A great portion of the sufferings that the people of Zanzibar have been
undergoing and continue to undergo are a result of the contribution made
by our brothers the self-styled "progressives", that is the Comrades. Apart
from the fact that they co-operated with foreigners and fascists
in invading the country and removing the people's elected government by
bringing about the so-called "revolution", those brothers of ours have
also shared in the committal of injustices and barbarities that were inflicted
on our country. Babu himself takes pride in the iniquitous contribution
made by his group, the Umma party. He has written:
"As the ASP had no economic or political programme, the (Revolutionary)
Council adopted in toto the Umma Party's minimum programme. The party's
policy on health, education, land reform, social welfare, etc. were immediately
implemented and they still remain the most shining and popular aspects
of government policies." (Babu's article in the book Zanzibar under colonial
Rule p. 241)
The rapid deterioration in education and medical care in all government
hospitals started to take place under the direct misguided supervision
of a minister in the self-styled "progressive" group. It was he who
dismissed en masse hundreds of well trained teachers, and hundreds others
chose to resign and flee the country. In the same way qualified doctors
resigned and fled the country to escape the injustices and policies of
this same minister. The banning of the teaching of religion in schools,
and the prohibition of the true history of Zanzibar and East Africa in
schools was also done when the Ministry of Education was under this same
"progressive" individual. He even put a stop to the teaching of the Qur'an
in government schools, and copies of the holy book were burnt in the rubbish
incinerator at Saateni in Zanzibar. Instead of that our boys and girls
were taught belly dancing, a pastime which had nothing to do with our Zanzibari
culture, and on the contrary opposed to it. Our cultural decadence began
with what was called "revolution", and the principal contributors to that
decadence were those of our brethren who style themselves "progressives".
A stage was reached when our children had no respect for their parents
or their teachers. Some of them reported their parents to the Regional
Commissioner because they prohibited them from going to take part in the
mass robot-like games so common in the eastern bloc. Our children learnt
that sort of behaviour from the "progressive" elements in the street corners
and alleys. That was their notion of equality and progress! Mass games
are the games in which participants are commanded to perform automatically
like robots in huge masses altogether. The games are calculated to develop
the instinct of blind obedience to authoritative command. They are very
popular in communist Asia, such as Korea and China.
WHY DID MWALIMU REFUSE
TO SEND TO ZANZIBAR THE ACCUSED IN THE TREASON TRIAL?
When the President of the Usurpers' Government of Zanzibar, Abeid Amani
Karume, was assassinated many Zanzibaris were arrested and detained
in Zanzibar and on the mainland of Tanzania. Those principally accused
were the self-styled "progressives" or Comrades. They were kept for
a long time in detention, after the release of all others. After a time
the Usurper Government proffered charges against the detainees both those
in Zanzibar and those in the mainland. However, it is said that Mwalimu
Nyerere refused to send to Zanzibar the accused who were in his custody
on the mainland. When the Usurpers Government saw that Mwalimu was refusing
to let those detainees in his custody go to Zanzibar, it proceeded with
the trial of those accused who were in Zanzibar prisons. The trial
took a long time. Ultimately the court gave its verdict with regard to
all the accused, those who had ;been in Zanzibar and those who were in
absentia in the mainland. According to the court's ruling some of the accused
were sentenced to death and others received various terms of imprisonment.
Among those sentenced to death was the chief of the "progressives" Abdulrahman
Babu. I do not say that that court and those judges were competent and
just by any standard. They might have been competent and qualified
to sell dry fish in the market or to embroider the white Swahili caps.
Legal matters were definitely beyond the field of competence for such individuals
who were vested with magisterial authority to try and condemn free citizens.
However, as it was the accused themselves who had fully participated
in bringing about that tragic and farcical situation whereby the country
became cursed with such courts and such magistrates to decide the fate
of human beings, all that one can say is that these present victims were
merely reaping the harvest of what they themselves had sown. Those who
deserve pity are the ordinary people of Zanzibar who all along have been
unnecessarily suffering from the ravages of the invasion launched by the
invaders and their quisling comrades. Those accused for involvement in
the assassination of Karume had indeed (when they were in authority) approved
by word and deed the barbaric proceedings that were now being relentlessly
pursued against them. Injustice knows no master nor slave. That is why
we are commanded to fight injustice wherever it occurs.
This particular case intrigued many citizens as well as outsiders.
Indeed even indubitable supporters of the Afro-Shirazi have failed to unravel
the riddle which was presented by the categorical refusal of Mwalimu Nyerere
to allow the accused among the "progressives" who were in mainland prisons
to be sent for trial in the Zanzibar court. The riddle intensifies when
as it turned out that those accused who were in the mainland, both of those
who were condemned to death and those who received prison sentences, were
ultimately freed from detention without even the need for an appeal. Who
was it who had the authority to overturn the decision of the court of the
Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar?
Whoever he was, the decision had been taken. The person who had this
supreme authority to overrule the decision of the Zanzibar High court,
surely could have prevented the very existence of such a court. Why did
he not use his authority to ban such an unjust and incompetent court? It
would have been more like justice had that supreme authority ordered compensation
to those who had been convicted by that court for obviously they
had been wrongly convicted. Indeed all the plottings which culminated in
the assassination of Karume and all the events which followed that
assassination present an insoluble riddle. If it were not so Mwalimu should
not have refused to send to Zanzibar those accused who were in mainland
Tanzania prisons, nor should they have been released so soon after the
end of the trial.
Mwalimu Nyerere had no qualms in dispatching to Zanzibar Othman
Shariff, Kassim Hanga, Idris Abdulla Majura, Bibi Titi Muhammad, Kamaliza,
Chipaka, (the last three were Tanganyikans).whose offense was unknown and
their trial had never taken place. Nor did Mwalimu hesitate to send 18
of us from Dar-es-Salaam to Zanzibar to an unknown fate, not for trial
in open court but directly to the torture chambers of Ba-Mkwe. That same
Mwalimu Nyerere, with his sense of what is right and what is wrong, saw
fit to categorically refuse to send the group of "Progressives" who
were in his hands to his Government of Usurpers for trial as principal
accused in connection with the plotting to assassinate one who had been
his Vice President, the First Vice President of the Union of Tanzania.
Has this no significance at all? Is it not possible that there is something
that has to come out, if not today may be tomorrow, if not tomorrow
may be the day after, indeed if not this year may be in years to come?
But it is certain that some day the truth will out. Whatever the case Karume
was President of Zanzibar and Vice President of Tanzania. That he should
be killed, and those accused of conspiracy to kill him after being arrested,
tried and convicted, should be left off after a comparatively short detention,
as if nothing had ever happened! Is that true? If only an ordinary member
of the ASP was killed, the accused would have seen doomsday. But no, the
assassination of the head of state, it is as if nothing had happened!
That is not the only surprising thing to the people of Zanzibar There
is plenty. What is even more amazing is that the alleged chief conspirator
of the events which took place on 7th April 1972 and culminated in the
killing of the President of the Usurpers' Government of Zanzibar should
be freely allowed without any impediment to leave the country and return
at will at any time. Not only that but the same government which had sentenced
him to death should invite him to come and address official seminars and
conferences! These indeed are the wonders that perplex the ordinary citizen!
THIS IS INDEED A MYSTRY!!
It is now 30 years since the so-called "Revolution" and until today some
of the leaders of the Zanzibar Nationalist Party and the Zanzibar and Pemba
People's Party (ZNP/ZPPP) are not allowed to put their feet on their native
soil. These have not killed or conspired to kill anybody, let alone the
Head of State. Nor have they confiscated anybody's property; nor have they
stolen or despoiled public funds. They committed no offense against the
laws of the country. The fact is that it is they who were the victims of
injustice since their government was unwarrantably toppled and usurped,
their people murdered, they themselves imprisoned and tortured,
and then compelled to flee their native land. As if that were not enough
punishment they had also had their properties confiscated, homes as well
as farms, which they had earned by their own sweat and the sweat of their
parents. If any of them had committed any offense the Usurpers' Government
would have sent them to court, but they could find no fault with them,
and so they imprisoned them as "political prisoners." for ten years without
trial.
On the other hand those whom the court had convicted of conspiring
to kill the State President and Leader of the Afro-Shirazi Party were left
not only untouched, but rewarded! Shall we say that they are feared, or
that they know what is being feared to be exposed!
