The Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies

Indian Ocean History for the Age of Non-Alignment: The ‘Moorish Connection’ of North Africa and Sri Lanka

2025-03-31T11:05:52-04:00

Western scholarship on the Indian Ocean rarely takes into account the modern indigenous historiography of the region that emerged in dialogue with European depictions. This article traces the institutional then historiographical development of a Moorish identity in postcolonial Ceylon (from 1972 known as ‘Sri Lanka’), with a particular focus on The Moorish Connection, a history book published by the Moors Islamic Cultural Home to coincide with the 5th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in 1976 in Colombo. Like most other colonial and postcolonial Lankan Moors, the author of The Moorish Connection was unable to read the Arabic language of his purported ancestors, forcing him to rely on Orientalist works collected in the library of the Moors Islamic Cultural Home that commissioned his book. This produced a kind of nominative historical illusion whereby, when explored through the library of Orientalism, the English (and formerly Portuguese) name of the Moors germinated into narratives of an ancient ‘Moorish connection’ with distant Tunisia and Morocco. As a contribution to the neglected emic formulations of the Indian Ocean’s past, the article reconstructs the development of this Indian Ocean—and Mediterranean—self-history of the Moors through the colonial then postcolonial periods, culminating in its geopolitical deployment amid the soft power diplomacy of the Non-Aligned Movement and the postcolonial forging of new ‘South-South’ alliances.

The Crown of a Man: Muslim Skullcaps, Modernity, and Belonging in the Nineteenth-Twentieth-Century Indian Ocean World

2025-03-31T11:11:49-04:00

Across the Indian Ocean, Muslim men in different locales wear almost identical skullcaps, referred to variously as kofia, kopiah, topi and fez (amongst other names). This article traces the shifting styles and meanings of these skullcaps during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Zanzibar, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India. In so doing, it situates the wearing of this item of clothing within broader historical themes, such as Islamic cosmopolitanism, imagined communities, and masculinity. It then links the changing meanings that skullcaps had to broader historical moments, such as the imposition of European colonial rule, anti-colonial resistance, and the emergence of independent nation states. At different times and places, men’s skullcaps can be understood as a symbol of the wider Islamic community (ummah), of resistance to colonial rule, and of national identities.

The Living Sea: Conceptualising Narratives of Cultural Seascapes in the Eastern Cape of South Africa

2025-03-31T11:17:15-04:00

The sea exerts a powerful influence over coastal communities, shaping their social and cultural landscapes through a variety of intricate and diverse interactions. While these connections highlight the ocean’s cultural value and its essential place in coastal lives, they are neither uniform nor equally distributed across communities. This article advocates for a broader recognition of these relationships within marine management frameworks, pressing for the inclusion of spiritual and well-being dimensions that are presently overlooked. This article draws on ethnographic research that we conducted from 2021 to 2022 along South Africa’s Eastern Cape coast, from Algoa Bay to East London. It delves into how people perceive and experience the ocean as integral to cultural identity and community well-being. Through twenty in-depth interviews, themes of spirituality, cultural expression, interconnectedness with nature, healing, and the sense of access and loss emerge as crucial aspects of these relationships. This article highlights how differing relationships and understandings of the ocean expose historical divides between communities and ongoing socio-economic disparities that affect access to the sea. These narratives underscore the ocean’s role in supporting health and well-being, affirming the need to incorporate such values into marine management policies.

Kumma Cap from Oman

2025-03-31T11:00:51-04:00

See article by Fharose in this volume (p. 110).

Review: Prita Meier, The Surface of Things: A History of Photography From the Swahili Coast. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2024

2025-03-31T11:24:55-04:00

Editorial Introduction

2025-03-31T11:03:52-04:00