Role of tiny Zanzibar village in Cold War-era space race

To build these stations the US entered agreements with seven countries: Australia, Bermuda, Mexico, Canary Islands, Kano-Nigeria, Zanzibar and Polynesia.

Built during the heat of the Cold War, the Mercury Tracking Station in Zanzibar was one of 18 Earth stations established around the globe to track US astronauts orbiting Earth.

As part of NASA’s “Worldwide Tracking Network,” the station in Zanzibar was designed to capture telemetry signals, track spacecraft, and enable direct voice communication with astronauts during critical windows of orbital flight.

 “Each station had a range of 700 nautical miles and a satellite pass which typically lasted seven minutes,” notes media scholar Lisa Parks in her in-depth research on global communication infrastructure.

In April 1960, even before formal agreements were signed, the US—through a British-backed arrangement—began construction of the Tunguu receiving station and a transmission outpost in nearby Chwaka at a cost of $3 million.

These stations were vital to maintaining contact with American astronauts flying above Africa. On May 5, 1961, the Zanzibar station successfully tracked Alan Shepard’s suborbital flight.

Less than a year later, it would help monitor John Glenn’s historic orbital mission around the globe.

However, while the Mercury station was built to advance America’s scientific ambitions, its construction ignited fierce political resistance in Zanzibar.

Why Zanzibaris opposed the NASA station

As early as 1959, Zanzibar’s pre independence political parties began raising alarm about the true nature of the US facility. Leaders from the Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP), particularly Ali Muhsin, openly condemned the station.

At a protest in June 1960 believed to have been attended by around 10,000 people, ZNP supporters burned a model rocket in effigy and accused the US of turning Zanzibar into a pawn in a larger imperialist game.

Ali Muhsin was quoted as saying the project posed “a danger to the whole of Africa,” and warned that Zanzibar should not become a “pawn in imperialists’ struggle.”

While NASA described the station as civilian and scientific, suspicion was rife. Cold War tensions were escalating globally, and many Zanzibaris feared the station was a disguised military base. Sabotage attempts followed: communication cables were cut, anti-American graffiti adorned walls, and local newspapers fuelled scepticism.

According to Parks’ research and available documents, one US official described a “steady and strong anti-Mercury campaign kept very much alive in certain local papers, edited and distributed with official assistance from the Chinese communists.”

Concerns weren’t limited to Zanzibar. At a Pan-African Union conference in Cairo in July 1960, delegates demanded the removal of all foreign military and satellite stations from the continent.

Wera Ambito of Kenya’s African National Union (KANU) said: “These bases will be used to suppress our national movement for freedom and independence, and therefore we will persistently oppose them.”

US records now show the Americans viewed the backlash through the narrow lens of Cold War geopolitics, blaming “ChiComs” (Chinese communists) and “bloc propaganda” from Moscow and East Germany for stoking opposition.

Yet Parks urges that it should be recognised that Zanzibari concerns were not simply about communism versus capitalism—they were grounded in anti-colonialism and fears of militarization of the island in the Cold War era.

Despite the protests, construction proceeded with the help of local Zanzibari workers and under tight US- British security.

To build the Mercury station in Zanzibar, materials and equipment were transported via African Lightning, a ship operated by Farrell Lines, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel Corporation.

The ship left Brooklyn on May 18, 1960 and arrived in Zanzibar’s Malindi Port on June 24, 1960. The bill of lading reveals a list of Mercury-related equipment, 7 boxes of transformers, building materials, 2 trucks, 1 jeep, tires, all were brought into Zanzibar duty free, per the agreement between the US and Britain. Notes reveal that the British embassy had recommended, that US military aircraft should not be used to bring material for station into Zanzibar or any territory in vicinity.

The arrival of the trucks and equipment were met with angry crowds and had to be hidden in warehouses. The buildings were made of prefabricated steel, designed to be quickly installed and, notably, easily removed.

But tensions persisted—and they would soon reach a boiling point.

To be continued in Part Two: Revolution and removal—How Zanzibar dismantled NASA’s Mercury station