10 powerful times enslaved Africans rebelled to show that slavery was not a choice

Zanzibar Rebellion, 1964

To end, many people do not know that Africans were even held as slaves by others on their own land.

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In the island of Zanzibar, in present-day Tanzania, enslaved Africans owned by Arabs rebelled in a revolution in 1964.

Zanzibar, an island port off the coast of Tanganyika, had been in contact with traders from the Persian Gulf since about the 10th century but was put under British control in 1890.

According to historians, Zanzibar gained its independence from the British on December 10, 1963, but remained under the control of the Omani Arabs, under the Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.

The natives, outnumbering the Arabs and serving as slaves under their control, despised this designation and decided to fight for their independence in what resulted in the Zanzibar Revolution. More than 14,000 people died and 20,000 arrested, most of them Arabs. Jamshid bin Abdullah was deposed and sent into exile.

Zanzibar, now free, merged with the newly free state, Tanganyika a year later.