Making identity on the Swahili coast : urban life, community, and belonging in Bagamoyo /
Situated at a crossroads of trade in the late nineteenth century, and later the economic capital of German East Africa, the thriving caravan and port town of Bagamoyo, Tanzania is one of many diverse communities on the East African coast which has been characterized as 'Swahili.' Seeking a...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge ; New York :
Cambridge University Press,
2019.
|
| Series: | African identities: past and present.
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Situated at a crossroads of trade in the late nineteenth century, and later the economic capital of German East Africa, the thriving caravan and port town of Bagamoyo, Tanzania is one of many diverse communities on the East African coast which has been characterized as 'Swahili.' Seeking an alternate framework for understanding community and identity, Steven Fabian combines extensive archival sources from African and European archives alongside fieldwork in Bagamoyo to move beyond the category of 'Swahili' as it has been traditionally understood. Revealing how townspeople, Africans, Arabs, Indians and Europeans alike, created a local vocabulary which referenced aspects of everyday town life and bound them together as members of a shared community, this first extensive examination of Bagamoyo's history from the precolonial era to independence uses a new lens of historical analysis to emphasize the importance of place in creating local, urban identities and suggests a broader understanding of these concepts historically along the Swahili coast. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Dalhousie University, 2007. |
| Physical Description: | xxi, 343 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-337) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781108492041 1108492045 9781108710046 1108710042 |