Karume Day

I've been sniffling and feeling quite sorry for myself this past couple of days. The rainy weather finally got to me despite my best efforts to avoid the Evil Grip of the Dar Flu.

I've been very careful since the rains have been blowing into Dar because I've come down with the flu before and let me tell you it ain't no party when that happens! You can refer to my pathetic ramblings here and here.

Fortunately, today is Karume Day and it's a holiday here in Dar so I managed to sleep in late. I don't work but The Engineer does and which means that the alarm rings early and wakes me up too. Holidays mean that The Engineer sleeps in and everything is peaceful until about 10 in the morning.

Just out of curiosity, I've been trying to find out what the heck Karume Day is in Dar and discovered something on Wikipedia (how did we survive before Google and Wikipedia?)

The only Karume listed is Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume who was the first President of Zanzibar and the first Vice President of Tanganyika alongside much-loved President Julius Nyerere.

Apparently, Karume had something to do with a rebellion in Zanzibar that overthrew the last Sultan in 1963 although it is now believed that John Okello was the instigator. I presume Karume Day is in his honour.

However, if it was Okello who was the real force behind the rebellion in Zanzibar, today might need to be re-named Okello Day but frankly...who cares! Karume Day - Okello Day, as long as it remains a Holi-Day it doesn't really matter to me!