War of Words, War of Stones: Racial Thought and Violence in Colonial Zanzibar

The Swahili coast of Africa is often described as a paragon of
transnational culture and racial fluidity. Yet, during a brief period in the 1960s,
Zanzibar became deeply divided along racial lines as intellectuals and activists,
engaged in bitter debates about their nation's future, ignited a deadly conflict
that spread across the island. War of Words, War of Stones explores how violently
enforced racial boundaries arose from Zanzibar's entangled history. Jonathon
Glassman challenges explanations that assume racial thinking in the colonial world
reflected only Western ideas. He shows how Africans crafted competing ways of
categorizing race from local tradition and engagement with the Atlantic and Indian
Ocean worlds.