Aspects of Colonial Tanzania History

11. The Pitfalls of a Nascent Democracy: Political agitation, violence and murder after the June 1961 election in Zanzibar

11 The Pitfalls of a Nascent Democracy: Political agitation, violence and murder after the June 1961 election in Zanzibar Introduction On Thursday, 1 June 1961, voting took place to elect 23 members of the Legislative Council in the British Protectorate of Zanzibar. In the morning of that day, while voting was in progress, disturbances broke out in Zanzibar town, spread to the rural areas of the island on 2 June, and continued, mainly in the central and northern areas of Zanzibar, until the security forces gained control of the situation on 8 June. As a result of these disturbances sixty eight people were killed and 381 injured. Many of those killed were ‘Manga’ Arabs713 living in rural areas of Zanzibar Island. On 8 September, 1961, the British Resident, Sir George Mooring, appointed a Commission of Inquiry, with the following terms of reference: “To inquire into and report upon the civil disturbances which occurred in Zanzibar on the first day of June, 1961, and succeeding days, including their causes and development and the 713 There were three main groups of Arabs in Zanzibar namely those who had lived there for many generations (many of whom were big land-owners); those who came down with the monsoon each year from Oman, some of whom settled as traders (these were known as Wamanga, pl.); those who came from the Hadhramaut who usually became engaged in urban trades (these were known as Washihiri, pl.). 190 ASPECTS OF COLONIAL TANZANIA HISTORY steps taken to deal with them.”714 The Commission of Inquiry was composed of Sir Stafford Foster-Sutton, legal counsel and chairman, Sir Vincent Tewson and Caryll Archibald Grossmith, Esquire, commissioners. Assisting the Commission were P. N. Dalton (Zanzibar Attorney General), B. A. G. Target and W. Dourado (Crown Counsels), Fraser-Murray and S. H. M. Kanji (Counsels for the Zanzibar Nationalist Party), K. S. Talati and B. E. Kwaw-Swanzy (Counsels for the Afro-Shirazi Party). Political Background to the Disturbances of June 1961 The single most important feature of Zanzibar’s struggle against British colonial rule was the failure of anti-colonial nationalism to unify the population. Despite widespread antipathy toward British rule and a common desire to attain selfgovernment , the struggle for independence was not a unifying force but instead was accompanied by a radical breakdown of the social order.715 The breakdown was the result of (a) suspicions and fears by both the African majority and the Arab minority in Zanzibar should full political power devolve to the other, and (b) politics of identity which pitted citizens versus foreigners. TheBritishpolicyinZanzibarwastodevolvefullpoliticalpowerintolocalhands. The question was into whose hands would full political power eventually devolve? As we shall see later, this question was at the heart of colonial Zanzibar’s fractious politics. As Michael Lofchie notes: “The presence of three rival nationalist parties, each drawing its support from different communal segments of the population dramatize[d] the fact that the nationalistic consensus [had] not served to forge the bonds of solidarity among Zanzibaris.”716 Prior to 1961, there had been only two serious disturbances in Zanzibar. The first happened in 1936 when ‘Manga’ Arabs violently protested against the Government’s regulation of copra prices. The second, popularly known as Vita vya Ng’ombe, happened in 1951 following the imprisonment of some African cattle owners who had refused to have their cattle inoculated against anthrax. The consequences of these earlier disturbances were not as serious as those that were triggered off by electoral politics beginning in 1957 when provision was made, for the first time, for elections to be held throughout Zanzibar and Pemba on a common roll. Six of the twelve seats in the Legislative Council previously held by nominated unofficial members were to be filled by elected members: two were to be elected for Zanzibar Town, two for the rural districts of Zanzibar, and two for Pemba. The first elections took place in July 1957. Five seats were won by Afro-Shirazi candidates, and one by an Independent candidate who supported the Afro-Shirazi Party (hereafter ASP). The Zanzibar Nationalist Party (hereafter ZNP) candidates were resoundingly defeated. The leaders of the two parties, Ali Muhsin Barwani, ZNP, and Abeid Amani Karume, ASP, opposed each other in the Ng’ambo constituency of Zanzibar, and Barwani was defeated by 3,328 votes to 918. The turnout in the 1957 election (87 per cent of the registered electors voted) and the fact that the voting was conducted peacefully was indicative of the people’s 714...