BABU QUITS ZNP

A short time before the elections of July 1963, the elections prior to Independence, Babu as Executive Secretary of the ZNP left the party. Had it not been for the purpose of  countering the nonsense that has been consistently been spread by the so-called "progressives" in their fabrication of lies to deceive those who were too young to know the truth at that time, I would not have wasted time on the subject of Babu leaving the ZNP. For Babu's defection did not affect anything regarding the stand and progress of the party. Everything went smoothly, contrary to Babu's fond expectation.
 The "Progressives" or by another name, the "Comrades" said (and some of them still say)  that Babu was obliged to leave the party when he found out that his colleagues among the leadership were working against him, and that the party had ceased to be progressive and was becoming reactionary.
 All that was alleged then and continues to be alleged  by the "Comrades" is pure fabrication and a futile attempt to justify themselves. When during the "revolution" and for some years afterwards they were swaggering in the streets like drunken sailors with pistols at the hip there was nobody who dared contradict them. They could with impunity blurt out anything that came into their thick heads.
 

BABU'S REAL INTENTIONS

When Freedom was approaching Babu's inwards intentions were becoming conspicuous. He wanted to use the Party for his selfish interest of self-aggrandizement, the interests of his pay-masters, and the interests of those comrades of his who made his doting followers. There was a great deal that was happening which indicated what he was up to with regard to the party in general and to his fellow leaders in the party in particular.
 Babu wanted that the government which would be established by the party should be a left-wing government, that is should be communist, or more euphemistically "socialist". To achieve this he plotted an underground upheaval in the leadership of the party. He wanted to get rid of the leaders he disliked by preventing them from contesting the elections or getting them defeated at the polls. At the same time he planned to make sure his dedicated cronies would be  elected instead.  To achieve this, mutual suspicion and mistrust would be generated among the leaders. The second step was to bring about a completely new leadership, that of his "comrades" who would be at his bid and command. This would enable him to get all his ideas implemented without fear of contradiction. These indeed had all along been his plans.
 During the first constitutional conference in London Babu wanted to create anarchy within the party while still in London.  The party had arranged certain party leaders to be in London to assist the official delegation. Among the leaders sent were Babu, as Executive Secretary, Suleiman Malik and I, Aman Thani, who were in charge of the party's office in Cairo. Also present in London were Ali Sultan, Abdulrazak Musa (Kwacha) and Ali Mahfoudh, in charge of the ZNP office in Cuba, and Salim Rashid Mauly in charge of the party office in London. As previously arranged these arrived in London before the official delegates. Dr. Baalawy, Minister of Health, however preceded his colleagues. One day before the arrival of the full ministerial delegation Babu called for a meeting to consider "an important and urgent matter."  Babu said that he had  reliable information that back home in Zanzibar there had been appointed a committee of fourteen people. The aim of that committee was to advise Sh Ali Muhsin on leadership particularly at this time when independence was so near.:
 Babu informed us: "That committee wants Ali Muhsin to do his utmost to get rid of some progressive leaders in the party, I being one of them,  and everyone else whom they consider to be progressive. You Dr. Aidarous (Baalawy) are one of those to be eliminated"   Those words of Babu shocked some of us; others had known them all along. After a lengthy discussion we decided to postpone the subject until after the constitutional talks and we would sit with Sh Ali Muhsin and all the other ministers and thrash out the matter with them. Babu agreed with this proposal. After the constitutional talks we reminded Babu about the decision to meet with the ministers on the subject of the alleged "Committee of 14".  Babu created one subterfuge after another to avoid the proposed meeting and then suddenly left for Zanzibar on the pretext that he was hurrying home to attend a court case in which he was being charged for an article he had written in his Chinese paid ZANEWS.. Some of us became more convinced of Babu's real motive, that of creating confusion and mistrust among the leadership of the party.
 Another instance of the "Comrades'" tactics to undermine and sabotage the party took place when Babu was in prison. At this time the followers of Babu went about propagating their allegation that  Sh Muhammad Shamte and Sh Ali Muhsin had plotted together with the colonialists in getting Babu imprisoned. They naively thought that the ZNP members would believe their fantastic allegations and so discredit the party leadership. Further they thought the "comrades' would then be on the right course, and would thus take over the Zanzibar Nationalist Party. But the masses of ZNP and ZPPP would not be hoodwinked by such baseless allegations. ZNP/ZPPP supporters would listen to the talks of the town and then go to their party branches where each item of news was subjected to thorough and objective examination and discussion. Any decision or proposal would then be submitted to the party headquarters where each subject would be further thoroughly and objectively examined. ZNP/ZPP members would not be dictated to, nor could they be swayed one way or the other by demagogues and political adventurers. They had their heads screwed the right way.
 

BABU GOES TO JAIL

Consistently the colonial government was set against the Zanzibar Nationalist Party and what it stood for. This was so from the very day of the party's inception. The whole idea of non-racialism, national unity, and complete independence, was anathema to colonialism. Hence not once did the party receive any favours from the colonialist government. The colonialist government was always looking for reasons to incapacitate the party and even to crush it completely.  However the more the government opposed the party the more it attracted supporters. Babu, as the Party's Secretary, also shared the wrath of the government. When Babu slipped by writing a culpable article in his news-sheet, the ZANEWS the government jumped on it, seeing an opportunity to at least incapacitate the hateful party. The article which castigated the Commissioner of Police, Biles, was alleged to be criminally libelous. It was alleged that what the news-sheet had published was false and not to the public interest. The ZNP committee and indeed many citizens - knew that the government was taking this step at that particular time in order to weaken the party's activities in their struggle for Freedom.
 The party's national executive decided to support Babu in his case, morally and materially, in spite of the fact that the ZANEWS was Babu's personal news-sheet which was being financed by  HSINHUA (Chinese News Agency). Babu managed to get legal defence from the United Kingdom. The advocate volunteered to defend Babu for nothing,. Hotel and out-of-pocket expenses were met by Bibi Azza Muhammad, wife of Sh Ali Muhsin. She did so in the name of the party.
 To fulfill the government's  plan to disrupt the party Babu was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.  The party appealed against the conviction and sentence in the High Court of Zanzibar and again in the East African Court of Appeal. The appeals were dismissed in both cases, and Babu completed his sentence.
 

BABU IS RELEASED

Having completed his sentence Babu was released from prison at ten o'clock at night. It was all a hush hush affair, a most unusual precaution taken by the government.
 

"BABU'S WEEK"

 The ZNP in its joy for the release of its Secretary organized celebration to welcome him back to society. The celebrations took two weeks, one in  Unguja and the second week in the island of Pemba. For the occasion the party headquarters and all the branches were decorated with flags and multi-coloured lights. Celebrations took the form of recitation of Maulid and Dhikr, dances and a canoe regatta in the Zanzibar harbour. Babu was chaired by enthusiastic nationalists while they sang: "We all love Babu". Babu's Week, the week for the celebration of Babu's release, was capped by a party in the grounds of Seyyid Khalifa Hall. After a week Babu went to Pemba where celebrations equaled, and indeed rivaled, those in Unguja. In their joy the people of Ziwani offered to adopt Babu as the candidate for their constituency in the forthcoming election. This was a safe ZNP constituency.
 

BABU'S FINAL INTRIGUE

Babu returned from Pemba on Tuesday night at about 8 p.m. That very night he met with the election committee of the party, headed by Muhammad Aboud Mkandaa. The election committee handed Babu the list of candidates for the coming election as selected by the constituencies of the island of  Unguja themselves. Babu then produced a similar list for the island of Pemba. Among the proposed candidates was Babu himself. The election committee was pleased to see how everything had gone so smoothly regarding the nomination of candidates  for both islands.
 The next day, being Wednesday, the party executive met Babu. He gave his report on his visit to Pemba. He informed his colleagues that Pemba had chosen him to be the candidate for Ziwani. The executive was happy with what had taken place in Pemba as reported by Babu.   Then Babu said: "Last night as soon as I arrived I had a meeting with the election committee, and they handed me a list of candidates for Unguja as nominated by the constituencies of Unguja."
 Babu then went on: "As our party is seen by some people locally and overseas that it is an Arab party  I think we should  make certain changes in nominating candidates for the next election."
 Babu continued saying: "The changes that I will bring forward are meant for the good of the party."  Babu began by proposing: "This time Sh Ali Muhsin should be removed from Malindi and sent to Tumbatu, and we should request Sh Nyakanga (who had been successfully contesting Tumbatu) to stand down. To contest the Shangani constituency we should send Sh Juma Aley. For the Nungwi constituency which he would thus vacate we should  nominate Muhsin Abeid. We should shift Amirali Abdulrasool from Shangani to the Mlandege constituency, and Ibuni Saleh should leave his constituency of Darajani and stand in the Kikwajuni constituency. We should reserve the Bumbwni constituency for the FPTU, (Federation of Progressive Trade Unions). The incumbent candidate Sheikh Haji Muhammadi should be requested to stand down."
 FPTU. was a small organization under Babu's control composed of his cronies who posed as "Marxists". It was this  ghost organization which essentially turned out to be the so-called Umma Party when Babu and his group formally defected from the ZNP.
 The most surprising thing about these recommendations of Babu is that it had been Babu himself and no other who had  proposed to the National Executive after the first election of 1957  that the power to nominate candidates should be invested in the branches and constituencies themselves. The National Executive was to have no power to override the selection of candidates. It could only advise. That arrangement had long ago been accepted, to the extent that it once happened that one candidate, Rutti Bulsara, a member of the Executive, was turned down by his constituency, and he in anger left the party. Now six years later the same Babu, without consulting his colleagues, without first proposing that the former decision be rescinded, comes out with proposals to dictate to the constituencies, to the party as a whole, with his own list of nominations contrary to the accepted system originally introduced by Babu himself!
 Even more surprising was Babu's proposal that the party should strike off the list of candidates two Tumbatu stalwarts, namely Sheikh Haji Muhammad and Sheikh Nyakanga. Neither of these was an Arab. Was that likely to make the party look more  like being non-Arab? Certainly not! On the contrary that would have certainly caused a rift, and the mass resignation of the Tumbatu members from the party. The Tumbatus formed a substantial core of the ZNP. They would have been completely disillusioned with the party's aims, intents and policy.  The ZNP would have lost not only the Tumbatu constituencies but several others.  That was the aim which would have pleased the colonialist, Karume, Nyerere and Babu. Again one may well ask what would be achieved by the removal of Juma Aley, of Arab descent, from the rural north (Nungwi) and posting him in the stone town? Would that indeed have made the party look less Arab?  And what disastrous effect would result from replacing Nyakanga by Ali Muhsin in Tumbatu!  These proposals of Babu were full of absurd contradictions. He must have thought that his party colleagues were doting idiots like his cronies of FPTU. The two weeks' celebrations and the childish song; "We all love Babu" for his release had gone into his head.
 After Babu had exploded his bombshell for two or three minutes there was silence as if every member of the Executive had been paralyzed.  Individually and collectively all the members of the Executive were convinced that if those proposals were to be adopted then the party would certainly be defeated at the polls. Particularly so as the time for the candidates to be officially registered was at hand. Also very limited was the time thence to the election. Again, how was it likely to effect the credibility of the leadership of the party if after having granted to the constituencies the power to select their own candidates, that responsibility was to be rudely and dictatorially removed from them without even the courtesy of consultation? Would that not be anarchical?
 The debate was heated. Except for Babu with two or three of his followers accustomed to say "Yes Sir" to every word of Babu, everyone who spoke opposed the proposals as ruinous to the interests of the party. When Babu saw the overwhelming strength of opposition to his ideas, he asked that he be given the opportunity to tour the branches of the party and explain to them his suggestions.  He said that he believed he would get full support from the branches. He asked that the party should not choose his companions on his tour, but would himself choose them..
 Sheikh Muhammad Aboud Mkandaa, Chairman of the Election Committee,  stood up and told Babu: "This Party is not your  property, nor is it the property of anyone among us. We are the servants of the people. Therefore your proposal will be taken into consideration. The Executive Committee will also consider who should go with you. It is not for you to decide who should accompany you." The words of Sheikh Muhammad Aboud  received general approval.
 When by 9 o'clock at night no final decision had been reached the meeting was adjourned to the next day when the National Executive would meet at the Bwana Udi villa at Migombani. It was also agreed  that the party leader, Ali Muhsin and Babu should meet in the meantime to see if any progress could be made, and then report the next day to the National Executive.
 The following day, Thursday, at the meeting of the National Executive Babu said:  "We are sorry we did not have adequate time for discussion because of circumstances beyond our control. We are asking for more time. Tomorrow, on Friday, we will present our report." This was approved. The meeting was adjourned until the following day.
 At that meeting on Friday Babu said: "Sheikh Ali and I met, and we discussed the matter in length and with frankness. We have both agreed that the proposals are commendable but that the time for the implementation  is limited.  We should therefore postpone putting  the proposals into execution for future elections, not this one that is forthcoming. I have asked Sheikh Ali, and he did not turn down my request, that we should put our young man, Abdul-Razak Musa (Kwacha) on the Tumbatu constituency. Sheikh Ali has suggested that I bring the matter here for your approval."
 The Executive Committee breathed a sigh of relief and felt that a heavy burden had been removed from their back. The Chairman of the meeting, Deputy President Maalim Zaid Mbaruk said: "Before discussing this matter I would first like to know the reaction of Sheikh Nyakanga himself, for it is he who has been chosen by the people of Tumbatu to represent them."
 Sheikh Nyakanga replied: "I did not join the party in order to seek any appointment. But I am not able to say that I leave the seat for Sheikh Abdul Razak, for the seat is not mine. As far as I am concerned I am prepared to leave the seat, but if I did so here and now I would be disregarding those who asked me to be their representative. I propose that a delegation to be chosen here should go with me to Tumbatu to pass the night there and have enough time to meet  with the elders and youths of Tumbatu and thrash the matter out with them. The decision will be theirs. I will do my best to make my brothers and children of Tumbatu understand what is required of them."
 After Nyakanga had had his say there arose Sheikh Khamis of Bumbwini which was part of the Tumbatu constituency. He said: "Brothers, I am a Mtumbatu and I am fully acquainted with the feelings of my fellow Watumbatu regarding this election and regarding their candidate Mzee Nyakanga. If Mzee Nyakanga is to be removed from contesting the election for the Tumbatu constituency, then I swear to God that even if we send the leader Sh Ali Muhsin in his place, we shall certainly lose that seat. That seat is hotly contested by the ZNP and ASP. I urge that Sh Nyakanga should not be replaced at this juncture."
 Silence reigned for some time. No one spoke and everyone was thinking hard. Babu was the one who broke the silence.
 He said: "I see everyone is quiet. This is an indication that what Sheikh Khamis has said has received general approval. Therefore I see no point in wasting more time. I am going away now. We shall meet again Sunday morning."
 Babu left the meeting. The chairman of the meeting urged him to stay and continue with the discussion more calmly, but he totally refused and left the meeting. The Executive Committee continued to discuss the Tumbatu seat after Babu had left in anger. The Chairman Maalim Zaid Mbaruk requested Ali Muhsin to try again to meet Babu and seek a solution with him over the matter for the good of the Party.
 On Sunday  from eight in the morning party leaders, men and women,  from all the constituencies in the island of Unguja began pouring into the open grounds of  Bwana Udi's villa. At that party conference each constituency was to affirm its choice to the National Executive.
 When Babu arrived he addressed the conference thus: "I would like to inform you, my fellow countrymen, that today I have decided to leave my party., the Zanzibar Nationalist Party. I would also like to ask the forgiveness of the people of Ziwani Pemba who so kindly selected me to be their candidate. I accepted the offer but because of the circumstances that followed I have no alternative but to ask their to excuse me.  I have decided to leave the party because I have found out  that my colleagues have no faith in me, to the extent that they collaborated with the colonialists to put me in prison for eighteen months. After my release they planted members of the Youths' Own Union, YOU, to spy on me wherever I went, and to report to them everything I did or said. Why has all this come about? I fail to understand. Only lately after my return from Pemba I presented certain recommendations to the National Executive regarding the selection of candidates for the forthcoming elections. I put forward those recommendations for the good of our Party. Unfortunately my colleagues without serious consideration turned down those recommendations. For fear of creating discord  and tug-o-war I decided to shelve those recommendations, but begged my colleagues to nominate Sheikh Abdul Razak Kwacha for the Tumbatu seat. Even that was totally opposed for all sorts of reasons. Because of all this I have made up my mind to quit the party which pays no attention to its secretary and its leader. As from today I bid you goodbye."
 Babu came down and was on the point of leaving when the Chairman of the Mkunani constituency, Sheikh Muhammad Othman, stood up and asked Babu not  to depart yet.
  Sheikh Muhammad said: "We have heard Babu, but as most of us are not members of the National Executive  all that he said is completely strange to us. I would like to request the leader Sheikh Ali Muhsin in his capacity as the party leader and indeed as the one whom we see as very close to Babu, to come forward and explain to us what all the problem is about, so that we may then be able to offer what contribution we can."
 Sheikh Ali then stood up and said: "Today is one of the toughest in my life. For it never occurred to me that there would ever come a day when I would hear my brother Babu say the things that he has said just now. What enormity is there between Babu and us that we should collaborate with the colonialists to put him in prison? Babu is well aware that the government as we have it at present is incapable of doing anything of importance. He knows full well that his imprisonment is merely a step to weaken our Party.  I never expected that a man like him would be so duped.  The colonialists have all along been seeking for ways to bring about friction between Babu and the rest of us. They used every trick in the trade, and they failed. When they got the opportunity presented by the article written in his news-sheet ZANEWS, the article that the colonialists interpreted as being  libelous they charged Babu personally, and not the Party. In spite of that the Party fully supported and backed Babu morally and materially. What surprises me is that Babu is so openly going back on the very principles that he and all of us together established, the principles of democracy.  Leaders are not the ones to decide and dictate; they are to teach and guide. It is the people themselves who can make decisions.  Today that the people have decided with regard to the choice of their proposed candidates, he is infuriated and wants to leave the party, allegedly because the people have not obeyed him or me.!"
 After Sheikh Ali had given that speech silence prevailed for some time. There then stood up a young man, among those who call themselves "progressives", Mr. Kadiria Mnyeji. He said: "My elders and my brothers, I beg you to appreciate that the recommendations put forward by Babu regarding the nomination of candidates for election are for the good of the Party. This election will be crucial. We need to have people who have the capacity to confront the colonialists face to face. Our elders have already accomplished their task. Now is the time for the young."
 There was pandemonium. Kadiria found himself being pulled by his shirt and forced to descend from the platform. There and then the elderly among those present, particularly from the rural constituencies, saw the light, and realized that the whole game was to oust them from political activity. "And so you think that we, the elders, are now useless!"  some said openly.
 The situation was ugly. Everyone was heated. When the atmosphere had cooled down somewhat some of the elders took Babu aside and remonstrated with him. The Tumbatu elders appealed to him: "We beg you now to let Mzee Nyakanga stand, and we guarantee that the Tumbatu seat will  be ours. Having won his seat after two or three sittings of the National Assembly Mzee Nyakanga will resign and you bring forward anybody you want to take his place. We promise you we will vote for him just as much as we shall do for Nyakanga."
 Babu said; "I have heard". He kept quiet, and then went up the platform to address the conference saying: "The elders have given me their opinion regarding my recommendations. They have asked me to change my stand, but I am sorry I cannot do so. And now, Goodbye!"  Babu then came down and left the conference followed by a handful of his retinue who did not even fill the small van that took them out.
 For a time there was dead silence, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone saw danger ahead, the certainty that the ZNP would be defeated in the election which was shortly coming.  Then the President of the Party, Sheikh Vuwai Kitoweo spoke: "If there is any among us who joined this Party in order to follow Babu, then you have heard and have seen Babu in front of your own eyes that he has left the Party. Hence he who has followed Babu into the Party and wants to follow him out he is not prevented. As for him who joined the Party believing in the Party's ideals and its aim of struggling for the Freedom of our country and our people, then the ZNP is here and is HAY (ALIVE) and will continue to be HAY (ALIVE) for ever!"
 The speech of the President galvanized everybody.  A new determination pervaded the whole conference. Everyone realized how vital it was to stand firm together especially as the election was only shortly going to be held. Then the Party Conference went ahead with its programme as if nothing untoward had happened. All business was conducted as usual and as planned.
 This was really what  took place and precipitated the resignation of Babu from the Party. All other is merely speculation or deliberate fabrication by those who have their own axes to grind. Babu did not and has not until today been able to give the exact reasons for his defection. Neither has he been able to justify his reason for joining forces with the most reactionary and most chauvinistic party in the whole of East Africa to overthrow a legitimately and democratically elected government.
 

WHAT WERE BABU'S REAL MOTIVES?

As I have already mentioned, Babu had his own personal motives which he dreamt he would be able to achieve by utilizing the Party. When he felt rebuffed in all his attempts, then in desperation he decided to bring about a palace coup within the  party at that most crucial time. Babu was deluded by his hangers-on during his imprisonment. They had been feeding him on  fabricated stuff against the Party leadership, and that all the people in the Party were behind him.
 "Whatever you decide after your release" they told him, "the whole mass will follow. If you decide to leave the Party, then the mass will leave. If you remain they will remain."
 On coming out of prison seeing the tremendous ovation of the people in their jubilation for the release of their Secretary, Babu became convinced that what he had been fed on by his cronies while in prison was indeed true. There was a joint plot between the self-styled "progressives" in ZNP and those in ASP to cooperate after winning their seats to present a motion of confidence which would bring down the government.  That would present the opportunity for the leftist elements to form their own "progressive" government. Such an outcome  would please China which was paying Babu a salary only a little short of that which the Sultan was receiving. Babu was receiving 15,000 Shillings a month, and the Sultan 20,000.
 When Babu failed to achieve his aim he decided to leave the Party expecting that the mass of the Party would follow him. When he saw that that did not happen he decided to form his own party and called it Umma Party i.e. the People's Party.  When that floundered it was then that he had no alternative but to join forces with the Afro-Shirazi Party, the party that he had always castigated as a reactionary, fascistic party, a party of thugs, a creation of the imperialists. Babu then associated with alien freebooters like  John Okello, Mfaranyaki and others in the invasion of his country, and overthrew the democratically elected government. He did all this hoping that he was thus fulfilling the dictates of his masters, namely to take the country to the camp of the so-called "progressives". Here again Babu lost his final card. He did not fulfill his mission.
 At the time of the scramble for Zanzibar, it was Mwalimu Nyerere, astute as he was and with his claws sharper than any, was the one who came out the winner. Neither Karume nor Babu came out victorious. Nor indeed did the ASP.