War of Words, War of Stones: Racial Thought and Violence in Colonial Zanzibar

The Swahili coast of Africa is often described as a paragon of transnational culture and racial fluidity. Yet, during a brief period in the 1960s, Zanzibar became deeply divided along racial lines as intellectuals and activists, engaged in bitter debates about their nation's future, ignited a deadly conflict that spread across the island. War of Words, War of Stones explores how violently enforced racial boundaries arose from Zanzibar's entangled history. Jonathon Glassman challenges explanations that assume racial thinking in the colonial world reflected only Western ideas. He shows how Africans crafted competing ways of categorizing race from local tradition and engagement with the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds.

Author: Jonathon Glassman
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 02/21/2011
Pages: 414
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.23lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.10w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9780253222800

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2011

About the Author

Jonathon Glassman is Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University. He is author of Feasts and Riot: Revelry, Rebellion, and Popular Consciousness on the Swahili Coast, 1856-1888, which was awarded the Herskovits Prize in African Studies.