East Africa and the Swahili coast
A gap in the curriculum
East Africa and the Swahili coast
ScopeBroad enough for its own sub-branch
AfterWho We Are and How We Got Here
Leads toThe Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence
Lineage11 books back to the Big Bang
I do not know much about East Africa. I know that the Swahili Coast traded extensively with the Arab and broader Muslim worlds and that Islam spread through those connections. However, I know little about the states, societies, and trading networks that existed there.
I am aware of a larger Indian Ocean trading system that connected East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. That system also produced religious and cultural minorities throughout the regions it connected, but I do not understand its history in any detail.
Claude’s take
A cosmopolitan, literate, trading Africa that the standard story of the continent leaves out.
Candidate reading
- The Swahili World — Stephanie Wynne-Jones & Adria LaViolette (eds.)
- The Fortunes of Africa — Martin Meredith