Mystical Power and Politics on the Swahili Coast
Uchawi in Pemba
Series: Religion in Transforming Africa; 13;
- Publisher's listprice GBP 26.99
-
12 185 Ft (11 605 Ft + 5% VAT)
The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.
- Discount 20% (cc. 2 437 Ft off)
- Discounted price 9 748 Ft (9 284 Ft + 5% VAT)
- Discount is valid until: 30 June 2026
Subcribe now and take benefit of a favourable price.
Subscribe
12 185 Ft
Availability
Not yet published.
Why don't you give exact delivery time?
Delivery time is estimated on our previous experiences. We give estimations only, because we order from outside Hungary, and the delivery time mainly depends on how quickly the publisher supplies the book. Faster or slower deliveries both happen, but we do our best to supply as quickly as possible.
Product details:
- Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Date of Publication 21 July 2026
- ISBN 9781847013989
- Binding Paperback
- No. of pages310 pages
- Size 234x156 mm
- Weight 666 g
- Language English
- Illustrations 2 maps and 4 b/w illus. 700
Categories
Short description:
Traces changing visions of mystical power and authority on the island of Pemba, whose people's reputed resistance to outside rule has shaped the national narratives of both Zanzibar and Tanzania.
MoreLong description:
Traces changing visions of mystical power and authority on the island of Pemba, whose people's reputed resistance to outside rule has shaped the national narratives of both Zanzibar and Tanzania. For two centuries, Pemba, the second largest island of Zanzibar, has been known by East Africans and outsiders alike as rich in dangerous knowledge. Despite Pembans' reputation for piety and deep Islamic knowledge,uchawi- 'mystical work and power', sometimes termed 'magic', 'witchcraft', or 'sorcery' - has long featured in diverse visions of their identity and as key to worldly power. Today, as traditional methods of securing agency are called into question and new ways proliferate, the mystical world is an intensely conflicted realm where the nature of power, ethical action, and reality itself is continually reframed. This luminous ethnography follows Pemban notions of invisible and worldly power through the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, the trials of multiparty democracy, the rise of Islamic revival, and intensifying neoliberalism. Through an exploration of rural imaginings of power, it argues that nations and the grammars that underwrite them are made in and by their peripheries, which give 'the centre' shape.��� Highlighting the intersections of mystical practices, religion, and politics-as-such on the Swahili Coast, the book contributes new perspectives to studies of the imagination, power, and religious transformation in Africa, the Indian Ocean, and the larger Islamic world.
MoreTable of Contents:
Introduction PART I POWER 1. Kichawi dogsand Colonial Thinking 2. Ordinary Sorcery: The First Four Rooms of Uchawi's House 3. 'We Come to You Only as a Test': Uganga in Uchawi 4. The Sixth and Seventh Rooms: From Righteous Flight to Giving Lives in Turn 5. Uchawi as it Was: Power, Humour, Agony PART 2 CRISIS 6. Revolution: Political Change and Mystical Authority 7. The Poetics of Loss: Hunger, Commodification, and the Withdrawal of Magic Books PART 3 TRANSFORMATIONS 8. Emergenc(i)es: Politics and the Unseen 9. Islamic Revival, Dividing Jinns, and the New Uchawi Conclusion: Locating Pemba Today
More
