Afro-Shirazi Party

The Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) was an African nationalist and socialist Zanzibari political party formed between the mostly Shirazi Shiraz Party and the mostly African Afro Party.

Afro-Shirazi Party Chama cha Afro-Shirazi
Leader	Abeid Karume
Founded	5 February 1957
Dissolved	5 February 1977
Merger of	Shiraz Party, Afro Party
Merged into	Chama cha Mapinduzi
Headquarters	Zanzibar City
Youth wing	Afro-Shirazi Youth League
Ideology	African nationalism Socialism
Political position	Left-wing[1] to Far-left[2]
Party flag
Politics of Tanzania Political parties Elections

A kanga celebrating TANU and ASP (House of Wonders museum, Stone Town, Zanzibar)

In the 1963 Zanzibari general election, the ASP claimed 13 seats and the majority of votes cast, yet the election ended up favouring the Zanzibar Nationalist Party and Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party alliance who collectively claimed 18 seats.^[3] Unsatisfied with such unfair representation in parliament, the ASP, headed by Abeid Karume, collaborated with the Umma Party to begin the Zanzibar Revolution on 12 January 1964. The revolution overthrew the Sultanate of Zanzibar and established the People's Republic of Zanzibar, ruled by Abeid Karume. Following the establishment of the republic, the ASP banned the previous ruling parties—the Zanzibar Nationalist Parity and the Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party.^[4] On 5 February 1977, the party joined with the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) to form Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).^[5]

See also

• Tanganyika African Association