Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / New
Stats: 3,150,709 members, 7,809,691 topics. Date: Friday, 26 April 2024 at 01:19 PM

An Applaudable Pan-Black African Campaign Against Domination By Arabs - Culture - Nairaland

Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Culture / An Applaudable Pan-Black African Campaign Against Domination By Arabs (1054 Views)

How I Will Rule My Kingdom — 17 Yr Old Delta King / Why Can't People Embrace Pan-africanism? Why So Much Hatred On This Forum?? / Were There Fair Africans (non-arabs) In Africa Before The Europeans Came? (2) (3) (4)

(1) (Reply)

An Applaudable Pan-Black African Campaign Against Domination By Arabs by Nobody: 6:57pm On Dec 04, 2014
The Zanzibar(part of present day tanzania) Revolution occurred in 1964 and led to the overthrow of the Sultan of Zanzibar and his mainly Arab government by local African revolutionaries. Zanzibar was an ethnically diverse state consisting of a number of islands off the east coast of Tanganyika which had been granted independence by Britain in 1963.

In a series of parliamentary elections preceding independence, 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% of the vote in the July 1963 election, the mainly African Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) allied itself with the left-wing Umma Party, and early on the morning of 12 January 1964 ASP member John Okello mobilised around 600–800 revolutionaries on the main island of Unguja (Zanzibar Island). Having overrun the country's police force and appropriated their weaponry, the insurgents proceeded to Zanzibar Town
where they overthrew the Sultan and his
government.

Reprisals against Arab and South Asian civilians on the island followed; the resulting death toll is disputed, with estimates ranging from several hundred to 20,000. The moderate ASP leader Abeid Karume became the country's new president and head of state, and positions of power were granted to Umma party members. 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, both of its police armouries and the radio station. The Arab police replacements had received almost no training and, despite responding with a
mobile force, were soon overcome. 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. Within six hours of 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.

The Sultan, together with Prime Minister Muhammad Shamte Hamadi and members of the cabinet, fled the island on the royal yacht Seyyid Khalifa, and the Sultan's palace and other property was seized by the revolutionary government. 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 the island's new government.

According to the official Zanzibari history, the revolution was planned and headed by the ASP leader Abeid Amani Karume. However, at the time Karume was on the African mainland as was the leader of the banned Umma Party, Abdulrahman Muhammad Babu.The ASP branch secretary for Pemba, Ugandan-born ex-policeman John Okello, 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 the Kenyan rebels during the Mau Mau Uprising, although he actually had no military experience. He maintained that he heard a voice commanding him, as a Christian, to free the Zanzibari people from the Arabs, and it was Okello who led the revolutionaries—mainly unemployed members of the Afro-Shirazi Youth League on 12 January. One commentator has further speculated that it was probably
Okello, with the Youth League, who planned the revolution.

**Copied and pasted.

1 Like

Re: An Applaudable Pan-Black African Campaign Against Domination By Arabs by lafflaff123(m): 5:56am On Dec 05, 2014
Honestly still trying to understand your write up.
Re: An Applaudable Pan-Black African Campaign Against Domination By Arabs by Nobody: 11:16am On Dec 05, 2014
Liken it to the contemporary occupation of parts of northern Nigeria by Fulani imperialist wannabe. Exactly the same scenario occured in Zanzibar(part of today Tanzania). Arabs had managed to impose their rule on the native population even after independence from colonialist Britain. The revolution of 1964 led by John Kello and others, overthrew the Arabs from their position of authority, and is still been celebrated till date (I think every January). About 20,000 Arabs and Indians deaths were recorded(this figure is disputable though).
The remnant Arab/Indian population that escaped the massacre were later summarily expeled.

1 Like

(1) (Reply)

Yoruba Vs Benin Kingdom - Oba Of Benin Clashes With Ooni Of Ife / Happy International Men's Day!!! / Oba Ewuare I: Most Illustrious Edo King

(Go Up)

Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health
religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket

Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 14
Disclaimer: Every Nairaland member is solely responsible for anything that he/she posts or uploads on Nairaland.