Thomas Spear

has written histories of Zwangendaba's Ngoni, the Mijikenda (The Kaya Complex), eastern and central Kenya (Kenya's Past) and The Swahili (with Derek Nurse), as well as editing (with Richard Waller) Being Maasai. He is currently completing a social and economic history of the Arusha and Meru peoples of northern Tanzania.

Formerly at La Trobe University and Williams College, he is now Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison