Description
A re-examination of the historical development of urban identity and community along the Swahili Coast.
About the Author
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.
Reviews
'By taking seriously the roles of spatial identity and local attachment, Fabian has pried open a new window on Swahili culture and African urban history. Understood in these new terms, Bagamoyo's political and social history becomes a story of re-conceptualizing tradition, belonging, and urban citizenship in territorial terms as a means to confront external encroachments and displacements.' James R. Brennan, University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign
'Meticulously researched and a delight to read, Fabian reminds us that studies of small places have big things to say. His ability to foreground the importance of people on the margins of scholarship to the creation of spatially grounded Swahili urban publics, is an exemplary achievement.' Laura Fair, Michigan State University
'This history of one of East Africa's most important nineteenth-century urban centers has been worth the wait. Fabian offers a nuanced study that links the emergence of the 'local' in Bagamoyo to the everyday interactions of residents and itinerants from both of its hinterlands: the Indian Ocean world and the East African interior. This is a much-needed corrective to the overburdening of 'Swahili' identity found in many previous studies of the East African coast.' Stephen Rockel, University of Toronto, Scarborough
Book Information
ISBN 9781108710046
Author Steven Fabian
Format Paperback
Page Count 369
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 542g
Dimensions(mm) 230mm * 150mm * 20mm