Visions of the global: the classical and the eclectic in colonial East African architecture

This article discusses the use of the classical language of architecture in the early colonial urban landscape in East Africa and assesses the stylistic choices by British colonial architects in Zanzibar and Nairobi. It focuses upon the buildings of John Sinclair, administrator-architect in Zanzibar from the early 1900s to 1923 and his later work in Nairobi. It highlights the various competing factors which informed decisions made by architects in the colonial world

Positive partnerships: developing effective collaboration between schools and universities

This article will discuss a recent collaborative initiative between the University of Lincoln School of History and Heritage and the Lincolnshire Teaching School Alliance. This project, entitled ‘Decolonising history: sharing research and approaches with schools’ was funded by a PEARL grant (Public engagement for all with research at Lincoln) from the University and ran from March 2020 to December 2021. As a result of this work, substantial changes in the KS3 curriculum has been undertaken across the four participating schools as well as a notable increase in teacher confidence and excitement in engaging with these more challenging and unfamiliar topics. Lincolnshire schools have a significant proportion of white, working class pupils which is an important context in which to think about this decolonising work. This article will discuss the nature of this collaboration and what we see as the reasons for its success

Colonialism, heritage and conservation : Zanzibari perceptions of the collapse of the House of Wonders

The House of Wonders (or Beit al-Ajaib), one of the iconic buildings of Zanzibar’s waterfront, partially collapsed on 25th December 2020. This catastrophic incident, which included the famous clocktower, killed two people who had been inside the building and injured several others. The House of Wonders has prompted fascination and admiration since its construction as part of a redevelopment of Zanzibar’s waterfront by Sultan Barghash in 1883. Its collapse attracted worldwide media attention. This article explores the dynamics of history and heritage in Zanzibar, using the collapse of the House of Wonders as the catalyst for analysing the ways that Zanzibaris feel about the presentation of the past. The research involved a series of interviews with residents of Stone Town in which participants discussed the collapse of the House of Wonders and themes of history, identity and tourism. Our project reveals the layered associations with the House of Wonders, one which acknowledges the building’s Omani origins and colonial use but simultaneously its centrality as an icon of Zanzibar. The article also discusses what these findings about the House of Wonders reveal about the complex relationship between perceptions of Zanzibari cultural heritage and the role of tourism

A Quasar Catalog with Simultaneous UV, Optical and X-ray Observations by Swift

We have compiled a catalog of optically-selected quasars with simultaneous observations in UV/optical and X-ray bands by the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer. Objects in this catalog are identified by matching the Swift pointings with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 quasar catalog. The final catalog contains 843 objects, among which 637 have both UVOT and XRT observations and 354 of which are detected by both instruments. The overall X-ray detection rate is ~60% which rises to ~85% among sources with at least 10 ks of XRT exposure time. We construct the time-averaged spectral energy distribution for each of the 354 quasars using UVOT photometric measurements and XRT spectra. From model fits to these SEDs, we find that the big blue bump contributes about 0.3 dex to the quasar luminosity. We re-visit the alpha_ox-L_uv relation by selecting a clean sample with only type 1 radio-quiet quasars; the dispersion of this relation is reduced by at least 15% compared to studies that use non-simultaneous UV/optical and X-ray data. We only found a weak correlation between L/L_Edd and alpha_uv. We do not find significant correlations between alpha_x and alpha_ox, alpha_ox and alpha_uv, and alpha_x and Log L(0.3-10 keV). The correlations between alpha_uv and alpha_x, alpha_ox and alpha_x, alpha_ox and alpha_uv, L/L_Edd and alpha_x, and L/L_Edd and alpha_ox are stronger amongst low-redshift quasars, indicating that these correlations are likely driven by the changes of SED shape with accretion state.Comment: 63 pages, 22 figures, accepted by ApJ

Scottish architects, imperial identities and India’s built environment in the early twentieth century: the careers of John Begg and George Wittet

Two Scottish architects, John Begg and George Wittet, created several notable landmarks in Mumbai and elsewhere in India under the British Raj in the early twentieth century. Wittet arrived in India in 1904 as Begg’s assistant, and after three years succeeded Begg as Consulting Architect for Bombay when the latter was promoted to Consulting Architect of the Government of India. Begg was responsible for numerous buildings in his twenty-year career in India while Wittet’s major works included the Prince of Wales Museum (now the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya museum) and the Gateway to India. They were also instrumental in architectural education in India through their involvement in the development of the architectural curriculum at the Sir Jamshetji Jeejeebhoy School of Art. Both men therefore made major contributions to the colonial built environment as well as the future of the architectural profession in India. Throughout the rich history of Scotland and empire is an emphasis upon the contributions of Scots in professional fields, with particular attention being given to medicine and education. Scottish architects and their role in shaping imperial cities around the world have remained notably absent from these studies. This paper will investigate the careers of these two men, their architectural designs, personal connections and professional networks in Scotland and India to analyse the significance of Scottish, British and colonial identities in their development as architects in the empire

Cracks in the dome: fractured histories of empire in the Zanzibar Museum, 1897–1964

As one of the most monumental and recognisable landmarks from Zanzibar’s years as a British Protectorate, the distinctive domed building of the Zanzibar Museum (also known as the Beit al-Amani or Peace Memorial Museum) is widely known and familiar to Zanzibaris and visitors alike. Yet the complicated and compelling history behind its construction and collection has been overlooked by historians until now. Drawing on a rich and wide range of hitherto unexplored archival, photographic, architectural and material evidence, this book is the first serious investigation of this remarkable institution. Although the museum was not opened until 1925, this book traces the longer history of colonial display which culminated in the establishment of the Zanzibar Museum. It reveals the complexity of colonial knowledge production in the changing political context of the twentieth century British Empire and explores the broad spectrum of people from diverse communities who shaped its existence as staff, informants, collectors and teachers. Through vivid narratives involving people, objects and exhibits, this book exposes the fractures, contradictions and tensions in creating and maintaining a colonial museum, and casts light on the conflicted character of the ’colonial mission’ in eastern Africa

Seats and sites of authority: British colonial collecting on the East African coast

This chapter explores cultural interactions on the East African coast in the late nineteenth century through the story of two Swahili 'viti vya enzi' (chairs of power) which were collected and now reside in museums in Britain. The narratives of these two chairs expose both the cultural knowledge that the British had of Swahili culture but also how these objects changed in meaning as they shifted through time and space, and became objects of power for their new British owners

Representing “Our island Sultanate” in London and Zanzibar: cross-currents in educating imperial publics

The British Empire Exhibition at Wembley was a spectacle on a grand scale designed to reinvigorate the spirit of empire in the minds of the British public in the decade after the First World War and to encourage new commercial networks between imperial territories. Although the global political and social landscape had altered immeasurably in the postwar years, the well-established medium of the colonial exhibition was employed to celebrate the diversity of the British Empire and once again ‘bring the world’ to London. The Zanzibar Court, located within the East African pavilion, is the focus of this chapter. While scholars have examined other African courts and displays at Wembley, in particular analysing the presence of craftsmen from the region, Zanzibar is a significant omission from the scholarship. The court’s display and the accompanying handbook provide a rich source for examining imperial identity and cultural representation at a time of reckoning across the Empire. Zanzibar’s economic significance had been diminishing since the late nineteenth century. The prevailing conceptions of the island for the mass of the British public were of an exotic ‘eastern’ unknown, based primarily upon references in the music hall or lingering memories of slavery in the nineteenth century. The exhibition therefore presented an opportunity for the Zanzibar Government’s to reassert the image of the Protectorate and create “a correct impression of our Island Sultanate”, according to the handbook. Within this rhetoric, Zanzibar’s history was used to reinforce their imagined superiority over the mainland African territories. To achieve this, the formulation of an acceptable narrative overlooked the more unsightly chapters in Zanzibar’s history. Other stereotypes, such as those of an “an Eastern atmosphere and glamour”, were perpetuated. This chapter uses the exhibits displayed in the Zanzibar Court, the accompanying handbook and other primary sources to examine how the British organising committee produced an image of Zanzibar for consumption in London. Most critically, the court became a prototype for the narrative and organisation of the Zanzibar Museum, opened in 1925. The handbook was reworked into the School History of Zanzibar and then the School History of East Africa which was taught across the region until the 1960s. The motivations behind the creation of this court and its formulation therefore had lasting cultural repercussions for Zanzibar, arguably more significant than the anticipated expansion of trade following exhibition in London. As such, the essay will investigate the interplay of cultural representation in the ‘metropole’ and ‘periphery’

Prita Meier, Swahili Port Cities: The Architecture of Elsewhere

Prita Meier’s Swahili Port Cities: the Architecture of Elsewhere is a highly original and important contribution to scholarship on East Africa, and more widely for scholars interested in complicating how we understand the formation of global cities and border zone societies. It is not a conventional architectural history, yet it places buildings, in particular the coral and lime stone constructions found on the Swahili coast, at its heart. Meier uses the “materiality of city life” to offer “a..

Britain's Western Indian Ocean Island-scape

The British Empire had a significant influence on the history of the islands in the western Indian Ocean. In turn, the location, size, culture, and environment of these islands shaped the history of empire. This chapter investigates these islands’ strategic significance, their capacity in trade and raw-material production, and their diverse colonial cultures. It also considers their place in the British imagination, which, as this chapter argues, distilled an image of the Indian Ocean centred on its islands. Taken together, this chapter highlights the pivotal role played by African islands in the Indian Ocean—and their distinctive cultures, environments, and geographies—in the expansion and maintenance of Britain’s maritime empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries