Tanganyika Unites with Zanzibar: Tanzania Is Born
Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged on April 26, 1964, to form the United Republic of Tanzania under President Julius Nyerere. The union was partly motivated by Zanzibar's violent revolution in January 1964, which overthrew the Arab-dominated government and raised Cold War fears about communist influence. Nyerere, an advocate of African socialism he called Ujamaa, pursued villagization policies that forcibly relocated millions of rural Tanzanians into collective farming communities. The economic results were poor, but Tanzania avoided the ethnic violence that devastated many neighboring countries. The union between mainland Tanganyika and the islands of Zanzibar remains unique in Africa, though tensions over Zanzibar's autonomy have persisted for decades.
April 26, 1964
62 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on April 26
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