memoires d'une princesse arabe de zanzibar

Mmmmeh. Ostensibly, the interesting bit of reading this is its meta: what is it that the author chooses to emphasize or ignore. To begin with, the (true? mostly true?) story of Emily Ruete, formerly Sayyida Salme, Princess of Zanzibar, is an interesting little nugget of Zanzibari history. Her biography also offers a cool peek into 19th century Zanzibari culture and customs. It was fun, for example, to note the similarities and differences between the Omani Sultanate on Zanzibar - as experienced by Ruete - and the Delhi-based Mughals from the same period. Especially the million kids thing! So many princes and princesses! Love it.

BUT! And this is a big but. The “meta” that makes this autobio most interesting is, according to its Intro/Foreword, about how much Ruete whitewashes. Her role was often politicized - she backed the wrong brother during one attempted princely coup, Bismarck backed her return to Zanzibar for a (second) attempted coup (both didn't work out). As such, she portrays Zanzibar as this maaaaagical, wonderful land full of lovely people who are happy all the time. Political campaigning, much? Everything is so strongly idealized and completely bland that it's frustrating and tedious to read. Similarly, there were periodic spasms of either defensiveness against her adopted Germany (German ladies wear boring, monochromatic clothes; Germans are neurotically over-educated), or just plain ol' racism vis-a-vis those “evil, conniving Hindoos” or those “lazy, ignorant Africans”. Sure - the meta that Ruete had these prejudices is interesting (it bespeaks a racially complicated, culturally mixed island), but it's not so nice to read.

William Dalrymple - go to Zanzibar!