On the Frontiers of the Indian Ocean World: A History of Lake Tanganyika, c. 1830–1890 by Philip Gooding

Abstract

Since the publication of Kirti N. Chaudhuri’s Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean (New York, 1985), historical studies of the Indian Ocean World (IOW) have grown exponentially. Coming to grips with this vast oceanic space has challenged subsequent generations of historians to think creatively about how best to address its great diversity in both time and space. An important feature of this recent scholarship is its interdisciplinarity. In the volume under review, Gooding takes an innovative approach to what, in some hands, might have been limited to a regional East African study of this historiographically neglected zone by locating Lake Tanganyika as a frontier of the IOW. By defining the Indian Ocean littoral as the core of this watery world, he boldly proposes that this great African lake lay at its frontier. Specifically, in this analysis, he depicts a dynamic interaction that links the Swahili coast and the lakeshore littoral through the integrating element of the ivory trade. As he writes, “This book is about how these physical lines of connection developed and the roles that littoral and inland populations around Lake Tanganyika had in shaping them” (3). The book opens with an introduction discussing “Lakes, Oceans and Littorals in History” in which Gooding makes his case. The body of the text is divided into two parts. The first, entitled “Demarcations of Space,” includes three chapters—“The Growth of Emporia,” “Changing Land Use in a Changing Climate,” and “Traversing the Lake.” Part II is divided into four chapters—“Competition and Conflict on the Western Frontier,” “Global Commodities in East African Societies,” Structures of Bondage,” and “An Islamic Sea.” In each of these chapters, Gooding strives to demonstrate the numerous ways in which the changes wrought by the expansion of the ivory trade worked to connect the Swahili coast to the lakeshore and to transform the lakeshore’s society and culture, especially after about 1860.