Urban Design, Chaos, and Colonial Power in Zanzibar

by William Cunningham Bissell

Overview

Across Africa and elsewhere, colonialism promised to deliver progress and development. In urban spaces like Zanzibar, the British vowed to import scientific techniques and practices, ranging from sanitation to urban planning, to create a perfect city. Rather than remaking space, these designs often unraveled. Plans were formulated and then fell by the wayside, over and over again. By focusing on these flawed efforts to impose colonial order, William Cunningham Bissell offers a different view of colonialism and cities, revealing the contradictions, confusion, and even chaos that lay at the very core of British rule. At once an engaging portrait of a cosmopolitan African city and an exploration of colonial irrationality, Urban Design, Chaos, and Colonial Power in Zanzibar opens up new perspectives on the making of modernity and the metropolis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253222558
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	12/08/2010
Pages:	394
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

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

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Landscapes of Power and Planning 1

1 Cosmopolitan Lives, Urbane Worlds: Space and Society in Zanzibar City 22

2 Uncertain States: Colonial Practices and the Ambiguities of Power 68

3 Colonial Cartographies: Struggling to Make Sense of Urban Space 108

4 Disease, Environment, and Social Engineering: Clearing Out and Cleaning Up the Colonial City 149

5 Development and the Dilemmas of Expertise 185

6 Failures of Implementation: Circularity and Secrecy in the Pursuit of Planning 216

7 Disorder by Design: Legal Confusion and Bureaucratic Chaos in Colonial Planning 267

Conclusion: Reflections on Planning, Colonial Power, and Continuities in the Present 310

Notes 335

Bibliography 347

Index 359

What People are Saying About This

Universityof Kansas - Garth Myers

Contributes to the growing body of work in African urban history and to the study of Zanzibar. . . . Bissell writes beautifully and makes very good use of his archival research.

Editorial Reviews

"Bissell has provided an interesting and informative book that links urban policy in Zanzibar to broader currents in urban planning. He provides a detailed analysis of colonial bureaucracy at work, highlighting the indeterminacy caused in part by the shuffling of personnel."—American Historical Review

"This is a welcome and well-written addition to the growing academic literature on the planning history of African cities."—Planning Perrspectives

"[Achieves] a valuable contribution to the study of political discourse, violence, and the organization of space and social relationships in Zanzibar. More generally . . . provide[s] interesting discussions of colonialism, power, identity politics and the ideology of modernization.Nov 2012"—Africa

"Bissell's book . . . contributes significantly to our understanding of colonial power and its relationship to the planned and built environment."—Intl Journal of Middle East Studies

"Bissell . . . has pored over a multitude of archival sources to construct a very thorough, well evidenced central argurment."—Journal of Historical Geography

"Contributes to the growing body of work in African urban history and to the study of Zanzibar. . . . Bissell writes beautifully and makes very good use of his archival research."—Garth Myers, University of Kansas

From the Publisher

Bissell has provided an interesting and informative book that links urban policy in Zanzibar to broader currents in urban planning. He provides a detailed analysis of colonial bureaucracy at work, highlighting the indeterminacy caused in part by the shuffling of personnel.

American Historical Review

[Achieves] a valuable contribution to the study of political discourse, violence, and the organization of space and social relationships in Zanzibar. More generally . . . provide[s] interesting discussions of colonialism, power, identity politics and the ideology of modernization.Nov 2012

Africa

Bissell . . . has pored over a multitude of archival sources to construct a very thorough, well evidenced central argurment.

Journal of Historical Geography

Bissell's book . . . contributes significantly to our understanding of colonial power and its relationship to the planned and built environment.

Intl Journal of Middle East Studies

This is a welcome and well-written addition to the growing academic literature on the planning history of African cities.

Planning Perrspectives

"[Achieves] a valuable contribution to the study of political discourse, violence, and the organization of space and social relationships in Zanzibar. More generally... provide[s] interesting discussions of colonialism, power, identity politics and the ideology of modernization.Nov 2012"

Africa

"Contributes to the growing body of work in African urban history and to the study of Zanzibar.... Bissell writes beautifully and makes very good use of his archival research." —Garth Myers, University of Kansas

Garth Myers