Abdul Sheriff - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Abdul Sheriff

Indian Ocean Slavery in the Age of Abolition, 2017

Journal of African Studies, 2012

The papers included in this special issue of Social Dynamics are based on presentations that were... more The papers included in this special issue of Social Dynamics are based on presentations that were originally made at a conference held in Zanzibar from May 26–29, 2011 on “Development, Geopolitics and Cultural Exchange in the Indian Ocean.” The conference was organised jointly by the Zanzibar Indian Ocean Research Institute (ZIORI) and the international research network on “The Indian Ocean as Visionary Area: Post-multiculturalist Approaches to Culture and Globalisation” (IOVA). The conference conveners were Abdul Sheriff on behalf of ZIORI, and Preben Kaarsholm on behalf of IOVA. Some of the reflections motivating the conference call are outlined below. Over the last century, the Indian Ocean region has experienced social, political and cultural reconfigurations that are the outcomes of distinctly regional circumstances, but also mirror broader global transformations since the retreat of the old colonial powers. Regional resources – notably fossil fuels – have positioned the Indian...

The Journal of African History, 1979

The Journal of African History, 1994

The Journal of African History, 2002

The end of the last century and beginning of a new millennium have provided the excuse for many o... more The end of the last century and beginning of a new millennium have provided the excuse for many of us, of whatever profession, to inundate ourselves with summings up of the past and dire warnings and prophesies for the future. Whether or not this publication was intended to coincide with the beginning of the new millennium, it remains timely. The volume presents nine papers revised from a conference at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) in , together with a tenth to round out its geographical scope. All the contributors except for one co-author are American. This is important, for only in the United States could a volume be produced with the stated aim of taking issue with both Eurocentric and Afrocentric interpretations of the subject. While undoubtedly an important issue in the US, it has a curiously hollow ring to this reviewer, who found little that could be seen as controversial. For a text attempting to bridge these two polar views of ancient Africa, it is a rather odd mixture. Many of the papers are general introductory regional outlines (Egypt and Nubia, Egypt and Kush, Meroe$ , Ballan4 a, Berbers and Carthage, Cyrenaica and Marmarica) by acknowledged experts on each (Frank Yurco, Edna Russmann, Stanley Burstein, William Adams, Reuben Bullard and Donald White, respectively), following the title and its historical theme and fitting together well. These are allied with topical essays (colour prejudice, linguistics, state formation, modern archaeological disinformation) that, with the exception of the first, do not fit so well. Most authors assume the reader has only a general knowledge of his or her region, and so provide a basic background and overview. These, then, are excellent summary introductions to the geographical region and chronological period(s) they encompass, and could be required reading for students of their subject. They are basic enough to be understood by both layman and student, yet sufficiently interesting to profit scholars of more comprehensive background : few of the latter are well versed in all the civilizations, chronological periods and geographical regions covered here, and reading the papers beyond one's area of expertise will prove rewarding. Some, however, require previous specialist knowledge in order to comprehend the arguments put forth. Non-linguists can get through the technical half of Carlton Hodge's ' Afroasiatic ' paper with a little struggle, but Bullard's essay on the Berbers requires detailed knowledge of geological terminology in order to comprehend the importance he himself places on its geology for cultural development in the region. Frank Snowdon's paper is a slightly updated encapsulation of his excellent Before Color Prejudice (), but readers are advised to consult the book before (rather than ?) reading the essay ; the latter is far too concise. It would have been far better if Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathryn Bard, in the only paper not presented at the conference, had penned an overview of Ethiopian civilizations through Classical and indigenous evidence, in keeping with the volume's theme and the majority of its other essays, rather than a comparison of state formation in      Egypt and Ethiopia. The only apparent excuse for inclusion of Maynard Swanson's essay on Great Zimbabwe seems to be the early colonialist assumption of a nonindigenous and specifically Semitic origin. Nonetheless, this last paper serves as the volume's best, or at least its most overt, statement of how historical research, archaeology and interpretation have evolved over the past century (fittingly, the volume is dedicated to his memory) ; and as a warning against distortion of evidence for political or aggrandizing motives in the next. Euroand Afrocentrists, both take heed. Unfortunately, some essays were not fully brought up to date for publication. To give but two examples, Hodge cites the first () volume only of the Dictionary of Late Egyptian and the remainder as ' in progress ' (p. ), when the fifth and last already had appeared in , a year before the original conference. And Bard and Fattovich cite their ' Proto-Aksumite ' levels as the earliest at Aksum (pp. -), when concurrent BIEA excavations in - had already unearthed clear and substantial ' Pre-Aksumite ' occupation levels dating a half-millennium earlier ; see Azania  (), -; D. W. Phillipson, Archaeology at Aksum, Ethiopia,-(). It must be said that little actually new is presented here. The essays are essentially summations of the current status quo in the various fields discussed. For this reason, if no other, the volume is a useful addition to one's library.

The American Historical Review, 1976

This issue of ISJ carried another article in the irregular series "Debating and Documenting ... more This issue of ISJ carried another article in the irregular series "Debating and Documenting Africa", the first one having been published in Vol. 1 No.2 (June 2008). This issue carries a discussion between Katy Hickman, Senior Producer at BBC World Service Religion and Ethics and Prof. Abdul Sheriff, formerly Professor of History at the University of Dar es Salaam and Director of Zanzibar Museums and the author of forthcoming titles, Dhow Cultures of the Indian Ocean: Cosmopolitanism, Commerce and Islam and The Early Dhow Culture in the Indian Ocean: From the Periplus to the Portuguese. The context of this debate is BBC Radio’s "Return to Zanzibar" programme in their series, Heart & Soul. Setting the scene is Katy Hickman’s contact with Prof. Sheriff in which she enclosed an early outline of the programme. This is followed by Prof. Sheriff’s response which raises various key issue of relevance to the study of Africa. This is followed by Katy Hickman’s response whi...

The Indian Ocean was the first venue of global trade, connecting the Mediterranean and South Chin... more The Indian Ocean was the first venue of global trade, connecting the Mediterranean and South China Sea. Inspired by the insights of Fernand Braudel, and by Michael Mollat, who saw it as 'a zone of encounters and contacts ...a privileged crossroads of culture,' this volume explores two inter-related themes. The first, on oceanic linkages, presents the diversity of the peoples who have traversed it and their relationships by tracing their tangible movements and connections. The second, on the creation of new societies, revisits better-known socio-historical phenomena - - such as slavery, indentured labour, the Swahili language and Muslim charity - - which tie the genesis of these social formations to the seascape of an interconnected, transcultural ocean. The chapters offer a broad and diverse view of the mobile, transregional communities that comprise Indian Ocean society, while in-depth case studies allow students and specialists to see how individual research projects may c...

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History

The East African or Swahili coast is at the confluence between the continental world of Africa an... more The East African or Swahili coast is at the confluence between the continental world of Africa and the maritime world of the Indian Ocean, giving rise to a cosmopolitan culture. The Zanzibar archipelago is geographically at the center of the East African coast, and was ideally located in terms of the monsoons for trade and social interaction with the African mainland as well as across the Indian Ocean. The first golden age of the Zanzibar archipelago blossomed from the middle of the first millennium ce when transoceanic connections began to be forged between the western seaboards of the Indian Ocean as far as China in the east. It was spearheaded by Unguja Ukuu, followed by a number of ports on Pemba and Unguja, including Kizimkazi with its unique 12th-century Kufic inscription. The Portuguese intervened from the 15th century to monopolize and divert Indian Ocean trade to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope, although they did not succeed. Nevertheless, they disrupted the former pattern...

The African Review, 2017

It is fifty years now since the formation of the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. O... more It is fifty years now since the formation of the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. Over that period of time, the Union has experienced some ups and downs. Despite the incessant “Kero za Muungano”, it is clear that the Tanzanian Government did not want the Union question to be touched in the new dispensation. This article revisits the Union question in relation to the ongoing constitution making process. It argues that the process has been controlled such that the proposed three-tier government structure is highly disputed by the ruling regime to the extent of threatening the entire process. It further argues that what has bedevilled the effort on the part of Zanzibar at this critical stage in their constitutional history to resolve the “Kero za Muungano” has been party divisions on the islands despite the fact that Zanzibar had recently gone through Reconciliation and formation of Government of National Unity at the end of 2010.

In this essay the original town of Zanzibar was located on a peninsula to the west of a creek tha... more In this essay the original town of Zanzibar was located on a peninsula to the west of a creek that was connected to the main island by only a narrow neck of land at its southern end, and by a bridge in the centre that was built in the mid 19th century and another in the 20th century further north. The town of Zanzibar began to spread to the other side of the creek from the mid 19th century, eventually overtaking the old town in terms of both area and population. Zanzibar town is now described as consisting of the so-called Stone Town or Mji Mkongwe (Sw. Old Town) on the peninsula, and Ng’ambo (Sw. the Other Side) to the east of the creek. The geographical division of the town between the so-called Stone Towns and Mud Towns has been interpreted as the normal pattern of Swahili towns. Swahili urban geography was first and foremost a matter of a difference between the haves and the have-nots: the basic division in coastal town society. This basic division was spatially constituted, esp...

The Swahili Coast and the Persian Gulf are only a monsoon apart, and the dhow provided a dependab... more The Swahili Coast and the Persian Gulf are only a monsoon apart, and the dhow provided a dependable vehicle for perennial two-way economic and sociocultural interaction across the Indian Ocean for hundreds of years, creating the “largest cultural continuum in the world.”2 Whatever colors one may use to paint the various continents around the Indian Ocean, only a multicolored ribbon can begin to characterize the historical and cultural complexity of its long littoral. On the one hand it represents an interface between the continental and marine environments; and on the other, for hundreds of years the littoral people have been interacting with each other across the ocean economically, socially, and culturally. These littoral peoples are strategically located at the confluence of continental and maritime environments, able to exploit both economically, and to be fashioned by them socially and culturally. In this chapter, I propose to review social interaction in the two littoral socie...

This book presents a comparative history of slavery and the transition from slavery to free labou... more This book presents a comparative history of slavery and the transition from slavery to free labour in Zanzibar and Mauritius, within the context of a wider comparative study of the subject in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds. Both countries are islands, with roughly the same size of area and populations, a common colonial history, and both are multicultural societies. However, despite inhabiting and using the same oceanic space, there are differences in experiences and structures which deserve to be explored. In the nineteenth century, two types of slave systems developed on the islands ? while Zanzibar represented a variant of an Indian Ocean slave system, Mauritius represented a variant of the Atlantic system ? yet both flourished when the world was already under the hegemony of the global capitalist mode of production. This comparison, therefore, has to be seen in the context of their specific historical conjunctures and the types of slave systems in the overall theoretical c...

Transregional Trade and Traders

The general outline of Indian migration to East Africa is broadly understood, and there have been... more The general outline of Indian migration to East Africa is broadly understood, and there have been a number of detailed family histories of prominent people of Indian origin, which sometimes tend to freeze the image of Indians as a homogeneous and separate entity. The author decided to compile a history of his family which had lived in Zanzibar for five generations. He wanted to understand, within the context of much wider migrations and settlements across the Indian Ocean by all sorts of peoples, why and how they migrated, how they became not a ‘diaspora’ but an indigenized and part of a constantly evolving multicultural society, a perspective that is often lacking in the existing literature on the Indians overseas.

Travelling Pasts: The Politics of Cultural Heritage in the Indian Ocean World