Across Africa and elsewhere, colonialism promised to deliver progress and development. In urban Zanzibar, the British vowed to import scientific techniques and practices, ranging from sanitation to urban planning--to create a perfect city. However, William Cunningham Bissell shows how these plans had to be remade over and over again. He offers a different view of colonialism, urban space, and power--one that is deeply marked by contradiction, confusion, and even chaos--by exploring the flawed attempts of colonial power to impose order on a complex Islamic city. Bissell creates an engaging portrait of a vibrant and cosmopolitan African city while exposing colonial irrationality and bureaucratic folly.