A Small Stage for Global Conflicts: Decolonization, the Cold War, and Revolution in Zanzibar

Abstract

The process of decolonization in Zanzibar and the events surrounding its subsequent merger with Tanganyika to become the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964 reveal that postcolonial states did not enter a strictly bi-polar world, forced to choose between the two Cold War superpowers. Instead there were many geopolitical battles that complicated decolonization. In 1964 nearly every major global conflict played out in the islands. Not only were the Americans and Soviets vying for power, but the Arab-Israeli Conflict, the East-West German Conflict, and the Sino-Soviet Split — among other rivalries — all affected the new Zanzibar state. Events in Zanzibar also reveal that Africans, too, had agency in shaping their own futures. In fact, local and regional issues combined with the desires and aims of local power brokers were often the most decisive factors in determining the outcome of events. Not only were there multiple layers to decolonization, but influence moved in multiple directions. Africans were not just pawns in the superpowers' game; their actions shaped the contours of the various international conflicts involved as well as the foreign policies of the major players. The story of Zanzibar thus demonstrates that in order to understand decolonization in Africa during the age of the Cold War, the process has to be seen as a multi-polar, multidirectional, and multilayered affair. This paper also argues for the benefits of understanding the global dimensions of conflicts like those between the Arabs and Israelis, the Chinese and the Soviets and between the two Germanys. These were global conflicts in their own right and not just subplots or regional sideshows of the larger Cold War.