Contemporary Issues in Swahili Ethnography

Contemporary Issues in Swahili Ethnography
Author: Iain Walker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2018-10-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315280833

The term ‘Swahili’ describes the Muslim peoples of the East African coast, speakers of Kiswahili or closely related languages, who have historically filled roles as middlemen and merchants, the cosmopolitan products of a trading economy between Africa and the Indian Ocean world. This collection brings together anthropologists working on the greater Swahili world and the issues it confronts, dealing with societies from southern Somalia, northern Mozambique and the Comoro Islands, to Zanzibar and Mafia. The authors discuss a range of contemporary issues such as the shifting roles of Islam on the mainland coast; consumerism, conservation, memory and belonging in Zanzibar; how a Muslim society deals with HIV/AIDS; social change, development and political strategies in the Comoros; and Swahili women in London. The diversity of these themes reflects the diversity of the Swahili world itself: despite a cohesive cultural identity built upon shared practices, religious beliefs and language, the challenges facing Swahili people are multiple and complex. This book comprises articles originally published in the Journal of Eastern African Studies along with some new chapters.

Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea

Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea
Author: Iain Walker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2019-08-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0197507565

Many people today have never heard of the Comoros, but these islands were once part of a prosperous regional trading economy that stretched halfway around the world. A key node in the trading networks of the Indian Ocean, the Comoros prospered by exchanging slaves and commodities with Arab and Indian merchants. By the sixteenth century, the archipelago served as an important supply point on the route from Europe to Asia. The twentieth century brought the establishment of French colonial rule and a plantation economy. Since declaring its independence in 1975, the Comoros has been blighted by more than twenty coups, a radical revolutionary government and a mercenary regime. Today, the island nation suffers chronic mismanagement and relies on remittances from a diaspora community in France. Nonetheless, the Comoros is largely peaceful and culturally vibrant-- connected to the outside world in the internet age, but, at the same time, still slightly apart. Iain Walker traces the history and unique culture of these enigmatic islands, from their first settlement by Africans, Arabs and Austronesians, through their heyday within the greater Swahili world, to their decline as a forgotten outpost of the French colonial empire.

Reversed Gaze

Reversed Gaze
Author: Mwenda Ntarangwi
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0252090241

Deftly illustrating how life circumstances can influence ethnographic fieldwork, Mwenda Ntarangwi focuses on his experiences as a Kenyan anthropology student and professional anthropologist practicing in the United States and Africa. Whereas Western anthropologists often study non-Western cultures, Mwenda Ntarangwi reverses these common roles and studies the Western culture of anthropology from an outsider's viewpoint while considering larger debates about race, class, power, and the representation of the "other." Tracing his own immersion into American anthropology, Ntarangwi identifies textbooks, ethnographies, coursework, professional meetings, and feedback from colleagues and mentors that were key to his development. Reversed Gaze enters into a growing anthropological conversation on representation and self-reflexivity that ethnographers have come to regard as standard anthropological practice, opening up new dialogues in the field by allowing anthropologists to see the role played by subjective positions in shaping knowledge production and consumption. Recognizing the cultural and racial biases that shape anthropological study, this book reveals the potential for diverse participation and more democratic decision making in the identity and process of the profession.

The Swahili

The Swahili
Author: Mark Horton
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2001-03-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780631189190

This wide-ranging volume integrates documentary sources and contemporary archaeological evidence to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date account of Swahili history, anthropology, language and culture.

Disability, Intersectionality, and Belonging in Special Education

Disability, Intersectionality, and Belonging in Special Education
Author: Elizabeth A. Harkins Monaco
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 451
Release: 2024-02-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1538175835

Disability, Intersectionality, and Belonging in Special Education focuses on preparing educators who use socioculturally sustaining practices, curricula, and instruction through an intersectional lens. This book empowers preservice students and special education practitioners and administrators to meet the needs of disabled individuals. Understanding the full range of requirements relating to socioculturally sustaining practices is imperative to working with individuals with disabilities as well as with their families and caregivers. Being able to understand and explain this complex issue to others is important and often necessary. Social injustices in special education are historical and systemic. Special education practitioners are typically unaware of the importance of intersectional differences because they have been prepared to address cultural perspectives only during awareness days or through specific units in curricula. At other times they discuss the topic diagnostically—for example, as part of an educational plan or when teaching English as a second language. Other issues stem from the value system of the special education practitioners themselves; some are not willing to engage in these concepts, while others prioritize treating all students the same by using the terms “fairness,” “equity,” and “colorblindness” to justify this treatment. Even when special educator practitioners attempt to address injustices on behalf of their students, they tend to center on only the student’s disability, which means they are ignoring or erasing other aspects of their students’ identities. These concerns highlight the importance of building the sociocultural competence of our teaching force. This book will help practitioners build this competence in their own spheres of influence.

The Swahili World

The Swahili World
Author: Stephanie Wynne-Jones
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 672
Release: 2017-10-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317430166

The Swahili World presents the fascinating story of a major world civilization, exploring the archaeology, history, linguistics, and anthropology of the Indian Ocean coast of Africa. It covers a 1,500-year sweep of history, from the first settlement of the coast to the complex urban tradition found there today. Swahili towns contain monumental palaces, tombs, and mosques, set among more humble houses; they were home to fishers, farmers, traders, and specialists of many kinds. The towns have been Muslim since perhaps the eighth century CE, participating in international networks connecting people around the Indian Ocean rim and beyond. Successive colonial regimes have helped shape modern Swahili society, which has incorporated such influences into the region’s long-standing cosmopolitan tradition. This is the first volume to explore the Swahili in chronological perspective. Each chapter offers a unique wealth of detail on an aspect of the region’s past, written by the leading scholars on the subject. The result is a book that allows both specialist and non-specialist readers to explore the diversity of the Swahili tradition, how Swahili society has changed over time, as well as how our understandings of the region have shifted since Swahili studies first began. Scholars of the African continent will find the most nuanced and detailed consideration of Swahili culture, language and history ever produced. For readers unfamiliar with the region or the people involved, the chapters here provide an ideal introduction to a new and wonderful geography, at the interface of Africa and the Indian Ocean world, and among a people whose culture remains one of Africa’s most distinctive achievements.