Naming and placing the other: Power and the urban landscape in Zanzibar

Place names mark the spatiality of power relationships, but toponymy has yet to be reexamined in light of human geography's recent philosophical and theoretical emphasis on power and language. This essay utilizes the example of Zanzibar's Ng'ambo neighborhoods, literally the city's 'Other Side', in order to show how toponymy and boundary-making embody a complex spatial discourse on power. Rather than simply reflecting the impress of state or elite ideologies, the toponymic tapestry of the Other Side and the micro-geographies of boundary-making that accompany it indicate the presence of many interwoven layers of power in the landscape. Toponymy and the accompanying emplacement process can thus be rich sources for analysis of the 'capillary' nature of power.