The Economics of Colonialism: Britain and Kenya, 1870 - 1930
African economic history review, 1974
... Author: Wolff, Richard D. PUBLISHER: Yale University Press (New Haven). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1... more ... Author: Wolff, Richard D. PUBLISHER: Yale University Press (New Haven). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1974. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 0300016395 ). VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): xv, 203 p. SUBJECT(S): Kenya; Great Britain; Economic policy; Colonies; Economic ...
The Need for Reviving the Historical Association of Tanzania
There is an understandable desire to revive what was once a vibrant Historical Association of Tan... more There is an understandable desire to revive what was once a vibrant Historical Association of Tanzania (HAT), but we need to understand the context in which it had arisen, what had given it its vitality, and what were its achievements in the 1960s and 1970s. Therefore, we need to consider half a century later to what extent the context has changed, and whether the needs and demands have changed to require the existence of the association, and if it is necessary to revive it, what form it needs to take.
National Reconciliation as a Pre-requisite for National Heritage Conservation: The House of Wonders and Zanzibar Stone Town
Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage eBooks, 2022
Swahili society developed at the intersection of Africa and the Indian Ocean on a basis of trade,... more Swahili society developed at the intersection of Africa and the Indian Ocean on a basis of trade, migration, intermarriage, and conquest, creating a cosmopolitan society and a rich culture and language over the course of two millennia. Zanzibar and its Stone Town were a 19th century manifestation of this process. Zanzibar has perhaps had more than its share of history, which has burdened Zanzibar with social disharmony and political disunity that culminated in violent revolution and has left new scars of its own. Among those scars are the neglect and deterioration of Zanzibar’s shared heritage, as represented by Zanzibar’s Stone Town and the House of Wonders, an emblematic building on Zanzibar’s historic seafront that started life as an ambitious building project of the last of Zanzibar’s independent sultans and an exemplification of precolonial modernization and was then used as a centre of colonial rule. It was consequently neglected after the revolution of 1964, until change in the political environment in 1991 led to its being dedicated as part of the Zanzibar museums and placed on the World Heritage list. It suffered a first partial collapse in 2012, the damage from which was being restored when it suffered a second and even more devastating collapse in 2020. This degradation and the need to rebuild appropriately have become emblematic of the wider challenges facing Zanzibari society and the current search for solutions. This paper presents the history of the House of Wonders and some reflections on the culture that produced it and the context that has led to its current distressing condition, as well as on potential paths forward.
The slave trade and its fallout in the Persian Gulf
Introduction:Introduction to special issue of Social Dynamics on 'Mobility, diasporas and transnational imaginings in the Indian Ocean
The papers included in this special issue of Social Dynamics are based on presentations that were... more The papers included in this special issue of Social Dynamics are based on presentations that were originally made at a conference held in Zanzibar from May 26–29, 2011 on “Development, Geopolitics and Cultural Exchange in the Indian Ocean.” The conference was organised jointly by the Zanzibar Indian Ocean Research Institute (ZIORI) and the international research network on “The Indian Ocean as Visionary Area: Post-multiculturalist Approaches to Culture and Globalisation” (IOVA). The conference conveners were Abdul Sheriff on behalf of ZIORI, and Preben Kaarsholm on behalf of IOVA. Some of the reflections motivating the conference call are outlined below. Over the last century, the Indian Ocean region has experienced social, political and cultural reconfigurations that are the outcomes of distinctly regional circumstances, but also mirror broader global transformations since the retreat of the old colonial powers. Regional resources – notably fossil fuels – have positioned the Indian Ocean rim as a critical arena within the global economy and geopolitics, and new superpowers have become prominent players. At the same time, recent scholarship has traced how – in the region – colonialism, independence and the Cold War engendered novel forms of trans-oceanic collaboration, while evolving communication technologies helped to spark new cultural imaginations. The tensions of decolonisation and the different paths pursued by the littoral states and societies in the context of Cold War rivalry created postcolonial legal edifices and systems of governance – including definitions of the citizen and the political actor – which had profound effects on modes of identification, and in some cases spurred foreign intervention. Furthermore, frustration with the lack of rapid economic growth brought about instabilities, which paradoxically contributed both to state fragility and to more robust regimes of control. The restructurings of the world capitalist order in recent decades have created opportunities for new powers to emerge from within the Indian Ocean – most notably China and India – which challenge older powers economically, and may in the long run also do so politically. This has established possibilities for the emergence of a more multipolar world, in which both economic development and geopolitical alignments in the Indian Ocean take centre stage. A heightened military presence in East Africa and on Indian Ocean islands in the context of the “global war on terror” has helped to fuel tensions between local concerns and transnational regimes of control. At the same time, a new and more multipolar power structure may help to
Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Alawi
The Economics of Colonialism: Britain and Kenya, 1870-1930
The development of Zanzibar as an entrepot and capital of a vast commercial empire has previously... more The development of Zanzibar as an entrepot and capital of a vast commercial empire has previously been attributed entirely to the far-sighted policies of Seyyid Said. A re-examination of the economic history of East Africa reveals that economic expansion from the eighteenth century resulted from economic forces which were independent of Omani policies; that these forces were already in motion before Seyyid Said first visited Zanzibar; and that the Omanis manipulated these forces to centralise economic activities at Zanzibar to a greater degree than would otherwise have been achieved, thus forming a commercial empire. The Omani demand for slaves for their expanding date plantations and the increasing French demand in the Mascarenes initiated a rapid expansion of Kilwa's hinterland and the growth of Zanzibar's entrepot role to supply the imports. When the French slave trade suffered a mortal blow from the Napoleonic wars and the eventual prohibition in 1822, the redundant slav...
8. Social Mobility in Indian Ocean Slavery: The Strange Career of Sultan bin Aman
Indian Ocean Slavery in the Age of Abolition, 2017
Zanzibar: An Historical Survey A History of the Arab State of Zanzibar. By Norman R. Bennett. London: Methuen; New York: Barnes and Noble, 1978. Pp. viii + 304. £10
The Journal of African History, 1979
Indian Ocean Trade Trade and Empire in Muscat and Zanzibar: Roots of British Domination. By M. Reda Bhacker, London and New York: Routledge, 1992. Pp. xxx + 278. £40 (ISBN 0-415-07997-7)
The Journal of African History, 1994
The Indian Ocean: oceanic connections and the creation of new societies
The Indian Ocean was the first venue of global trade, connecting the Mediterranean and South Chin... more The Indian Ocean was the first venue of global trade, connecting the Mediterranean and South China Sea. Inspired by the insights of Fernand Braudel, and by Michael Mollat, who saw it as 'a zone of encounters and contacts ...a privileged crossroads of culture,' this volume explores two inter-related themes. The first, on oceanic linkages, presents the diversity of the peoples who have traversed it and their relationships by tracing their tangible movements and connections. The second, on the creation of new societies, revisits better-known socio-historical phenomena - - such as slavery, indentured labour, the Swahili language and Muslim charity - - which tie the genesis of these social formations to the seascape of an interconnected, transcultural ocean. The chapters offer a broad and diverse view of the mobile, transregional communities that comprise Indian Ocean society, while in-depth case studies allow students and specialists to see how individual research projects may c...
History of Zanzibar to 1890
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History
The East African or Swahili coast is at the confluence between the continental world of Africa an... more The East African or Swahili coast is at the confluence between the continental world of Africa and the maritime world of the Indian Ocean, giving rise to a cosmopolitan culture. The Zanzibar archipelago is geographically at the center of the East African coast, and was ideally located in terms of the monsoons for trade and social interaction with the African mainland as well as across the Indian Ocean. The first golden age of the Zanzibar archipelago blossomed from the middle of the first millennium ce when transoceanic connections began to be forged between the western seaboards of the Indian Ocean as far as China in the east. It was spearheaded by Unguja Ukuu, followed by a number of ports on Pemba and Unguja, including Kizimkazi with its unique 12th-century Kufic inscription. The Portuguese intervened from the 15th century to monopolize and divert Indian Ocean trade to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope, although they did not succeed. Nevertheless, they disrupted the former pattern...
One of the most persistent topics in the historiography of Zanzibar is the argument that from the... more One of the most persistent topics in the historiography of Zanzibar is the argument that from the very establishment of the Sultanate of Zanzibar in the nineteenth century through to colonial times and up to the recent past political conflict in the Islands was essentially informed by ethnic divisions, that is the supposedly rigid Arab-African "racial" and "social" divide. The author examines the 1961, 1963 and 1995 elections, showing that the voting behaviour of the electorate cannot be explained in such terms. He argues that only a much more nuanced analysis, taking into account regional and local divisions, would do justice to the complexities of political conflict and civil strife in Zanzibar.
(CODESRIA) is an independent organisation whose principal objectives are to facilitate research, ... more (CODESRIA) is an independent organisation whose principal objectives are to facilitate research, promote research-based publishing and create multiple forums geared towards the exchange of views and information among African researchers. All these are aimed at reducing the fragmentation of research in the continent through the creation of thematic research networks that cut across linguistic and regional boundaries.
It is fifty years now since the formation of the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. O... more It is fifty years now since the formation of the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. Over that period of time, the Union has experienced some ups and downs. Despite the incessant “Kero za Muungano”, it is clear that the Tanzanian Government did not want the Union question to be touched in the new dispensation. This article revisits the Union question in relation to the ongoing constitution making process. It argues that the process has been controlled such that the proposed three-tier government structure is highly disputed by the ruling regime to the extent of threatening the entire process. It further argues that what has bedevilled the effort on the part of Zanzibar at this critical stage in their constitutional history to resolve the “Kero za Muungano” has been party divisions on the islands despite the fact that Zanzibar had recently gone through Reconciliation and formation of Government of National Unity at the end of 2010.
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Papers by Abdul Sheriff