Cracks in the Dome: Fractured Histories of Empire in the Zanzibar Museum, 1897–1964

Cracks in the Dome is an engaging study that weaves together colonial history and museum studies to highlight the relationship between museums and imperial policy-making, as well as the inconsistencies inherent in the British government's mission in its territories. In her work, Sarah Longair focuses on the Peace Memorial Museum in Zanzibar, a small museum built to memorialize World War I and serve as an educational center and repository of Zanzibar's cultural heritage. Despite its small size, it held a crucial position in mediating relations between colonial officials and the local populations in Unguja and to a lesser extent Pemba, the two largest islands of the Zanzibar archipelago. Longair discusses both the period leading up to the opening of the museum in 1925, as well as the period from its opening until Zanzibar's independence, thus covering a broad stretch of British colonial rule in Zanzibar, from 1897 to 1964. Longair's...