The 1964 Zanzibar Revolution - from my old scrapbook

The revolution in Zanzibar took place on 12 January 1964 and changed the country for ever. We were living there, I was 16 years old, and my father, Mervyn Smithyman OBE, was working for the newly independent country and its elected government as the Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mohd. Shamte.

My family collected the news clippings of the period, and we put them into a scrapbook. 

It is now 62 years since those violent days. Recently, I came across my old scrapbook and decided to post these pages online for those Zanzibaris and others who might be interested. After all, they record historic events. 1964 was a turning point in the history of the islands: many died, many lost everything and many left the country when possible.

There are many pages, so I will put them into a series of posts. The pages are not necessarily in the sequence of events. 

more to follow ... let me know if you find these of interest!

Zanzibar Uhuru (Freedom) now in hard copy - paperback edition

Zanzibar Uhuru is now available in paperback at Amazon & Book Depository.
(as well as an ebook on iBooks through iTunes)

This is the story of Zanzibar's 1964 Revolution and the years since then. It is told through the lives of two women, one Arab Zanzibari, the other a child of a colonial administrator.

The story touches on:
the nature of the mad leader of the revolution: John Okello
the years of the despotic presidents post-revolution - the hunger and suffering of Zanzibaris
the torture within the prisons set up by the East Germans after the revolution
the forced marriages of the Persian girls
the imposition of a system of spies (Volunteers) on the islands
the neglect of the ancient Stone Town
the nationalisation of the homes in Stone Town and the clove and coconut farms
the creeping corruption within the system
the neglect of the sister island of Pemba

http://www.bookdepository.com/Zanzibar-Uhuru-Anne-Chappel/9781505511840
http://www.amazon.com/Zanzibar-Uhuru-revolution-challenge-survival/dp/1505511844/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422766471&sr=8-1&keywords=zanzibar+uhuru&pebp=1422766474079&peasin=1505511844