Mapinduzi Daima – Revolution Forever: Using the 1964 Revolution in Nationalistic Political Discourses in Zanzibar Riikka Suhonen Master’s Thesis African Studies Institute for Asian and African Studies University of Helsinki July 2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following organizations and people deserve a big thankyou: – Institute of Asian and African Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland for travel grant and eight years of stimulating studies – Finnish Cultural Foundation (Suomen Kulttuurirahasto) for their grant – Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden for their one-month study scholarship giving the chance to work in peace – Zanzibar Indian Ocean Research Institute (ZIORI), Tanzania, its staff and particularly professor Abdul Sheriff and Saleh Mohammed Saleh for their indispensable assistance – Zanzibar National Archives, Tanzania – Dar es Salaam University Library, Tanzania – Friends for your support: you all know who you are * * * But politics also brought shocking things to the surface. We liked to think of ourselves as a moderate and mild people. Arab African Indian Comorian: we lived alongside each other, quarrelled and sometimes intermarried. Civilized, that’s what we were. We liked to be described like that, and we described ourselves like that. In reality, we were nowhere near we, but us in our own separate yards, locked in our historical ghettoes, self-forgiving and seething with intolerances, with racisms, and with resentments. And politics brought all that into the open. - Abdulrazak Gurnah: Admiring Silence (1996) - Table of Contents ABBREVIATIONS .........................................................................................................1 CAST OF POLITICAL CHARACTERS IN ZANZIBAR .........................................2 1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................3 1.1. REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS IN ZANZIBAR ................................................................5 1.2. OBJECT OF THE RESEARCH.......................................................................................6 2. METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .......................10 2.1. POWER, DISCOURSE AND IDEOLOGY ......................................................................10 2.2. ETHNICITY, "RACE" AND IDENTITY........................................................................17 2.3. NATIONALISMS – "WHO ARE WE?".........................................................................22 2.4. PAST AND HISTORY – "WHO WERE WE?"................................................................26 3. RESEARCH MATERIAL .......................................................................................31 3.1. FINDING THE MATERIAL ........................................................................................33 3.2. OFFICIAL REVOLUTION .........................................................................................35 3.3. PLURALIST REVOLUTION.......................................................................................36 4. FROM PAST TO PRESENT ZANZIBAR.............................................................40 4.1. SLAVES, SPICES AND SULTANS...............................................................................40 4.2. TIME OF POLITICS AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENTS ........................................42 4.3. 12TH OF JANUARY, 1964 AND ITS AFTERMATH......................................................46 4.4. FROM KARUME TO DEMOCRACY AND AGAIN KARUME..........................................49 5. REVOLUTION AND ZANZIBARI IDENTITY ...................................................54 5.1. REVOLUTION OF THE RULING PARTY ....................................................................55 5.1.1. Past: Slaves challenging their Masters.........................................................56 5.1.2. Present: African Proletarian Revolution ......................................................62 5.1.3. Future: How to Save the Revolution from Democracy .................................70 5.2. RUPTURES IN REVOLUTIONARY RHETORIC ...........................................................77 5.2.1. Past: Foreigners invading the Jewel of the Indian Ocean............................79 5.2.2. Present: We do not want "their" Revolution.................................................86 5.2.3. Future: "Zanzibar is a peacock"...................................................................94 5.3. THE CLASH OF DISCOURSES AND THE REMAKING OF ZANZIBARI IDENTITY........101 5.3.1. Myths, metaphors and stereotypes of the 1964 revolution..........................101 5.3.2. Cultural, ethnic or civic nationalism? ........................................................108 6. CONCLUSIONS: REVISING THE ZANZIBAR REVOLUTION ...................111 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................120 APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................133 ABBREVIATIONS ASP Afro-Shirazi Party. The ruling party in Zanzibar from the revolution in 1964 until 1977 and the birth of CCM. CCM Chama cha Mapinduzi, "The Party of the Revolution". Founded in 1977, when TANU and ASP joined together. CUF Civic United Front. The main opposition party in Zanzibar, led by James Mapalala on the mainland and by Seif Sharif Hamad in Zanzibar. OIC Organization of Islamic Conference TANU Tanganyika African National Union, the ruling party in mainland Tanzania until 1977. ZIORI Zanzibar Indian Ocean Research Institute ZNA Zanzibar National Archives ZNP Zanzibar Nationalist Party, led the first independent government in Zanzibar until the 1964 revolution. ZPPP Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party CAST OF POLITICAL CHARACTERS IN ZANZIBAR Salmin Amour President of Zanzibar, 1990–2000. Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu (1924–1996) Founder of the Umma Party, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Planning in the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar; imprisoned 1973–1978; active political and academic figure. Seif Sharif Hamad ("Maalim") (1943–) Minister of Education 1977–1980; Member of the Central Committee of CCM 1977-1987; Chief Minister of Zanzibar 1984–1988; imprisoned 1989–1991; Secretary general of CUF and the presidential candidate for Zanzibar 1995–2005. Ali Sultan Issa (1931–) Umma Party Member, Pemba Area Commissioner, Minister of Health and Education (years?), imprisoned 1973–1978. Sultan Jamshid bin-Abdullah (1929–) The last Sultan of Zanzibar 1963–1964. Omar Ali Juma (1941–) Chief Minister of Zanzibar 1988–1995; Vice President of Tanzania 1995–2001. Mwinyi Aboud Jumbe (1920–) Organizing secretary of the Afro-Shirazi Party; Minister of Health; President of Zanzibar and Vice-President of Tanzania 1972–1984. Abeid Amani Karume (1905–1972) President of the Afro-Shirazi Party, President of Zanzibar and Vice-President of Tanzania 1964–1972. Amani Abeid Karume (1948–) Current president of Zanzibar, 2000–. Sheikh Thabit Kombo Jecha (????–1986) Secretary general of the ASP. Ali Muhsin al-Barwani (1919–2006) One of the ZNP leaders; Minister of Foreign Affairs 1963–1964 (until the revolution). Ali Hassan Mwinyi (1925–) President of Zanzibar 1984–1985; President of Tanzania 1985–1995. Julius Nyerere ("Mwalimu") (1922–1999) President of TANU, President of Tanganyika and Tanzania until 1985, Chairman of CCM until 1990. John Okello ("Field Marshal") (1937–1971?) Member of the Youth League of the Afro- Shirazi Party. Played active military role in the revolution but was exiled soon after the revolution. Seyyid Said bin Sultan al-Said (1790–1856) The Omani Sultan who moved the capital of Oman to Zanzibar in 1840. Idris Abdul Wakil (1925–2000) President of Zanzibar 1985–1990. 2 1. INTRODUCTION The range is spectacular: from the islands full of aromatic flavour of various spices to a former slave trading centre; from an embryo of African socialist revolution to Cuba of Africa; from an Islamic yolk of Africa to nucleus of Communism in Africa; from a former commercial intermediary between the African interior and the capitalist industrialized West to a country with excessive centralized economy; from a country of calm, polite, civilised, cosmopolitan community to hot, volatile and unpredictable revolutionaries. -- All these associations confirm one simple fact, that Zanzibar has always been like a social laboratory, a place that has endured continuous and complex social, political, cultural and economic changes. – Omar Ali Juma, Chief Minister of Zanzibar 1990 When sitting on board of a dangerously creaky dala-dala1 and fearing for your life on the windy roads of Pemba, one can literally see the politics in Zanzibar. No village lacks the flags of both the main party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM, "Party of the Revolution") and the opposition party Civic United Front (CUF). When walking on the narrow streets of Stone Town, political posters and graffitis cover the walls. Pictures of president Karume decorate the walls of restaurants and the word mapinduzi ("revolution") is repeated over and over again on different government publications, buildings and slogans. Green-and- yellow CCM offices and Maskanis2 dot the scenery everywhere, whereas CUF buildings and meeting places, of unpainted cement boast less with appearance. A white foreigner (mzungu) visiting a CUF office in Stone Town attracts attention: a young man hooks up with me instantly asking: "Do you like CUF?" (Unapenda CUF?). The situation is somewhat different when trying to enter a CCM office