Introduction: landscapes of power and planning -- Cosmopolitan lives, urbane worlds: space and society in Zanzibar City -- Uncertain states: colonial practices and the ambiguities of power -- Colonial cartographies: struggling to make sense of urban space -- Disease, environment, and social engineering: clearing out and cleaning up the colonial city -- Development and the dilemmas of expertise -- Failures of implementation: circularity and secrecy in the pursuit of planning -- Disorder by design: legal confusion and bureaucratic chaos in colonial planning -- Conclusion: reflections on planning, colonial power, and continuities in the present.