The Zanzibar Revolution of 1964

The context: independence and inequality

Zanzibar gained independence from British rule on 10 December 1963, becoming a constitutional monarchy under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah. But independence did not resolve deep tensions that had been building for decades. Political and economic power remained concentrated in the hands of an Arab minority — descendants of Omani traders and the ruling class that had governed the archipelago since the nineteenth century. The African majority, consisting of the Shirazi people indigenous to Zanzibar and Pemba as well as mainland Africans who had come to the islands over generations, were largely excluded from political influence and economic opportunity.

The two most recent elections before independence had been won by the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP), which represented the African population, yet a coalition of Arab and other parties had formed the government — a result shaped partly by the colonial-era voting arrangements. This outcome was widely seen by the African majority as unjust, and resentment ran deep.

John Okello and the night of revolution

The armed uprising was organised by John Okello, a man born in Uganda, who had arrived in Zanzibar years earlier and worked as a labourer before becoming a figure within the ASP's more radical wing. He was not a senior party official, and the extent to which the ASP leadership directed the uprising remains a subject of historical debate. Okello presented himself as a self-appointed field marshal acting on divine instruction — his communications and proclamations had a fierce religious and millenarian character that distinguished him from the party's more conventional politicians.

In the early hours of 12 January 1964, Okello led a force of several hundred armed men — many of them young ASP members from the countryside, armed largely with knives, machetes, and a small number of firearms seized early in the assault — against police armouries and key installations. The attack on the police armoury at Ziwani was central: capturing weapons there gave the rebels the firepower to overpower organised resistance quickly.

The sultan's government had little capacity to resist. The police force was undermanned and poorly prepared, and there was no army to speak of. Within hours, the government had effectively collapsed. Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah fled the islands and went into exile, eventually settling in Britain.

The aftermath and violence

The revolution's immediate aftermath was marked by serious violence. In the days following 12 January, members of the Arab and South Asian communities were killed, imprisoned, or expelled. The scale of the deaths has been debated by historians, with estimates varying widely. Property was seized and redistributed. The violence was not uniform or centrally directed — much of it arose from a breakdown of order and the settling of personal and communal grievances in the chaos following the collapse of the old government.

John Okello's prominence was short-lived. The revolutionary government that consolidated power was led by Abeid Amani Karume, the head of the ASP, alongside the Umma Party — a more explicitly Marxist group that split from the Zanzibar Nationalist Party and aligned with the revolution. Okello was sidelined and ultimately expelled from Zanzibar. He returned briefly but never regained influence and died in obscurity in Uganda in 1971.

The new People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba declared itself a one-party state. Estates were nationalised, land was redistributed, and schools and health facilities were placed under state control. Diplomatic relations were established with the Soviet Union, East Germany, Cuba, and China, and the revolution was watched with considerable anxiety by Western governments and by Julius Nyerere's government in neighbouring Tanganyika.

The union with Tanganyika

Zanzibar's radical leftward turn alarmed Nyerere, who feared regional instability and was under pressure from Western governments alarmed by a perceived Soviet and Cuban foothold in the Indian Ocean. Negotiations between Karume and Nyerere moved quickly. On 26 April 1964, Zanzibar and Tanganyika merged to form the United Republic of Tanzania. Karume became the first vice-president of Tanzania, and Zanzibar retained a degree of internal autonomy through its own Revolutionary Government and Revolutionary Council — an arrangement that continues, with modifications, to this day.

The union has never been entirely smooth. Zanzibar retains its own government, president, and house of representatives, and the question of the relationship between the islands and the mainland has remained a persistent political issue.

Legacy

The revolution transformed Zanzibar. The Arab aristocracy and much of the South Asian trading community departed permanently, altering the demographic and cultural character of the islands. Land reform redistributed clove plantations. The social hierarchies of the sultanate era were dismantled, often brutally.

Karume governed Zanzibar until his assassination in 1972. His legacy is contested: he oversaw real improvements in literacy and healthcare, but also a period of authoritarian rule marked by human rights abuses. The revolution itself remains a foundational event in Zanzibari identity — commemorated annually on 12 January as Revolution Day, a public holiday on the islands.