Congrats Zanzibar on 50 years of revolution

  Sunday, January 12  2014 at  02:00

IN SUMMARY

• Fifty years on, the Zanzibar Revolution (Mapinduzi) continues to reverberate with profound impact not only in the isles, but also on developments in the rest of the United Republic of Tanzania.

Tanzanians, and in particular the people of Zanzibar, have every reason to celebrate fifty years of the Zanzibar Revolution, gallantly staged on January 12, 1964.

Fifty years on, the Zanzibar Revolution (Mapinduzi) continues to reverberate with profound impact not only in the isles, but also on developments in the rest of the United Republic of Tanzania.

Conjecture and facts over the cause, masterminds and events since the revolution and in its immediate aftermath, remain the subject of animated debate. Nostalgia, however, seems to award all the people of Zanzibar as true heroes of the revolution.

The revolution aimed at reversing the intolerable political situation in which elections were purposely manipulated in favour of Sultan aligned political parties, the Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP) and Zanzibar and Pemba Peoples Party (ZPPP) against Afro-Shiraz Party (ASP) and UMMA Party. The revolution removed the post-independence government, along with the Sultan, on January 12, 1964.

The Zanzibar Revolution, for which people lost life and limb (some at the very hand of the new dispensation), has stood the time. The record speaks for itself, especially in terms of creating an enabling environment for people’s development.

The initial post-revolution acts - suspension of the 1963 independence constitution, banning all political parties except the Afro-Shiraz Party (ASP), imposition of rule by decree under the Revolutionary Government and Council – has been the precursors to some of the democratic institutions that have a pride of presence in Zanzibar today.

Under founding late President Abeid Amani Karume, the revolution had willy-nilly provided for the convening of a constituent assembly within one year of the uprising for purposes of crafting and agreeing a new constitution, but this never materialized until President Aboud Jumbe’s presidency in 1979. Aboud Jumbe succeeded the assassinated president Karume.

Meanwhile, political developments in Zanzibar are inexorably linked with the mainland. The Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar into the United Republic of Tanzania, was sealed by President Julius Nyerere and President Karume as early as on Aprill 26, 1964. The Union has equally influenced the politics of the isles and the mainland, firming resolve to better relations.

The ongoing Union constitution making process involves both sides of Tanzania. The merger between the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and ASP into Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in 1977 also emphasizes the inseparableness of the politics of the two sides.

Since enactment of the 1979 Constitution, Zanzibar has proceeded to strengthen governance. It instituted the House of Representatives and an elective presidency, from a “YES”/”NO” elections to the present multiparty elections.

The basis for this was laid by the 1984 Constitution, which enshrined a bill of rights. The constitution operating in Zanzibar under the current Government of National Unity (CCM and CUF), has gone a long way to meeting the goals of the revolution.

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