A Biography of the Indian Ocean

This book, with a focus on the East African coast and especially on the Kenyan coast, puts into conversation cross-generic texts – the historical novel, the Indian Ocean novel, oral history, oral testimony, and oral poetry – in two main languages – English and Kiswahili – with the aim of challenging, expanding and complementing the existing knowledge archive on Indian Ocean histories and its ideations on the Kenyan coast. It especially pays attention to the local forms of expression that articulate the Indian Ocean world from personal, local, and intimate perspectives. The intimate, personal, and local maps of the sea that emerge from this set of texts are derived from local articulations of the sea, informed by musings by seafarers who include divers, sailors, fishers, and beach operators. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of literary and cultural studies, African studies, and Indian Ocean studies.