Spafford, Isabel

Description

This study examines the role of wakf reforms in reshaping class relationships in Zanzibar during the British protectorate. Prior to the establishment of the British protectorate in Zanzibar, wakf dedications maintained patron-client relationships between the landowning class and poor clients that were established during the time of slavery but continued after abolition. I argue that wakf dedications were essential to continuing these relationships, and therefore British wakf reforms were necessary to achieve British colonial goals of dissolving patron-client relationships and establishing a capitalist system based on wage labor and ground rent. I analyze the relationship of the British colonial class, the landowning class, and the peasant class with the institution of wakf, examining how this relationship changed over the course of British wakf reforms. This study particularly examines the impact of wakf reforms on class identity, inter-class relationships, and the role class dynamics played in production.

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University of Mississippi Libraries