ABSTRACT
Within the dramatic events surrounding the Zanzibar Revolution, a largely unrecognised feature was the delayed opening of the new Archives building. Inauguration was initially scheduled for 1 December 1963, following the declaration of independence, which handed power to the Sultan and the Arab-dominated Zanzibar Nationalist Party. By the time of its official opening in April 1964, the Afro-Shirazi Party had swept aside the Arab minority in the revolution of January 1964 and established a new order. In an intriguing historical coincidence, one of the first national institutions opened in the revolutionary era concerned the preservation of historical documents produced primarily by the Arab and British communities. Naturally, given the violent and transformative events of these months, this event has become a historical footnote. In the context of the Museum and Archive history, this final postponement was only the latest in more than a decade of setbacks in the creation of the new institution. This chapter will examine the protracted debates surrounding the maintenance of the Museum and the establishment of the Archives in the 1950s and early 1960s. This history reveals the fractious process of safeguarding the material vestiges of colonial knowledge.
