President Ali Mohamed Shein inspects the guard of honour at Amaan Stadium in Zanzibar during celebrations to mark the 49th anniversary of the Zanzibar Revolution. Half a century later pundits are taking stock, looking at the strides the Isles have made. PHOTO | MICHAEL MATEMANGA
By Sylivester Ernest
The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. As Zanzibar celebrates 49 years of the Revolution, pundits and social commentators are taking the time to reflect on what independence means for Isles residents and on whether they have seen any benefit from a half-century of freedom. Open University of Tanzania( OUT) scholar and Zanzibar native Hamad Salim sat down with The Citizen on Sunday to talk about some of these issues.
QUESTION: Was the revolution justified and has it achieved its desired goals?
ANSWER: The 1964 Zanzibar Revolution is a major historical event – no one can say it never happened. Whether it was justified or not is another matter. Individuals and scholars will always differ on justification. Whether the Revolution achieved its desired goals; there is no straightforward answer. The government has managed to provide free education, healthcare and other basic services.
However, the quality of these services leaves a lot to be desired. Still, government was able to build more schools and colleges and there is even a state owned university. We have better infrastructure today than we did 49 years ago. In fact, there is a lot of evidence that the Revolution has achieved its goals. However, Zanzibar would have accomplished a lot more if it did away with the politics of exclusion and patronage and embraced meritocracy.
What triggered this violent uprising? Were there no other means to sort things out?
The Zanzibar Revolution was a consequence of a “citizenship crisis” that lingered for many years. Some of the problems we are currently grappling with, issues like who is Zanzibari and who isn’t, go back to the days of the struggle for independence. Black Africans felt they were more Zanzibari than locals of Arabic ancestry. The latter felt the same way about the former. The independence government failed to resolve this crisis and instead, it made things worse by discharging a number of policemen whose ancestors were from the Mainland.
If one takes a closer look at the composition of the Committee of Fourteen which was said to have masterminded the Revolution, and at the profile of the victims of the uprising, one could make deductions about the nature of the crisis.
Half a century later, the Zanzibar government has failed to address this “citizenship crisis.”
A number of avenues could have been explored to redress this situation. The 1962 Constitutional Conference that set the electoral style which brought the Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP) / Zanzibar and Pemba Peoples Party (ZPPP) coalition to power could have been useful.
Political parties were mostly preoccupied with the extension of the franchise by removing educational qualifications and reducing the voting age. The issue of the electoral style did not seem to be a problem to the three competing parties (ZNP, ZPPP and the Afro-Shiraz Party) – at least not at the constitutional conference.
The second avenue was the power sharing strategy proposed by the ZNP/ZPPP coalition.
The ASP was given the power to veto any government decision they felt would harm the interests of the majority. Using this veto the ASP could block any move that it thought could harm both the party and the general public.
The last avenue was the independence constitution. The constitution said any parliamentary decision could become law if it was passed by a two-thirds majority (Article 58 (2) (c) (1)), which neither of the two camps could meet. Because no camp could satisfy the two-thirds majority then a decision would have had to be reached through consensus.
Could you comment on the state of politics and social justice in Zanzibar then (49 years ago) and now?
Peace prevails and democracy has started to take roots in Zanzibar although the citizenship crisis rears its ugly head every time we have elections. The Government of National Unity (GNU) has brought some peace. Nonetheless, electoral laws are a stumbling block towards true democracy. For instance, when you ask someone to live in the same area for at least 36 months to qualify to vote, you are systematically excluding them from the polls.
The gap between the wealthy and the poor is also terrifying and if left unchecked, this could create chaos as life gets harder and harder.
Does Zanzibar need another revolution?
Zanzibar needs a new revolution – an economic and industrial one. The Isles have to encourage investment and trade. The GNU and the Union government have to agree on how they’ll allow Zanzibar to develop as and industrial and investment haven.
What is your take on progressively more vocal calls for a three-tier Union structure?
I strongly support the idea of a three-tier Union. Zanzibaris feel the current form does not favour the Isles. Some people in Mainland Tanzania share the same feelings. Current arrangements might be beneficial to Tanzania but not to Zanzibar. Almost all third world countries depend on bilateral and multilateral aid arrangements to boost their economies.
Denying Zanzibar the right to enter into international agreements deprives it of the opportunities offered by the global system. Zanzibar is often represented by Tanzania, even in issues that do not pertain to the Union.
This has led to some critics arguing that the Isles are more or less a protectorate of Tanganyika. |
Zanzibars strongly oppose the idea of a three-tier Union, what we want is Treaty based Union and nothing less.
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