East Africa and the Indian Ocean / Edward A. Alpers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alpers, Edward A.

Contributor:

Harry E. Humphreys Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History.

Commerce.

Relations.

Africa, East--Relations--Indian Ocean Region.

Africa, East.

Indian Ocean Region--Relations--Africa, East.

Indian Ocean Region.

Africa, East--Relations--Asia.

Asia--Relations--Africa, East.

Asia.

Africa, East--History.

Islands of the Indian Ocean--History.

Islands of the Indian Ocean.

Islands of the Indian Ocean--Commerce--History.

Indian Ocean Region--Commerce--History.

Indian Ocean Region--History.

International relations.

Indian Ocean--Islands of the Indian Ocean.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 242 pages : maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Markus Wiener Publishers, [2009]

Summary:

"For centuries, East Africa has played a central role within the Indian Ocean world. The Arabs built the first trade networks there; these were laid siege to by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, followed by British colonialists in the nineteenth century. An interregional trade linked different subregions of East Africa to other Indian Ocean economies. For example, Hindu merchants from Gujarat played a leading role in the ivory trade of East Africa during the past four centuries. In the nineteenth century, Zanzibar became a major center of the Asian slave trade. While slave trading, slave raiding, and their consequences provide one thematic focus of this book, the author also demonstrates that Indian Ocean commercial networks were much more complex in the range of products exchanged, including luxury goods and staple food items, as well as enforced labor. Islam provided yet another connective tissue linking East Africa to the Indian Ocean world and served as a cultural matrix through which popular beliefs and practices were transmitted. This book offers an eye-opening perspective on an often neglected area of world history."--Publisher's description.

Contents:

Gujarat and the trade of East Africa, c. 1500-1800

The western Indian Ocean as a regional food network in the nineteenth century

Indian Ocean Africa: the island factor

Muqdisho in the nineteenth century: a regional perspective

Futa Benaadir: continuity and change in the traditional cotton textile industry of southern Somalia, c. 1840-1980

"Ordinary household chores": ritual and power in a nineteenth-century Swahili women's spirit possession cult

Madagascar and Mozambique in the nineteenth century: the era of the Sakalava raids (1800-1820)

A complex relationship: Mozambique and the Comoro Islands in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Littoral Society in the Mozambique Channel.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-234) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Harry E. Humphreys Book Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Alpers, Edward A. East Africa and the Indian Ocean.

ISBN:

1558764534

9781558764521

1558764526

9781558764538

OCLC:

260254252

Publisher Number:

99964007598