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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 DAR ES SALAAM 000127 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E JLIDDLE; INR/RAA: FEHRENRIECH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SOCI PINR PGOV PREL TZ
SUBJECT: ZANZIBAR: MEMORIES OF AN UNRECONSTRUCTED REVOLUTIONARY 
 
REF: (A) Dar es Salaam 124 (B) 08 Dar es Salaam 444 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY: Ali Sultani was one of the leading figures of the 1964 
Zanzibar Revolution, but later spent eight years in prison as one of 
the conspirators of President Karume's assassination (father of the 
current President Karume).  A charismatic raconteur, quoting Edith 
Pilaf's "Je Ne Regrete Rien," he is outspoken and angry about the 
present state of Zanzibar.  He hopes for political change, yet sees 
little difference between ruling party CCM and opposition CUF.  He 
would like to see a Zanzibar government of unity "so we can at last 
fight for an independent nation and fulfill the goals of our 
revolution."  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  Over bottles of Tusker beer and too many cigarettes (he smokes 
L&Ms, which he laughingly says stands for "Lenin and Marx"), Ali 
Sultani gold-panned nuggets of Zanzibari and Cold War history from a 
swirling stream of Swahili, English and Spanish (the later language, 
of the 11 he knows, including Russian and Chinese, he picked up in 
an Argentine jail, where he spent 11 days in 1954, when as a student 
on Spring Break he was involved in a seaport barroom brawl). 
 
OLD ZANZIBAR 
 
¶3.  Ali Sultani related to ZAO a story that begins with his maternal 
grandmother's first marriage to Sultan Ali ibn Hamud (1902-1911), 
whom some say was deposed by the British for "decadent ways." 
However, the version as told by Ali Sultani was that the Sultan (an 
Eton grad) fell from favor when he asked the British High 
Commissioner while in the company of other high-level notables, to 
assist him, the Sultan, in tying his shoes.   Ali Sultani also said 
that Sultan Hamud was the first Zanzibari monarch to form relations 
with Italy (viz UK and Germany, the principal powers jockeying for 
hegemony during that era), and this also evoked suspicions.  En 
route to King Edward V's coronation in 1911, Ali Sultani was delayed 
in Paris.  Back home, the British engineered a new Sultan to take 
his place, Hamud's brother-in-law, Sultan Khalifa ibn Kharub 
(1911-1960).  Sultan Hamud died in Paris in 1918, while Ali 
Sultani's grandmother meanwhile remarried.  From her second marriage 
came Ali Sultani's mother, who wed a prominent Arab-Indian 
businessman from the island of Pemba.  Ali Sultani was born in Pemba 
but moved to the main island of Unguja as a small child. 
 
¶4.  Ali Sultani's childhood best friend was Abdulrahma Mohamed Babu 
(who became Secretary General of Zanzibar's first political party, 
the Zanzibar National Party, leader of the Zanzibar revolution and a 
renowned Pan-Africanist), although Babu was five years his senior. 
Ali Sultani and Babu were neighbors, and Ali Sultani said Babu's 
mother made the best version of "matandu" he ever ate (matandu is a 
dish of scorched rice with coconut that some people throw out, but 
many consider a delicacy).  Evidently Babu's mother was always 
burning rice, and the young Ali Sultani was always at the back door 
to eat it.  Ali Sultani said he ate more meals at his neighbor's 
than in his own house.  When Babu went to England on a scholarship 
in 1952, Ali Sultani, still a teen, tried to follow him.  Ali 
Sultani hired himself out as a deckhand and worked his way around 
the world, finally joining his companion, becoming roommates, and 
later enrolling in college classes. 
 
BIRTH OF A COMMUNIST 
 
¶5.  One day in the mid-1950's, the two young Zanzibari students were 
passing by Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park and heard an impassioned 
speech by a man from the British Communist Party.  The speaker 
talked of liberating Africa from the "imperialist oppressors," a 
theme that had resonance with the young Ali Sultani, despite his 
patrician upbringing.  Ali Sultani joined the BCP shortly 
thereafter.  For his part, Babu later joined the British Labor Party 
("Babu was a true anarchist, not a Communist, so he always went with 
the liberal establishment to push it from within, even up to and 
after the Zanzibar Revolution," explained Ali Sultani). 
 
¶6.  In 1957 Ali Sultani paid his own way to attend a Global Youth 
Conference in the USSR, where he met and befriended what became the 
pantheon of African anti-colonial revolutionaries: (Banda, Nkomo, 
Kaunda, Lumumba, etc.).  Ali Sultani returned to Zanzibar in 1958 
fully versed in dialectic materialism with a steadfast belief in the 
"scientific approach" to history and society.  He immediately became 
an organizer for, and senior member of, the Zanzibar Nationalist 
Party (ZNP), from which he later founded a sub-sect of Communists 
 
DAR ES SAL 00000127  002 OF 004 
 
 
called the "Umma ("People's") Party."  Ali Sultani claims he was one 
of the principal ideologues for the ouster of the Sultan of the 
short-lived independent nation of Zanzibar. 
 
¶7.  Ali Sultani says that as a ZNP official, he knew well resident 
U.S. diplomat Carl Petersen.  However, he said his closest U.S. 
contact was with then-Consul Frank Carlucci, with whom he became a 
confidant.  In mid-1964, Ali Sultani was sent to be Commissar for 
Pemba to consolidate the revolution there post-Okello (a Ugandan and 
main instigator of the violent anti-Arab uprising targeting civilian 
men, women and children in Zanzibar).  Ali Sultani said he used to 
personally drive Carlucci around during his visits there. 
Meanwhile, back in Stonetown (the old town on the main island), 
Carlucci used to be in the habit of jogging around town in the 
pre-dawn hours and would usually stop by the back door of Ali 
Sultani's house for an hour or so, "until neighbors complained...and 
fellow revolutionaries began questioning." (NOTE: Ali Sultani's 
close personal relationship with U.S. diplomats at the time (in 
modern times he has been a house guest in the U.S. of both Petersen 
and Carlucci) should not be confused with being pro-American per se: 
in the same conversation with ZAO, Ali Sultani boasted that he was 
the principal actor to push the Revolutionary Government to get rid 
of the Project Mercury station that existed on Zanzibar at that 
time.  END NOTE) 
 
HERO OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
¶8.  By the end of 1964, now the Minister of Education of the 
Revolutionary Government, Ali Sultani gained popularity by securing 
scholarships for young Zanzibaris among Comintern countries and, 
later, China.  As a delegate to a UNCTAD Conference in Geneva, Ali 
Sultani met Roberto Mondlane and befriended Che Guevara.  About 
Mondlane, Ali Sultani said that he later ran into him in China but 
he tried to avoid him as much as he could because "everyone thought 
he was working for the Americans.  After all, he had an American 
wife and was pretty much of a moderate, while everyone knew that 
Samora Machel was the real revolutionary."  Ali Sultani also claimed 
that while he was in Geneva, he and his friend Babu were offered 
USD$10,000 by "American agents."  Ali Sultani told Babu that he 
should take it since "it didn't change anything."  So they did, 
splitting the money three ways: Babu used the money to pay for his 
travels to the UK, and Ali Sultani returned to Zanzibar where he 
gave the remaining third to President Karume. 
 
¶9.  In 1965, Che Guavera passed by Zanzibar to "visit his old 
friend" Ali Sultani.  Ali Sultani proudly showed ZAO pictures of Che 
and him posing around various spots on the island.  Ali Sultani said 
that every year Castro still sent him greeting cards for Revolution 
Day, and last year he went to Cuba for some minor surgery at the 
invite of Fidel Castro. 
 
¶10.  By the end of the decade, things were turning sour for Ali 
Sultani and for the Revolution.  Having served as a party cadre, 
founder of the Communist Umma Party, Commissar for Pemba, Zanzibari 
diplomat and Minister of Education, by 1970 Ali Sultani was Minister 
of Health.  He had picked as his Deputy a younger party member named 
Hussein Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who "although born and raised on the 
mainland, his family was from Zanzibar, and I knew his parents.  I 
hired him because he was part of the Revolution.  However, Mwinyi 
always had a hard time with the others, who "suspected" him since he 
was from the mainland." Later, "just before things started to 
happen," Ali Sultani said he got Mwinyi a good party job in the 
mainland to protect him. 
 
"WHO KILLED KARUME?  WE DID!" 
 
¶11.  By the '70's, Ali Sultani and his Umma colleagues were starting 
to grow depressed. There was a chronic food shortage, and the public 
health situation, under his watch, was deteriorating.  "Karume," he 
said, "was moving too fast.  Change had to be gradual.  Furthermore, 
some of the decisions of the Revolutionary Government just did not 
make sense.  There did not seem to be a systematic nor scientific 
approach toward social change, and the way in which decisions were 
being made became more and more obscure."  His comrades of the Umma 
began to talk about how to re-align the Revolution back toward its 
"historical course." 
 
¶12.  Ali Sultani said any number of people would have eagerly 
done-in Karume, but as far as he knew, the triggerman was "a young 
guy whose father had killed a politician during the British mandate" 
 
DAR ES SAL 00000127  003 OF 004 
 
 
(presumably the victim was a member of the nascent Afro-Shirazi 
party and presumably the crime was part of a non-political dispute). 
 After the Revolution, Karume never let the convict out of prison 
like all the others.  After completing his sentence, the man died 
shortly after his release, leaving a widow and a bitter orphaned 
son.  While the assassin's motive might have been revenge, for the 
Umma plotters the plan was that after Karume was out of the way, the 
Army would rise up to restore order and restart the "proper 
revolution." 
 
¶13.  Ali Sultani said the idea was sound, but there had been no real 
prep work done with the masses beforehand.  "The whole thing was 
unscientific, in fact hare-brained." Ali Sultani claimed to have had 
nothing to do with implementing any of it.  When Karume was killed, 
the army kept still, but the East German Stasi-trained internal 
police went to work with vigor.  Ali Sultani complained that as a 
diplomat and Minster of Education, it was he who had first made the 
introductions and engineered the first exchanges between Zanzibar 
and East Germany.  However, by 1970 the educational scholarships had 
dried and "the only real export of the DDR was security.  By 1970," 
Ali Sultani said, "for every conversation involving three people, 
one was an agent." 
 
¶14.  Ali Sultani was arrested while he and his wife were watching an 
evening movie at the Cine Afrique in Stonetown.  Two days later, Ali 
Mzee Ali (ref A; current Zanzibar House of Representatives Chairman) 
was tossed in with him, and the two were cellmates for a number of 
years.  Ali Sultani was held for eight years and treated badly.  He 
said he was beaten unconscious and almost died four times.  He said 
he confessed to all sorts of crimes, but, in the end, because of his 
resilience, his captors let him write his own confession used for 
his trial, the only one of the dozens of conspirators allowed to do 
so, he claimed proudly.  While relating this part of the story to 
ZAO, Ali Sultani picked up a small reed from the ground and showed 
how he used to hunt and kill flies in his cell, boasting that he 
killed more flies than any one else in his cell bloc.  To this day, 
Ali Sultani seems frail beyond his years, walks with a stoop, and 
has difficulty holding multiple items or navigating stairs. 
 
EXILE 
 
¶15.  In 1980 Ali Sultani was released and deported.  While in jail 
he said he came to terms with his Islamic faith, and upon leaving 
Tanzania made the Haj to Mecca and then went to Britain to 
"recuperate."  ZAO asked whether during his '80's UK exile if Ali 
Sultani ever connected with Oscar Kambona (Nyerere's right hand man 
during the Tanzania decolonization experience who fell from favor, 
was exiled, and who was reported to be planning a putsch until he 
died in 1997).  Ali Sultani spat and said "No way!  Kambona was a 
racist!  He, too, was at that 1957 USSR Youth Conference, as a rep 
for TANU.  He did not accept me as a Zanzibari, instead calling me 
an Arab.  He threw me out of the Pan-African dormitory, and I had to 
room with the Somalis in an off-campus apartment at my own 
expense!" 
 
¶16.  Ali Sultani had by then taken a British wife, but left her and 
drifted back to Zanzibar in the late '80s.  As a convicted "traitor 
to the Revolution," his return was illegal, but his presence was 
apparently tolerated so long as he kept a low profile.  His 
rehabilitation occurred when Ali Hassan Mwinyi (Ali Sultani's old 
deputy at the Zanzibari Ministry of Health) became President of 
Tanzania and retuned to Zanzibar for a "victory lap."  Ali Sultani 
said he was driving in a remote part of Zanzibar's interior when 
Mwinyi's vast motorcade approached.  Ali Sultani said he pulled 
over, stood by the side of the road and saluted.  Mwinyi saw him 
from the tinted window of his limo, recognized him, stopped the 
motorcade and doubled back.  The two hugged each other on the side 
of the road.  Ali Sultani said Mwinyi's strap-hangers were shocked 
to see the President embrace a "known traitor," but news of the 
event spread and people no longer shunned him.  Nonetheless, to this 
day established, mainstream politicians of all stripes - except Ali 
Mzee Ali-- continue to hold him at arm's length. 
 
NOW AND THE FUTURE 
 
¶17.  Ali Sultani used his connections to Mwinyi and the "Revolution 
veteran's network" to acquire land and build two hotels.  He is 
financially comfortable, if not rich, and lives inland in a modest 
cottage in the "middle class" Zanzibari suburb of Bububu.  There he 
counsels young wannabe politicians, "only when asked," and settles 
 
DAR ES SAL 00000127  004 OF 004 
 
 
local disputes, sponsors weddings and sometimes gives money to both 
the CCM and CUF, although he claims he would never join either 
party.  Nonetheless, when ZAO met him, Ali Sultani wore a solid 
green polo shirt (the colors of CCM). When asked about that, Ali 
Sultani merely grinned broadly and lit another cigarette. 
 
¶18.  Even when pushed, Ali Sultani stated flatly that CCM would win 
in 2010 "no matter what." Ali Sultani sees opposition CUF as "birds 
of a feather" with CCM, or put another way, "as CCM without any 
(courage)."  Since both parties were so close in ideology, Ali 
Sultani said he might support CUF "as CCM reformers," if it were not 
for CUF Zanzibari leader Seif Hamad, whom Ali Sultani reviles.  "If 
they could choose a better leader, they might go somewhere," he 
said. 
 
¶19.  Ali Sultani would not be drawn out into a conversation about 
the present CCM internal squabble nor about who might be CCM's 
Presidential candidate in 2010 (Karume fils is term-limited).  He 
did say, however, that reconciliation of the parties (and of the two 
islands of Pemba and Unguja) was "essential".  What was needed was a 
true national government, "so we can at last fight for an 
independent nation and fulfill the goals of our revolution." 
 
¶20.  Ali Sultani is working with an American academic and hopes to 
publish his autobiography later in the year. End Comment. 
 
ANDRE