Jumbe, a victim of his own reforms

Dar es Salaam. Zanzibaris from across the political divided sang Mzee Aboud Jumbe Mwinyi praises in unison as they buried him at his home in Migombani, Unguja on Monday.

For Zanzibaris, Mzee Jumbe, who died on Sunday afternoon at the age of 96 at his Dar es Salaam home, was the father of the movement for an autonomous Zanzibar. The movement was at first shaped behind closed doors. It later articulated by the main Isles’ opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF).

CUF secretary-general Seif Sharif Hamad said Mzee Jumbe stood for the dignity of the people of Zanzibar, and paid for it.

“Zanzibaris should remember that it was Mzee Jumbe, who, when still the President of Zanzibar initiated the notion of the three government system in the Union. He called it the partnership of two independent countries -- Tanganyika and Zanzibar -- coming together in an equal Union,” Mr Hamad told reporters on the sidelines of Mzee Jumbe’s burial on Monday.

Ally Saleh, who is the Member of Parliament for Malindi in Zanzibar, said Mzee Jumbe would be remembered by Zanzibaris for calling for the federal structure of the Union.

“He will forever be praised for coming out openly against the Union structure which was not in favour of Zanzibar,” Mr Saleh, a broadcaster and political commentator said.

What did not come out strongly on Monday, however, was the fact that it is the same Zanzibaris singing his praise at his burial who engineered his downfall at the altar of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ruling party, CCM in January 30, 1984 in Dodoma.

For it is difficult to imagine that Mzee Jumbe would have initiated something that he knew would lead to his downfall.

Back then Zanzibaris ‘young turks’ who were agitating for more internal reforms in Zanzibar looked Mzee Jumbe in the eye and told him to quit for he had “failed Zanzibaris.”

They accused him of all biggest possible sins whose only punishment was “removal from the presidency.”

As it turned out then Mzee Jumbe’s demands for a three-government system in the union had nothing to do with the unfavourable situation of Zanzibar in the union.

It had everything to do with power struggles between the ‘old guard’ -most of whom less educated but having had taken an active part in the January 12, 1964 revolution- and young Turks who were more educated, more dynamic and who thought time had come for a new era in Zanzibar, the era that they themselves were the best placed to usher in.

But was Mzee Jumbe responsible for creating the atmosphere that led to his downfall? Was he the victim of his own doing?

When he took power in 1972 Mzee Jumbe came in as a moderate who took power at the height of repressions that had created a toxic atmosphere, which had, in turn, led to the assassination of Mzee Abeid Amani Karume.

He had been active in the revolution, had served in Mzee Karume’s cabinet but had succeeded to keep a low profile.

Draconian decrees, arrests and repressions continued especially as arbitrary arrests were made on possible conspirators of Karume’s assassination.

The Revolutionary Council continued to act as the defacto legislature. There was still no elaborate judicial system and elections continued to be banned.

But soon enough Mzee Jumbe started sending signals that he was going to be different. One of his first point of departure was allowing Zanzibaris to access university education. Scores went in 1972, including Mr Hamad who to wait for nine years, after he completed Form six in 1963, before joining a university.

He also took one bold step that was the beginning of political reforsm in Zanzibar. He amended the Afro Shirazi Party Constitution by placing the Revolutionary Council under the Party, although it retained its powers to appoint the president, cabinet, legislature and judiciary.

And in the 1977 he agreed to the merger of ASP and TANU to form CCM, as the single governing party for both the Mainland and the Islands.

Mzee Jumbe went ahead and installed a full-fledged judicial system. And in 1979, he also initiated the making of the first post-revolution Zanzibar constitution, which provided for the creation of the House of Representatives. The House took over the legislative functions of the Revolutionary Council.

The constitution also established elections by universal adult suffrage of the President of Zanzibar instead of being elected by the Revolutionary Council. The President had to win by at least 50 per cent of the votes cast in the election.

The first elections, since 1964, were held in the Isles in 1980. Because of the this various commentators have come to regard Mzee Jumbe as the father of Zanzibar democracy.

Troubles begin

The young Turks who were coming back from universities, who started occupying key posts both in government and in the party, brought in new wave of optimism that showed a new and modern Zanzibar is possible.

But this, together with the political reforms that ushered in elective posts, shook the status quo in ways that no one ever imagined. Feeling insecure the old guard who had survived inside and outside the Revolutionary Council ganged up around Mzee Jumbe. They started convincing him that the young Turks, a significant number of whom were from the Pemba Island, were out to replace him.

The hostility from the old guard led to the creation of two opposing groups in the politics of Zanzibar. One, composed of more educated young Zanzibaris and the other of composed of old, less educated Zanzibaris who had the ear of Mzee Jumbe and who opposed change.

The differences between the two groups played themselves out in elections for the CCM’s national executive and central committees in 1982, according to reports. While the old guards wanted to prevent any of the young turks from joining the powerful CCM organs, the younger Zanzibaris fought to get an opportunity to join the organ.

At the end members from both groups got positions in NEC but this did not augur well with the old establishment.

Mzee Jumbe soon after started going around Zanzibar warning that there were people out to divide Zanzibaris and that those people would face what he called ‘revolutionary justice’.

This shocked young turks who saw it as part of efforts to eliminate them, possibly, physically. After the issue was taken to CCM top meetings two committees were created to investigate and later concluded that Mzee Jumbe’s threats and warnings were baseless. And he was therefore ordered to desist from taking any actions against those he accused as intent to dived Zanzibar.

But this then was interpreted wrongly by the old guards who saw the party’s decision as an interference in Zanzibar’s internal affairs.

Efforts by Mzee Jumbe to call for the adoption of a three government union structure were thus interpreted as intended to create a space to deal with young turks without interference. And this led to his downfall, aided and abated by the young turks.