In this course we will explore the construction, maintenance and reworking of identities in a number of societies in East Africa through themes such as religion, cultural performance, literature, ethnicity, nationalism and politics. We will for example consider the roles of Islam and Christianity in the region; strategies of state-bulding and processes of consolidation of national identities; the role of traditions and how they are constructed; and the effects of local, regional and global exchanges on East African social structures and cultural practice. We will be looking at both the differences between different societies in an anthropologically diverse part of the world, and the similarities, those things that unite the region. Although we will draw on ethnography from across Eastern Africa, the focus will be the coastal societies: Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros and Mozambique, with some ethnographic incursions into Madagascar and the Great Lakes. One reason for this is to allow us to look at East Africa as part of a wider world—both in the Indian Ocean (and beyond) and westwards into the continent. The Swahili coast is the interface for this interaction and there will be a particular ethnographic focus on the Swahili.
Literaturempfehlung: Horton, Mark, & John Middleton 2000 The Swahili: the social landscape of a mercantile society. Oxford: Blackwell.
