The Zanzibar Revolution: 1964 and the Overthrow of the Arab Elite

In January 1964, the tiny island of Unguja erupted. African nationalists, led by the fiery Ugandan-trained Marxist John Okello, overthrew the centuries-old Arab sultanate in a bloody coup. This episode traces the revolution's roots in the racial and economic hierarchies of Zanzibar's clove economy, the rise of the Afro-Shirazi Party and its rivalry with the Zanzibar Nationalist Party, the brutal violence that followed independence, and the revolution's aftermath — including the short-lived People's Republic of Zanzibar, the union with Tanganyika to form Tanzania, and the strange fate of Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah al-Busaidi, who lived in exile in Portsmouth, England. We explore the revolution's contested legacy: was it a genuine anti-colonial uprising or an ethnic pogrom? And why did the new government erase the Omani names from the streets of Stone Town? #ZanzibarRevolution #JohnOkello #AfroShiraziParty #SultanJamshid #Tanzania #StoneTown #1964 #CloveEconomy #AfricanNationalism #ColdWar #PeopleRepublicofZanzibar #AbeidKarume #Unguja #Pemba #AntiColonial #RaceAndClass #History #FexingoHistory #Zanzibar #IndianOcean Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo