Would Zanzibar have fared better (politically) as an independent state?

Considering the potential legacies of '64

I: A successful case of a political union?

Exactly 59 years ago today a revolution in Zanzibar swept away the Omani sultanate that had dominated the archipelago for the better part of two centuries.

The stylized account of the political history of Zanzibar that I was taught paints it as a triumph of Pan-Africanism: A revolution of Black Africans ousted a Middle Eastern oligarchy that had dominated the islands and the East African coast for centuries. Thereafter Nyerere, a leading High Priest of Pan-Africanism, worked with the founding leader of Zanzibar, Abeid Karume, to unite Tanganyika and Zanzibar guided by an ideological commitment to African Socialism. Sectarian, ethnic, and nascent nationalist differences were eliminated, thereby laying the foundation for a united Tanzanian nation.

Obviously, this account does not tell the whole story. The real political history of Zanzibar is far more messier complicated. Indeed, there are strong arguments out there that union with Tanganyika h…