DEEE-GOING
CHANGES 11 ZANZIBAR
‘The union “established between: Zanzibar and Tanganyika ‘in Lon April, 1964, to constitute the country of Tanzania, did not: prevent | Zanzibar from continuing further down the road of the revolution begun two. years ago. "Today," writes a special correspondent:of the London: Economist in the March 12 issue, "Zanzibar strikes. the visitor less as a ‘spearhead of Chinese infiltration' (though Chinese.there are on’ the islands): than as a country that has made fundamental changes in its social and economic structure -~ changes that are implicit in most African party programmes, but in practice are soft-—. pedailed for fear of- losing. foreign investment and aid."
"Zanzibar. has. declared that it- does not want: foreign. private investment," explains the Economist's correspondent. "Public utilities, schools and factories have been nationalized without: compensa-— tion. The economy is effectively in the government's hands. It is too early to tell whether this has brought faster economic growth or not. But the regime has certainly achieved something in the field of social welfare. Primary and secondary education, although not yet ._ widely available, are free, and. so are medical services. A United . Nations expert is advising on the establishment of a social insur-. .. ance scheme."
The world's leading producer of cloves: and clove oil, the. emphasis in Ganzibar is still on agriculture. "The expected state and co-operative farms are. being established but much of the confiscated farmland is being distributed to smallholders in three-acre plots. It is hoped to make the country self-sufficient in grains within three years. The Chinese aid mission is experimenting with growing two rice crops a year. Youth-brigade farms. are being set up with Ghanaian assistance, and all school children will be obliged to spend part of their holidays working on the land."
Most of the foreign aid is coming from China and the German Democratic Republic. "Fortunately," says the correspondent, "little of the aid seems to be going towards prestige projects. The Chinese are training the army (the only Russian aid now received is also military); they have also provided doctors and technical advisers in water development and agriculture. East German aid pretty well runs. the whole gamut +- planning, financial and banking advisers, teachers, nurses and.help with housing, radio, newspaper, fishing and , fruit canning projects. Each east German project has a built-in training scheme, and the establishment of the...canning industry. includes a guaranteed market."
"The political picture is less clear-cut," the account continues. "The Afro-Shirazi party (the ASP) has. been established as the single political party and theoretically the supreme authority. But the 32-member revolutionary council holds the real power, and -pules by decree. Although the council includes former trade union and Umma party members, some senior ASP leaders are not members of the council -- among them the party's secretary-general. The party is being reorganized, and some of the present anomalies may be
cleared up if and when it is merged with Tanu, the single party in mainland Tanzania. But the merger has been indefinitely delayed."
The Economist notes that "in theory" .the Zanzibar regime _ "professes its belief in a purely socialist economy"; but "in prac- tice Zanzibar has not: been rigidly doctrinaire." The evidence for this is that some-of the “confiscated land has béen distributed to individuals, and a central bank designed to shape: ‘financial policy for’ ‘the whole Tanzanian union has been accepted."
Bvidently the ° Economist still. has strong hopes that the socialist- oriented economy of the small country, with a population of only 300,000, will be structurally assimilated by the much larger: capitalist economy of Tanganyika.
It is a remarkable testimonial to the revolutionary mood of the times that Zanzibar has been able to hold out as long as it has and even to make progress in an -anticapitalist direction.
SOCIALIST