Statecraft & Independence
Landmark
Abeid Karume
1905 – 1972
First President of Zanzibar, and co-founder of Tanzania
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Tanzania Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
He led Zanzibar after the 1964 revolution and then joined it to Tanganyika — the union that made Tanzania a country.
Abeid Amani Karume went to sea as a teenager, worked as a sailor for years, and came home to Zanzibar to organise: first the boatmen and dockers, then the African Association, then the Afro-Shirazi Party, which he led from 1957.
Zanzibar became independent from Britain in December 1963 under a sultanate and an Arab-led government, on an electoral arrangement that left the African majority with far fewer seats than votes. A month later the sultanate was overthrown in the revolution of 12 January 1964, and Karume became president of the People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba.
In April 1964 he and Julius Nyerere signed the Articles of Union joining Zanzibar to Tanganyika. That union created Tanzania, and it has held for sixty years, which is more than can be said for most such mergers; Karume became the first vice-president of the new republic while continuing to run Zanzibar as its president. He nationalised land and redistributed it to peasants, built free schooling and housing, and brought Zanzibar into Nyerere's socialist direction.
He governed by decree and without elections, and the revolution he led was followed by mass killings of Zanzibar's Arab population, the scale of which is contested and was never investigated. He was assassinated in Zanzibar in April 1972. His son Amani Abeid Karume later served as president of Zanzibar in his own right.
Zanzibar became independent from Britain in December 1963 under a sultanate and an Arab-led government, on an electoral arrangement that left the African majority with far fewer seats than votes. A month later the sultanate was overthrown in the revolution of 12 January 1964, and Karume became president of the People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba.
In April 1964 he and Julius Nyerere signed the Articles of Union joining Zanzibar to Tanganyika. That union created Tanzania, and it has held for sixty years, which is more than can be said for most such mergers; Karume became the first vice-president of the new republic while continuing to run Zanzibar as its president. He nationalised land and redistributed it to peasants, built free schooling and housing, and brought Zanzibar into Nyerere's socialist direction.
He governed by decree and without elections, and the revolution he led was followed by mass killings of Zanzibar's Arab population, the scale of which is contested and was never investigated. He was assassinated in Zanzibar in April 1972. His son Amani Abeid Karume later served as president of Zanzibar in his own right.
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