Swahili Culture Research Articles

The Genres of Swahili Philosophy

ABSTRACTThis article maintains that African philosophy should consider those discourses that function as channels of important ideas in African cultures, without prejudice against their language and, especially, their genre. What are such philosophical discourses? This article starts from a case study, Swahili culture, and interrogates the communicative resources available to it to serve as vehicles of philosophical thought. The survey includes language itself, proverbs, musical performance (sung lyrics), metric and free-verse poetry, novelistic prose, theoretical writings, and translations. Based on this spectrum of genres, the article ventures some general observations about the relationship of African philosophy to language and genre.

Dancing in Duality: Exploring the Comparative Relationship of Swahili Culture with Islamic and Liberal Paradigms

This paper examines the crucial role of Islam on the Swahili coast, using it as a case study to explore the intriguing transformations Islam underwent during its spread in the region. It aims to shed light on the cosmopolitan nature of the Swahili space before colonialism, focusing on the reciprocal processes of Islamization and the Swahilization of Islam. By doing so, it aims to enhance our understanding of the significant role of Islam in fostering globalization. Moreover, it explores the expansion of Islam beyond the Arabian Peninsula, particularly through trade conducted by Muslim merchants. This exchange resulted in a dynamic interaction as local leaders embraced the faith, facilitated trade, and supported the growth of Islamic intellectual, artistic, and cultural endeavours. Building upon this case study, the paper conducts a comparative analysis of the legal systems of Islam and liberalism and explores the potential for envisioning a world transcending colonial national racial logics. Embracing Islam as a major signifier, this essay draws on a diverse array of critical scholarship, contending that Islam, unlike liberalism, inherently embraces diverse cultural knowledge, making it a faith that is inherently receptive to different cultures and their unique contributions.

Mapping the distribution of euphemisms across taboo themes in Swahili

Euphemisms are vital elements of language, especially in polite speech training, tracing language change and use. Hence, the lack of studies on the distribution of euphemisms in Swahili denied stakeholders knowledge of what Swahili speakers consider sensitive and less sensitive. In this regard, the current study determined the distribution of Swahili euphemisms by taboo themes. The data were collected from 384 Swahili speakers using a questionnaire. The euphemisms were categorised by taboo themes, whereas the ranking was based on the volume of euphemisms per theme. The finding reveals that the theme of “dead body” had the highest concentration of taboo phrases, followed by themes of “burial” and “farting." The least euphemised themes in Swahili are “female sexual organ," "semen," and “orgasm." The hierarchy implies that speakers should trade carefully on topics of dead body, burial, and farting in Swahili communication. Contrarily, relaxation is permitted in conversations around sexual organs, semen and orgasm in the Swahili culture. The findings might be useful to native people who are upbringing their children according to the Swahili culture, diplomats and orienters of foreigners in the Swahili culture.

Transoceanic Interconnectivities Between India- Tanzania Coastal Communities from the Antiquity to Contemporaries: The Archaeologic Perspectives from the Ancient Maritime Trade Connections via the Indian Ocean

The currently available archaeological and historical records indicate that since the prehistoric times, India and Tanzania shared a very long antiquity in terms of human civilization through the Indian Ocean maritime trade especially during the Neolithic period in aspects such as maritime trade links, ancient technology transfer, and intermarriages, expressly in monumental built heritage assets along the coast of the Indian Ocean. Outstandingly, the East African coast and its offshore islands preserve a lot of ancient remnants of built heritage assets, religious and symbolic entities, and socio-cultural traditions. Archaeologically, Swahili culture, which is one of the most powerful African civilizations along the coastal towns and littoral regions in East Africa is to some extent predisposed and inspired by Indian elements of early civilizations. The prehistoric contacts between the Indian Ocean communities of East Africa and Indian subcontinent have left some legacies in terms of language, crop and animal domestication, trade, architecture, and intermarriage. Some of these cultural elements are clearly visible in the forms of a spectacular series of historic stone towns along the coast and littoral regions of Tanzania for instance, especially ones that contain ruins of houses, mosques, and tombs built of coral limestones are typically Indian heritage inspired, which significantly influenced coastal and littoral societal socio-cultural developments in Tanzania.

Ancient DNA illuminates Swahili culture’s origins

Ancient DNA illuminates Swahili culture’s origins

Disputing discipline: Child protection, punishment and piety in Zanzibar schools. By FranziskaFay, Rutgers University Press, 2021. US$ 38.95, US$ 150 (cloth). ISBN 9781978821736 (paperback); 9781978821743 (hardcover).

Since 2015, eliminating corporal punishment across the world became a key commitment of development practitioners and social workers, as illustrated by the creation of a Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. This reflects the Sustainable Development Goals' commitment to ending all forms of violence against children. In this context, Fay's book is a well-timed ethnography examining the challenges of globalising child protection through a case study of Zanzibar. Based on 18 months of fieldwork between 2014 and 2015, Disputing Discipline investigates children's and adults' ambiguous perceptions of physical chastisement in four primary and two Qu'ranic schools. Fay combined participant observation with focus groups, arts-based interviews with children between the ages of 9 and 17 years old, and the analysis of children's feedback notes to a Save the Children (an International non-governmental organisation) programme against corporal punishment. Despite the challenges of investigating such a sensitive topic, Fay manages to write a nuanced critique of child protection and discipline in Zanzibar. The book is organised into seven main chapters. The first chapter explores the local meanings of childhood through an analysis of intergenerational relationships and the social expectations regarding good child behaviour. Chapter two describes the perceptions and uses of corporal chastisement in Zanzibar, with particular attention to the cultural values that sanction corporal punishment as a legitimate form of socialisation. Chapter three focuses on the social norms that shape Zanzibari understandings of child protection in Islam, Swahili culture and the development sector. Chapter four examines the reception of a Save the Children anti-corporal punishment programme in schools, epitomised by the promotion of positive discipline (i.e. the substitution of cane hitting by penalties). Chapter five provides an analysis of how Islamic perceptions of gender influence the corporal punishment of boys and girls. It also challenges the association of gender-based violence with girls, by arguing that social norms also make boys more exposed to physical abuse in Zanzibari schools. Chapter six discusses the potentials of decolonising child protection through a reflection of Zanzibari's opposition between local and Western ideas of childcare. Finally, chapter 7 offers a brief collection of children's aspirations regarding governmental and parental care. Fay's book is enriched by her knowledge of Swahili language, which adds subtlety to her writing. This is epitomised by the near homonyms adabu (translated as manners) and adhabu (punishment). Fay uses the juxtaposition of these two words to discuss the social meanings of chastisement in Zanzibari socialisation. She also argues that local opposition to child protection does not stem from an appreciation of violence, but rather from the fact that protection norms are ‘too closely linked to a notion of the ‘West’ and insufficiently inclusive of (…) Zanzibari social personhood’ (p. 162). Her argument goes further to challenge the limited definition of violence in child protection in contexts of scarcity. Fay argues that positive discipline may avoid the direct physical abuse of students by their teachers but can also expose children to hazardous situations if they are forced to pay a penalty that they cannot afford. Her argument is sustained by several children's feedback to positive discipline. From a Childhood Studies perspective, the brilliancy of the book relies on methods that allowed children to utter opinions despite their deference to elders. The combination of ethnography and focus groups with arts-based methods equips Fay to write a ‘Zanzibari-Swahili cosmology of childhood’ (p. 20) that examines how sociocultural and political values impact the lives of children. While a high level of nuance permeates most of the analysis, it falls short when discussing children's aspirations. When the expression ‘children are the nation of tomorrow’ is pervasively used by students, I was left wondering if these utterances were produced in interactions with development officers and teachers, as argued by Spyrou (2018). Given how the conflation of child and national development is operationalised by different institutions (e.g. Burman, 2008; Cheney, 2004), further inquiry into what influences children's ideas of childhood would be an interesting venue for future research. Overall, Disputing Discipline adds to a fertile discussion on decolonisation in both Childhood and Development Studies. It is also an excellent example of the importance of foregrounding children in social research. The book showcases the shortcomings of global initiatives targeting children, and therefore warrants its relevancy for both researchers and practitioners. The combination of traditional and innovative methods in this ethnography makes the book equally relevant for Anthropologists aiming to integrate children in their research.

Community Awareness and Understanding of the Origin of Swahili Archaeological Heritage and Ruins along Tanzania’s Swahili Coast: Conservation and Management Issues

The Tanzanian coast has many remains of medieval Swahili settlements dated between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries C.E. In the same region, Neolithic and Later Stone Age sites have also been reported, alongside evidence for Early Iron Working settlements. Swahili culture, and the ruins that can still be seen, have their origins in this rich cultural past. It appears, however, that the present communities along the Tanzanian Swahili coast, and the public, are unaware of this important heritage history. There is a popular belief among them that the origin and influence on the now ruined Swahili settlements came from the Middle East, and it is true that Arab and other travellers described Swahili civilization in their writings. In this article, we explore the communities and researchers’ different perspectives on the origin of the Swahili ruins, focusing on the conservation and management problems this raises. We also analyse the position and role of heritage management institutions in the country towards enhancing community awareness and proper conservation of the ruins. Finally, we propose ways of promoting community awareness of the origin of the Swahili ruins, influencing participation and actions towards their conservation and management.

Rites of Treatment in Eastern Africa and Rite Vocabulary According to Literary Sources

<p>Rites as the reflection of religious ideas and everyday traditions are of great importance to understand the national picture of the world among the representatives of different peoples. The article examines the rites of the East African society aimed at healing; the ritual vocabulary, saturated with national and cultural information is analyzed and the translation decisions in the transfer of cultural-labeled units reflecting the realities of the Swahili culture carriers are demonstrated. Taking into account the nature of the presented material, the methods widely used in historical and ethnographic and philological research were used during the present study: descriptive, systemic, and semantic one. Nowadays, traditional medicine and conventional medicine go hand in hand in Eastern Africa countries, particularly in Tanzania, complementing each other in the treatment and the prevention of diseases, the preservation and the strengthening of human health. In the case when modern medicine is powerless, doctors recommend that patients turn to herbalists. At the same time, it is impossible to confuse healers who use grasses and other natural resources in their work, passing their experience from generation to generation, with sorcerers and the sorcerers not engaged in treatment. The conclusions formulated in the process of research are of practical importance and can be used by the experts of ethnography, ethnology, translation studies, linguistics, cultural studies and historical science, as well as during the lectures on the study of lexicology in Swahili. </p>

The Aesthetic Constitution of Space

The Indian Ocean looks back on a long history of exchange concerning luxury goods that were primarily used for personal and interior decoration as well as in performative situations. In view of the primarily aesthetic dimension of the items of trade, Ivanov's article examines the role of aesthetics for creating social ties within the Indian Ocean. Based on a praxeological approach and phenomenological considerations, the article understands social space as a transitory nexus of people, things, and aesthetic forms, which is continually generated anew through social practice. Taking today's Swahili coast as an example, Ivanov argues that the translocal space of the Indian Ocean evolves from practices of mimetic appropriation, in which aesthetic properties of partners in transoceanic exchange are embodied. In doing so, translocal Swahili culture reveals a nondichotomous, complex way in which both the person and society are aesthetically constituted, a way that is at once reflexive and imaginative, bodily and material.

Socio-physical and Environmental Evaluation of Courtyard Space and Courtyard-lifestyle in the Context of Swahili Architecture and Culture -Case study of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

This study was meant to analyze courtyard space in Magomeni neighborhood which comprises Swahili architectural buildings arranged in grid iron pattern built in 1940s as African settlement. Three field surveys were conducted in 2012, 2013 and 2014 where, 99, 100 and 99 households samples were consecutively picked up for spatial, social, environmental and cultural analysis. In each survey, courtyard spaces were studied based on previous functions in terms of physical, environmental and socio-spatial roles in the Swahili architecture and lifestyle of the people. The original intended role of courtyard spaces were analyzed and compared with the current situation where most of them have lost their functions (architectural, environmental, cultural and social) due extension of rooms in the courtyard spaces which is caused by urbanization and socio-economic needs for renting spaces in areas within a walking distance from the city center. The physical analysis was followed up by the socio-statistical investigation where the results from the two analytical methods were discussed with the results as follows: Pragmatically, the courtyard spaces in Swahili architecture had central role in the physical, environmental and social layout of buildings which in this study it is considered as a “center of life” or genius loci of the Swahili architecture. The alteration in most of the buildings by extending rooms into the courtyard space has caused a downfall of this very vital space which has resulted into change of lifestyle of the residents. Discomfort due to lack of cross ventilation was reported by most of the respondents. Consequently, there is an excessive demand for artificial cooling and ventilation appliances which has increased the cost of living in the neighbourhood. Although residents have shown some efforts to plant trees to improve the living condition, a holistic approach from both the government and the community is needed in the redevelopment of the neighbourhood.

Maritime Community Settlement History in Pangani Bay, Tanga Coastal Region, Tanzania

Many Zanjian settlements (eighth to thirteenth centuries AD) on Tanzania’s coast are considered to have collapsed and are not regarded as belonging to the formation of the Swahili culture of the th...

THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF UTENDI WA MWANA KUPONA: A SWAHILI/ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

This paper has the objective to make a thematic analysis of a classic poem Utendi wa Mwana Kupona using a Swahili/Islamic approach. The poem is believed to have been written by Mwana Kupona binti Mshamu in 1858. The poem is intended to be a motherly advice to her daughter about her religious and marital duties in a Swahili society.As a background to this paper, it was found out that Swahili culture has been greatly influenced by Islam. Ever since Arab, Persian, Indian and other merchants from Asia and the Middle East visited the East African coast to trade or settle, the Waswahili people embraced Islam. The Islamic religion influenced Swahili culture greatly. One of the more direct influences was the adoption of the Arabic script which the Swahili used to write their poetry and used it for other communication.The Arabic language had a lot of impact on the Kiswahili language, enriching it with new vocabulary, and especially religious and literary terminology. This is why a majority of the Waswahili are Muslims; hence Islam is an attribute accompanying the definition of ‘Mswahili’. A modest estimate would put words borrowed from the Arabic language into the Kiswahili language at between twenty to thirty percent.The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw a rapid development of written Kiswahili literature, especially in verse form. The majority or almost all of the poets of the time were very religious or very knowledgeable about Islam. This is the reason most poems of the time were pervaded by Islamic religious themes or other themes but definitely using an Islamic perspective. Utendi wa Mwana Kupona is one such verse. It is a mother’s advice to her daughter about her duties and obligations towards God, and specifically, towards a husband.

Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Initiatives in Tanzania and Mozambique

The aim of this paper is provide an overview of the capacity building programmes in maritime and underwater cultural heritage (MUCH) conducted by the authors in Tanzania and Mozambique. Tanzania and Mozambique have long histories of indigenous cultures, foreign contacts and influences and African adaptations beginning in the late Greco-Roman period, when the coastal populations exploited the peoples and riches of the interior. Today the coastline contains numerous examples of indigenous tangible and intangible heritage and many sites and histories related to the Swahili culture. Some exploratory research and training has been conducted in Tanzania and Mozambique, but the implementation by local residents of their own MUCH programme is still at an early stage. Under a UNESCO agreement framework, Tanzania in particular has started to develop a MUCH programme, which can assist in highlighting their extensive histories, cultural landscapes and cultural identity.

Slavery and Freedom in Nineteenth Century East Africa: The Case of Waungwana Caravan Porters

The nineteenth century East African caravan system was organised around the labour of itinerant caravan porters, most of whom were free wage labourers. However, a minority of the caravan labour force and a section of the populations of new market and caravan towns on the coast and in the interior were slaves or freed slaves known as Waungwana, or ‘gentlemen’. Waungwana caravan porters and retainers of Muslim traders were mostly coast-based, although many travelled for years in the far interior of Central and East Africa. To some degree the Waungwana were assimilated into Swahili culture, with its urban Muslim characteristics. Yet the Waungwana were from diverse origins across East Africa. They were also very mobile, and they were wage earning and often entrepreneurial. Paradoxically it is this very mobility and frequently great distance from the centres of Swahili culture that gave the Waungwana social and economic opportunities, status, and a role as cultural brokers. They were men of the world, and lived their lives alongside the free caravan personnel of the non-Muslim interior. Waungwana were able, therefore, to negotiate limitations to their slave status and enlarge a sphere of freedom for themselves. They were also founding inhabitants of the new centres of urban modernity along the caravan routes. The Waungwana perfectly illustrate multiple conceptions of ‘labour crossings’. First, they transcended the rather blurred boundaries between free and slave labour in nineteenth century East Africa. Second, they utilised space and mobility in a fluid way to negotiate the conditions of slavery and freedom. Third, they were partners in processes of transregional, transnational and supraethnic interactions in Central and East Africa.

From Ocean to Lakes: Cultural Transformations of Yemenis in Kenya and Uganda

AbstractMigration from Yemen to East Africa has been occurring for centuries and continued well into the twentieth century. Since the European explorations of the nineteenth century the term 'Arab-Swahili', as distinguished from 'African', has been in use. The ways that Yemenis have both adopted and changed Swahili culture in Kenya are outlined in this paper. Most Yemeni migrants who settled in Uganda passed through Mombasa, acquiring some knowledge of the Swahili language en route. However, the Yemenis of Uganda are not Swahili, despite using the Swahili language as a major medium of communication, even at home. Ugandan 'Arab' food eaten at home and cooked by Yemenis in cafes is actually Indian/Swahili cuisine. The ways that Yemenis have promoted the cultivation of qat across Uganda and have made its consumption a marker of identity are described. The degree that the terminology of diaspora studies can be applied to Yemenis in Kenya and Uganda is assessed, and concludes that the migrants are both 'cultural hybrids' and 'transnationals'.

Reading Mudimbe, applying ‘Mudimbe’, turning an insider out: problems with the presentation of a Swahili poet

This article discusses the application of ‘Mudimbe’ – here shorthand for an influential body of scholarship (just like ‘Foucault’ or ‘Kant’) produced by Mudimbe – within research on postcolonial African language literatures. This is done with regard to a particular case study from the Swahili context, namely Nicholas Brown's discussion of a didactic poem by Ahmed Sheikh Nabhany, on the social functions and values of the coconut-tree. Following ‘Mudimbe’, Brown based his discussion on the assumption that Nabhany's poetry depended upon a ‘Western episteme’ and was addressing a Western audience in its representation of Swahili culture. However, this interpretation seems in fundamental opposition to Nabhany's own understanding of this poem, which is linked to a wider project of the preservation of knowledge about Swahili culture, language and history. Brown's claims are discussed critically, against the background of my own research experience with Nabhany during fieldwork on Swahili intellectual discourse. Notably, while the discussion of African texts and discourses should take any available internal voices seriously (just as much as their social and historical dynamics), Brown leaves aside internal commentaries and obstructs a view to the social relevance that the Swahili author had in mind. Is this an outcome of applying ‘Mudimbe’?

Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania (review)

Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania Kelly Askew, Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania. University of Chicago Press, 2002, 392 pp. The book is extremely rich fabric of ethnographic description, first-person accounts, and theoretical discussions, and is accompanied by a CD of samples. The major contribution of the book is that, beyond presenting political and musical ethnographies, the author intertwines them to show that and dance do not simply reflect; rather, they provide the means by which social and political hierarchies are negotiated and transformed. In various chapters, she presents several in-depth case studies of musical events to illustrate the role of musical performance in local, state, and national politics. In short, it is a history of Tanzanian through musical performance. Following a rich introductory chapter, Chapter 2 offers an ethnography of Tanzanian nationalism (107). The author outlines the history of Tanzania, and the city of Tanga, in particular, from the origins of coastal Swahili culture, through the arrival of Europeans, the colonial era, postcolonialism, the socialist experiment, and, finally, today's multipartyism. Particular attention is paid to the relations between Zanzibar and mainland Tanganyika. In Chapter 3, the author presents a musical ethnography and social history of three musical genres of coastal Swahili society: ngoma, dansi, and taarab. Ngoma literally means and also translates as drum and music in general. The term refers specifically to traditional dance and more generally to a musical event encompassing music, dance, song, characteristic instrumentation, and a characteristic rhythm. There are countless varieties of ngoma based on ethnic group, region, gender, and function. Ngoma is found primarily at life cycle rituals such as weddings and initiations, but also at state celebrations. Though often associated with traditionalism, ngoma is not frozen in time, thanks to its capacity for improvisation. Dansi refers to urban popular music. It began with colonialism but has continued to expand and incorporate both foreign and traditional elements. Dansi, found primarily at urban nightclubs, rare elite weddings, or state celebrations, is considered pan-ethnic, and marks urban, elite status. Dansi offered a cultural route to social parity with colonizers, representing a genre of change and modernity. Taarab is a form of sung Swahili poetry (especially love songs) unique to the coastal region of East Africa. It is subdivided into linguistic and regional categories and includes both classical and modern varieties. It must follow certain poetic conventions of rhyme and meter. It is full of ornamentation and is not improvisatory practice. The defining characteristic of taarab is its heavy use of metaphor, allusion, and double entendre, which produce multiple layers of meaning and transforms the songs into power-laden weapons; taarab can thus send messages that local protocol otherwise prohibits. Taarab has layer upon layer of social critique, political positioning, gender debate, identity contestation, and dispute negotiation. Each of the three genres constitutes a form of cultural expression and a resource through which social and political identities are constructed, contested, reshaped, and manipulated. Participants manipulate song texts (in particular ngoma and taraab) to affirm or reject love relationships, to denounce moral character, or to negotiate their own personal disputes through tipping (139). Furthermore, the line between performers and audience is erased by the practice of tipping, which is the audience's medium of participation. Musical performance, especially of ngoma and taarab, thus has the capacity to constitute, negotiate, and transform social relations (154). Chapter 4 is wholly dedicated to the role of taarab in negotiating social relations. …

A Review of Swahili Archaeology

The Swahili people have been viewed as of Persian/Arabic or Cushitic-speaking origin. Scholars have used historical and archaeological data to support this hypothesis. However, linguistic and recent archaeological data suggest that the Swahili culture had its origin in the early first centuries AD. It was the early farming people who settled on the coast in the last centuries BC who first adopted iron technology and sailing techniques and founded the coastal settlements. The culture of the iron-using people spread to the rest of the coast of East Africa, its center changing from one place to another. Involvement in transoceanic trade from the early centuries AD contributed to the prosperity of the coastal communities as evidenced by coastal monuments. More than 1500 years of cultural continuity was offset by the arrival of European and Arab colonizers in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries AD. Le peuple Swahili a souvent ete considere comme un peuple dont la langue avait pour origine le Perse/Arabe ou le Cushite. Les chercheurs ont utilise des donees historiques et archeologiques afin de supporter cette hypothese. Cependant l'etude linguistique de cette langue, ainsi que de nouvelles decouvertes archeologiques suggerent que la culture Swahili trouve son origine au debut de l'ere chretienne. Ils furent les premiers fermiers a s'installer le long du littoral, fondant des villages cotiers, vers les premiers siecles de notre ere, les premiers aussi a adopter les techniques du fer et les techniques de navigation. La culture du fer s'etendit rapidement au reste des cotes d'Afrique de l'Est, son centre se deplacant d'un endroit a un autre. Leur implication dans le commerce oceanique contrbua a la prosperite de leur communautes cotieres, mise en evidence notamment par les monuments le long du littoral. Plus de 1500 ans de continuite culturelle pris fin a l'arrive des colonisateurs Europeens et Arabes de dixseptieme et dixhuitieme siecles.

Honneur et pudeur dans la société swahili de Zanzibar

A study of honour in the Swahili culture should lead to a combination of two matters : rule and sense of honour. This article shows that honour is built along two lines, one is the ritual joke, the other one is modesty. Finally, looking at events of everyday life contributes to a reflection on the formation of values and the conflicts which develop from them.

Reviews and Short Notices: Africa, Asia and Australasia

A World on the Move: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and America, 1415–1808. By A.J. R. Russell‐Wood. Local Suppliers of Credit in the Third World, 1750–1960. Edited by Gareth Austin and Kaoru Sugihara. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1680. By John Thornton. White Man's Burden. By Kurt Loeb. Beyond the Pale: Essays on the History of Colonial South Africa. By Robert Ross. God's Peoples: Covenant and Land in South Africa, Israel, and Ulster. By Donald Harman Akenson. The Shona and their Neighbours. By David Beach. Slow Death for Slavery: The Course of Abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897–1936. By Paul Lovejoy and Jan Hogendorn. Unhappy Valley: Conflict in Kenya and Africa. Book One: State and Class; Book Two: Violence and Ethnicity.By Bruce Berman and John Lonsdale. Struggle for Kenya: The Loss and Reassertion of Imperial Initiative, 1912–1923. By Robert M. Maxon. The Scattering Time: Turkana Responses to Colonial Rule. By John Lamphear. Swahili Origins: Swahili Culture and the Shungwaya Phenomenon. By James de Vere Allen. Trade and Empire in Muscat and Zanzibar: Roots of British Domination. By M. Reda Bhacker. Looking toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History. By Ronald Grigor Suny. The Origins of Arab Nationalism. By Rashid Khalidi, Lisa Anderson, Muhammad Muslin and Reeva S. Simon. Home and Homeland: The Dialogics of Tribal and National Identities in Jordan. By Linda L. Layne. Two Kings in Arabia: Letters from Jeddah 1923–5 and 1936–9. By Sir Reader Bullard. Edited by E. C. Hodgkin. Foreword by Sir Michael Weir. The Shi'is of Iraq. By Yitzhak Nakash. The Arab Minority in Israel, 1967–1991: Political Aspects. By Jacob M. Landau. Orientalism and the Post‐colonial Predicament: Perspectives on South Asia. Edited by Carol A. Breckenridge and Peter van der Veer. The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China. Translation and commentary by Ralph D. Sawyer with Mei‐chün Sawyer. Transcendence and Divine Passion: The Queen Mother of the West in Medieval China. By Suzanne Cahill. China 1898–1912: The Xinzheng Revolution and Japan. By Douglas Reynolds. In the Footsteps of Genghis Khan. By John DeFrancis. Cold War and Revolution: Soviet‐American Rivalry and the Origins of the Chinese Civil War 1944–1946. By Odd Arne Westad. Warriors of Japan, as Portrayed in the War Tales. By Paul Varley. Japan's Orient: Rendering Past into History. By Stefan Tanaka. The Autobiography of Osugi Sakae. Translated with an introduction by Byron K. Marshall. The World of Maluku: Eastern Indonesia in the Early Modern Period. By Leonard Y. Andaya. From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Edited by Saki Dockrill. Singapore 1941–1942. By Louis Allen. Tennozan: The Battle of Okinawa and the Atomic Bomb. By George Feifer. The Battle of Bataan: a History of the 90 Day Siege and Eventual Surrender of 75,000 Filipino and United States Troops to the Japanese in World War II. By Donald J. Young. A Revolutionary War: Korea and the Transformation of the Postwar World. Edited by William J. Williams.