Filed with 60.14 Colonialism · Related: 60.23 History · Politics MOC
Zanzibar Revolution - Wikipedia
- The long history of Arab rule dated to 1698, and Zanzibar was an overseas territory of Oman until it achieved independence in 1858 under its own Sultanate.6(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar_Revolution#cite_note-6) In 1890 during Ali ibn Sa’id’s reign, Zanzibar became a British protectorate.7(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar_Revolution#cite_note-7) Although never under direct British rule, it was considered part of the British Empire.8(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar_Revolution#cite_note-shillington1710-8)
- But the island’s Arab inhabitants were the major landowners, and were generally wealthier than the Africans.11(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar_Revolution#cite_note-parsons106-11) They enjoyed access to higher quality social services, such as health and education, than Africans. Apart from that, British authority considered Zanzibar as an Arab country and always held a position of supporting the Arab minority to stay in power.12(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar_Revolution#cite_note-12)
- Slavery in Zanzibar had been abolished in 1897, but much of the Arab elite who dominated the island’s politics made little effort to hide their racist views of the black majority as their inferiors, a people fit only for slavery.18(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar_Revolution#cite_note-p12-18) In Parliament, the Minister of Finance Juma Aley responded to questions from Karume by insultingly saying he need not answer questions from a mere “boatman”.19(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar_Revolution#cite_note-p41-19) Aley said in another speech in Parliament that if Arabs were over-represented in the Cabinet, it was not because of race, but rather it was because the mental abilities of blacks were so abysmally low and the mental abilities of Arabs like himself were so high, a remark that enraged the black majority.