That the way many of Africa’s countries turned out had less to do with fate than the meddling of external players, especially during the Cold War years, has been well documented. But the “real story” behind the amalgamation of what was then Tanganyika and the island nation of Zanzibar in April 1964 is little known to many.

Thanks to the declassification of files in the Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library – named after the thirty-sixth US President, who occupied the White House from 1963 to 1969 – we now know that, had it not been for the shenanigans of the Americans and the Russians, there would probably be no Tanzania today.

The story, as told by Kennedy Mureithi in a piece published in Kenya’s The Standard newspaper, is that the creation of Tanzania was a hurried affair sparked by a coup in Zanzibar in January 1964 that was staged by officers with leanings towards the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). At about the same time, the armies of Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania) and its East African neighbours of Kenya and Uganda mutinied.

The mutinies set off alarm bells in Western capitals – especially in Washington – which suspected USSR involvement and saw the upheavals as an attempt by the communist superpower to bring the three East African countries into its orbit in one fell swoop.

To prevent this potential eventuality, the US hatched a plan to persuade Britain, which had troops stationed in Kenya and Tanganyika, to storm Zanzibar and topple the new communist- backed rulers. Uncertain that the British would agree to this, the Americans came up with a fallback plan – lobbying for a federation of Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar where the island nation would be ‘swallowed’ by the three bigger, pro-Western countries.

In the event, both plans came unstuck, with Britain not interested in military engagement at all and the three African countries rejecting the idea of a federation.

Desperate to prevent Zanzibar from becoming an African Cuba from which communism would spread to the continent, the Americans instructed their embassies in Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Kampala – the capitals of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda – to impress on the countries’ Presidents that the change of government in Zanzibar posed a serious security threat to their own countries and to ask them to support US action to confront the Soviets in the region.

Time was fast ticking away and no solution appeared to be in sight, prompting the US chargé d’affaires to suggest that the new Zanzibar President be bribed to wean him away from the Soviets. His exact words, according to the declassified documents, were: “We should offer President Abeid Karume a gift of dynamic proportions which would appeal to him personally. One thought which comes to mind is that we gift him a helicopter and a US pilot . . . A firm refusal to accept our gift would at least clear the decks and allow us to direct full attention to other solutions.”

It doesn’t appear the Americans followed through on their plan to resort to bribery. However, while they were trying to figure out how to rid Zanzibar of communist influence, Tanganyika’s Foreign Affairs Minister at the time, who happened to be well disposed to the US, had a brainwave – amalgamating Tanganyika and Zanzibar into the United Republic of Tanzania.

He shared the idea with an excited US ambassador in Dar es Salaam, who wasted no time in relaying this to his principals back home. The idea was well received and the next few weeks saw a frenzy of behind-the-scenes work by US officials, who were careful not to be seen as active participants in the efforts to create the new East African State.

The treaty that created the United Republic of Tanzania – or Tanzania, as it is known to most of us – was signed on April 22, 1964. That was just over three months and one week after the communist revolution in Zanzibar on January 12. One lesson here is that, if they have their mind to it, superpower nations can tackle many of the world’s problems in no time.