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FORTY YEARS OF THE UNION: IS IT WITHERING AWAY?

By Haroub Othman
Professor in Development Studies
University of Dar es Salaam

If I could tow that island out into the middle of the Indian Ocean, I'd do it. [Nyerere]

At a dinner party in Dar es Salaam a year or two before independence, [Nyerere] had remarked that he thought one of Tanganyika's biggest problems in later years would be Zanzibar. No, I'm not joking … I fear it will be a big headache for us.

HISTORICAL LINKS

In the last forty years, Tanzanians have prided themselves in having the only union of independent states in Africa; and even though no other states have followed their example, they have not been discouraged by this lack of interest in forging larger units in Africa; nor do they think there were any lessons to be drawn from the failures of such attempts elsewhere. But now cracks are appearing, without any obvious prodding from outside. The international community is bound to raise eyebrows, and to ask itself what is happening.

Situated a few miles away in the Indian Ocean, Zanzibar is Mainland Tanzania (Tanganyika)'s closest neighbour to the east. The two countries have had a close relationship that dates back to several centuries before Christ. It is believed that the indigenous population of Zanzibar, consisting of Wahadimu and Watumbatu, must have originated from the Mainland. The Persian and other explorers and merchants who visited these parts in the 7th century A.D. made Zanzibar their main center among the city states in the East Coast of Africa. The Arab rulers who came to these areas in the early 18th century extended their rule and influence on the Mainland through Zanzibar; and European explorers and missionaries, who appeared on the scene in the 19th century, used Zanzibar as a base to launch their penetration into the African hinterland.

The slave trade made Zanzibar an important center of this human merchandise. Thousands of people captured on the Mainland were sent to Zanzibar to be sold before they were shipped to Mauritius, Reunion, Arabia and other places as slave labour. And when the clove plantation economy replaced the slave trade as the main economic activity of the islands, it was farm hands acquired from the Mainland that came to the islands to open up virgin lands, till them and plant clove trees. Until the late 1950s, people form Tanganyika used to come to the islands in large numbers for seasonal employment in clove picking.

POLITICAL RELATIONS
The two countries of Tanganyika and Zanzibar were administered separately during all the time of the colonial rule. When Tanganyika fell into German hands as a result of the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 that carved up Africa amongst the European powers, Zanzibar had already fallen under Arab rule. Sultan Said of Oman moved his capital to Zanzibar in 1832 and established Al-Busaidy dynasty in the islands. As a result of the inter-imperialist rivalry in the region, Seyyid Said's son, Seyyid Ali bin Said, accepted British protection, and so the islands formally became a British protectorate on 4th November, 1890.

When Germany was defeated in the First World War, its colonial possessions were divided amongst the victor powers, and Tanganyika becomes a British-administered territory under the League of Nations mandate (and later the United Nations Trusteeship System).

But even when the two countries were ruled by the same colonial power their administrations were different. The British Governor in Tanganyika was reporting directly to the Colonial Office in London, and periodically the British had to make a reporting to the League of Nations (and the United Nations). In the case of Zanzibar, even though the British Resident was answerable to the Colonial Secretary in London, in his decisions he had to take into consideration the sensitivities of the Arab Sultan. This in no way indicates, as has been suggested by some writers, that Zanzibar during this period was under dual power. Britain was the ultimate colonial power.

A number of ethnic and cultural organizations were established by the peoples of the two countries to deal with their social, religious and cultural concerns. In 1929 an African Association was founded in Tanganyika mostly as a social and cultural organization of the African elite in Dar es Salaam and other urban areas. A branch of this Association was established in Zanzibar in 1934 with its membership mostly Zanzibaris of Mainland origin

The struggles for national independence raging throughout Africa did not fail to affect East Africa as well. In Kenya nationalist agitation had already started, culminating in the formation of the Kenya African Union (KAU); and when the demands for independence were not having any effect on the white settler community and the colonial authorities, the Kenyans took up arms in the Mau Mau Uprising. In Uganda nationalist organizations had already begun to form. Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), an organization that was to be the political vehicle of the people in voicing their demands for independence, was founded on 7th July 1954. In Zanzibar, the Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP) was founded in December 1955 and the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) was established on 5th February 1957. Prior to the formation of these nationalist parties in Tanganyika and Zanzibar, semi-political organizations and trade unions had already been operating: the Tanganyika Territory Civil Servants' Association was established in 1922, and a decree legalizing the formation of trade unions was passed in Zanzibar in 1931. The ports of Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar had experienced their major dockworkers' strikes in 1947 and 1948 respectively.

Unlike in other colonial possessions outside Africa where nationalist movements did not form continental or regional organizations to coordinate their struggles against colonialism, in Africa most nationalist movements, especially those founded after the Second World War, recognized the need for waging common struggles. Starting with the 5th Pan-African Congress held in Manchester in 1945, and attended by Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya among others, the African peoples have focused their struggles not only on the independence of their own individual countries but also the complete eradication of colonialism in the continent and for the achievement of total African unity. It was no wonder, therefore, that nationalist organizations in Eastern and Central Africa came together in September 1958, at the invitation of TANU, in the lake city of Mwanza, to exchange views and experiences and to forge unity. The ZNP and ASP form Zanzibar were also there. It was at this conference that the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East and Central Africa (PAFMECA) was founded. Later the organization was to include nationalist movements from Southern Africa, and its name was changed to the Pan African Freedom Movement of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (PAFMECSA). The nationalist organisations of these three regions of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa in December of that year attended an All-African Peoples' Conference that was held in Accra, Ghana, at the invitation of Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party.

One of the recommendations at the Mwanza Conference was that in an area where more than one nationalist organization existed, they should try and merge, and if that was not possible, then they should at least coordinate their activities. Zanzibar was one case in point. The ZNP and ASP agreed to coordinate their activities, and a coordinating body was formed. This point was also stressed at the Accra conference at a meeting of Zanzibari leaders especially convened by Kwame Nkrumah. These efforts succeeded for a time; but soon tension flared up again, because, as TANU President Julius Nyerere pointed out at the time "...politically the (Zanzibar) parties all agreed to one objective but they opposed each other because of race." Kanyama Chiume of Malawi and Francis Khamisi of Kenya were dispatched to Zanzibar by PAFMECA to help, to no avail. Things became more unsatisfactory when in 1959 the ASP split, and a new organization, the Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party, emerged.