East Africa and Swahili: Sea Roads

Lorien Kauffman, Selah Judge, Beatrix Brudie, Cicily Maryland

The Swahili Civilization● Long distance trade gave rise to

the East African civilization Swahili.

● Rose in the eighth century C.E.● Was a set of commercial

city-states that stretched along the East African coast from present-day Somalia to Mozambique

The Rise of the Swahili Civilization● Originally lived in small farming, and fishing villages.● Arabian, Greek, and Roman merchants occasionally came to trade on the coast

during the classical era.● The rich commercial life in the Indian Ocean stimulated the growth of the

Swahili civilization.● Growing demand of East African products such as gold, ivory, quartz, leopard

skins, iron, timber, and slaves created trade relationships with Arabia, Persia, and India.

● Trade market led to the formation of the civilization. A merchant class was created, villages turned to towns, and clan leaders became kings.

Age of Development

● Around 1000 and 1500 BCE● Thriving trade● Different from the pastoral cultures nearby● Highly urban society

Swahili Cities

● Cities were the center of civilization

● Major cities: Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa, Sofala

● Populated with 15,000 to 18,000 people

● Like city-states: independent in government and trade

Old Town Lamu, the best preserved Swahili Settlement as it looks today.http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1055/gallery/

Trade Systems ● Swahili Merchants brought goods from interior Africa to the coast to trade with foreign civilizations

● Main imported goods: Chinese silk and porcelain, Persian rugs, Indian cotton

● Swahili boats navigated the coast to concentrate goods

● Merchants were considered socially elitehttps://tishfarrell.com/2013/05/02/weekly-photo-challeng

e-culture-the-swahili/

Influences in Language

● The Swahili language was grammatically an African tongue, but was written in Arabic script.

● A significant amount of grammar derives from the Arabic language through contact Arabic-speaking Muslims settlers of the coast of the Swahili civilization.

● Not only was the written form of their language in the Arabic script, but it had many Arabic loan words.

● Although the Swahili dialect is made up of borrowed languages other than Arabic, the grammar and syntax place it in the Bantu language family.

The Islamic Divide

● Islam linked the Swahili cities to the greater world of the Indian Ocean

● An Arab scholar by the name of Ibn Battuta traveled the Swahili coast

● On his voyage he found African Muslims that were not colonies of transplanted Arabs

● “ The rulers, scholars, officials, and big merchants as well as the port workers, farmers, craftsmen, and slaves, were dark-skinned people people speaking African tongues in everyday life”

● Swahili cities were divided because of their faith, but economically were still a part of the trading that went on around them

● Acted as an intermediary between interior producers of goods, and the Arab merchants that delivered them

● Extended almost all the way out to the Indian Sea● A great state began to rise known as Great Zimbabwe ● Gold was the main factor for the growth of Great Zimbabwe

Economic

● At Great Zimbabwe’s height between 1250-1350 had the power to construct massive stone enclosures without mortar, with walls that were sixteen feet thick and thirty-two feet tall

● In the interior of southeast Africa is an example of the transforming power of Indian Ocean Commerce