Urban Design, Chaos, and Colonial Power in Zanzibar

Across Africa and elsewhere, colonialism promised to deliver progress and development. In urban Zanzibar, the British vowed to import scientific techniques and practices, ranging from sanitation to urban planning -- to create a perfect city. However, William Cunningham Bissell shows how these plans had to be remade over and over again. He offers a different view of colonialism, urban space, and power -- one that is deeply marked by contradiction, confusion, and even chaos -- by exploring the flawed attempts of colonial power to impose order on a complex Islamic city. Bissell creates an engaging portrait of a vibrant and cosmopolitan African city while exposing colonial irrationality and bureaucratic folly.

William Cunningham Bissell is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at Lafayette College.