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, […]