The Afro-Shirazi Revolution and the Emergence of a New Zanzibar
The Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, a watershed event in postcolonial African history, marked the subsequent overthrow of the Arab Omani-dominated Sultanate and the integration of Zanzibar and Pemba (called the spice islands) into the newly formed nation of Tanzania. The revolution happened barely a month after Zanzibar had gained its independence from British rule on […]
Ship Wrecks: Santo Antonio de Tanna (1697)
The Santo Antonio de Tanna was a 17th-century Portuguese frigate that sank very close to Fort Jesus in 1697. Fort Jesus stands as evidence of Portuguese presence in Mombasa designed by the Goa-based Italian architect Giovanni Batista Cairato as his last and perhaps most crowning achievement. It remains more or less as he had designed […]
The Swahili Coast (16th to 21st century): Changing Tides.
The period towards the end of the 15th century denotes the fall of the Swahili city states as the Portuguese period— which wasn’t a full-blown colonization effort— begun. It was a destructive time, with the sacking of places like Kilwa and Mombasa and also brought to light existing differences and power struggles between Swahili states, […]
The Swahili Coast(11th – 15th century CE): Stone Towns
This period the emergence of stone towns and increased coastal wealth and influence as trade expanded to the interior- as small towns grew to trade with and through the bigger ones, and also through the sea. There was more conversion to Islam and by the 11th century majority of coastal people were practicing Muslims. External […]
The Swahili Coast (6th -10th Century CE): Swahili Origins
There is an increase of settlements along and close to the shores along the stretch of the Swahili coast from Mogadishu to Sofala in Mozambique including the Lamu, Zanzibar and Comoros archipelagos and the northern tip of Madagascar. The communities were making and using a new suite of ceramics called Early Tana Traditions/ Triangular Incised […]
The Swahili Coast (1st – 5th Century CE): Rhapta
“In the end there will be two histories, theirs and ours. Ours will…satisfy us, while theirs continues to satisfy them.” (Spear [1981:178]) The Swahili coast is both a contested place, in regards to cultural identity formation and its somewhat painful narratives. Identity has been key in defining place and people, and even today, youth in […]
Said Ahmed Mohamed (1947-)
Said Ahmed Mohamed (1947-Present) is a Zanzibar-born poet, playwright and novelist with 67 titles to his name. He joined Dar es salaam university for his B.A in Kiswahili and English literature where for his excellent performance went on to Karl Marx university, now Leipzig university, in Germany for further studies in 1985. He later became […]
Shaaban Robert (1909-1962)
Shaaban Robert (1909-1962), born on the 1st January in Vibambani village, next to Machui 10KM South of Tanga was the greatest of the Swahili didactic-moralistic writers of the colonial period. He went to Msimbazi School in Daressalaam between (1922—1926) where he was one of the first Tanganyikans to pass the examination for a School Leaving […]
Mackinon Market
Mackinon market sits along Digo Road (formerly Salim Road North), Mombasa. Founded in 1914 during the colonial era, the market was named after Sir Henry Mackinnon, the then-colonial governor. Being the first and oldest in the coastal region, Mackinnon market was gazetted as a national monument in 1980, under the Antiques and Monuments Act of […]
Freretown and the Kengeleni Monument
Freretown, located a short drive from Mombasa CBD holds a significant place in the history of East Africa as a settlement established for freed slaves in the late 19th century, many of whom had been captured from regions as far as Nyasaland (Malawi), Mozambique, Tanganyika (Tanzania), and Southern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Northern Rhodesia (Zimbambwe). Its […]