Biography

Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu was born in 1924 in Zanzibar

Zanzibar

Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...

, East Africa - then a British protectorate. He described his childhood in a brief autobiographical sketch which was intended to form the basis of memoirs which he had been commissioned to write (African Socialism or Socialist Africa?), but which were always postponed by more immediate work relating to contemporary struggles.

Babu was among the Afro-Shirazi Party

Afro-Shirazi Party

The Afro-Shirazi Party was the union between the mostly Shiraz Party and the mostly African Afro Party in the island of Zanzibar. The formation of ASP led to the ouster of the Arabs from power with the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964. The party joined with the Tanganyika African National Union to...

 ‘intellectuals’ from Zanzibar who had fallen out with Abeid Karume

Abeid Karume

Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume , was the first President of Zanzibar. He obtained this title as a result of a popular revolution which lead to the deposing of the last Sultan in Zanzibar during...

, the leader of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Council. Following the merger between Tanganyika

Tanganyika

Tanganyika , later formally the Republic of Tanganyika, was a sovereign state in East Africa from 1961 to 1964. It was situated between the Indian Ocean and the African Great Lakes of Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika...

 and Zanzibar

Zanzibar

Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...

 in April 1964, he was among the progressive, leftist members of the Zanzibari government sent to take up cabinet positions in Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre. Dar es Salaam is actually an administrative province within Tanzania, and consists of three local government areas or administrative districts: ...

.

As a Secretary of the Zanzibar Nationalist Party prior to the Union, Babu had built close relations with the Chinese leadership and was probably the first liberation fighter from East and Central Africa to visit China in 1959. As a result, the British called him ‘the best known Sinophile’ in Tanzania. His ideological affinity and work with the New China News Agency made him a good channel of communication with Beijing.

Babu had a key role to play in the establishment of TAZARA Railway with the help of Chinese aid. According to his memoirs, Julius Nyerere

Julius Nyerere

Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985....

 wanted to build on Zanzibar’s close ties with China and create benefits for the whole country. Babu was named head of the trade delegation that preceded Nyerere’s presidential delegation to China in 1964. The outcome of his trip was a trade agreement (separate from the £11 million aid agreement) for £5 million a year for five years. Under this agreement the Tanzanians were to buy whatever they could afford from the Chinese but the Chinese were to buy £5 million worth a year from Tanzania. The Chinese would pay cash for the balance not taken up by purchases from Tanzania. Due to his personal experience with the Chinese and his ideological affinity for their progressive model of development, Babu seized the initiative and mentioned the difficulties his government faced in trying to secure financing for the TAZARA Railway. On 1 July 1965 the Chinese Government made a firm offer of tied aid to the Governments of Tanzania and Zambia, worth £75 million and £150 million to enable them to build the railway line.

A few years later Babu was sentenced to death along with 34 other people, 23 others were acquitted for their alleged role in the 1972 assassination of the then Zanzibar President, Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume. Babu and 12 other prisoners who were held on the Mainland were freed by the then President Julius Nyerere in an amnesty to mark the 14th anniversary of the Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in April 1978.

The veteran politician, Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu,72, died on August 5, 1996 at the London Chest Hospital after a short illness. Babu, who had been staying in London for years as a scholar. He returned to Tanzania one year before his death from exile in London since 1978 when he was freed in an amnesty after being sentenced to death in 1973 for Treason.

Positions held

Chair - Africa Centre (London) (1985–1989)

Foreign Minister

Foreign minister

A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...

 (Jan 1964 - Apr 1964)

Founder - Umma Party (Zanzibar) (1963)

Secretary General - Zanzibar Nationalist Party

Zanzibar Nationalist Party

The Zanzibar Nationalist Party was a nationalist, Arab-dominated political party in Zanzibar. The ZNP, in a coalition with the African-dominated Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party , governed the island from 1961 to 1964....

 (1957–1963)

Minister of Planning

He was picked NCCR-Mageuzi presidential running-mate. However, the charges against and consequent conviction of the late Prof Babu led to the Electoral Commission to reject his bid to run for the Vice-Presidency.