain his self-bestowed title of field marshal. But Okello's revolutionaries soon began reprisals against the Arab and Asian population of Unguja, carrying out beatings, rapes, murders, and attacks on property. Okello claimed in radio speeches to have killed or imprisoned tens of thousands of his "enemies and stooges", but estimates of
18492-422: Was seen to be a considerable improvement. The revolution itself remains an event of interest for Zanzibaris and academics. Historians have analysed the revolution as having a racial and a social basis, with some stating that the African revolutionaries represent the proletariat rebelling against the ruling and trading classes, represented by the Arabs and South Asians. Others discount this theory and present it as
18630-621: Was suppressed in 1953, when the territory was put under control of the Kenyan church, but it was restored in 1964 after independence. The church created a diocese here shortly before Easter 1980. The bishop is Augustine Ndeliakyama Shao. Zanzibar is part of the Roman Catholic Province of Dar es Salaam, under the Archbishop of Dar es Salaam. Other Christian denominations include the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania which arrived in Zanzibar town in
18768-541: Was the British Solomon Islands, now Solomon Islands , which gained independence in 1978; the last British protected state was Brunei , which gained full independence in 1984. *protectorates that existed alongside a colony of the same name As protected states, the following states were never officially part of the British Empire and retained near-total control over internal affairs; however,
18906-608: Was the beginning of the Later Stone Age . A Greco-Roman text between the 1st and 3rd centuries, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea , mentioned the island of Menuthias ( Ancient Greek : Μενουθιάς ), which is probably Unguja . At the outset of the first millennium, both Zanzibar and the nearby coast were settled by Bantu speakers. Archaeological finds at Fukuchani, on the northwest coast of Zanzibar, indicate
19044-604: Was widely seen as a sign that the Arab-dominated government was planning to lock the black people in a permanent second-class status. On 10 December 1963, with the termination of the British protectorate, complete independence was achieved, with the ZNP/ZPPP coalition as the government. The government requested a defence agreement from the United Kingdom, asking for a battalion of British troops to be stationed on
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