Across Africa and elsewhere, colonialism promised to deliver progress and development. In urban spaces like Zanzibar, the British vowed to import scientific techniques and practices, ranging from sanitation to urban planning, to create a perfect city. Rather than remaking space, these designs often unraveled. Plans were formulated and then fell by the wayside, over and over again. By focusing on these flawed efforts to impose colonial order, William Cunningham Bissell offers a different view of colonialism and cities, revealing the contradictions, confusion, and even chaos that lay at the very core of British rule. At once an engaging portrait of a cosmopolitan African city and an exploration of colonial irrationality, Urban Design, Chaos, and Colonial Power in Zanzibar opens up new perspectives on the making of modernity and the metropolis.

Modernity and metropolis in East Africa

About the Author

William Cunningham Bissell is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at Lafayette College.

Reviews

"[Achieves] a valuable contribution to the study of political discourse, violence, and the organization of space and social relationships in Zanzibar. More generally... provide[s] interesting discussions of colonialism, power, identity politics and the ideology of modernization." -Africa

"This is a welcome and well-written addition to the growing academic literature on the planning history of African cities." -Planning Perrspectives

"Contributes to the growing body of work in African urban history and to the study of Zanzibar.... Bissell writes beautifully and makes very good use of his archival research." -Garth Myers, University of Kansas

"Bissell has provided an interesting and informative book that links urban policy in Zanzibar to broader currents in urban planning. He provides a detailed analysis of colonial bureaucracy at work, highlighting the indeterminacy caused in part by the shuffling of personnel." -American Historical Review

"Bissell... has pored over a multitude of archival sources to construct a very thorough, well evidenced central argurment." -Journal of Historical Geography

"Bissell's book... contributes significantly to our understanding of colonial power and its relationship to the planned and built environment." -Intl Journal of Middle East Studies

Awards
Short-listed for African Studies Association Melville J. Herskovits Award 2012.



Book Information
ISBN 9780253222558
Author William Cunningham Bissell
Format Paperback
Page Count 394
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 544g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 22mm