Manipulation of the past and forced erasure of memories have been global phenomena throughout history, spanning a varied repertoire from the destruction or alteration of architecture, sites, and images, to the banning or imposing of old and new practices. The present volume addresses these questions comparatively across time and geography, and combines a material approach to the study of memory with cross-disciplinary empirical explorations of historical and contemporary cases. This approach positions the volume as a reference-point within several fields of humanities and social sciences. The collection brings together scholars from different fields within humanities and social science to engage with memorialization and damnatio memoriae across disciplines, using examples from their own research. The broad chronological and comparative scope makes the volume relevant for researchers and students of several historical periods and geographic regions.

Zanzibar, an island off the East African coast, with its Muslim and Swahili population, offers rich material for this study of identity, religion, and multiculturalism. This book focuses on the phenomenon of spirit possession in Zanzibar Town and the relationships created between humans and spirits; it provides a way to apprehend how society is constituted and conceived and, thus, discusses Zanzibari understandings of what it means to be human.

In the past decades religion has entered the political debate and is evoked in relation to a variety of events taking place around the world. Religion and religious differences, not political, economic or social, are claimed to be the cause rather than an expression of - or even a reaction to - ongoing problems. Islam and Christianity (or also Islam and Hinduism) are, in most cases, represented not only as opposed, but also as incommensurable worldviews, value systems and identities, where the one is threatening the existence of the other. Among the Swahili on the East-African Coast, this trend provokes questions related to whether we should approach what appear to be expressions of religious positioning in terms of renewal of previous understandings and relationships, or as a rephrasing of complex and conflictual matters that were always part of Swahili society.The papers in this book reveal that the Swahili are experiencing worsening economic, political and social conditions. Within these circumstances, Islam is invoked as a source of knowledge that not only explains the current state of life and living, but also gives directions on how to cope with and to change the situation for the better. Islam is both what reinforces Swahili identity and a particular way of life, and at the same time, given the current international climate, further marginalizes Swahili society and culture.KJERSTI LARSEN is Associate Professor at the Department of Ethnography at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. She has conducted research in Muslim sociteties in East Africa.