عنوان

The Comorians in Kenya :

Number

TLets295618

Title Proper

The Comorians in Kenya :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Shepherd, Gillian Marie

Title Proper by Another Author

the establishment and loss of an economic niche

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

1982

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Text preceding or following the note

1982

Text of Note

The thesis, supervised by Jean Lafontaine, focussed on migration from the Comoro Islands near Madagascar, to Zanzibar and the East African Swahili coast, between the 1830s and the 1970s. Comorians had shared a common history and culture with the Swahili for many centuries; in colonial East Africa, chance offered them a unique 'racial' and employment niche which evaporated abruptly after 1964 and East African independence. They had suddenly to reassess marriage, residence and self-definition strategies, and their implications for the future. The thesis addressed ethnic identity (which had focussed excessively on its immutability) and demonstrated its adaptability to changing political and economic context. The study also attempted to escape from timeless, fixed-location ethnography, and followed links which led to data-collection in several East African and Comorian locations. Finally, by following Comorian choices over 150 years, the thesis made a contribution to an understanding of broader Swahili history which demands similar light-footed mobility through time and space for the processes of change to be understood. Gill Shepherd completed her PhD at a time when university recruitment was a standstill. Instead she built a career in tropical forest policy at London's Overseas Development Institute, and focussed on rights for forest peoples.

DT Africa

GN Anthropology

HC Economic History and Conditions

HT Communities. Classes. Races

Shepherd, Gillian Marie

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y