Erik Gilbert is an assistant professor of history at Arkansas State University.
Listed in: Eastern Africa · South Indian Ocean Islands · African Studies · Tanzania · History · Africa · African History
Dhows and the Colonial Economy of Zanzibar, 1860-1970
By Erik Gilbert
Conventional history assumes that the rise of the steamship trade killed off the Indian Ocean dhow trade in the twentieth century. Erik Gilbert argues that the dhow economy played a major role in shaping the economic and social life of colonial Zanzibar. Dhows, and the regional trade they fostered, allowed a class of indigenous entrepreneurs to thrive in Zanzibar.
