Pan-Africanism or Pragmatism: Lessons of the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union

5. NYERERE’S VISION AND JUMBE’S CONSOLIDATION: THE BIRTH OF A PERMANENT CONSTITUTION (1972–1977)

Chapter Five NYERERE’S VISION AND JUMBE’S CONSOLIDATION: THE BIRTH OF A PERMANENT CONSTITUTION (1972–1977) JUMBE CONSOLIDATES POWER Aboud Jumbe was the only ‘educated’ member of the original Revolutionary Council left after Karume had got rid of other Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) intelligentsia by elimination or forced emigration. Although occupying various ministerial posts in Karume’s regime, Jumbe was not known for any independent initiative or even mild criticism. He acquiesced in Karume’s excesses and did his bidding without questioning. This is what ensured his survival. Although the ‘hardliners’ of the ‘Committee of 14’ under Seif Bakari1 did not like him, as Karume had once backbitten to Jumbe,2 they did not consider Jumbe a threat enough to eliminate him. Aboud Jumbe was certainly not an heir apparent. His choice as Karume’s successor may have been a compromise, partly to keep the Revolutionary Council together and partly to assuage popular resentment of the ASP.3 At the time and later, the popular belief among many in Zanzibar and the mainland was that Nyerere had a hand in the choice of Jumbe. Jumbe himself sternly denied it in the interview with the author. Perhaps both these positions are an 143 1 Among the names often mentioned in the camp of Karume hardliners are: Seif Bakari, Abdalla Said Natepe, Yusuf Himidi (all in the army), Said Washoto, Said Iddi Bavuai and Khamis Darwesh. 2 Interview Jumbe op. cit. 3 Hank Chase 1976: passim. ex post facto rationalisation. There is no direct evidence that Nyerere was involved in the succession issue; yet, Jumbe’s story that Colonel Seif Bakari spontaneously pointed to him to take the chair when members of the Revolutionary Council met at the army headquarters immediately after Karume’s assassination is too simplistic to be wholly true.4 Whatever the truth, Seif Bakari ‘hardliners’ needed a Jumbe to provide a veneer of legitimacy while Nyerere lost no time in ensuring full support as Jumbe set to consolidate his power. Jumbe in power turned out to be shrewder than he was as a member of the Revolutionary Council. He took a number of measures to ensure his political survival by gradually sidelining the ‘hardliners’ without necessarily destroying them. In the first few years, he used the vast foreign reserves to the tune of some $88 million hoarded by Karume to import food and other commodities to relieve the shortages which had become rampant during the Karume period.5 He established the first colour television in this part of the world, extended airport runways in both Unguja and Pemba, improved roads, bought a new ship for inter-island transport and embarked on partial rural electrification.6 Eventually, he also relaxed the movement of people in and out of Zanzibar and lifted the ban slammed by Karume on the return of former Zanzibaris who had emigrated after the Revolution.7 Besides these popular measures, Jumbe systematically reformed the party apparatus of the ASP making party organs more powerful than the Revolutionary Council and bringing into the fold middlelevel party cadres. Secondly, he allowed and personally encouraged and selected eligible candidates to go for higher education, particularly to the University of Dar es Salaam thus creating a small ‘educated elite’. It was from this elite that he recruited his ministers and permanent secretaries in the government. Ironically, as we shall see, 144 Pan-Africanism or Pragmatism? 4 Interview Jumbe op. cit. 5 Hutchinson 1974 and Bailey 1974. 6 Ibid. See also Mzale 1989. 7 See the Emigration Control Decree, 1979 (No. 6) which repealed Karume’s Emigration Decree, 1969 (No. 9). 145 Nyerere’s Vision and Jumbe’s Consolidation it was also from this group that the future opposition to him emerged. Thirdly, Jumbe reformed the judiciary making it relatively more independent of the Revolutionary Council, and recruiting qualified personnel for the higher judiciary. Fourthly, he went out of his way to appoint leaders from Pemba. Unlike Karume, he visited Pemba more often, held important party meetings there and tried to bring some development to that island. Finally, he took his role as the First Vice-President of the Union rather seriously spending considerable time on visits to the mainland. Occasionally, he treaded on Nyerere’s toes, particularly for his support in the building of mosques on the mainland. Nyerere, however, tolerated it so long as Jumbe did not obstruct Nyerere’s moves to consolidate the Union and...