Rarely told story of John Okello
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Monday, January 7, 2013
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danielmjema.blogspot.com
After reading the book Revolution in Zanzibar as told by
John Okello, a propagator of the Zanzibar revolution, I was left eager
wanting more of this intrigue. I asked around, inquisitive of this man
born in Uganda in 1937, orphaned at 11 years old and left to fend for
his siblings at the age of 15. He moved across the border to Kenya where
he worked for a couple years before relocating to Zanzibar in 1963. He
worked as a manservant, gardener, bricklayer, painter (some say he even
worked as a police officer in Pemba Island) and later became actively
involved in Zanzibar politics. Noticeably, wherever he worked he
instigated workers’ upheavals demanding for their rights. He was
illiterate with only a modest understanding of English and Kiswahili;
highly spiritual claiming that God had sent him to deliver the African
man from oppression. It was speculated that Okello was trained as a
communist in Cuba under Fidel Castro, a suspicion which he repeatedly
denies in his book. 
This was also the same period when various African countries had
their own crosses to bear – the emancipation from the White man rule
-Kenya with the Mau Mau Uprising and previously Uganda which had just
secured independence around the same time.
Okello says that the then East African Presidents, Milton Obote of
Uganda, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika (now
known as Tanzania) locked him out of East Africa, he was arrested in
Nairobi Kenya and was detained. He wrote his book from prison and
believed to have died in his home country Uganda.
In Zanzibar, Okello landed himself of a job as a house painter, and
became a member of the Painters Union. He had his devotees whom he met
apparently met in secret; he stipulated austere rules: sexual
abstinence, no raw meat and alcohol. He had several references from the
bible, mostly alluding to the Old Testament.
He was later invited to join Afro-Shirazi Party which opposed
minority Arab dominance in Zanzibar and Pemba islands. In early 1964,
Okello ordered his men to kill all Arabs between 18 and 25 years of age,
to spare pregnant and elderly women, and not to rape virgins. By this
time Okello had gained a lot of popularity in both Pemba and Zanzibar
Isalnds. With this support, Okello and his troop fought their way to the
capital of Zanzibar, Stone Town, where the sultan lived intimidating
even the police force. He took over the national radio, made a live
speech demanding the Sultan, Jamshid bin Abdullah to kill his family,
then kill himself afterwards;
“….I am thinking of going to Mtendeni (village) to destroy it if the
people there do not obey orders. After 40 minutes I am coming to finish
you off, especially the Comorians”. And “To all Arab youths living in
Malindi; I will pass through Malindi armed with weapons of which I alone
know. I want to see everyone stripped to his underpants and laying
down. I want to hear them singing…father of Africans. God bless him in
his task and that of the Field Marshall.”
The self –proclaimed Field Marshal, led a coup that saw about 20,000
Arabs killed, and whose families had resided in Zanzibar for centuries.
However, the sultan, prime minister and other ministers had already
managed to escape. During this time, Afro-Shirazi Party leader, Abeid
Karume leader of the (Arabic) Umma-(Massa) Party, sheikh Abdulrahman
Muhammad Babu as prime minister (later: vice-president) had not been
informed of the coup.
In his book, Okello relents on how he was disowned by Karume and
Babu. He alludes to his Ugandan descents, unpopular Christian
ideologies, amidst an Islamic dominated culture; communist suspicions
that led to the sideline and later his rejection.
I’m curious as to why there is little mention of a man who was a key
player on Zanzibar’s revolution. No East African media has a mention of
this man. A massacre that saw 20, 000 Arabs killed and others forced to
flee Zanzibar with a poorly armed army led by ‘field marshal’, John
Okello. A man behind a powerful insurrection story of Zanzibar, I want
to know why this story didn’t have a chapter in my history book. I want
to understand why his death is hardly thought of let alone mentioned. Or
are we scared of scuffling dust that settled more than 45 years, scared
of that which we do fail to identify with?
Habari Zingine
Mjulishe Mwenzako
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