Zanzibar Revolution

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The Zanzibar revolution of January 12, 1964 was the rebellion that overthrew Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah, and led to the proclamation of Zanzibar as a republic, and three months later, to Zanzibar's uniting with Tanganyika to form Tanzania.

The revolution was carried out by some 300 armed men under the leadership of "field marshal" John Okello. Okello was a little known man, who had lived on Pemba Island, having come to Islands some years earlier from Uganda or Kenya.

The movement led to the poorly-known massacre of some 5000 Arabs whose families had been living in Zanzibar for centuries, between January 18 and 20: the Italian filmmaker Gualtiero Jacopetti and his crew had the chance to shoot some footage of the operations as they took place, during the filming of his shockumentary Africa Addio, which premiered in 1966 and represents the only existing document of the mass murder.