Edward Alpers
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 810606 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Edward Alpers |
| NOMBRES | Edward |
| APELLIDO | Alpers |
| FIRMA | ALPERS E |
| AFILIACIONES | University of California, Los Angeles |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1137-4625 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 72 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 428 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 72 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1967 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2024 |
| ÍNDICE H | 10 |
Remembering Mike Pearson
Mike Pearson and I were immediate contemporaries, both of us being born in the spring of 1941, so it is with special sadness and a sense of personal poignancy that I write about his passing.I first encountered Mike's work in the form of his doctoral dissertation.1What initially struck me about his research was that it was an India-based parallel to my own Africa-based research, both of us exploring and exploiting Portuguese archives to reconstruc…
Frembgen, Jürgen Wasim
On the Frontiers of the Indian Ocean World
Since the publication of Kirti N. Chaudhuri’s Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean (New York, 1985), historical studies of the Indian Ocean World (iow) have grown exponentially. Coming to grips with this vast oceanic space has challenged subsequent generations of historians to think creatively about how best to address its great diversity in both time and space. An important feature of this recent scholarship is its interdisciplinarity. In …
The impact of the slave trade on East Central Africa in the nineteenth century
For several centuries slaves were exported from East Africa to the Muslim world through the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Exports to the Indian Ocean islands held by the Europeans were later added to the Muslim trade. The first half of the nineteenth century in East Africa was marked by the continued rapid growth of the slave trade. Until the nineteenth century, no direct trade had been allowed between the subordinate ports of Portuguese East Afr…
Indian Ocean Studies
In this article I present a survey of Indian Ocean Studies that focuses primarily on the development of its historiography after World War II from imperial history and its emergence as a distinct scholarly enterprise from the 1980s to the present day. In particular, I discuss some of the seminal monographs that have been published over the past two decades, suggesting the characteristics and challenges of modern historiography as reflected in the…
Cholera in Nineteenth-Century Mozambique
Edward A. Alpers discusses the third global cholera pandemic (1839-1861) as manifested in colonial Mozambique. Taking a thread from other contributors to the medical history of Africa, such as Christopher Hamlin, Myron Echenberg and James Christie, Alpers closely examines demographic impacts of the pandemic and the public health measures taken by the Portuguese colonial government of the day. Based on evidence drawn from official reports and unpu…
Defining Regions of Pre-Colonial Africa
Regionalizing pre-colonial Africa aids in the collection and interpretation of primary sources as data for further analysis. This article includes a map with six broad regions and 34 sub-regions, which form a controlled vocabulary within which researchers may geographically organize and classify disparate pieces of information related to Africa’s past. In computational terms, the proposed African regions serve as data containers in order to conso…
Abolition and the Registration of Slaves and Libertos in Portuguese Mozambique, 1856–76
Beginning in 1856 and ending in 1876, Portuguese colonial authorities in Mozambique registered almost 55,000 enslaved and freed Africans ( libertos ). The sources for these twinned registration processes are located in the national archives of Portugal and Mozambique. Fragments of the originals survive for only six of the ten districts of the colony, but contemporary copies exist for nearly all districts. Combined, they provide a unique opportuni…
Warfare in Northern Mozambique, Late Sixteenth to Late Nineteenth Centuries
Studies of precolonial African warfare are still relatively scarce and northern Mozambique is no exception. This paper examines more than three centuries of African warfare among the Makua of Macuana. It emphasizes continuities in strategy and tactics, while at the same time paying attention to innovations in weaponry, above all the adoption and effective utilization of firearms. Based on a critical assessment of both primary and secondary source…
Forty Years On
Almost forty years ago, the author published an article on Gujarat and East Africa from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Although several other scholars had written serious historical works either about or including Indian traders in eastern Africa in the modern period, at the time it was a pioneering piece for historians of East Africa. While the author has written and continues to write about the African diaspora in the Indian Ocean w…
One. The Other Middle Passage
Redefining African Regions for Linking Open-Source Data
In recent years, an increasing number of online archival databases of primary sources related to the history of the African diaspora and slavery have become freely and readily accessible for scholarly and public consumption. This proliferation of digital projects and databases presents a number of challenges related to aggregating data geographically according to the movement of people in and out of Africa across time and space. As a requirement …
From Littoral to Ozone
In this article I examine two of Michael Pearson’s most important contributions to our understanding of Indian Ocean history: the concept of the littoral, which he first articulated in his seminal article on “Littoral society: the case for the coast” in The Great Circle 7, no. 1 (1985): 1-8, and his comment in The Indian Ocean (London and New York: Routledge, 2003, p. 9) that “I want it to have a whiff of ozone.” Accordingly, I review Pearson’s p…
Moçambique Marítimo (séculos XIV - XXI)
Moçambique tem um dos litorais mais extensos da África. Para historiadores, os exemplos mais óbvios das conexões que ligam Moçambique ao oceano Índico são a exportação de ouro, marfim e escravos, nem como a importação de têxteis indianos. Sem minimizar a importância dessas conexões, este artigo chama a atenção para diversos outros elementos que contribuíram e continuam a desempenhar um papel nas relações entre Moçambique e o oceano Índico. O arti…
Le caractere d’une traite d’esclaves deguisee (the nature of a disguised slave trade)”? Labor recruitment for La Reunion at Portuguese Mozambique, 1887-1889
This paper examines the final moments of the French libres engagés system of labor recruitment from Mozambique to La Réunion in the late 1880s. Rather than simply regarding this system as a form of disguised slave trade, it seeks to understand how these workers were actually recruited and the conditions of their employment on the French colonial island. It draws upon both French and Portuguese archival sources to place this brief chapter in the l…
On Becoming A British Lake
3. On Becoming A British Lake: Piracy, Slaving, and British Imperialism in the Indian Ocean During the First Half of the Nineteenth Century was published in Indian Ocean Slavery in the Age of Abolition on page 45.
Indian Textiles at Mozambique Island in the Mid-Eighteenth Century
Building upon the work of scholars writing about Indian textiles and the textile trade of the western Indian Ocean, I examine a combined list of nearly eighty different specific types of Indian cotton cloths that were imported at Mozambique Island in the 1750s. In the absence of physical evidence, I seek first to identify each specific textile using archival and literary sources and then to categorise them according to provenance, design and pric…
Speaking for Themselves? Understanding African Freed Slave Testimonies from the Western Indian Ocean, 1850s-1930s
In this article we mine an array of British anti-slavery materials seeking the voices of enslaved East Africans in the western Indian Ocean. We draw attention to the numerous problems of translation involved in this kind of basic research and to the critical role played by both indigenous and British interpreters in the process of enabling captive Africans to “speak for themselves.” The lesson here is that historians must exercise particular care…
Food Traditions and Landscape Histories of the Indian Ocean World
Environmental histories of plant exchanges have largely centred on their economic importance in international trade and on their ecological and social impacts in the places where they were introduced. Yet few studies have attempted to examine how plants brought from elsewhere become incorporated over time into the regional cultures of material life and agricultural landscapes. This essay considers the theoretical and methodological problems in in…
Marooned Plants
This article explores possible histories of plant exchanges and plant naming tied to the slave trade between East Africa, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands. The subsequent ' marronnage ' of slaves on these islands – their escape from captivity, sometimes to live in mountain hideouts – continues to inspire cultural references. Inspired by the use of the adjective ' marron/marronne ' for a number of plants on Reunion Island, we compile evidence …
Slavery, antislavery, political rivalry and regional networks in East African waters, 1877-1883
This paper explores the dynamic between local, regional, and global forces for the Comoro Islands between the 1873 treaty mandating abolition of the export slave trade from Zanzibar to the imposition of French suzerainty over the Comoro Islands in 1886. Locally, my context is the Comoro Islands; regionally, it takes in the Mozambique Channel and wider southwest Indian Ocean; globally, it is the larger British imperial antislavery campaign in the …
Sidis and scholars
Papers presented at the Conference: Sidis at the Millennium : History, Culture, and Development, held at Rajpipla, in February 2000; some revised.
Ivory and Slaves
Slavery, Forced Labour and Resistance in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia
The study of slavery has grown strongly in recent years, as scholars working in several disciplines have cultivated broader perspectives on enslavement in a wide variety of contexts and settings. Critical Readings on Global Slavery offers students and researchers a rich collection of previously published works by some of the most preeminent scholars in the field. With contributions covering various regions and time periods, this anthology encoura…
The Role of the Yao in the Development of Trade in East-Central Africa, 1698-c.1850
Long distance routes, based on ivory, from the interior of East-Central Africa to Mozambique and Kilwa were forged by the Maravi and the Yao, respectively, during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and by about 1698 the Yao apparently dominated both these routes. After 1698, factors influencing the ivory trade at the coast caused the Yao to shift most of their trade from Kilwa to Mozambique, where Yao ivory soon constituted the b…
Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa
Recollecting Africa
The African presence in the Indian Ocean world represents one of the most neglected aspects of the global diaspora of African peoples. Yet very significant numbers of people of African descent today inhabit virtually all the countries of the western Indian Ocean littoral. It is evident, however, that African voices have been actively silenced in this diaspora both by the cultural contexts of their host societies and by the way in which the schola…
Trade, State, and Society Among the Yao in the Nineteenth Century
Through their deep involvement in the long-distance trade of eastern central Africa, the Yao were increasingly exposed to the impact of Swahili traders and their culture. During the nineteenth century the increased volume of trade, and the ever growing importance of slaves in that trade, combined to produce a marked growth in the scale of Yao political units. This paper begins by outlining the growth of Yao trade before the nineteenth century. It…
The French Slave Trade in East Africa (1721-1810)
Alpers Edward A. The French Slave Trade in East Africa (1721-1810). In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 10, n°37, 1970. pp. 80-124
Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, c. 1500-1800
One of the more persistent problems confronting historians of East Africa remains the lack of reliable standard histories of the Indian Ocean world. Topics which are especially affected by this lacuna in the historical literature are the problem of Indonesian contacts, the history of Islam on the coast, and the economic history of both the coast and the interior. Only in the case of the Portuguese seaborne empire do we possess a series of studies…
Ordinary Household Chores
Edward A. Alpers, "Ordinary Household Chores": Ritual and Power in a 19th-Century Swahili Women's Spirit Possession Cult, The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 17, No. 4 (1984), pp. 677-702
Portuguese in South-East Africa, 1488-1600
The African Diaspora in the Northwestern Indian Ocean
Research Article| August 01 1997 The African Diaspora in the Northwestern Indian Ocean: Reconsideration of an Old Problem, New Directions for Research Edward A. Alpers Edward A. Alpers Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (1997) 17 (2): 62–81. https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-17-2-62 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Sear…
African Economic History
Muqdisho in the Nineteenth Century
During the nineteenth century Muqdisho experienced a significant revival in its fortunes after several centuries of gradual decline from its medieval heyday. While it remained on the periphery of the Omani empire on the coast of East Africa, steady commercial penetration of Indian merchant capital based at Zanzibar inexorably drew the entire Benaadir coast into the Omani orbit. Massive infusions of slave labour transformed agricultural commodity …
Introduction
Flight to Freedom
(2003). Flight to Freedom: Escape from Slavery among Bonded Africans in the Indian Ocean world, c.1750–1962. Slavery & Abolition: Vol. 24, The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia, pp. 51-68
Ivory and Slaves
Resisting Bondage in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia
Resisting Bondage in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia is the companion volume to Slavery and Resistance in Africa and Asia which was published by Routledge in 2005. This second volume, as implied by the title, recognizes the complexity of forms of bondage in the Indian Ocean world - incorporating regions running from East Africa to the Middle East, to South and Southeast Asia to the Far East - and of resistance to them. Slavery, in the conventional s…
A complex relationship
The Comoro Islands have historically played a vital role in the commercial and religious history of the south-west Indian Ocean and as a human bridge between the African continent, Madagascar, and the Mascarene Islands. In this paper I seek to examine three aspects of this relationship as it pertains to Mozambique and to stimulate collaborative scholarly research. The first topic examines the intimate trading connections between the Comoros and M…
Slavery and Antislavery in Mauritius, 1810-33
Preface - Abbreviations in the Notes - Map of Administrative Districts of Mauritius - Introduction: History and Historiography - The Abolitionists Discover the Mauritius Question - Corruption Concealed: The Farquhar Era 1810-1822 - Reform Pretended: Cole and Telfair - Slavery in 1826: A Demographic Survey - Upheaval and the Failure of Protection - The Trauma of Slavery - Resistance and Other Responses to Slavery - Slavery and Freedom in Port Loui…
Dynasties of the Mutapa-Rozwi Complex
The two most obvious conclusions to be drawn from this material are that interlocking relationships and reasonably accurate dating are most reliably established for the very early and the very recent periods. The eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in particular, seem to be a period of confusion. Even in the best of circumstances this result might reasonably be expected as a consequence of the telescoping of events in a coherent body of ge…
Speaking for Themselves? Understanding African Freed Slave Testimonies from the Western Indian Ocean, 1850s-1930s
In this article we mine an array of British anti-slavery materials seeking the voices of enslaved East Africans in the western Indian Ocean. We draw attention to the numerous problems of translation involved in this kind of basic research and to the critical role played by both indigenous and British interpreters in the process of enabling captive Africans to “speak for themselves.” The lesson here is that historians must exercise particular care…
Food Traditions and Landscape Histories of the Indian Ocean World
Environmental histories of plant exchanges have largely centred on their economic importance in international trade and on their ecological and social impacts in the places where they were introduced. Yet few studies have attempted to examine how plants brought from elsewhere become incorporated over time into the regional cultures of material life and agricultural landscapes. This essay considers the theoretical and methodological problems in in…
Parler en son nom ? Comprendre les témoignages d'esclaves africains originaires de l'océan Indien (1850-1930)
Cet article examine des témoignages d'esclaves affranchis retrouvés dans les archives de l'amirauté britannique, dans celles des consulats ou des cours de justice de l'océan Indien occidental. À la différence des récits mieux connus concernant la traite atlantique, ces documents sont généralement brefs et ne sont pas directement produits par les esclaves africains eux-mêmes. Bien que difficiles à analyser, en raison de multiples strates de transc…
Eastern African History
Redefining African Regions for Linking Open-Source Data
In recent years, an increasing number of online archival databases of primary sources related to the history of the African diaspora and slavery have become freely and readily accessible for scholarly and public consumption. This proliferation of digital projects and databases presents a number of challenges related to aggregating data geographically according to the movement of people in and out of Africa across time and space. As a requirement …
Le caractere d’une traite d’esclaves deguisee (the nature of a disguised slave trade)”? Labor recruitment for La Reunion at Portuguese Mozambique, 1887-1889
This paper examines the final moments of the French libres engagés system of labor recruitment from Mozambique to La Réunion in the late 1880s. Rather than simply regarding this system as a form of disguised slave trade, it seeks to understand how these workers were actually recruited and the conditions of their employment on the French colonial island. It draws upon both French and Portuguese archival sources to place this brief chapter in the l…
Indian Ocean Africa
(2000). Indian Ocean Africa: The Island Factor. Emergences: Journal for the Study of Media & Composite Cultures: Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 373-386
Representation and Historical Consciousness in the Art of Modern Mozambique
Edward A. Alpers, Representation and Historical Consciousness in the Art of Modern Mozambique, Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, Vol. 22, No. 1 (1988), pp. 73-94
A Revised Chronology of the Sultans of Kilwa in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Dr. Alpers is a lecturer in the History Department of the University College, Dar es Salaam. He has been studying the history of the Yao and of the Malawi Empire; to this examination of the Sultans of Kilwa in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries he brings an extensive knowledge of the Portuguese sources
Trade, State, and Society Among the Yao in the Nineteenth Century
Through their deep involvement in the long-distance trade of eastern central Africa, the Yao were increasingly exposed to the impact of Swahili traders and their culture. During the nineteenth century the increased volume of trade, and the ever growing importance of slaves in that trade, combined to produce a marked growth in the scale of Yao political units. This paper begins by outlining the growth of Yao trade before the nineteenth century. It…
Eastern African History
Dynasties of the Mutapa-Rozwi Complex
The two most obvious conclusions to be drawn from this material are that interlocking relationships and reasonably accurate dating are most reliably established for the very early and the very recent periods. The eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in particular, seem to be a period of confusion. Even in the best of circumstances this result might reasonably be expected as a consequence of the telescoping of events in a coherent body of ge…
The French Slave Trade in East Africa (1721-1810)
Alpers Edward A. The French Slave Trade in East Africa (1721-1810). In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 10, n°37, 1970. pp. 80-124
Rethinking African Economic History
[No abstract]
Eastern Africa
Variety of experience is perhaps the most striking feature of the history of eastern Africa during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Along the coast this vast region stretches southwards from Mogadishu to the mouth of the Zambezi river. Inland it extends from the southern Ethiopian escarpment and the southern Sudan down along the western edge of the great lakes region, across the corridor between Lakes Tanganyika and Malawi, and then foll…
Ivory & slaves in East Central Africa
Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa
Portuguese in South-East Africa, 1488-1600
Ivory and Slaves
African Economic History
Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, c. 1500-1800
One of the more persistent problems confronting historians of East Africa remains the lack of reliable standard histories of the Indian Ocean world. Topics which are especially affected by this lacuna in the historical literature are the problem of Indonesian contacts, the history of Islam on the coast, and the economic history of both the coast and the interior. Only in the case of the Portuguese seaborne empire do we possess a series of studies…
Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa. Changing Patterns of International Trade to the Later Nineteenth Century
Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa. Changing Patterns of Internal Trade to the Late Nineteenth Century
East Africa and the Orient
Ivory and Slaves
The Role of Culture in the Liberation of Mozambique
No abstract
Muqdisho in the Nineteenth Century
During the nineteenth century Muqdisho experienced a significant revival in its fortunes after several centuries of gradual decline from its medieval heyday. While it remained on the periphery of the Omani empire on the coast of East Africa, steady commercial penetration of Indian merchant capital based at Zanzibar inexorably drew the entire Benaadir coast into the Omani orbit. Massive infusions of slave labour transformed agricultural commodity …
“To Seek a Better Life
(1984). “To Seek a Better Life:” The Implications of Migration from Mozambique to Tanganyika for Class Formation and Political Behavior. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines: Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 367-388
To Seek a Better Life
Edward A. Alpers, "To Seek a Better Life:" The Implications of Migration from Mozambique to Tanganyika for Class Formation and Political Behavior, Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, Vol. 18, No. 2 (1984), pp. 367-388
State, Merchant Capital, and Gender Relations in Southern Mozambique to the End of the Nineteenth Century
Edward A. Alpers, State, Merchant Capital, and Gender Relations in Southern Mozambique to the End of the Nineteenth Century: Some Tentative Hypotheses, African Economic History, No. 13 (1984), pp. 23-55
Ethiopia
No abstract
Ordinary Household Chores
Edward A. Alpers, "Ordinary Household Chores": Ritual and Power in a 19th-Century Swahili Women's Spirit Possession Cult, The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 17, No. 4 (1984), pp. 677-702
The Arab State of Zanzibar
History (58 obras) · African history and culture studies (54 obras) · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories (54 obras) · Colonialism, slavery, and trade (44 obras) · Geography (40 obras) · Political science (40 obras) · History (38 obras) · Ancient history (31 obras) · Sociology (22 obras) · Archaeology (21 obras)