East Africa and the Indian Ocean - Softcover

Edward A. Alpers

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558764534 ISBN 13: 9781558764538

Publisher: Markus Wiener, 2009

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

""Everyone who works on East African history or Indian Ocean history knows Edward Alpers' work. He has been at the forefront of the effort to write East Africa into the history of the Indian Ocean, while at the same time striving to convince East Africanists to look at their region as part of a larger oceanic system of exchange and communication."--Int. Journal of African Historical Studies

About the Author:

Edward Alpers,UCLA, is one of the best known experts on Eastern African and Indian Ocean history. He has published numerous books and articles on this subject including "Resisting Bondage in the Indian Ocean World".

About this edition

• Publisher: Markus Wiener
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1558764534
• ISBN 13: 9781558764538
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256