From dhow culture to the diaspora: ZIFF, film, and the framing of transnational imaginaries in the western Indian Ocean

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Abstract
  • Coastal East Africa has been dramatically re-imagined in recent years. Popular
    culture and mass media have played a central role in sparking new visions of
    how Zanzibar in particular “connects” with the wider world. For more than a
    decade now, both the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) and the Sauti
    za Busara music festival have worked to resituate Zanzibar regionally and
    within a wider diasporic and transnational Indian Ocean milieu. Through the
    staging and promotion of these annual festivals, culture has become a key tool
    for development, linked to tourism, media networking, and the growth of culture
    industries. ZIFF and Busara attempt to refigure Zanzibar with regard to space
    and temporality, emphasising certain visions of history and collective identity
    that are anything but uncontested. In practice and performance, ZIFF and Busara
    invoke transnational continuities across the Indian Ocean world; pan-Africanism
    and continental solidarities; the black diaspora; regional connections; and local
    cultural roots. This article focuses on the contradictions that unfold from these
    divergent spatial imaginaries, arguing that images of cultural connection or
    seamless flows mirror theoretical flaws in transnational studies more broadly.
TitleFrom dhow culture to the diaspora: ZIFF, film, and the framing of transnational imaginaries in the western Indian Ocean
CreatorBissell, William Cunningham
PublisherSocial Dynamics
Academic DepartmentAnthropology & Sociology
DivisionSocial Sciences
OrganizationLafayette College
Date IssuedSeptember 2012
Date Available2013-03-11T13:19:56Z
TypeArticle
LanguageEnglish
Keywordfestivals
dhow culture
Zanzibar
development
African film
transnationalism
Bibliographic CitationBissell, W. C. (2012 Sept.) "From dhow culture to the diaspora: ZIFF, film, and the framing of transnational imaginaries in the western Indian Ocean." Social Dynamics 38 (3): 479–498.
Standard IdentifierHandle 10385/1167
DOI 10.1080/02533952.2012.749010
Permalinkhttp://hdl.handle.net/10385/1167
Rights Statement In Copyright In Copyright
Rights HoldersTaylor & Francis
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