East AfricaBy: Eric Wong, Tatiana Solis, Da’Necia

Schaffer, Beatriz Torres, and Alka Meresh

Swahili Trading- The coast of East Africa has had a long history of trade, involving constant exchanges of ideas and style for well over two thousand years.

- Ivory could be regarded as the plastic of its day. After the death of Alexander the great in 323 BC and the division of his empire into three, it was an increase of ivory.

- Traders from the near East could still sail to the east coast could trade anytime between November and February when the winds blew West. There was an opportunity between March and April for trading. By April, the winds would start blowing East and the would depart once again.

Swahili tradingOne of the most popular trading in Swahili was slave trading, gold and also the selling of ivory. The slaves were starting to grow more in demand over the years because ivory was getting so big, the demand of slaves were big to help transfer the ivory. Many of the slaves were working in rich households and the women were usually sex slaves.

- The Swahili share a common language, widely spoken by non-swahili, called Ki-Swahili, and enjoy city-based fusion of African and Arab culture.

- One of the greatest cities in the East was Kilwa situated on an island close to mainland. By the 14th century it was the most powerful city on the coast.

- “The city comes down to the shore, and is entirely surrounded by a wall and towers, within there are maybe 12,000 inhabitants. The country all around is luxurious with many trees and gardens of all sorts of vegetables, citrons, lemons, and the best sweet oranges that were ever seen.

SWAHILI Culture

Vasco Da Gama and Portuguese Rule

In 1498 the explorer Vasco da Gama signaled a new era of foreign rule on the Swahili Coast. By this time Mombasa was the dominant Swahili power, so control over this city meant control over the Swahili people. Portugal was seeking to monopolize trade throughout the Indian Ocean and built Fort Jesus in Mombasa. It took combined forces from Oman and Pate to finally push out the Portuguese from Swahili. Although the Portuguese remained in Mozambique until the late 20th century.

Arts and Music• The swahili express

themselves through creativity, shape and function.

• Multicultural influences can be seen in Swahili art, furniture, and architecture.

• They do not use images of living beings due to their Muslim heritage, Swahili designs are primarily geometric.

• There are important clothes that are part of their arts and crafts such as the Kanga.

• The Kanga is an artifact of the Swahili culture used as a sling to carry babies, melons on their heads, and can also be used as a kitchen apron.

• The Taarab is the most typical music genre of Swahili culture. The Taarab’s melodies and orchestration have Arab and Indian influences.

Swahili food• The Sunni and Muslim Swahili religion were not able to eat pork or drink

alcohol so instead they ate Arabic descent food. They also included their own riches and spices for the food. Their most popular food was the Pilau and Wali (cooked rice and coconut milk.)

• They also ate a lot of grains and vegetables and fruits including beans, peas, tomatoes, okra, kale, spinach, mangoes, coconut and bananas.

• For special occasions on special days they usually served goat meat and chicken.

SWAHILI ARCHITECTURE❖ The swahili people like to do many

details such as carving things.❖ They would carved the doors of their

houses and still today they are ornately carve.

❖ There was a very large population of craftsman in swahili that worked on wood,stone and metal.

❖ The ruling houses of the swahili coast lived in large houses ,some were several feet high.

❖ The plates in which they ate were made up of porcelain which came from china.

❖ The rich families lived in houses made out of stone and coral..

❖ They also slept in beds made up of ivory.

SWAHILI WEAPONS❖ For fighting the swahili

people used elephant tusks,ribs and wild cattle’s horns as spears.

❖ They would also use corselets, bows and arrows.

❖ The swahili had twenty myriads of foot-soldiers.

Annotated Bibliography

● "The Swahili." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2014. BBC's article on The Swahili gives us insight on what The Swahili's culture was like. The article also gives us information on the trade networks, trade routes, and the trading goods of the Swahili.

● Allen, James De Vere. "Swahili Architecture in the Later Middle Ages." JSTOR. UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center, n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2014."Swahili Architecture in the Later Middle Ages" helped us understand how the Swahili were extremely detailed in their architecture and their crafts. This article also described how the Swahili would create their buildings and great structures.

● Beck, Roger B. "Eastern City-States and Southern Empires." World History: Patterns of Interaction. Orlando, FL.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Pub., 2012. 422-25. Print.The textbook gave us a good understanding of the east coast of Africa and gave us a good place to start off our research.’

● "Britannica School." Britannica School. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014 Encyclopedia Britannica's article on the Swahili language helped us understand the origin and creation of their language. This article also helped us understand how the grammar of the Swahili worked and was formulated.

● "Britannica School." Britannica School. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. This article from Encyclopedia Britannica gives us good background information and a basic understanding of Eastern Africa and the Swahili.