Kitabu katika kumbukumbu ya Mapinduzi ya Zanzibar sehemu ya kwanza. Pitio la kitabu: Mimi, Umma Party na Mapinduzi ya Zanzibar

[Mohamed Said]

KITABU KATIKA KUMBUKUMBU YA MAPINDUZI YA ZANZIBAR SEHEMU YA KWANZA
PITIO LA KITABU MIMI, UMMA PARTY NA MAPINDUZI YA ZANZIBAR MWANDISHI: HASHIL SEIF HASHIL

Kuandika historia ya ukombozi katika nchi za Kiafrika kunahitaji ujasiri mkubwa sana na sababu yake ni kuwa Afrika ina historia rasmi.

Historia hii rasmi ni ile ambayo imepitishwa na kukubalika na watawala.

Historia hii ikishaandikwa ndiyo mwisho kwani haitoi nafasi ya kuwapo kwa historia nyingine itakayokwenda kinyume na hiyo.

Hii ni moja ya sifa ya siasa katika Afrika.

Historia rasmi ndiyo hiyo itakayokuwa katika mitaala kuanzia shule ya msingi hadi chuo kikuu.

Hatari yake ni kuwa inasababisha na pengine kwa miaka mingi sana kusomeshwa historia yenye upungufu hadi pale atakapotokea mtu jasiri akaandika ukweli.

Wako watu bado wa hai na pengine wapo hapa ukumbini wanaijua historia ya mapinduzi ya Zanzibar kwa kuyaona mapinduzi yenyewe na kwa kushiriki lakini hawajanyanyua kalamu kuandika wala kufungua mdomo kuihadithia na watakwenda kaburini na watazikwa na historia zao ambazo laiti wangeliziandika nchi ingenufaika pakubwa.

Hashil Seif Hashil anastahili pongezi kwa ujasiri huu wa kutuandikia kitabu na kutueleza historia ya Zanzibar ambayo si wengi wanaijua khasa vijana waliozaliwa baada ya mapinduzi mwaka wa 1964 ambao kwa sasa ni watu wazima.

Kuiandika historia ya mapinduzi ya Zanzibar ni kazi inayohitaji, ushujaa kwani si rahisi kuieleza na ukakosa kuwaudhi baadhi ya watu na wengine watu wako wa karibu sana.

Afrika tuna utamaduni wa kuzifanya historia zetu kuwa kitu nyeti kwa hiyo iogopwe na isiguswe kwa kuigeuzageuza kutaka kujua undani wake. Hashil Seif ni mwandishi jasiri na mtu huwezi kustaajabu kwa huu ujasiri wake utakapoijua historia yake binafsi.

Hashir Seif mwaka wa 1962 akiwa kijna mdogo kabisa wa umri wa miaka 26 alitoroka Zanzibar pamoja na wenzake wapatao 20 kwenda Cuba kupata mafunzo ya vita kwa nia ya kurejea Zanzibar na kupindua serikali na kuweka utawala wa Ki-Marxist.

Hili la kwanza na kaeleza katika kumbukumbu hizi.

Pili, Hashir Seif hajasita hata mara moja katika kitabu hiki kueleza kuwa yeye alikuwa mwanachama wa ZNP, maarufu kwa jina la ‘’Hizbu.’’

Katika historia ya Zanzibar baada ya mapinduzi neno, ‘’Hizbu,’’ lilikuwa linatisha na kuna watu na si wadogo hadi leo bado wana hofu kubwa ya kunasibishwa na historia yao katika Hizbu.

Katika kumbukumbu hizi Hashil Seif anaeleza historia yake ndani ya chama hiki na mchango wake kama kijana katika Youth Own Union (YOU) bila hofu wala wasiwasi wowote na hadi leo katika umri mkubwa wa miaka 80 bado ni komredi na hajabadili fikra zake za siasa za mrengo wa kushoto.

Katika kitabu hiki Hashil Seif anaeleza fikra zake kama bado yuko katika Zanzibar ya miaka ya 1960 bila ya kuongeza wala kupunguza nukta.

Hii ni moja ya mambo yanayokifanya kitabu hiki kiwe kiongozi katika kuijua historia ya mapinduzi na wanasiasa wake wa nyakati zile.

Ili kitabu kiwe kitabu ni lazima kiwe kina elimu mpya ambayo kabla haikuwa inajulikana.

Wazanzibari wengi, ukimtoa Dr. Harith Ghassany: ‘’Kwaheri Ukoloni Kwaheri Uhuru,’’ (2010), walioandika historia ya mapinduzi wote wamepita mle mle katika historia rasmi.

Msomaji hapati jipya isipokuwa tofauti ya jalada, jina la kitabu na la mwandishi.

Unapoanza kumsoma Hashil Seif mwanzoni tu unakuwa mfano wa mtu aliyekuwa kalala usingizi fofofo na ghafla anatokea mtu akammwagia maji baridi usoni na kwa maji yale akashtuka kutoka usingizini na pengine kwenye ndoto akawa karejea katika dunia ya kweli.
Hashil Seif anakifungua kitabu kwa majina ambayo hutayakuta katika historia tuliyoizoea ya mapinduzi ya Zanzibar.

Hashil Seif katika kitabu hiki kataja majina ambayo yalifutika katika historia ya Zanzibar na kama utayakuta basi yatakuwa yemetajwa, ‘’in passing,’’ kama Waingereza wasemavyo, yaani majina hayo yatakuwa yametajwa kijuujuu.

Nitatoa mfano kwa uchache.

Hashil anawataja mara kadhaa katika kitabu Abdulrahman Babu, Khamisi Abdallah Ameir, Ali Sultan Issa na Badawi Qullatein katika siasa za kupigania uhuru wa Zanzibar.

Ahmed Rajab mmoja wa makomredi, ambae kaupitia mswada wa kitabu hiki ameniandikia na kunifahamisha kuwa Khamis Abdallah Ameir kama ‘’Theoretician,’’ sifa hii hutaisoma katika kitabu lakini katika mawasiliano yangu na Ahmed Rajab hili kanieleza na akasema kuwa Khamis Abdallah Ameir hakuwa mwanachama wa kawaida katika harakati zile.

Hili lilidhihirika baada ya mapinduzi kwa Khamis Abdallah Ameir kuwa memba wa Baraza la Kwanza la Mapinduzi.

Khamis Abdallah Ameir sikupatapo kumsikia kabla mpaka nilipomuona hapa katika ukumbi huu katika muhadhara wa Abdallah Kassim Hanga na sasa kaletwa tena na Hashil Seif.

Babu, Ali Sultan na Badawi Qullatein hawahitaji maelezo.

Bahati mbaya sana kuwa kitabu hakikuwekwa faharasha yaani ‘’index,’’ lakini laiti ingekuwapo faharasha msomaji angeweza kuona umihumu wa wazalendo hawa waliotajwa katika kitabu hiki kwa kuangalia ni mara ngapi majina yao yametajwa katika historia hii.

Huu ni mfano mmoja tu katika majina mengi ambayo hayajatajwa katika historia ya Zanzibar lakini Hashil Seif ameyarejesha na kueleza historia za watu hao katika kupigania uhuru wa Zanzibar.

Msomaji atamsoma Ali Sultan Issa aliyekuwa Mkomunisti ndani ya ZNP, Badawi Qulattein, Salim Rashid aliyekuwa katibu wa kwanza wa Baraza la Mapinduzi.

Wazalendo hawa historia zao zina mvuto wa pekee kabla na baada ya mapinduzi.

Ali Sultan ndiye aliyetengezeza mpango mzima wa kuwapeleka vijana wa ZNP, Cuba kwa mafunzo ya kijeshi kujitayarisha kwa mapinduzi.

Haya ndiyo msomaji atakutananayo katika kitabu hiki na ikiwa ni hivi ndivyo hali ilivyokuwa wakati wa kupigani uhuru wa Zanzibar haiwi tabu kuelewa sifa za makomredi katika uongozi na mchango wao katika mapinduzi.

Picha: Khamis Abdallah Ameir na Mwandishi. Picha ya pili Mwalimu Nyerere katika mkutano wa Hanga Mbele ya Kibarua Bar, Mnazi Mmoja.

 

[Ralph Tyler]

Asante Maalim Mohamed Said . Kitabu kinapatikana wapi kwa walio Dar?

 

[Rubawa]

...

 

[fidel castro wapili]

Ok

 

[Mohamed Said]

Asante Maalim Mohamed Said . Kitabu kinapatikana wapi kwa walio Dar?

Ralph...
Hiki kitabu hakikupata kuletwa Dar es Salaam.

 

[Ralph Tyler]

Ralph...
Hiki kitabu hakikupata kuletwa Dar es Salaam.

Hii ni bahati mbaya sana Sheikh wangu.

 

[bagamoyo]

The Memoirs of Ali Sultan Issa and Seif Sharif Hamad​

By G. Thomas Burgess

“This extraordinary book is not yet available in Tanzania, nor in Swahili, but requests are beginning to trickle in for copies to be shipped, photocopied, begged and borrowed by those who have heard of its explosive contents…. Prefaced by an excellent introduction that demonstrates mastery of Zanzibar’s tangled history, this book will be a key text in Tanzanian history for many years to come.”
Tanzanian Affairs

“(Race, Revolution, and the Struggle for Human Rights in Zanzibar should…be commended for representing two different interpretations of, and positions within, the grander historical narrative, reminding the reader that historical and political events are always influenced and interpreted by individuals.”
African Affairs

“The two narratives provide distinctive and complementary perspectives on the Karume years during which they were politically active: the years between Hamad’s political awakening and Issa’s imprisonment. The introductory material by Burgess himself concisely but competently provides a framework that contextualizes the biographies for those unfamiliar with Zanzibar, while at the same time filling in the relevant details for those who are familiar with the island but less so with the finer details of recent political history.”
The Journal of Modern African Studies

“Issa’s voice is engaging in its contradictions: mischievous, preening, and as generous toward others as toward himself. His amanuensis is to be commended for capturing it on the page…. The memoir by Seif Sharif Hamad is more sober and substantive, if only because it recounts a more impressive resume…. (A)lthough Burgess admits to having fallen for Issa’s personal charms, he clearly is more sympathetic to Hamad’s political vision. And indeed, the final pages of his introduction set out the context of that vision in an admirably concise overview of Zanzibar history.”
International Journal of African Historical Studies

G. Thomas Burgess is an assistant professor at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis
Source : Race, Revolution, and the Struggle for Human Rights in Zanzibar: The Memoirs of Ali Sultan Issa and Seif Sharif Hamad

 

[bagamoyo]

4 Dec 2011
The Memoirs of Ali Sultan Issa (1931–) Umma Party Member, Pemba Area Commissioner, Minister of ... 39 Original in Swahili: "Shetani hilo...

Source : Bin Seif

 

[bagamoyo]

Ali Muhsin Barwan


Viongozi na Wafrika kuogopa historia
na kuiomba ipotee ingawa nafsi zao miyooni hazitulii kwani historia haipotei

Matopasi, wazamia lulu, wauza kahawa, wachuuzi wenye magenge ya kuuza vitu vidogo mitaani
Source : Mwanahistoria MohamedSaid

Sheikh Ali Muhsin Al-Barwani​

Nani Yeye?​

---

Sheikh Ali Muhsin Al-Barwani , alie fanya tarjuma hii ni Mzalendo wa Zanzibar, aliezaliwa 13 January 1919, akapata mafunzo ya dini kwa baba yake Sheikh Muhsin bin Ali na kwa wanazuoni wengineo wa Afrika ya Mashariki. Pia Sheikh Ali amesoma ilimu ya zaraa katika Chuo Kikuu cha Makerere (Makerere University) huko Uganda.
Alianza maisha yake kwa kufanya kazi ya zaraa na uwalimu. Katika 1947 aliacha kazi ya serikali, ili ashughulikie jihadi ya nchi yake na Umma wake. Alikuwa Muhariri Mkuu wa gazeti la "Mwongozi" kwa muda wa miaka kumi na tano. "Mwongozi" lilikuwa ni gazeti la siasa, la ijtimaa na la dini. Na lilikuwa maarufu kwa kazi yake kubwa ya kudai haki za wananchi na kutapakaza misingi ya Kiislamu huko Zanzibar na sehemu mbali mbali za Afrika ya Mashariki.
Sheikh Ali Muhsin aliongoza chama cha "Hizbu" (Zanzibar Nationalist Party) na aliongoza jihadi ya Uhuru wa Zanzibar kutokana na Muingereza. Hapo alikuwa maarufu kwa jina la "Zaim" yaani Mwongozi. Alifanya kazi ya Waziri wa Ilimu na Waziri wa Mambo ya Ndani, kesha akawa Naibu wa Waziri Mkuu na Waziri wa Mambo ya Nje katika serekali ya kidemokrasia ya Zanzibar kabla ya mapinduzi ya Zanzibar yalio mwaga damu za watu hata ulimwengu ukashituka hapo January 1964.
Baada ya machafuzi hayo ya Zanzibar, aliwekwa jela kwa muda wa zaidi ya miaka kumi bila ya kushitakiwa, kwa sibabu ya fikra zake za kisiasa.

Sheikh Ali Muhsin Al-Barwani ametunga tungo kadha wa kadha za dini. Miongoni mwake ni utenzi wa mashairi ya Kiswahili wa beti 1300 juu ya maisha ya Mtume (s.a.w.). Pia ametunga kitabu cha Kingereza cha kulinganisha Ukristo na Uiislamu ambacho kakifasiri mwenyewe Mtungaji kwa Kiswahili.
Hivi sasa Sheikh Ali anaishi Dubai, U.A.E.

 

[bagamoyo]

January 16, 2004

Forty years later, memoirs of a Zanzibari nationalist

Ali Muhsin Al Barwani bitterly reminisces the night of the revolution when police barracks were bombarded by Okello's rebels


On January 13, 1964, Ali Muhsin Al Barwani was imprisoned for 10 years in Tanzania, the day after the outbreak of the so-called Zanzibar Revolution. Forty years on, sitting in the living room of his spacious home in Oman, he takes me back to an era of upheaval and intrigue – an era that continues to haunt many Zanzibaris today.

Zanzibar was a British protectorate for over 70 years. But in January of 1964 it ceased to exist for 33 days when it was invaded by rebels from mainland Tanganyika (present-day Tanzania), who massacred thousands of innocent people. The rebellion was led by John Okello, a Ugandan, who had the backing of then Tanganiyikan President Julius Nyerere. After a long struggle, Zanzibar eventually gained independence on December 10, 1963, and became a member of the UN.

At the time of the so-called revolution, Al Barwani, a Zanzibari of Omani descent, was a respected leader of the Zanzibar Nationalist Party, ZNP, whose aim from the outset was to achieve independence as quickly as possible. The Afro Shirazi Party was formed by the British to oppose the ZNP and further British interests in Zanzibar. The Shirazi association was an indigenous organisation of Muslim Zanzibaris. Members of the African association hailed from the mainland of Tanganyika and were mostly Christian.

"At the time, the British were in favour of winning over the Shirazi association to join the African association because the Shirazi were indigenous and so they played the role of supporting the non-indigenous Africans," said Al Barwani, who has penned several memoirs, including Conflicts and Harmony in Zanzibar and I was Nyerere's Prisoner.

Describing what he called the divide and rule policies of the British, he said: "They created hatred and friction that formed a misconception that the ZNP was mainly Arab-dominated. However, the de facto leader of ZNP was a Zanzibari of mainland origin. We were a larger group and had the support of intellectuals; this was perceived as a threat to the opposition."

Essentially a settler society with diverse Arabic, Indian, Swahili, Comoran and indigenous elements and ruled by a hereditary sultan, Zanzibar was filled with an influx of vast religions and cultures living in concurrence. The Swahili language formed a vehicle for inter-communication between the numerous tribes that connected the people of East and Central Africa.

This ambience soon synchronised into various fractions where everything was debated - Capitalism vs. Socialism, merchants vs. landowners, Asians vs. Arabs, Swahilis vs. Mainlanders. This eventually led to the deadly revolution.

Ibrahim Noor, professor at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, explained how the once beautiful island has been reduced to ruins: "Where does the interest of the mainland government lie now? It saddens me to see Zanzibar in shambles. This was once my home and now it has no identity."

Al Barwani bitterly reminisces the night of the revolution when police barracks were bombarded by Okello's rebels.

"The night was unforgettable. I called the British senior official for help, as he had troops in neighbouring Kenya. He replied that the British government did not work on Sunday and would not interfere in the issues between us. Exactly a week after the so-called Zanzibar Revolution, there was a coup d'état in Tanganyika. And the British went to assist them."

The UN regarded the uproar as an internal conflict and did not want to interfere, too.

Peace was restored

Reflecting on the days when Churchill and Roosevelt were in power, Al Barwani said: "It seems those days have gone; I remember when Churchill invited Lawrence of Arabia to seek advice, Lawrence suggested the installation of King Abdullah and King Faisal and peace was restored in Iraq and Jordan. We used to regard Britain as a wise power, with experience in colonial territories. But what are they doing now? It seems all they are doing is earning no respect from anyone. It is like they are reviving its old policy and wanting to dominate the world."

He added: "I used to be a strong believer in democracy - that is the first thing I wanted; I believed elections consisted of one man, one vote, but democracy cheated when Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt in 1956. I was greatly disappointed and lost faith in democracy."

In accordance with the constitution and laws of the country, Al Barwani could not have been behaving in a manner that was detrimental to the state because he was an elected minister.

At the time they were imprisoned, there was no Tanzanian state. He, along with other ministers, was detained for only six months in a Zanzibar prison and was later taken to Tanganyika for the rest of his confinement.

On April 22, 1964, the Republic of Tanzania was declared, uniting Zanzibar and Tanganyika.

The political prisoners, including Al Barwani, wrote to the government, specifically to Julius Nyerere, then president of Tanzania, for release. But time and evidence proved that Nyerere had been instrumental in their overthrow.

"We were given no date and there was no trial. The sense of being forgotten was overwhelming," sighed Al Barwani.

This unfair act was not only a punishment to him but also to others - his family and those who, by blood or love, were connected to him. Surprisingly, Al Barwani and Nyerere were on good terms before he was detained.

They had met several times, and even once at a conference in Ghana (under President Kwame Nkrumah), at a time when African nations were gaining independence.

"Nyerere said one thing and did another. He was a hypocrite," he said. Al Barwani made six failed attempts to escape. "Nyerere warned his men not to kill us. He knew the rules of the international game, that if Zanzibar's so-called revolutionaries killed any of the ministers, it would be very hard to be recognised by the international community," he said.

"In prison, we were not ill-treated, during my confinement all the prison staff and fellow inmates sympathised with me and my colleagues.

I won their respect and consideration," he said.

This is something that he never fails to do even now, at 84 years of age.

His friendly disposition and humour carried with it signs of pain and sorrow. It reminded me that he had paid a great price, seeing his life'
s dream demolished within a month.
Source : https://gulfnews.com/uae/forty-years-later-memoirs-of-a-zanzibari-nationalist

 

[bagamoyo]

Zanzibar, Kuundwa Nationalist Party​

Sheikh Ali Muhsin Barwani anamuelezea Profesa Ibrahim Noor vipi Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP au Hizbu) imeundwa.

Source : MzeeBarwani

 

[bagamoyo]

Kuundwa Afro Shirazi Party, Zanzibar​

Sheikh Ali Muhsin Barwani anaeleza vipi Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) imeundwa na Julius K. Nyerere pamoja na wakoloni wa Kiingereza. Makusudio ya kuundwa ASP ni kupinga chama cha ZNP (Hizbu).

Source : MzeeBarwani

 

[bagamoyo]

Siyasa Zimeanza Zamani Zanzibar​

Lini siasa zimeanza Zanzibar? Sheikh Ali Muhsin anajibu suala hili. Hapa anzungumza na Profesa Ibrahim Noor. Anaelezea vipi Zanzibar zimeingia siasa tokea mwaka 1856 ilipo gawiwa dola ya Zanzibar kutokana na Oman. Wakoloni walisaidia mgawanyo huu na wakaikata Zanzibar vipande vipande.
Source : MzeeBarwani

 

[Mohamed Said]

Bagamoyo,
Ahsante sana kwa kutowekea haya hapa Barzani.

Siku moja nilikwenda kumtembelea Abbas Sykes nyumbani kwake Sea View.
Sasa inaweza kuwa kiasi cha miaka 15 imepita.

Pale nikamkuta Balozi Abdallah Suedi ambae namfahamu na kulikuwa na mtu mwingine kavaa kanzu.

Balozi Sykes akaniuliza, ''Mohamed unamfahamu huyu bwana?'
Nikajibu kuwa simfahamu.

Balozi akasema, ''Huyu bwana utamuudhi kusema humjui kwa kuwa yeye ni mtu maarufu sana.
Huyu bwana anaitwa Ali Sultan.''

Mimi nikasema, ''Maarufu ila sikupata kukutananae.''

Ali Sultan akadakia aksema, ''Siku hizi siko tena katika siasa mimi ni Mafia.''
Basi akawa anatuchekesha kuhusu hoteli aliyojenga Zanzibar akishirikiana na Wataliani.

Balozi Sued akasema, ''Eh bwana siku alipouliwa Karume sisi tukaenda Zanzibar. Nimemkuta Ali Sultan anatembea mjini na bastola.''

Basi tukawa sote tunacheka tukimsikiliza Ali Sultan na kwa hakika ingawa lilikuwa gumzo la marafiki nilipata mengi kwani sikio la mwandishi linasikia hata yale ambayo hayakusemwa.

 

[bagamoyo]

Makomredi wa Chama cha Umma (UMMA PARTY)

Tarehe 26 April, 1978, wakati wa sherehe za kuadhimisha miaka 13 ya Muungano, hatimaye Mwalimu Julius Nyerere aliamuru kuachiwa kwa Abdulrahman Babu na wengine kumi na mbili waliokuwa kizuizini bara. Ijapokuwa wote waliokuwa kizuizini bara waliachiliwa, hukumu za kifo kwa wanne wao – Babu, Ali Mahfoudh, Tahir Ali Salim na Hamed Hilal – kamwe hazikufutwa.
Kuachiwa kwa Makomred wa Chama cha Umma bara. Waliosimama mstari wa mbele, kutoka kushoto kwenda kulia: Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu, Martin Ennals kutoka Shirika la Kimataifa la Kutetea Haki za Binadamu (Amnesty International), Colonel Ali Mahfoudh, Hashil Seif Hashil; mstari wa pili, kutoka kushoto kwenda kulia, Suleiman Mohamed (Sisi), Salim Saleh, Haji Othman, Shaaban Salim, Tahir Ali; mstari wa tatu, kutoka kushoto kwenda kulia Amour Dugheish, Martin Hill kutoka Shirika la Kimataifa la Kutetea Haki za Binadamu (Amnesty International), Abdulla Juma, Badru Said, Hamed Hilal; nyuma ya mstari wa tatu ni Ahmed Mohamed (Tony). (Mpiga picha hajulikani.

Shirika la Kimataifa la Kutetea Haki za Binadamu(Amnesty) lilifanya mpango wa kuwapatia hadhi ya ukimbizi Hamed na Hashil, na hatimaye waliondoka kwenda Denmark. Huko, Hamed aliniambia ‘baada ya uchunguzi wa kitabibu na tiba, ndipo tulipoweza kurudisha imani na ari yetu’. Ali Mahfoudh aliondoka Tanzania kwenda kuishi Msumbiji.

 

[Mohamed Said]

Makomredi wa Chama cha Umma (UMMA PARTY)

Tarehe 26 April, 1978, wakati wa sherehe za kuadhimisha miaka 13 ya Muungano, hatimaye Mwalimu Julius Nyerere aliamuru kuachiwa kwa Abdulrahman Babu na wengine kumi na mbili waliokuwa kizuizini bara. Ijapokuwa wote waliokuwa kizuizini bara waliachiliwa, hukumu za kifo kwa wanne wao – Babu, Ali Mahfoudh, Tahir Ali Salim na Hamed Hilal – kamwe hazikufutwa.
Kuachiwa kwa Makomred wa Chama cha Umma bara. Waliosimama mstari wa mbele, kutoka kushoto kwenda kulia: Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu, Martin Ennals kutoka Shirika la Kimataifa la Kutetea Haki za Binadamu (Amnesty International), Colonel Ali Mahfoudh, Hashil Seif Hashil; mstari wa pili, kutoka kushoto kwenda kulia, Suleiman Mohamed (Sisi), Salim Saleh, Haji Othman, Shaaban Salim, Tahir Ali; mstari wa tatu, kutoka kushoto kwenda kulia Amour Dugheish, Martin Hill kutoka Shirika la Kimataifa la Kutetea Haki za Binadamu (Amnesty International), Abdulla Juma, Badru Said, Hamed Hilal; nyuma ya mstari wa tatu ni Ahmed Mohamed (Tony). (Mpiga picha hajulikani.

Shirika la Kimataifa la Kutetea Haki za Binadamu(Amnesty) lilifanya mpango wa kuwapatia hadhi ya ukimbizi Hamed na Hashil, na hatimaye waliondoka kwenda Denmark. Huko, Hamed aliniambia ‘baada ya uchunguzi wa kitabibu na tiba, ndipo tulipoweza kurudisha imani na ari yetu’. Ali Mahfoudh aliondoka Tanzania kwenda kuishi Msumbiji.

Bagamoyo,
Ahsante sana kwa picha hii.
Iko siku nilibahatika kushinda na Babu siku nzima tunazungumza na nimepata kuandika kuhusu siku hii:

''Kurasa kutoka shajara ya Mwandishi, May 1991, London

Leo alfajir nilikuwa napitia maktaba yangu nikakumbana na shajara (diary) yangu ya 1991.

Hapo juu ni ukurasa wa tarehe 9 May. Huyo niliyemtaja kama, ‘’Ahmed,’’ ni Ahmed Rajab wakati ule alikuwa mhariri wa wa jarida, ''Africa Analysis,’’ na huyo, ‘’Babu,’’ ni Abdulrahman Babu, kwa ufupi wa maneno mkimbizi wa siasa kutoka Zanzibar.

''Mlamali,'' ni Mohamed Mlamali Adam wakati ule Mhariri wa Africa Events. Kumweleza Mlamali utahitaji kitabu kizima.

Mlamali ana kalamu sijapatapo kushuhudia lakini kubwa ni ujuzi wake wa lugha ya Kiingereza.

Watu wengi hawamjui Mlamali.

Babu na Ahmed Rajab hawa ni watu mashuhuri hawahitaji kutambulishwa.

Tuko London.

Siku hiyo wakongwe hawa wa siasa za Afrika walinichukua kwenye mkutano wa "Africa Alert," Brixton kitongoji cha watu weusi nje ya London.

Wapinzani Cameron walikuwa wamegombana lakini wote wamekuja Uingereza kutafuta hifadhi kama wakimbizi wa siasa.

Babu na watu wengine maarufu waliokuwa wakiishi London na wao pia wengi wao kama wakimbizi walikuwa wanajaribu kuwapatanisha.

Hii ndiyo ilikuwa shughuli kubwa ya Afrika Alert.

Wakati nafika Brixton miezi michache iliyopita palitokea machafuko makubwa sana hapo.

Sikuweza kujizuia kuunganisha vurugu za Afrika na zile za pale Brixton.

Babu tulipokuwa peke yetu alinipiga maswali mengi sana kuhusu Tanzania na kwa hakika huwezi kuchoka kuzungumza na Babu kwani ni mtu wa maskhara sana na mwepezi wa kujishusha.

Kwa mara yangu ya kwanza nilipata fursa adhimu kumsikiliza Babu kwa karibu na pia nikamjua Babu na Mapinduzi ya Zanzibar kupitia kinywa cha Ahmed Rajab.

Nilimsihi sana Babu kuandika historia ya mapinduzi na nikamwambia Ahmed Rajab aandike kitabu kuhusu maisha ya Babu.

Inasikitisha kuwa Babu hakuwahi kunyanyua kalamu kuandika historia ya mapinduzi na Ahmed Rajab sitosema kitu kwani huenda anaandika.''

Badru Said alipata kuja nyumbani kwangu kaongozana na Ahmed Rajab baada ya kutoka kifungoni.

 

[bagamoyo]

Bagamoyo,
Ahsante sana kwa kutowekea haya hapa Barzani.

Siku moja nilikwenda kumtembelea Abbas Sykes nyumbani kwake Sea View.
Sasa inaweza kuwa kiasi cha miaka 15 imepita.

Pale nikamkuta Balozi Abdallah Suedi ambae namfahamu na kulikuwa na mtu mwingine kavaa kanzu.

Balozi Sykes akaniuliza, ''Mohamed unamfahamu huyu bwana?'
Nikajibu kuwa simfahamu.

Balozi akasema, ''Huyu bwana utamuudhi kusema humjui kwa kuwa yeye ni mtu maarufu sana.
Huyu bwana anaitwa Ali Sultan.''

Mimi nikasema, ''Maarufu ila sikupata kukutananae.''

Ali Sultan akadakia aksema, ''Siku hizi siko tena katika siasa mimi ni Mafia.''
Basi akawa anatuchekesha kuhusu hoteli aliyojenga Zanzibar akishirikiana na Wataliani.

Balozi Sued akasema, ''Eh bwana siku alipouliwa Karume sisi tukaenda Zanzibar. Nimemkuta Ali Sultan anatembea mjini na bastola.''

Basi tukawa sote tunacheka tukimsikiliza Ali Sultan na kwa hakika ingawa lilikuwa gumzo la marafiki nilipata mengi kwani sikio la mwandishi linasikia hata yale ambayo hayakusemwa.

​

​

Ali Sultan Issa in 1970

Komredi Ali Sultan Issa


The first memoir is that of Ali Sultan Issa, an icon of Zanzibar’s revolutionary past, whose life is thoroughly cosmopolitan, but not in the centuries-old sense of close ties between Zanzibar and the world of the western Indian Ocean.

Issa’s connections are more distant; his most influential experiences came in London, Moscow, and Beijing; and he even expresses open contempt for the “backwardness” of aspects of Arab, Indian, and African societies that do not measure up in his estimation to the enlightened ways of more “scientific” lands.

His Arab ancestry and allegiance to scientific socialism meant that only through a remarkable chain of events did he come to wholeheartedly serve an African nationalist regime and to seek new ways to impose the revolution. His inclusion in the cabinet and even his physical survival were rather fortuitous, given the execution, at Karume’s order, of four of the other original nine cabinet ministers serving him in the 1960s.

Issa’s life story has value on a number of levels. It provides unity and coherence to the abrupt transitions of the last half-century of Zanzibari history. Issa’s life, it can be said, has come full circle in many of the same ways as his island society. His life reveals how socialism enjoyed allure in a colonial society and came to influence a revolution of have-nots.

His story illustrates how socialism was closely associated with the youthful years of a post–World War II generation from across the islands’ racial spectrum endowed with the unique privilege of imagining a new future.

The worldview of Issa and his like-minded contemporaries was more expansive than that of their elders and more dismissive of the familiar than the exotic. It was nurtured by the stories and experiences of friends who seized opportunities to see the world, of which Issa may be regarded as exemplary.

Setting out at the age of eighteen, he spent two years as a seaman and stowaway, spending months in Calcutta, Cape Town, and Vancouver. Arriving in London, he assimilated into the circles of East African workers and students in the city but ultimately gravitated toward the multiracial but predominantly white society of the British Communist Party.

There he gained access to a world of secular intellectuals thousands of miles away from the colonial and qur’anic schools of his youth. He studied political economy and absorbed the vocabulary, class taxonomies, and views of world history espoused by his socialist mentors.

He attended the Moscow Youth Festival of 1957 at his own expense and then returned to Zanzibar and took up full-time work for the Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP).

As his party’s representative overseas, Issa obtained and distributed hundreds of scholarships to Eastern Bloc colleges and universities, intent on influencing a rising generation of nationalists.

In doing so, he and a few others literally put Zanzibar on the socialist map of the world. In their time abroad, Zanzibaris reflected on island history and came to believe they understood its essential injustices, contradictions, and medievalisms. They learned to regard themselves as a cosmopolitan elite with access to a ready-made template to erase all the ills of island society.

They adopted a general historical sense that socialism had and would continue to be adopted by the planet’s most progressive nations.

They began their analysis of island history not from the moment Arabs first civilized or enslaved Africans, but from an imaginary future when Zanzibar would fully realize its capacities for development.

They sought to convince others that Zanzibar could become something completely different and better by radically departing from centuries of its own historical evolution.

Issa and his comrades adopted an imported future that forced their secession from the ZNP and compelled their support for a revolution they sought and failed to control.

Issa’s story, then, provides intellectual context to the revolution. Issa’s stated intent is, in fact, to suggest that he and his comrades were a vanguard responsible for nearly all that was enlightened about the revolution and that had they been able to influence leaders like Karume to genuinely follow socialism, the revolution would have succeeded.

In this respect, Issa echoes his life-long associate, Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu, who claimed the comrades intervened to broaden “the objectives of the uprising from a narrow, lumpen, anti-Arab, anti-privilege, anti-this and anti-that perspective into a serious social revolution with far-reaching political, social and economic objectives.”

Given time and influence, the comrades could have fully developed the nation’s productive forces. They were thwarted, however, by “novices” who ruled the islands “with the caution of a bull in a china shop” and who relegated Zanzibar to “permanent stagnation.” Zanzibar, once “a brilliant revolutionary star of Africa, was henceforth to be reduced to one of the worst bungling and tyrannical petty-bourgeois despotisms in Africa.”

Issa endorses selected aspects of the revolution and exonerates himself from others. His narrative is at times a confession, a polemic, and a dispassionate account of revolutionary events.

He distances himself from the racial politics espoused by the regime he served, yet he helped introduce socialist purge categories like “capitalists” that served as popular labels for Arabs and Asians.

As a cabinet minister for eight years, Issa enforced a quota system that ended Asian and Arab domination of secondary education. He nationalized Arab and Asian properties in Zanzibar Town and established youth-labor camps in the countryside.

Though one of the most controversial personalities the revolution ever produced, Issa makes no apologies. He sees himself as the wise and incorruptible civil servant, trying to build the nation, yet continually undermined by the public’s “unscientific” habits and worldviews.

In this sense, he represents a generation of officials whose ideas of revolution were deeply embedded in their ambivalent views toward island society. If Zanzibar wasn’t exactly “the laziest place on earth,” as one visiting Western journalist put it in 1962, it was a culture in need of reform according to socialist precepts.

Specimens of what Frantz Fanon referred to as “underdeveloped humanity,” Zanzibaris needed to renounce “the gentle life” for a heavy dose of revolutionary discipline. Like British colonials, the comrades wanted to instill the work habits of industrialized society, yet the “crooked timber” of humanity could not always be made to conform to the socialist ideal.

The discipline that Issa preached in public did not always extend to his private life, as his story abundantly reveals. He moved in a world of hotel lobbies, nightclubs, and international conferences. As a minister, he enjoyed a relatively lavish salary, land in the countryside, a seaside villa, servants, and mistresses. Rather scandalously, he married an English woman without revolutionary convictions, who gave him four children.

While he survived and even benefited from the revolution, Issa became increasingly disillusioned with Karume’s regime, which either failed in its nation-building imperative or was simply too cruel and capricious.

Eventually, the wrath of the regime came down on Issa’s head. His arrest, torture, and death sentence following Karume’s assassination in 1972 provoked considerable reflection on his part. While in prison, he read the Qur’an three times and reembraced Islamic beliefs; and upon his release, he devoted himself to reconstructing his life through trade and entrepreneurship, rather than politics.

In the 1980s, he thoroughly accommodated himself to the realities of a new world order. Don Petterson, former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania, remarked in his memoirs that “in 1964, there was no more zealous Marxist in the whole of Zanzibar [than Issa].” Yet at a reception held in 1987, Issa “showed up wearing a three-piece suit and presented me with his business card, ”his appearance suggestive of the new “entrepreneurial spirit” in the islands.

This spirit has ever since been dedicated to turning Zanzibar into a place for fun and relaxation more than for work: with Italian financing, Issa opened Zanzibar’s first beach resort hotel.

Today, Issa exudes almost equal amounts of pride for his part in the development of tourism and for his role in constructing socialism in the 1960s. Instead of touring the island with Che Guevara, ticking off for his visitor visual signs of Zanzibar’s revolutionary development, the intent is now to obscure from the gaze of hotel guests anything that is industrial or not quaint.

Yet he still retains more than a nostalgic belief in socialism; this may be witnessed, as I have seen, when he sings revolutionary songs in Spanish, Russian, and Chinese to his slightly disoriented Italian hotel staff. In 1996, he went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and then made another to Cuba, to attend a socialist youth festival. When interviewed by a Cuban television crew about his memories of Che, he wept uncontrollably, until the crew was forced to end the interview. Issa would probably say, quoting Mao, these are all “non-antagonistic contradictions;” and in a way, he is right.

The historic appeal of socialism in Zanzibar, as in Ethiopia, may be attributed to the power of “a story of how a weak and backward collection of nationalities, located outside of Western Europe, attained unity, wealth, and international respect: the allegory of the Russian and, later, the Chinese, revolution.” Yet socialism also responded to universal desires for grandeur and destiny.

An Argentine journalist writing about the Zanzibari Revolution in 1965 claimed it offered the latest evidence that revolution was changing humanity: “The armed struggle breaks up the old routine life of the countryside and villages, excites, exalts...Life acquires a sense, a transcendence, an object.” Issa’s life and exploits should at least partially be understood through his pursuit of such transcendence on both a personal and a communal basis.

If Issa can freely recollect episodes from his past, without regret or conscious irony, events that are scandalous by local standards, it is perhaps because the God he came to accept in midlife is the kind of nation-building god that is sympathetic or forgiving of such pursuits.

If there is anything clear about his memoir, it is that the eye of Issa’s memory is turned toward both the past and the prospect of a future judgment. Having escaped the worst punishments of man, he is preparing to meet a socialist minded deity.

Note:


In part three, to be released on the UNPO website next week, Professor G. Thomas Burgess continues the story of Zanzibar with an introduction to the life of Seif Sharif Hamad.​

 

[Mohamed Said]

January 16, 2004

Forty years later, memoirs of a Zanzibari nationalist

Ali Muhsin Al Barwani bitterly reminisces the night of the revolution when police barracks were bombarded by Okello's rebels


On January 13, 1964, Ali Muhsin Al Barwani was imprisoned for 10 years in Tanzania, the day after the outbreak of the so-called Zanzibar Revolution. Forty years on, sitting in the living room of his spacious home in Oman, he takes me back to an era of upheaval and intrigue – an era that continues to haunt many Zanzibaris today.

Zanzibar was a British protectorate for over 70 years. But in January of 1964 it ceased to exist for 33 days when it was invaded by rebels from mainland Tanganyika (present-day Tanzania), who massacred thousands of innocent people. The rebellion was led by John Okello, a Ugandan, who had the backing of then Tanganiyikan President Julius Nyerere. After a long struggle, Zanzibar eventually gained independence on December 10, 1963, and became a member of the UN.

At the time of the so-called revolution, Al Barwani, a Zanzibari of Omani descent, was a respected leader of the Zanzibar Nationalist Party, ZNP, whose aim from the outset was to achieve independence as quickly as possible. The Afro Shirazi Party was formed by the British to oppose the ZNP and further British interests in Zanzibar. The Shirazi association was an indigenous organisation of Muslim Zanzibaris. Members of the African association hailed from the mainland of Tanganyika and were mostly Christian.

"At the time, the British were in favour of winning over the Shirazi association to join the African association because the Shirazi were indigenous and so they played the role of supporting the non-indigenous Africans," said Al Barwani, who has penned several memoirs, including Conflicts and Harmony in Zanzibar and I was Nyerere's Prisoner.

Describing what he called the divide and rule policies of the British, he said: "They created hatred and friction that formed a misconception that the ZNP was mainly Arab-dominated. However, the de facto leader of ZNP was a Zanzibari of mainland origin. We were a larger group and had the support of intellectuals; this was perceived as a threat to the opposition."

Essentially a settler society with diverse Arabic, Indian, Swahili, Comoran and indigenous elements and ruled by a hereditary sultan, Zanzibar was filled with an influx of vast religions and cultures living in concurrence. The Swahili language formed a vehicle for inter-communication between the numerous tribes that connected the people of East and Central Africa.

This ambience soon synchronised into various fractions where everything was debated - Capitalism vs. Socialism, merchants vs. landowners, Asians vs. Arabs, Swahilis vs. Mainlanders. This eventually led to the deadly revolution.

Ibrahim Noor, professor at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, explained how the once beautiful island has been reduced to ruins: "Where does the interest of the mainland government lie now? It saddens me to see Zanzibar in shambles. This was once my home and now it has no identity."

Al Barwani bitterly reminisces the night of the revolution when police barracks were bombarded by Okello's rebels.

"The night was unforgettable. I called the British senior official for help, as he had troops in neighbouring Kenya. He replied that the British government did not work on Sunday and would not interfere in the issues between us. Exactly a week after the so-called Zanzibar Revolution, there was a coup d'état in Tanganyika. And the British went to assist them."

The UN regarded the uproar as an internal conflict and did not want to interfere, too.

Peace was restored

Reflecting on the days when Churchill and Roosevelt were in power, Al Barwani said: "It seems those days have gone; I remember when Churchill invited Lawrence of Arabia to seek advice, Lawrence suggested the installation of King Abdullah and King Faisal and peace was restored in Iraq and Jordan. We used to regard Britain as a wise power, with experience in colonial territories. But what are they doing now? It seems all they are doing is earning no respect from anyone. It is like they are reviving its old policy and wanting to dominate the world."

He added: "I used to be a strong believer in democracy - that is the first thing I wanted; I believed elections consisted of one man, one vote, but democracy cheated when Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt in 1956. I was greatly disappointed and lost faith in democracy."

In accordance with the constitution and laws of the country, Al Barwani could not have been behaving in a manner that was detrimental to the state because he was an elected minister.

At the time they were imprisoned, there was no Tanzanian state. He, along with other ministers, was detained for only six months in a Zanzibar prison and was later taken to Tanganyika for the rest of his confinement.

On April 22, 1964, the Republic of Tanzania was declared, uniting Zanzibar and Tanganyika.

The political prisoners, including Al Barwani, wrote to the government, specifically to Julius Nyerere, then president of Tanzania, for release. But time and evidence proved that Nyerere had been instrumental in their overthrow.

"We were given no date and there was no trial. The sense of being forgotten was overwhelming," sighed Al Barwani.

This unfair act was not only a punishment to him but also to others - his family and those who, by blood or love, were connected to him. Surprisingly, Al Barwani and Nyerere were on good terms before he was detained.

They had met several times, and even once at a conference in Ghana (under President Kwame Nkrumah), at a time when African nations were gaining independence.

"Nyerere said one thing and did another. He was a hypocrite," he said. Al Barwani made six failed attempts to escape. "Nyerere warned his men not to kill us. He knew the rules of the international game, that if Zanzibar's so-called revolutionaries killed any of the ministers, it would be very hard to be recognised by the international community," he said.

"In prison, we were not ill-treated, during my confinement all the prison staff and fellow inmates sympathised with me and my colleagues.

I won their respect and consideration," he said.

This is something that he never fails to do even now, at 84 years of age.

His friendly disposition and humour carried with it signs of pain and sorrow. It reminded me that he had paid a great price, seeing his life'
s dream demolished within a month.
Source : https://gulfnews.com/uae/forty-years-later-memoirs-of-a-zanzibari-nationalist

Bagamoyo,
Sheikh Ali Muhisin alinialika nyumbani kwake Muscat mwaka wa 1999.
Namshukuru Allah kwa kunikutanisha na mtu huyu.

Nimeandika na kumzunguzmza Sheikh Ali Muhsin.
Nakuwekea hapo chini machache:

''Mwaka wa 1974 Ali Muhsin Barwani alifunguliwa kutoka jela za Bara ambako
Nyerere alimfunga kwa miaka 10 baada ya serikali ya Zanzibar kupinduliwa
mwaka wa 1964.

Hakupita muda Ali Muhsin alitoroka kwa kuvuka mpaka wa Horohoro kwa njia za
panya kwa miguu usiku wa manane akisaidiwa na wasamaria wema na hivyo
kuweza kufika Mombasa kisha Nairobi na kupata msaada wa UNHCR waliomsaidia
kufika Cairo kuungana na familia yake.

Ali Muhsin alitoroka Tanzania mwezi Mtukufu wa Ramadhani kama huu.
Mwaka wa 1997 aliandika kitabu, ''Conflicts and Harmony in Zanzibar.''

Unaweza kumjua Ali Muhsin kwa kuingia hapo chini:
Mohamed Said: KUTOKA JF: KUMBUKUMBU ZA ALI MUHSIN BARWANI: ''CONFLICTS AND HARMONY IN ZANZIBAR''
Mohamed Said: TUJIKUMBUSHE: SHEIKH ALI MUHSIN BARWANI MMOJA WA WAPIGANIA UHURU WA ZANZIBAR
Mohamed Said: MAISHA YA SIASA YA SHEIKH ALI MUHSIN BARWANI (1919 - 2006) - KUMBUKUMBU YA MAPINDUZI YA ZANZIBAR

Kulia Abdullah Farouk, Mohamed Said, Sheikh Ali Muhsin na Sheikh Abdallah Muhsin Muscat 1999.

 

[kipande]

KITABU KATIKA KUMBUKUMBU YA MAPINDUZI YA ZANZIBAR SEHEMU YA KWANZA
PITIO LA KITABU MIMI, UMMA PARTY NA MAPINDUZI YA ZANZIBAR MWANDISHI: HASHIL SEIF HASHIL

Kuandika historia ya ukombozi katika nchi za Kiafrika kunahitaji ujasiri mkubwa sana na sababu yake ni kuwa Afrika ina historia rasmi.

Historia hii rasmi ni ile ambayo imepitishwa na kukubalika na watawala.

Historia hii ikishaandikwa ndiyo mwisho kwani haitoi nafasi ya kuwapo kwa historia nyingine itakayokwenda kinyume na hiyo.

Hii ni moja ya sifa ya siasa katika Afrika.

Historia rasmi ndiyo hiyo itakayokuwa katika mitaala kuanzia shule ya msingi hadi chuo kikuu.

Hatari yake ni kuwa inasababisha na pengine kwa miaka mingi sana kusomeshwa historia yenye upungufu hadi pale atakapotokea mtu jasiri akaandika ukweli.

Wako watu bado wa hai na pengine wapo hapa ukumbini wanaijua historia ya mapinduzi ya Zanzibar kwa kuyaona mapinduzi yenyewe na kwa kushiriki lakini hawajanyanyua kalamu kuandika wala kufungua mdomo kuihadithia na watakwenda kaburini na watazikwa na historia zao ambazo laiti wangeliziandika nchi ingenufaika pakubwa.

Hashil Seif Hashil anastahili pongezi kwa ujasiri huu wa kutuandikia kitabu na kutueleza historia ya Zanzibar ambayo si wengi wanaijua khasa vijana waliozaliwa baada ya mapinduzi mwaka wa 1964 ambao kwa sasa ni watu wazima.

Kuiandika historia ya mapinduzi ya Zanzibar ni kazi inayohitaji, ushujaa kwani si rahisi kuieleza na ukakosa kuwaudhi baadhi ya watu na wengine watu wako wa karibu sana.

Afrika tuna utamaduni wa kuzifanya historia zetu kuwa kitu nyeti kwa hiyo iogopwe na isiguswe kwa kuigeuzageuza kutaka kujua undani wake. Hashil Seif ni mwandishi jasiri na mtu huwezi kustaajabu kwa huu ujasiri wake utakapoijua historia yake binafsi.

Hashir Seif mwaka wa 1962 akiwa kijna mdogo kabisa wa umri wa miaka 26 alitoroka Zanzibar pamoja na wenzake wapatao 20 kwenda Cuba kupata mafunzo ya vita kwa nia ya kurejea Zanzibar na kupindua serikali na kuweka utawala wa Ki-Marxist.

Hili la kwanza na kaeleza katika kumbukumbu hizi.

Pili, Hashir Seif hajasita hata mara moja katika kitabu hiki kueleza kuwa yeye alikuwa mwanachama wa ZNP, maarufu kwa jina la ‘’Hizbu.’’

Katika historia ya Zanzibar baada ya mapinduzi neno, ‘’Hizbu,’’ lilikuwa linatisha na kuna watu na si wadogo hadi leo bado wana hofu kubwa ya kunasibishwa na historia yao katika Hizbu.

Katika kumbukumbu hizi Hashil Seif anaeleza historia yake ndani ya chama hiki na mchango wake kama kijana katika Youth Own Union (YOU) bila hofu wala wasiwasi wowote na hadi leo katika umri mkubwa wa miaka 80 bado ni komredi na hajabadili fikra zake za siasa za mrengo wa kushoto.

Katika kitabu hiki Hashil Seif anaeleza fikra zake kama bado yuko katika Zanzibar ya miaka ya 1960 bila ya kuongeza wala kupunguza nukta.

Hii ni moja ya mambo yanayokifanya kitabu hiki kiwe kiongozi katika kuijua historia ya mapinduzi na wanasiasa wake wa nyakati zile.

Ili kitabu kiwe kitabu ni lazima kiwe kina elimu mpya ambayo kabla haikuwa inajulikana.

Wazanzibari wengi, ukimtoa Dr. Harith Ghassany: ‘’Kwaheri Ukoloni Kwaheri Uhuru,’’ (2010), walioandika historia ya mapinduzi wote wamepita mle mle katika historia rasmi.

Msomaji hapati jipya isipokuwa tofauti ya jalada, jina la kitabu na la mwandishi.

Unapoanza kumsoma Hashil Seif mwanzoni tu unakuwa mfano wa mtu aliyekuwa kalala usingizi fofofo na ghafla anatokea mtu akammwagia maji baridi usoni na kwa maji yale akashtuka kutoka usingizini na pengine kwenye ndoto akawa karejea katika dunia ya kweli.
Hashil Seif anakifungua kitabu kwa majina ambayo hutayakuta katika historia tuliyoizoea ya mapinduzi ya Zanzibar.

Hashil Seif katika kitabu hiki kataja majina ambayo yalifutika katika historia ya Zanzibar na kama utayakuta basi yatakuwa yemetajwa, ‘’in passing,’’ kama Waingereza wasemavyo, yaani majina hayo yatakuwa yametajwa kijuujuu.

Nitatoa mfano kwa uchache.

Hashil anawataja mara kadhaa katika kitabu Abdulrahman Babu, Khamisi Abdallah Ameir, Ali Sultan Issa na Badawi Qullatein katika siasa za kupigania uhuru wa Zanzibar.

Ahmed Rajab mmoja wa makomredi, ambae kaupitia mswada wa kitabu hiki ameniandikia na kunifahamisha kuwa Khamis Abdallah Ameir kama ‘’Theoretician,’’ sifa hii hutaisoma katika kitabu lakini katika mawasiliano yangu na Ahmed Rajab hili kanieleza na akasema kuwa Khamis Abdallah Ameir hakuwa mwanachama wa kawaida katika harakati zile.

Hili lilidhihirika baada ya mapinduzi kwa Khamis Abdallah Ameir kuwa memba wa Baraza la Kwanza la Mapinduzi.

Khamis Abdallah Ameir sikupatapo kumsikia kabla mpaka nilipomuona hapa katika ukumbi huu katika muhadhara wa Abdallah Kassim Hanga na sasa kaletwa tena na Hashil Seif.

Babu, Ali Sultan na Badawi Qullatein hawahitaji maelezo.

Bahati mbaya sana kuwa kitabu hakikuwekwa faharasha yaani ‘’index,’’ lakini laiti ingekuwapo faharasha msomaji angeweza kuona umihumu wa wazalendo hawa waliotajwa katika kitabu hiki kwa kuangalia ni mara ngapi majina yao yametajwa katika historia hii.

Huu ni mfano mmoja tu katika majina mengi ambayo hayajatajwa katika historia ya Zanzibar lakini Hashil Seif ameyarejesha na kueleza historia za watu hao katika kupigania uhuru wa Zanzibar.

Msomaji atamsoma Ali Sultan Issa aliyekuwa Mkomunisti ndani ya ZNP, Badawi Qulattein, Salim Rashid aliyekuwa katibu wa kwanza wa Baraza la Mapinduzi.

Wazalendo hawa historia zao zina mvuto wa pekee kabla na baada ya mapinduzi.

Ali Sultan ndiye aliyetengezeza mpango mzima wa kuwapeleka vijana wa ZNP, Cuba kwa mafunzo ya kijeshi kujitayarisha kwa mapinduzi.

Haya ndiyo msomaji atakutananayo katika kitabu hiki na ikiwa ni hivi ndivyo hali ilivyokuwa wakati wa kupigani uhuru wa Zanzibar haiwi tabu kuelewa sifa za makomredi katika uongozi na mchango wao katika mapinduzi.

Picha: Khamis Abdallah Ameir na Mwandishi. Picha ya pili Mwalimu Nyerere katika mkutano wa Hanga Mbele ya Kibarua Bar, Mnazi Mmoja.

Nimekitafuta hiki kitabu sana sijakipata hapa Tanzania, nimekuta kinauzwa amazon. Nadhani historia kama hizi zinapaswa kuwafikia walengwa zaidi (Watanzania hususan Wazanzibari) tena kwa njia rahisi kabisa. Kwenda kuuza kitabu muhimu kama hiki nje ya Tanzania nadhani ni makosa makubwa sana muandishi ameyafanya.Japo inaweza kuwa muandishi alikua na malengo mengine ya kibiashara ili kujikimu kimaisha. Lakini ukweli utabaki kwamba wanaopaswa kufahamu historia hii nzuri ni wazawa wenyewe.

Bila Sheikh Mohammed Said kufanya mapitio humu wengi wetu tusingelijua kabisa kwamba Mzee wetu Hashil ameandika historia tofauti ya Mapinduzi ya Zanzibar. Binafsi Nimpongeze sana Dkt. Harith Ghassany kwa kitabu chake cha KWAHERI UHURU KWAHERI UKOLONI, hakika aliitendea haki nchi kwa kuandika historia nzuri na ambayo iliweza kumfikia kila aliependa imfikie na kuifahamu.

Aliiweka mpaka kwenye mitandao watu waipakue bure na waisome. Hakika hii naita ilikua ni Swadak tena al swadakat jaariayah hata siku akiondoka hapa duniani ataendelea kupata thawabu kwa ilmuu aliyoitoa. Tunamuomba sana mzee wetu Hashil afuate nyayo za Dkt. Ghassany ili historia aliyoiandika iwafikie walengwa.

Wassalaam Aleykum.

 

[Mohamed Said]

Nimekitafuta hiki kitabu sana sijakipata hapa Tanzania, nimekuta kinauzwa amazon. Nadhani historia kama hizi zinapaswa kuwafikia walengwa zaidi (Watanzania hususan Wazanzibari) tena kwa njia rahisi kabisa. Kwenda kuuza kitabu muhimu kama hiki nje ya Tanzania nadhani ni makosa makubwa sana muandishi ameyafanya.Japo inaweza kuwa muandishi alikua na malengo mengine ya kibiashara ili kujikimu kimaisha. Lakini ukweli utabaki kwamba wanaopaswa kufahamu historia hii nzuri ni wazawa wenyewe.

Bila Sheikh Mohammed Said kufanya mapitio humu wengi wetu tusingelijua kabisa kwamba Mzee wetu Hashil ameandika historia tofauti ya Mapinduzi ya Zanzibar. Binafsi Nimpongeze sana Dkt. Harith Ghassany kwa kitabu chake cha KWAHERI UHURU KWAHERI UKOLONI, hakika aliitendea haki nchi kwa kuandika historia nzuri na ambayo iliweza kumfikia kila aliependa imfikie na kuifahamu.

Aliiweka mpaka kwenye mitandao watu waipakue bure na waisome. Hakika hii naita ilikua ni Swadak tena al swadakat jaariayah hata siku akiondoka hapa duniani ataendelea kupata thawabu kwa ilmuu aliyoitoa. Tunamuomba sana mzee wetu Hashil afuate nyayo za Dkt. Ghassany ili historia aliyoiandika iwafikie walengwa.

Wassalaam Aleykum.

Sheikh kipande uuzaji wa kitabu ni shughuli ya mchapaji na kwa kuwa kwake ni biashara atakipeleka kule kwenye wanunuzi wengi.

Kitabu kikiwa Amazon kiko kwenye soko la dunia nzima.

Mwandishi anaishia kwenye uandishi.