Zanzibar Revolution

On the night of 12 January 1964 a revolution in Zanzibar, led by the Ugandan John Okello, deposed Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah. Abeid Karume was on the African mainland that night. ^{1 2}

The English and Arabic articles say that between 2,000 and 4,000 Zanzibaris were killed, mostly Arabs and Indians, and that the revolution ended about five hundred years of Arab domination of the island, as the articles describe it. The museum attributes this number and this description to the articles and does not adopt them as its own judgement. ^{1 2}

Okello invited Karume back to take the presidency of the People's Republic of Zanzibar. In April 1964 Karume agreed with Tanganyika's president Julius Nyerere that Zanzibar would unite with Tanganyika; Tanzania was formed and Karume became its first vice-president. ^{1 2} Zanzibar had become independent on 10 December 1963 under a constitutional sultan. ¹