Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 978-1-009-07405-6
This book explores medieval East Africa and its integration into the vast trade networks of the Indian Ocean. It sheds light on the movement of people and goods, offering insight into the interconnected world of the ‘Global Middle Ages’.
Excerpt:
What was it like to build and sustain community life and to interact with one’s neighbors in the sixth through fifteenth centuries CE in coastal Africa? What resources existed, and how were they used to build and maintain communities? This Element examines factors crucial to a state society’s rise and sustenance in a region dominated by non-state societies. Its core questions are: How did leadership emerge, sustain itself, and transform society? Why and how did social inequalities evolve, persist, and diminish, and with what consequences? How did market systems emerge, continue, and change? How did the organization of Swahili communities at varying scales emerge from and constrain their members’ actions? What evidence is there for the relationships medieval Swahili forged with their inland and coastal neighbors and Indian Ocean partners?
Who is this book for?
The idea of the ‘Global Middle Ages’ is very prominent among medievalists today, and books like this offer more evidence of these deeper connections. Historians of Africa, economics and trade will want to read this short book.
“Swahili worlds in globalism is a well-written highly readable book that will be significant for scholars working in the Indian Ocean World and beyond. It offers up-to-date, impressive scholarship about the Swahili coast and hinterlands. Despite having read hundreds of publications and reports about the Swahili coast and vicinity, I benefitted greatly from reading this book.” ~ review by Elgidius B. Ichumbaki in Antiquity.
Swahili Worlds in Globalism
By Chapurukha M. Kusimba
Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 978-1-009-07405-6
This book explores medieval East Africa and its integration into the vast trade networks of the Indian Ocean. It sheds light on the movement of people and goods, offering insight into the interconnected world of the ‘Global Middle Ages’.
Excerpt:
What was it like to build and sustain community life and to interact with one’s neighbors in the sixth through fifteenth centuries CE in coastal Africa? What resources existed, and how were they used to build and maintain communities? This Element examines factors crucial to a state society’s rise and sustenance in a region dominated by non-state societies. Its core questions are: How did leadership emerge, sustain itself, and transform society? Why and how did social inequalities evolve, persist, and diminish, and with what consequences? How did market systems emerge, continue, and change? How did the organization of Swahili communities at varying scales emerge from and constrain their members’ actions? What evidence is there for the relationships medieval Swahili forged with their inland and coastal neighbors and Indian Ocean partners?
Who is this book for?
The idea of the ‘Global Middle Ages’ is very prominent among medievalists today, and books like this offer more evidence of these deeper connections. Historians of Africa, economics and trade will want to read this short book.
“Swahili worlds in globalism is a well-written highly readable book that will be significant for scholars working in the Indian Ocean World and beyond. It offers up-to-date, impressive scholarship about the Swahili coast and hinterlands. Despite having read hundreds of publications and reports about the Swahili coast and vicinity, I benefitted greatly from reading this book.” ~ review by Elgidius B. Ichumbaki in Antiquity.
The Author
Chapurukha M. Kusimba is a Professor at the Univeristy of South Florida where his research focuses on the history of East Africa. You can read this interview with Chapurukha from The Public Medievalist.
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website.
You can buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
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