Update/Seminar: Different Seas, Different Histories? Reflections on the Western Indian Ocean, Jul. 6 2011 @ BIEA

Due to unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances, Professor John Mack has with deep regret had to cancel his trip to Kenya and therefore his Seminar too (Different Seas, Different Histories?), which was scheduled for

Date: July 6, 2011
Venue: British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) Seminar Room, Laikippia Road, Kileleshwa
Speaker: Prof. John Mack, President of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA)
Chair: Dr. Hassan Wario, Director of Museums, Sites & Monuments-National Museum of Kenya (NMK)
Entry: RSVP with Kerry (Kerry.kyaa@biea.ac.uk)
Tel. Contacts: 0735 260 004 or 0724 576 600

This seminar has been rescheduled to a later date and details will be communicated once we get them. Please accept apologies from BIEA.

The seminar discusses some of the arguments in the speaker’s recent book The Sea, A Cultural History. It begins by suggesting that seas have different characteristics which need to be taken into account in assessing the human engagement with them. Interpretations based on the Mediterranean or the North Sea have dominated interpretation of wider histories as have terrestrial understandings of what it means to be at sea. Topics discussed will include navigational practices, conceptions of the sea, trading practices and piracy. The occupation of Madagascar and the Swahili islands is instructive in terms of the implications of moving across the Equator. The mismatch between astrological systems and navigational knowledge, both based on observations of the stars, provides a suggestive conclusion.

Download Different seas, different histories poster and Map and Directions (pdf)

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