This multidisciplinary volume challenges established ideas about "the world of the Swahili," proposing a perspective that highlights the transitory, shifting, and plural character of East African coastal societies, worldviews, and identities. Offering new insights into the interaction of local culture, Islam, colonialism, the postcolony, and globalization, the volume shows that the "Swahili" belong to many worlds and continue to cultivate the interfaces between these worlds.

Roman Loimeier is visiting professor at the University Gttingen (Germany) and fellow at the Centre of Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin (Germany). Rdiger Seesemann is professor at Northwestern University.