Global InformationZanzibar Revolution information
| Zanzibar Revolution | |||||||
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| Part of the Cold War | |||||||
 Unguja and Pemba, the two main islands of Zanzibar | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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 Sultanate of Zanzibar | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 John Okello |
Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah Muhammad Shamte Hamadi | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 600–800 men[1][2] | Zanzibar Police Force | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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At least 80 killed and 200 injured during revolution (the majority were Arabs)[3] | |||||||
  Zanzibar Revolution class=notpageimage| Location within Tanzania | |||||||
| Part of the Politics series |
| Republicanism |
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 Politics portal |
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 and his mainly Arab government by the island's majority Black African population.
Zanzibar was an ethnically diverse state consisting of 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 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 (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.
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 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, 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 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.
- ^ Parsons 2003, p. 107.
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nyt19janwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Los Angeles Times (20 January 1964). "Slaughter in Zanzibar of Asians, Arabs Told". Los Angeles Times. p. 4. Archived from the original on 16 January 2009. Retrieved 16 April 2009.