Chappati complaints and biriani cravings: the aesthetics of food in colonial Zanzibari institutions

This article examines prison and asylum diets in colonial Zanzibar, between 1928 and1962. The aesthetics of food is considered here from the perspective of the consumer. Food was the principal issue of complaint among both prisoners and asylum inmates. The British officials who organized catering in these institutions paid little or no attention to the social significance of food for those who would consume it, and therefore paid the price in terms of unrest and agitation in these institutions. Most complaints focused on the aesthetics of food, and these are explored in detail so as to understand the nature of patients? and prisoners? complaints. Why did these carefully crafted diets create so much conflict? What were the complaints? What do the complaints reveal about patients? and prisoners' expectations about food aesthetics? It will be shown that personal preferences and cultural norms dictated eating habits, but what a person ate - and how it was eaten ? also served as strong indicators of identity.