Heritage, Tourism, and Slavery at Shimoni

Narrative and Metanarrative on the East African Coast

Bibliographic Data

ID9399640
AuthorsWynne-Jone (0000-0002-3005-8647, University of Bristol, corresponding author), Martin Walsh (0000-0003-1662-286X, University of Cambridge)
Year2010
Volume37
Pages247-273
Publication date2010-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory in Africa (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0361-5413 • E-ISSN: 1558-2744
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1353/hia.2010.0030
OpenAlexW2143098833
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited29

There's a hole in the side of Africa, where the walls will speak if you only listen Walls that tell a tale so sad, that the tears on the cheeks of Africa glisten Stand and hear a million slaves, tell you how they walked so far That many died in misery, while the rest were sold in Zanzibar Shimoni, oh Shimoni, You have to find the answer and the answer has been written down in Shimoni When Kenya-born singer-songwriter Roger Whittaker sang these doleful words in 1983, the village of Shimoni was a relatively quiet backwater on the southern Kenya coast, known primarily for its deep-sea fishing club. It is now a much larger and busier place, where tourists come to see the ‘slave cave’ that gives Shimoni its name (Swahili shimo-ni , “at the cave”), and embark on boat trips to Wasini Island and the nearby Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park (see Figure 1). Whittaker's song played a significant role in this development, by bringing Shimoni and its caves to wider attention, and focusing on one of a number of narratives about the caves' past usage. The lyrics of ‘Shimoni’ did not simply embellish a local tale, but (re)created it in the image of metanarratives about the history of slavery on the East African coast. As we will argue in this paper, these metarratives now dominate reconstructions of the past in Shimoni, and are reinforced by the activities and institutions that constitute and promote the caves as an important site of cultural heritage

Adventure · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Cave · Geography · Literature · Narrative · Tourism · African history and culture studies · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History

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