A History of the East African Coast

A History of the East African Coast PDF Author: Charles Cornelius
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781461166160
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description
The history of the Swahili coast is laced with political intrigue, scandal, international commerce, war, invasion and terrorism. Stretching from Somalia in the north, through Kenya and Tanzania, to Mozambique in the south and to the great offshore islands of the coast, it is home to the Swahili people, a unique blend of Arab, African and Persian, whose story stretches back more than two thousand years and which forms the backdrop to one of Africa's oldest and greatest civilizations. Drawing on archaeology, the civic chronicles of the Swahili towns and accounts of the coast written by explorers, traders and colonialists from as far afield as Italy, China and Britain, this illustrated book tells the story of the Swahili coast. Moving from the slave markets and clove plantations of Zanzibar, to the stone towns of the Lamu Archipelago, to the fight for control of Mombasa and its great bastion, Fort Jesus, it tells the stories of Zanzibar sultans, Swahili traders, Portuguese conquerors and Christian missionaries.

A History of the East African Coast

A History of the East African Coast PDF Author: Charles Cornelius
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781461166160
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 104

Get Book Here

Book Description
The history of the Swahili coast is laced with political intrigue, scandal, international commerce, war, invasion and terrorism. Stretching from Somalia in the north, through Kenya and Tanzania, to Mozambique in the south and to the great offshore islands of the coast, it is home to the Swahili people, a unique blend of Arab, African and Persian, whose story stretches back more than two thousand years and which forms the backdrop to one of Africa's oldest and greatest civilizations. Drawing on archaeology, the civic chronicles of the Swahili towns and accounts of the coast written by explorers, traders and colonialists from as far afield as Italy, China and Britain, this illustrated book tells the story of the Swahili coast. Moving from the slave markets and clove plantations of Zanzibar, to the stone towns of the Lamu Archipelago, to the fight for control of Mombasa and its great bastion, Fort Jesus, it tells the stories of Zanzibar sultans, Swahili traders, Portuguese conquerors and Christian missionaries.

East Africa

East Africa PDF Author: Robert M. Maxon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
"[The author] revisits the diverse eastern region of Africa, including the modern nations of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda."--

The Swahili World

The Swahili World PDF Author: Stephanie Wynne-Jones
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317430166
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 672

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Book Description
The Swahili World presents the fascinating story of a major world civilization, exploring the archaeology, history, linguistics, and anthropology of the Indian Ocean coast of Africa. It covers a 1,500-year sweep of history, from the first settlement of the coast to the complex urban tradition found there today. Swahili towns contain monumental palaces, tombs, and mosques, set among more humble houses; they were home to fishers, farmers, traders, and specialists of many kinds. The towns have been Muslim since perhaps the eighth century CE, participating in international networks connecting people around the Indian Ocean rim and beyond. Successive colonial regimes have helped shape modern Swahili society, which has incorporated such influences into the region’s long-standing cosmopolitan tradition. This is the first volume to explore the Swahili in chronological perspective. Each chapter offers a unique wealth of detail on an aspect of the region’s past, written by the leading scholars on the subject. The result is a book that allows both specialist and non-specialist readers to explore the diversity of the Swahili tradition, how Swahili society has changed over time, as well as how our understandings of the region have shifted since Swahili studies first began. Scholars of the African continent will find the most nuanced and detailed consideration of Swahili culture, language and history ever produced. For readers unfamiliar with the region or the people involved, the chapters here provide an ideal introduction to a new and wonderful geography, at the interface of Africa and the Indian Ocean world, and among a people whose culture remains one of Africa’s most distinctive achievements.

African Merchants of the Indian Ocean

African Merchants of the Indian Ocean PDF Author: John Middleton
Publisher: Waveland Press
ISBN: 1478609680
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 151

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Book Description
This new monograph serves as an authoritative introduction to an unusual people of eastern Africa known as Swahili. Middleton, who has known these people for a half a century, describes their highly stratified, merchant society and civilization, documenting their importance both for anthropologists and for others interested in Africa. Swahili continue today their centuries-old role as merchants in long-distance international trade, a role that has led them to form a society very distinct from any other in Africa. Middletons brief, personal treatment discusses Swahili recorded history as an integral part of their rich tradition and civilization. He clears up past confusions and mistaken assumptions without trying to define a single Swahili identity. His lucid approach unravels contradictions about Swahili being merchants and yet fishermen, who live in both cities as well as small villages, and who reckon various kinds of kinship and marriage. Swahili are often considered by non-Swahili as being both Africans and Arabs, but Middleton shows that they remain African despite having long adopted Islam and many aspects of Arab and Asian cultures.

Britain and Slavery in East Africa

Britain and Slavery in East Africa PDF Author: Moses D. E. Nwulia
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ISBN: 9780914478119
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
This text reviews documents to evaluate Britain's claim that it had a prominent role in the extinction of slavery and the slave trade in East Africa. It demonstrates that the moral imperative for an abolitionist policy was often subordinated in favour of material wealth and imperial strength.

A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture

A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture PDF Author: Finbarr Barry Flood
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119068576
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 1442

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Book Description
The two-volume Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture bridges the gap between monograph and survey text by providing a new level of access and interpretation to Islamic art. The more than 50 newly commissioned essays revisit canonical topics, and include original approaches and scholarship on neglected aspects of the field. This two-volume Companion showcases more than 50 specially commissioned essays and an introduction that survey Islamic art and architecture in all its traditional grandeur Essays are organized according to a new chronological-geographical paradigm that remaps the unprecedented expansion of the field and reflects the nuances of major artistic and political developments during the 1400-year span The Companion represents recent developments in the field, and encourages future horizons by commissioning innovative essays that provide fresh perspectives on canonical subjects, such as early Islamic art, sacred spaces, palaces, urbanism, ornament, arts of the book, and the portable arts while introducing others that have been previously neglected, including unexplored geographies and periods, transregional connectivities, talismans and magic, consumption and networks of portability, museums and collecting, and contemporary art worlds; the essays entail strong comparative and historiographic dimensions The volumes are accompanied by a map, and each subsection is preceded by a brief outline of the main cultural and historical developments during the period in question The volumes include periods and regions typically excluded from survey books including modern and contemporary art-architecture; China, Indonesia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sicily, the New World (Americas)

Horn and Crescent

Horn and Crescent PDF Author: Randall L. Pouwels
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521523097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
A major historical study of Islam among the Swahili.

Swahili and Sabaki

Swahili and Sabaki PDF Author: Derek Nurse
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520097750
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 813

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Book Description
The Sabaki languages form a major Bantu subgroup and are spoken by 35 million East Africans in Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and the Comoro Islands. The authors provide a historical/comparative treatment of Swahili (and other Sabaki languages), an account of the relationship of Swahili to Sabaki and to other Bantu languages, and some data on contemporary Sabaki languages. Data sets, appendices, maps, and figures present essential information on phonology, lexical makeup, and tense/aspect morphology. The final chapter is a synthesis describing the linguistic and historical relationship of the Sabaki dialects to each other and to hypothetical proto-stages.

The Columbia Guide to East African Literature in English Since 1945

The Columbia Guide to East African Literature in English Since 1945 PDF Author: Simon Gikandi
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231125208
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
The Columbia Guide to East African Literature in English Since 1945 challenges the conventional belief that the English-language literary traditions of East Africa are restricted to the former British colonies of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Instead, these traditions stretch far into such neighboring countries as Somalia and Ethiopia. Simon Gikandi and Evan Mwangi assemble a truly inclusive list of major writers and trends. They begin with a chronology of key historical events and an overview of the emergence and transformation of literary culture in the region. Then they provide an alphabetical list of major writers and brief descriptions of their concerns and achievements. Some of the writers discussed include the Kenyan novelists Grace Ogot and Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Ugandan poet and essayist Taban Lo Liyong, Ethiopian playwright and poet Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, Tanzanian novelist and diplomat Peter Palangyo, Ethiopian novelist Berhane Mariam Sahle-Sellassie, and the novelist M. G. Vassanji, who portrays the Indian diaspora in Africa, Europe, and North America. Separate entries within this list describe thematic concerns, such as colonialism, decolonization, the black aesthetic, and the language question; the growth of genres like autobiography and popular literature; important movements like cultural nationalism and feminism; and the impact of major forces such as AIDS/HIV, Christian missions, and urbanization. Comprehensive and richly detailed, this guide offers a fresh perspective on the role of East Africa in the development of African and world literature in English and a new understanding of the historical, cultural, and geopolitical boundaries of the region.

Making Identity on the Swahili Coast

Making Identity on the Swahili Coast PDF Author: Steven Fabian
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108492045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
A re-examination of the historical development of urban identity and community along the Swahili Coast.