ABDULRAHMAN MOHAMED BABU (TANZANIA)

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06790239
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: September 3, 2019
• Case Number: F-2018-02144
• Publication Date: April 1, 1970

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TANZANIA
Abdulrahman Mohamed BABU
Minister for Commerce and
Industries
On 19 December 1968
AbdulrahMan Mohamed Babu was
named Minister for Commerce'
and Industries; One of the
leading revolutionaries in
Africa, Babu is well-known
for his Communist sympathies
and reputed to be the most
pro-Communist member of the
Cabinet. While Babu is a
successful political orga-
nizer,
C NTRAL
REFERE SE ICE
(i969)
He now
has no effective power base and appears to depend
on President Julius Nyerere for his positidn in
the aovernment Babu is an intelligent, adgres-
sive
Babu is friendly'with American
officials though his literary efforts are gener-
ally regarded as some of the more scathing !anti-
American pieces which appear in The Nationalist.
Babu has maintained that he is not anti-Amdrican
but is opposed to our foreign policy.
All evidence indicates Babu was probably plan-
ning a coup at the time of the January 1964 Zanzi-
bar revolution. He was not responsible fox the
Revolution, however, and did not take part in it.
His Umma Party had been banned on 4 Januarm 1964
and on the day of the revolution---12 January 1964--
Babu was in Dar es Salaam. His party and Karume's
Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) formed a coalition govern-
ment and Babu was appointed Minister for Eternal
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1
REPORTS FILE COPI
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Abdulrahman Mohamed BABU (cont.)
Affairs in the new revolutionary government. In
April 1964 when Tanganyika and Zanzibar formed the
new union government, Babu, much to his suziprise,
was appointed Minister of State in the Directorate
of Development Planning. Since he entered the
union government, Babu appears to have lost contact
with politics on Zanzibar and has found no compen-
sating support in the Tanganyika African National
Union (TANU). His absence from Zanzibar has en-
abled Karume and his followers to undermine Habilis
support and quietly remove him from the Revolution-
ary Council.
Early Life and Career
Babu was born on Pemba Island off the coast of
the mainland on 24 September 1924. His father was
a Somali .Arab who, Babu claims, was born on.Zanzi-
bar; his mother was a Comorian. The familyi lived
for many years in the Comoros and, for a time dur-
ing the 1969 anti-Comoriam campaign, Babu's citizen-
ship was questioned. Evidence was found, however;
that Babu was naturalized as a Zanzibar citizen in
1947 and his claim is now recognized. He was edu-
cated to Standard XIII at the Government.C8ntral
School, Zanzibar, leaving in 1945. Babu worked as
a clerk in the Clove Growers Association f4om 1945
to 1951.
Babu left Zanzibar for Britain in 1951 During
the next six years, he studied journalism, politi-
cal philosophy and social psychology part time at
London university and gained diplomas in tile sub-
iects;
Babu supported himself by working as a clerk in
the Post Office Bank at Acton and then as a journa-
list on the Daily Worker. He enjoyed his London
sojourn, retains an affection for the Londdn of his
student days and still has friends there. 'While in
Britain Babu submitted articles to the pro Zanzibar
Nationalist Party. (ZNP) newspaper, Mwogozi, as well
as other publications. He became a member of the
Civil Service Clerical Assocation'and in 1955 was
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Abdulrahman Mohamed BABU
(ont.)
appointed chairman of the East Africa Commi tee of
the Movement for Colonial Freedom. Babu ha stated
that he was not a member of the Communist Party of
Great Britain but was closer to the anarchists. He
did, however, attend discussions held by th6 Commu-
nists, the socialists and the anarchists.
Babu was recalled to Zanzibar in 1957 by the
Arab-dominated ZNP and was appointed sub-editor of
its newspaper. He became a member of Youth's Own
Union and brought his left-wing convictions to bear
on that:organization. Babu was later appointed ZNP
propaganda secretary and subsequently general sec-
retary of. the party. His first contact witti the
World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) occurred in
October 1958, when he visited WFTU headquarters in
Prague. In November-1959 he set up a ZNP office in.
Cairo, staffed With his prot6g6s. This.office.was
instrumental -in assisting Zanzibaris to ob4in
scholarships to Communist countries and in Maintain-
ing.contaCt with the Chinese through their diplo-
matic mission in Cairo.
In January 1960 Babu went to the USSR and to
Communist China. During this trip, he made violent
Attacks upon Britain and America. That OCtiber he
stopped off in East.Germany on a return visit to
the USSR. In 1960 and 1961 he established 2NP offi-
ces in London and Havana; Babu, however, claims
that he has never been to Cuba. Babu was dfeated
in the January 1961 Zanzibar elections beca+se ZNP
leaders placed him in a constituency where he had
little chance of winning. That same month he went
to a meeting of the International Organization of
Journalists-in Baden, Austria; The followiAg July
he attended an anti-atomic bomb conference Aeld.in
Japan and strongly supported the resolutionithat.
none of the countries should permit American consu-
lates or bases to be established in their territo-
ries.
In December 1961, the Zanzibar government,
under the terms of the State of Emergency legisla-
tion and because of an inflammatory issue of zanews,
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Abdulrahman Mohamed BABU (cont.)
arrested Babu for sedition. The arrest resulted
in a conviction and fine in April 1962. The fol-
lowing month Babu was again arrested on a charge
of sedition and sentenced to 15 months imprlison-
ment. He was released in April 1963. That! June
he resigned from the ZNP when the moderates in the
party refused his demand that his supporters be
given six safe seats in the upcoming July 11963
elections. A few days after his resignation he an-
nounced the formation of the Umma Party. Thwarted
in his plans to obtain the seats, Babu attdmpted
to form a united opposition under his direction,
drawing on the radical factions--which were.person-
ally loyal to him--in the Federation of Prcigresgive
Trade Unions, the Zanzibar and Pemba Federation of
Labor, and the ASP. With the immediate goal of
preventing passage of two government bills Irequir-
ing registration of societies and publications,
Babu successfully proposed formation of the United
Front Committee (August 1963) to be headed (by ASP
president, Abeid Karume. Shortly thereafter, Babu
and his wife reportedly traveled to Peking) remain-
ing there until about a month before the revolution.
He returned to Communist China, in June 194 as a
member of a delegation led by Second Vice President
Rashidi Kawawa.
Babu was appointed Minister for Comer e and
Cooperatives in 1965. He became Minister or
Health in February 1967 and Minister of Lands and
Settlement in June 1967. Babu, who enjoysitravel-
ing, went to Kuwait in 1966 and in early 1969 vis-
ited several East European countries with a trade.
mission.
Personal Data
Babu has prominent teeth and a walrus ttustache.
Babu has an encyclopedic mipd and a
thorough grasp of details. Warm and humorous, he
writes Swahili poetry, has expressed an interest in
American magazines and books and enjoys "Vice of
America." He is quite well off and owns some hous-
ing property and a fleet of fishing boats, thus
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Abdulrahman� Mohamed BABU
(cont.)
showing scant regard
for Arusha socialism. Babu
is married to
a sturdy, strong-minded Zanzibari Arab woman. The
couple .has two children. Babu sends his children
to the "bouraeofs" International School in Dar es
Salaam, and felt
his children's education was more important than
his political future. A Muslim, Babu has made the
haj. He speaks English.
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April 1970
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