Dr Johann Ludwig Krapf monument
Situated in Mkomani and close to English Point, the monument is named after Johann Ludwig Krapf, a German missionary, explorer, linguist and scholar born in 1810. Dr Krapf died in 1881 in Germany aged 71. He studied at the Eberhard Karls University Tubingen from 1929, graduating in 1934. He went to Basel after this where […]
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 […]
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 […]