Rice, Civilisation and the Swahili Towns

Anti-Commodity and Anti-State

Bibliographic Data

ID20086447
AuthorsErik Gilbert (0000-0001-9402-1037, corresponding author)
Year2016
Pages170-186
Publication date2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueLocal Subversions of Colonial Cultures (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan UK (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/9781137381101_9
OpenAlexW2469263752
ISBN9781137381101
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited11

In the 1830s, coastal East Africa was drawn into an emerging global market for agricultural commodities. Long-distance trade was nothing new to the region, but prior to the 19th century the region's main exports had been, at various times, ivory, rhino horn, turtle shell, slaves, rock crystal, gums, resins and gold. In the early 19th century the Omani Arabs who ruled Zanzibar and much of the coast began to create a plantation complex that used slave labour to produce cloves, coconuts and sugar. While sugar was only moderately successful, the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba quickly became the world's largest producer of cloves. Almost the entire clove crop was exported to India and Indonesia. The coconuts, which were grown on the mainland as well as the islands, were processed into copra and coir and exported to India and Europe. Alongside the clove plantations of the islands was a less well-studied plantation sector that produced grain on the mainland of what is now Tanzania for export to the islands and to South Arabia. These coastal plantations produced mostly millet and sorghum and like the clove plantations also relied on slave labour.KeywordsRice ProductionRice CultivationClove PlantationSlave LabourLocal RiceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves

Agricultural economics · Agriculture · Agroforestry · Archaeology · Biology · Economics · Geography · Livelihood · Mainland · African history and culture studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories

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