`Willis has a rich body of intrinsically interesting field and archival data, and, while remaining comfortably in command of his material, he is willing to let people speak for themselves, without deconstructing them into submission to some currently fashionable agenda. The result is a book which makes some quiet but well-judged revisions in a number of important areas.'African Affairs

• Part 1 "Singwaya was a very big city" - the Swahili and the Nyika to 1890: histories of the coast, and the structure of hinterland communities; clients and slaves. Part 2 "Why the natives will not work" - labour, trade and the story of Singwaya, 1890-1919: squatting and trade in the hinterland; casual labour and the Swahili in Mombasa. Part 3 "Close contact with the coast residents is most prejudicial" - state intervention, 1900-1931: the creation of administrative categories; the control of trade; planning Mombasa; labour legislation, casuality and the cost of labour. Part 4 "Other dances" - Mombasa and the Mijekenda, 1925-1934: new networks of labour; the twelve tribes and the Mijikenda.

`Willis has a rich body of intrinsically interesting field and archival data, and, while remaining comfortably in command of his material, he is willing to let people speak for themselves, without deconstructing them into submission to some currently fashionable agenda. The result is a book which makes some quiet but well-judged revisions in a number of important areas.'African Affairs

• Part 1 "Singwaya was a very big city" - the Swahili and the Nyika to 1890: histories of the coast, and the structure of hinterland communities; clients and slaves. Part 2 "Why the natives will not work" - labour, trade and the story of Singwaya, 1890-1919: squatting and trade in the hinterland; casual labour and the Swahili in Mombasa. Part 3 "Close contact with the coast residents is most prejudicial" - state intervention, 1900-1931: the creation of administrative categories; the control of trade; planning Mombasa; labour legislation, casuality and the cost of labour. Part 4 "Other dances" - Mombasa and the Mijekenda, 1925-1934: new networks of labour; the twelve tribes and the Mijikenda.

`Willis has a rich body of intrinsically interesting field and archival data, and, while remaining comfortably in command of his material, he is willing to let people speak for themselves, without deconstructing them into submission to some currently fashionable agenda. The result is a book which makes some quiet but well-judged revisions in a number of important areas.'African Affairs

• Part 1 "Singwaya was a very big city" - the Swahili and the Nyika to 1890: histories of the coast, and the structure of hinterland communities; clients and slaves. Part 2 "Why the natives will not work" - labour, trade and the story of Singwaya, 1890-1919: squatting and trade in the hinterland; casual labour and the Swahili in Mombasa. Part 3 "Close contact with the coast residents is most prejudicial" - state intervention, 1900-1931: the creation of administrative categories; the control of trade; planning Mombasa; labour legislation, casuality and the cost of labour. Part 4 "Other dances" - Mombasa and the Mijekenda, 1925-1934: new networks of labour; the twelve tribes and the Mijikenda.