POLITICAL ACTIVIES EMERGE

Before the establishment of British protectorate over Zanzibar in 1890, this country was fully independent and sovereign. As soon as the country got  into the clutches of British colonialism, everything big or small was dictated through the United Kingdom government.  The Sultan became a nominal head of state. He had no say in the running of the government.
 As is being done everywhere else under colonialism the policy of "Divide and rule" was applied to Zanzibar. Divisions could be magnified or created regarding various aspects of life, such as  religion,  sect, race, colour,  class,  language,  geographical regions etc. In the particular instance of Zanzibar the British colonialist used ethnic origin as a source to magnify divisions among the people. He tried to make those of Arab origin believe that it was they who were entitled to "rule" because the Sultan was of Arab ancestry. He made the Shirazis (i.e. the Wahadimu, Watumbatu and Wapemba) believe that the country belonged to them only, for it was they who had gone to invite the Arabs to get rid of the Portuguese. He made the black Africans (of mainland origin) believe that because Zanzibar was part of  Africa, the African irrespective of his origin, was the one entitled to the country because the islands were part and parcel of the continent of Africa. The Indians were persuaded that their privileged position as British subjects would only remain as long as British rule continued.  Thus emanating from such instigations the people of Zanzibar began launching their racial or communal associations. There sprung up one after another, the Arab Association, The Indian National Association, the African Association, the Shirazi Association, the Comorian Association etc. etc. Each association claimed to speak for its particular community and to protect and enhance the interests of the community. No one spoke for Zanzibar, to the immense pleasure of the ruling colonialist.
 For years these communal associations existed and achieved nothing except for their leaders receiving  official invitations to functions in the Sultan's Palace or the British Residency, the official home of the colonialist representative, or to be invited to a sun downer party when a British naval vessel paid a visit to the Zanzibar harbour.
 During the 1920's in furthering the policy of dividing the people the British instituted  what was termed the Legislative Council whose members were appointed, not elected, by the colonialist. They were appointed according to race. Ultimately, as a result of slow development, there were four Arabs, four Africans, three Indians and one European.  These were supposed to represent the public, and were called "unofficial members". To the official or government side there were appointed the directors of departments, who were all expatriate British officials.  They were in a majority of one to ensure the fiction of democratic voting. In one form or another that type of Legislative Council functioned for 28 years. Nothing substantial for the good of the country ensued. Constitutionally there was no change, and the people continued to lack any participation directly or through duly elected representatives in the government of their country. All power was vested in the British colonialist.
 In the year 1953-54 the Arab Association sent a petition to the British Resident demanding constitutional changes which would enable the nationals of Zanzibar to elect their representatives to the Legislative Council on the basis of universal franchise by the system of One man One vote on a common-roll (i.e. non-racial) basis. This meant demanding the abolition of the system of Government nomination, and abolition of racial representation. Among the demands of the Arab Association was that representation on all other statutory bodies be aksi banned.  The Association further demanded that after the election on the basis proposed there should be constitutional talks to prepare for the granting of Complete Independence to Zanzibar.
 The then governing British Resident was one called John Rankine. He refused even to consider those demands. In response the Arab Association launched a  boycott of all colonialist bodies to which its members had been appointed, including and primarily, the Legislative Council. The boycott lasted  exactly eighteen months.
 It is worth considering that the Arab Association did not put up those demands  for Arabs but for the good of Zanzibar and all Zanzibaris irrespective of their racial origins. This can well be appreciated when we realize that the so-called Arabs amounted to no more than 16%.of the population. In spite of this they gave up the privileged position they had been given, and sacrificed themselves for the common good of the country.  It is regrettable and shameful that their fellow citizens of other communities did not cooperate with them in their legitimate and reasonable demands, although they did their best to request that cooperation.
 One among the appointed Arabs to the Legislative Council who disagreed with breaking ties with the colonialists  attended a sitting of the Legislative Council in open defiance of the boycott. An embittered youth attacked him with knives which caused his death.
 

CAMPAIGNING OVERSEAS  FOR 
"COMMON ROLL ELECTIONS".

During the time when the Arab Association was engaged in its constitutional demands and conducting its boycott with the government, a patriotic young man, Sheikh Ali Muhsin, left the country and went abroad to agitate for constitutional changes in the Legislature of Zanzibar, and in particular to demand the right of universal adult franchise on a non-racial basis. He did this at his own expenses. In particular he targeted UK where he contacted Abdulrehman Mohamed Babu with whom he associated in presenting their demands to the British public. Sheikh Ali met with the whole spectrum of political opinion, government and opposition, party and trade-union leaders. He won the moral support of British political opinion. It was unprecedented at that time for any colonial territory in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa to demand, far less to have,  a  common roll (i.e. non-racial) election. Representation according to race was a universally accepted system in the whole region. Any other was unknown and unthinkable.
 

FOUNDING OF ZNP

When Ali Muhsin was in Europe, back home there arose a group of  patriotic nationals who were all except for one, (Abdulla Mahmoud)  of non-Arab origins. They met to deliberate over the destruction of their country through the colonial policy of dividing the people according to  their races. They came out with the decision to organize a union of all citizens of Zanzibar to which every Zanzibari national, irrespective of race or creed,  would be entitled to join. The deciding factor was his NATIONALITY. This was the first and only political party based on citizenship to be launched in the country.
 The founders of the party were Sh Vuai Kiteweo, Sh Miiraj Shaalab, Maalim Zaid Mbarouk, Maalim Maksud Fikirini, Maalim Mwandoa Khamis, Maalim Wazir Ali bin Maalim, Sh Haji Hussein Ahmed, Sh Othman Soud, Sh Abdulla Mahmoud Kombo (of Makunduchi), Sh Ramadhan Tosir (Ramadhan Madafu), Maalim Hija (of Ndijani), Sh Ame, Sh Abdulla Mali, Sh Haji Kombo (of Kiboje), Sh Abdulla Mahmoud and a few others.
 Hence those who allege that the Zanzibar Nationalist Party was a party founded by  Arabs or dominated by Arabs, make such allegations out of ignorance and not knowing the truth, or have some ulterior motive of their own. The truth is that the ZNP was not founded by Arabs, nor was it ever a party of Arabs. If the party had been an Arab party then it could never have won a one-man-one-vote election, which it repeatedly did. The so-called Arabs were always a mere sixth of the population. In not a single constituency did they ever form any thing like a majority. Those allegations are made out of spite and a desire to perpetuate friction and division among the people, to prevent them ever  uniting. They are allegations made up by the colonialists and orchestrated by their stooges for the benefit of their masters.
 It was the founders of the ZNP who went to the home of Sheikh Ali Muhsin after his return from his European tour. After explaining to him the aims and objects of the newly-founded party they asked him to join with them, which he did. After his being a member they requested him to get some of his friends among Arabs to join the party. He accepted the assignment and carried it out. Among the first of those who are labeled as  of Arab origin were Sheikhs Ahmed Seif Kharusi, Amour Zahor Ismaily, Badr Muhammad Barwani, Ali Ahmed Riyamy, Nassor bin Isa Ismaily and Ahmed Khalfan Naamani.
 

COLONIALISTS OPPOSE ZNP'S STAND FOR FREEDOM AND UNITY

When the colonialists saw that the ZNP had been established and was daily gaining ground they became nervous. They felt their interests threatened.  They resorted to undermining the new party by utilizing some nationals, particularly those working in the Provincial Administration, the Mudirs and Shehas. These servants of the colonialists entered village and hamlet to undermine the unity of the Zanzibar Nationalist Party.  Within a certain degree to start with these attempts met with some success. In particular they used the tactics of spreading lies  and falsehood regarding the aims and objects of the party.  They told some that the party was intent on creating  disturbances. They told others that the party's aim was  to  remove the Sultan from his throne. To each they played a different tune to suit his ear. Very shortly, however, more and more of the people understood the underlying motives of such propaganda, and came to join their fellow nationalists  in increasingly  greater numbers.
 

ZNP HEADQUARTERS

Before the first Common Roll Election in Zanzibar in 1957, one patriotic nationalist, Sh Mahmoud of Mtendeni who was a watch-repairer gave his two-story house at Mwembetanga to the party for use as its headquarters. He let the party use it without charging a single cent as rent.
 After the 1957 elections the party moved to more spacious rented quarters at  Mkunazini near the Gofu Mosque. After some time and having accumulated  enough supporters who could contribute to the party fund it became possible to purchase an imposing building, old as it was, at a central place at Darajani as its permanent headquarters. As a result of the 12 January 1964 invasion that building was confiscated by the usurpers of authority and turned as the H.Q. of the Afro-Shirazi Youth League. As practically all the houses in Zanzibar that building was left to slowly disintegrate through sheer neglect. This is not at all surprising, since it is what is of expected of usurpers.  They can have no sense of responsibility to the country and what belongs to the country. Their most highly developed instinct is the instinct of "grabbing".
 

ZNP BRINGS BABU TO ZANZIBAR

A few months before the election of 1957 the Zanzibar Nationalist Party brought Babu  to Zanzibar in order that he might join with his fellow countrymen in political activities. On his arrival he was appointed Executive Secretary  of the Party while Maalim Mwandoa remained General Secretary. Stemming from the training in party management that he had acquired in the Labour Party, Babu established  what became known as Youths' Own Union (YOU).This was the youths' section of ZNP. In cooperation with other party leaders and activists Babu did a great deal in building up the ZNP as a vital organization of international standing.  Unfortunately as much as he was clever in construction he was also adept in destruction. Having failed to manipulate the party in accordance to his selfish plans he tried his best to undermine it with the intention to destroy it completely. (Later on we shall see how and what he did in that respect.)
 When Ali Muhsin joined the Party he suggested to the leadership the idea of getting Babu to get some training with the Labour Party in England so that in due course he might be useful in the organization of the ZNP. Babu and the party leadership agreed. Ali Muhsin then contacted the Labour Party through the good offices of John Hatch and Mrs. Eirene White M.P. The training took six months, the ZNP meeting all the expenses incurred including Babu's ultimate travel back to Zanzibar. On arrival Babu received a monthly salary with accommodation as the Executive Secretary. He was the first and only person to receive payment for work done in the Party. He continued to be paid on those terms until the time when he became employed by the Chinese News Agency who came to pay him a  salary higher than that of the British Resident. He became their man in East Africa. It was he himself who said he no longer needed the party's salary, which indeed was peanut compared with the princely salary he was now getting from China.
 It can thus be seen that the ZNP even in its early days respected and depended upon the acquisition of knowledge and experience. It wanted all to acquire those two vital needs in life. Babu was the first to receive training, (short as it was), many others were to follow in due course.
 

RESULT OF ALI MUHSIN'S TOUR

As we have already seen Sheikh Ali Muhsin toured some countries in Europe, including Britain, to campaign for the introduction of "Common Roll" elections in Zanzibar. As a result the British Government commissioned Mr. Coutts as a constitutional expert to see if Zanzibar was ready to start a Common Roll election, an innovation that had not seen its like in the whole  region of East, Central and South Africa.  That Commissioner arrived in Zanzibar in 1956.
 The ZNP organized a big rally at the airport to meet Mr. Coutts. Demonstrators took placards with such demands: "WE WANT ONE-MAN ONE VOTE", "WE WANT INDEPENDENCE", "WE ARE TIRED OF BEING RULED", "WE OPPOSE RACIAL OR COLOUR DISCRIMINATION".
 The constitutional commissioner met all sorts of people among the citizens and residents of Zanzibar, those who belonged to organizations as well as private individuals. He also received written petitions from communal and religious organizations. The Zaznzibar Nationalist Party met him also and presented him with a memorandum which focused on their demands, the demands which were the primary cause of his mission to investigate. It should be clearly understood that at the time of the visit of this commissioner until his departure the ZNP was the only political party in existence.  Other political parties were founded later.
 Having finished his investigating task Mr. Coutts returned home to UK and in due course submitted his report to the :British Resident in Zanzibar. In his recommendations Mr. Coutts admitted that Zanzibar was ripe for the introduction of Common Roll elections. He recommended that a beginning of that system should be made with six seats only. The rest of the members of the legislature should continue to be appointed by the Sultan in consultation with the British Resident. He also recommended that the British Resident should continue to preside over the Legislative Council, and officials should continue to be the government side.
 The ZNP was not in the least satisfied with the recommendations of Mr. Coutts, for their demand had consistently been that all members of the Council should be elected on a common roll system. In spite of that, however, the party agreed to participate in the election limited and restricted as it was, on the ground that the principle of Common Roll election had been accepted.  Thus Zanzibar became the first country in East, Central and Southern Africa to have the system of a non-racial common roll system of election. The Arab Association ended its boycott when the government conceded to introduce common-roll election.
 

NYERERE AND COLONIALISTS  FOUND AFRO-SHIRAZI

When the senior officers of the Provincial Administration Department saw that  as an aftermath of Mr. Coutts' visit and recommendations there had emerged no political party to contest with the ZNP they commandeered the services of Julius Kambarage Nyerere. As a result  Mwalimu Nyerere came to Zanzibar and succeeded in persuading the leaders of two rival racial associations, the African Association and the Shirazi Association to bury their hatchets, and come together to form a union in order to oppose the Zanzibar Nationalist Party.  In the report of Mr. Penny who was the supervisor of the 1957 elections it is recorded that it was the Supervisor of elections' office and the department of Provincial Administration which had helped the creation of the Afro-Shirazi and so "saved Zanzibar from one party rule of a dangerously familiar type."
 Mwalimu Nyerere came to Zanzibar towards the end of 1956. He was accompanied by Sheikh Zubeir Mtemvu, who was then TANU's General Secretary. Mwalimu's delegation met with the leaders of the African Association, who were Sh Abeid Amani Karume, Mtumwa Borafia and Boniface. The leaders of the Shirazi Association whom Nyerere met were Sheikh Ameir Tajo, Thabit Kombo Jecha and Othman Shafiff Musa. That meeting took place in the house belonging to Karume at Kachorora, Mwembe Kisonge. At that time that house was being occupied by Maalim Haji Ali Mnoga and  Hija Saleh Hija.
 The plottings of Nyerere and the colonialists met with success. On 2nd February 1957, just a few months before the holding of the first ever election in June, 1957, the Afro-Shirazi Union was officially founded. This was a union of two racial associations, the African Association and the Shirazi Association. Karume became the president, Sheikh Ameir Tajo deputy president and Thabit Kombo general secretary of the new party . The supreme leadership of the party from its very beginning did not go to any national. It did not go to Ameir Tajo, nor to Thabit Kombo, nor to Othman Shariff, but to foreign born Karume.  The strategy of undermining Zanzibari Nationalism started a long time ago.
 

FIRST ELECTIONS, JUNE 1957

As a result of Coutts' recommendations the first elections were held in June, 1957. By that the people of Zanzibar were for the first time able to elect a few of their representatives in the Legislative Council.
 The election was limited to six seats, four constituencies in Unguja and two in Pemba. The constituencies were divided as follows:
Unguja: Stone Town
Unguja: N'gambo area
Unguja: North
Unguja: South
Pemba: North
Pemba: South
 Sh. Ali Muhsin, representing the Nationalists, contested the N'gambo constituency with Sh. Karume representing the Afro-Shirazi opposing him. Sh. Ibuni Saleh, (who was not in the ZNP at the time) standing as an "independent" was the third candidate in the same constituency. Mr. Rutti Bulsara for the ZNP  contested the Stone Town seat. Other contestants were Mr. Choudhry for the Muslim Association, Mr. Anverali Hassan Virji and Mr. Abdul Qadir Mukri, both being independent candidates. Sh. Amour Zahor was a ZNP candidate in Unguja South, and Sh Ameir Tajo represented the Afro-Shirazi for that constituency. Sh Haji Muhamad contested the North constituency of Unguja as an independent with the support of the ZNP. Opposing him was Sh Daud Mahmoud representing the Afro-Shirazi. The ZNP supported Sheikh Haji Muhammad because of his sincerity, honesty and committal to the nationalist cause although not yet a member of the ZNP. As it turned out soon after the elections Sheikh Haji Muhammad with a mass of his Tumbatu supporters joined the ZNP to become the bulwark of the party. Sh Ibuni Saleh also followed suit and became a pillar of ZNP and a cabinet minister.
 Sh Rashid bin Ali Khaify representing the ZNP .and Sh Muhammad Shamte as an independent stood against each other in the Southern constituency of Pemba. Sh. Abdulla Suleiman Busaidy was a third candidate. He was also an independent. In North Pemba the ZNP was represented by Sh Rashid Hamad and the Afro Shirazi was represented by Shaaban Soud Mponda. Sh Ali Shariff stood as an independent.
 Although the elections had largely been due to the indefatigable efforts of the ZNP, that party did not get a single seat  out of the six. The Afro-Shirazi won three seats in Unguja. They did not get any seat in Pemba. Muhammad Shamte and Ali Shariff as independents won both the Pemba seats. The stone-town seat went to the Muslim Association candidate, Choudhry.
 The outcome of the elections proved that the non-communal ideals of the ZNP had not yet permeated among the populace. The ingrained  communalism espoused by the racial associations was still very strong. The Afro-Shirazi, blatantly racial, benefited from the racialism of the African Association and Shirazi Association.  In particular the African Association benefited  from the protecting umbrella of the Shirazi Association, as the colonialists had astutely targeted when they created that union. In short the Afro-Shirazi reaped the long-established racial prejudices which had been largely fed and fanned by the colonialists  while the ZNP had yet to inculcate its non-racial ideals into the minds and hearts of the people. This was a painstaking task, and needed time, effort and thorough organization.  That was the lesson that the ZNP learnt from the results of the first elections
 

WHY  ALI MUHSIN CHOSE  TO CONTEST N'GAMBO?

Sheikh Ali knew a hundred per cent that he would not defeat his rival  in that constituency of N'gambo just as he was sure that he would have won hands down had he stood in the Stone Town area. However he sought to prove that the few votes from a mixture of the people in that area were no less important to his cause than the many votes that he would have got in the Stone Town area.  His aim was to contest racialism not individuals. The 918 votes that he got from N'gombe had special significance for the party. They gave impetus to continue with the liberation struggle.
 The elections were carried out peacefully from beginning to end., although it would have pleased  the colonialists had there been some disturbances at the time of registration of voters. For although the ZNP insisted that the government take the responsibility of checking the bona fide of voters, the government left that matter entirely to the contending parties to wrangle among themselves. Truly speaking the government had stipulated legally that only nationals were entitled to vote  the legal stipulation was however not supported by any executive action on the part of registration officers. The matter was left entirely to party agents. This encouraged  the intensification of party rivalry to a dangerous level. Although fortunately  physical violence did not take place in that first election, intense inter-party conflict was generated.
 In that first election many non-nationals, especially from neighbouring Tanganyika, infiltrated and registered as voters. However it was a relief and source of satisfaction on the part of the leadership of ZNP that the first common-roll election in the whole region of East, Central and Southern Africa passed off without any disturbances.
 

GOOD FROM EVIL

It was the all-out defeat of the ZNP in that first election which spurned patriotic nationalists to come forward  to devote themselves for the liberation cause.
 In the aftermath of election the ZNP called for a national conference in the Seyyid Khalifa Hall (now known as "Karume House"). Men and women came to attend enmasse, an unprecedented phenomenon at the time. The gallery of the hall had been reserved for women, but they came in such massive numbers that they took over the whole building and the men had to be pushed outside where they could only follow the proceedings which went on within the building  through loudspeakers which had to be provided on the spur of the moment.  That was the day when women demanded their right to vote. . In the election which had just passed only men voted.  Among the women who were in the forefront at that early time were Bibi Zuhura bint Saleh, Bibi Sharifa bint Ahmed and Bibi Zamzam bint Sultan. From that time forward men and women in droves came to join their brethren in the struggle for the liberation of their country.  The party leadership engaged itself in organizing political training for the rapidly growing membership.