Research Catalog

Title

Making identity on the Swahili coast : urban life, community, and belonging in Bagamoyo / Steven Fabian.

Author

Fabian, Steven, 1973-

Publication

Cambridge, UK ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, [2019]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxi, 343 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm.

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 pre-colonial 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. Steven Fabian is an Associate Professor of History at the State University of New York at Fredonia. Awarded two of Canada's most prestigious scholarships by the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Trust Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, his research has appeared in journals such as the International Journal of African Historical Studies, the Canadian Journal of African Studies, and the Journal of Eastern African Studies. He was President of the Tanzania Studies Association from 2015-2017 and currently serves as co-chair of Radical History Review"--Provided by publisher.

Series Statement

African identities: past and present

Uniform Title

African identities: past and present.

Subject

• Swahili-speaking peoples > Tanzania > Bagamoyo
• Swahili-speaking peoples > Ethnic identity
• Ethnic relations
• Social conditions
• Swahili-speaking peoples
• Bagamoyo (Tanzania) > Social conditions
• Bagamoyo (Tanzania) > History
• Bagamoyo (Tanzania) > Ethnic relations
• Tanzania > Bagamoyo

Genre/Form

History.

Note

• Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Dalhousie University, 2007.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction -- Owners of the town: Shomvi, Zaramo, Nyamwezi, & Indians -- Owners of the town: Baluchis, Omanis, & Spiritans -- Becoming Wabagamoyo: a local vocabulary for a Swahili town -- The particularities of place: space, identity, and the coastal rebellion of 1888-1890 -- Colonial power, community identity, and consultation -- "Curing the cancer of the colony": undermining local attachments -- Epilogue.

Call Number

Sc E 20-551

ISBN

• 9781108492041
• 1108492045

LCCN

• 2019010790
• 40029657910

OCLC

1090283270

Author

Fabian, Steven, 1973- author.

Title

Making identity on the Swahili coast : urban life, community, and belonging in Bagamoyo / Steven Fabian.

Publisher

Cambridge, UK ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, [2019]

Type of Content

text

still image

cartographic image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

African identities: past and present

African identities: past and present.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Standard Identifier

40029657910

Research Call Number

Sc E 20-551