ABDULRAHMAN MOHAMED BABU (ZANZIBAR)

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06790241
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: September 3, 2019
• Case Number: F-2018-02144
• Publication Date: January 21, 1964

Approved for Release: 2019/07/30 C06790241
ZANZIBAR Abdulrahman MOHAMED (Babu)
Minister. of External Affairs and Trade
1
As a result of the Coup d'etat of 12 January
1964, which ousted the coalition government' of the 1
Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP) and the Zanzibar 1
and Petba Peoples' Party and installed the coali-
tion government of the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) '
and the'Umma Party, Abdulrahman Mohamed, president 1
of the UMma Party, became Minister of External
1
Affairs and Trade. Mohamed (who adopted the name i
Babu) is probably a Communist and certainly a Com-
munist sympathizer. Able, smart and aggresively
tough, Babu claims that the binning of his Umma
Party by the government, shortly after he returned from Peking in Decem-
ber 1963, 'was the final injustice which touched off the revolt. The
government's stated reason for banning the party was suspicion of the
Umma Party's involvement in plotting a revolt. 1
.Formerly general secretary of the ZNP, Babu resigned from that.
party in June 1963, when the moderates in the ZNP refUsed his demand
that .his supporters be given six safe seats in the 4coming July 1963
elections. A few days after his resignation, he announced the forma--
tion of the UMma Party. Thwarted in his plans to Obtain the seats, Babu
attempted to fort a united opposition under his dirlection, drawing on
the radical factions--which were personally loyal to hit--in the Federa-
tion of PrOgressive Trade Unions (FPTU), the Zanzilder and Pemba Federa-
tion Labor (ZPFL), and the ASP. With the immediat4 goal of preventing
passage of two government bills requiring registration of societies and
publications, Babu successfully. proposed formationof the United Front
Committee (August 1963) to be headed by ASP presid6t, Abeid Karume--an
indication that substantial solidarity had been achieved between the
opposition leaders. Shortly thereafter, Babu traveled to Peking, re-
taining there until December 1963. 1
Abdulrahman Mohamed has been the mainspring of Communist activity'
in Zanzibar. He has a long history of close assoCiation with both Com-
munist China and the USSR, has made numerous visits to both countries
in the past several years and receives money fromIthe Communists. Through
speeches and editorials in the left-wing newspaper, Zanews, he has been
Zanzibarts most vociferous critic .6f the West, aid of the US; and he
has been the hub of opposition to the US Project Mercury station there.
It was believed that he planned and initiated the' arson attack on the
American Consulate in August 1961 and was behind he subsequent attempts
on the consulate and other buildings in April and. May 1962..
-15-
GROUP 1
Excluded from automatic
downgrading and
declassification
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Abdulrahman.MOHAMED (Babu) (cont..)
A. Somali Arab, Babu was born 22 September 1924. He went to Britain
in 1951 to study journalism at Regent Street.Polytechnic, but attended
evening classes only when he had insufficient money for drink. He first
came to notice in 1951 as a Communist sympathizer and, by 1953, was sub-
mitting articles revealing his pro-Communist attitude to the pro-ZNP
newspaper, Wongozi, as.well as t6 other publications. TWo years later
he had achieved sufficient prominence to be appointed chairman of the
East Africa Committee of the CommUnieb=penetrated Movement for Colonial
Freedom; he may also have become .a member of the Communist Party of Great
Britain. about this time. Babu returned to Zanzibar in May 1951 and be-
came a member of the Youth's Own Union, bringing his pro-Communist con-
victions to bear on that organization. Joining the ZNP, he became its
principal propagandist and, by 1958, his political fortunes had risen
with the ascendancy of the MVP. His first contact with the World Federa-
tion of Trade Unions (WFTU)cccurred in Octdber. 1958, when he offered his
services in the dissemination of their propaganda; in 1959 he visited
WFTU headquarters in Prague. In November 1959, in his capacity as gen-
eral secretary of the ZNP, he secured the agreement of UAR authorities
to the,establishment of an office in Cairo. This office, managed by
his proteges, was instrumental in assisting Zanzibaris to obtain iron
Curtain .scholarships, and in maintaining contact with the Chinese Com-
munists, through the Chinese diplomatic mission in Cairo. In January
1960 Babu visited the USSR and Red China, indulging in violent attacks
upon Britain and America while there; in October of that year, he stopped
off in East Germany on a return visit to Russia. In 1960 and 1961 he
established ZNP officee in London and Havana and staffed both with
persons.loyaIto himself. Babu was defeated in the January 1961 Zan-
zibar elections because ZNP leaders had placed him in a constituency
where he had little chance of winning. That same month he went to a
meeting.of.the Communist-front International Organization of Journalists
in Baden, Austria, and upon returning to Zanzibar, became the East
African correspondent of the Newt China News Agency. The following July
he attended an anti-atomic bomb conference held in Japan and strongly
supported the resolution that none of the countries represented there
should permit American consulates or bases to be established in their .
territories.
In December 1961, the Zanzibar Government, under the terms of the
State of,EMergency legislation and because of an inflamatory issue of
Zanews, arrested Babu. for sedition. The arrest resulted in a conviction
and fine in April 1962. The following month Babu was again arrested
on a charge of sedition and sentenced to 15 months imprisonment; he was
released early, in April 1963. Besides Zanews, Babu has been associated
with several other publications. In 1961 he ran a ZNP-owned Swahili
paper, Umma. He is presently a member of the Executive Committee of the
1-16-
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.Abdulrahman MOHAMED (Babu). (cont.)
. I
All-Zahzibar Journalists Organization. Babu is on the editorial board
of a monthly illustrated magazine entitled Revolutio Afrique Amerique
Latine Asie, a pro-Chinese Communist publication, prilnted in Switzer;
land.
Babu speaks English. He has a family.
�
FA:ljc
21 January 1964
Approved for Release: 2019/07/30 C06790241