Transcending Race and Diaspora in a Colonial Urban Space: Ismaili Indians and Their Education in Mwanza, Tanzania (the 1920s to 1950s)

Autor

  • Kerindo Abeid Sumara PhD Student, Faculty of Arts-Ethnology and Non-European Studies University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava; Assistant Lecturer, Dar es Salaam University College of Education https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5549-5050

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23858/JUE22.2024.013

Słowa kluczowe:

diaspora, education, Ismailis, Indians, Mwanza, race, urban

Abstrakt

This paper discusses the Ismaili Indians’ identity as manifested in the aspect of education when the British colonial government sought to develop a school system based on racial categories. It uncovers the British officials’ attempts to promote a unified Indian diaspora and the Ismailis’ opposition to such attempts on the basis of both archival and secondary sources. While existing studies provide a generalised view of competing identities among Indian migrants in East African colonies, this paper provides the details of such phenomenon from Mwanza town. The paper argues that education was an important tool of identity creation among the colonial subjects in urban areas. Ismailis in Mwanza town distinguished themselves from Indian diaspora and established separate schools to fulfil their religious and communal stipulations.

Pobrania

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Opublikowane

17.12.2024

Jak cytować

Sumara, K. A. (2024). Transcending Race and Diaspora in a Colonial Urban Space: Ismaili Indians and Their Education in Mwanza, Tanzania (the 1920s to 1950s). Journal of Urban Ethnology, 22, 205–221. https://doi.org/10.23858/JUE22.2024.013