Swahili city-states

​The Swahili city-states

By Cayleigh Butz

​WARM-UP
In the mentimeter, describe what a city-state is

Multiple Select

What does Swahili refer to? This is multiple things. Choose all that you think apply here.

• language

• culture

• religion

• an African tribe

• How did geography and trade affect the development of the Swahili civilization?

• maritime

Vocabulary Check and Essential Question

Multiple Choice

Many merchants learned how to navigate the maritime trade routes by utilizing the monsoon wind patterns.

If you replaced maritime in the sentence above with any word below, which of these would NOT change the meaning of the sentence?

3 would change the meaning and 1 would not

• terrain

• inland

• continental

• marine

Indian Ocean Trade Routes and Monsoons

• Maritime (sea) trade routes on the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea connected East Africa to other civilizations

• The monsoons winds helped people sail to different places at different times of the year

  • April to October - blow from Africa toward Arabia and India

  • November to March - blow from India toward Africa

• Indian Ocean trade network also helped East Africa reach places as far as China

Drag and Drop

As we watch the short video, think about the passage below and try to fill in the blanks with the most appropriate word:

Trade across the Indian Ocean was successful due to a wide variety of ​

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both available and needed worldwide. ​ The ​

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was the most important thing to sailors and traders. ​

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winds are often thought of in terms of ​

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, but in this case, the wind is what helps move the ships. Because they came each year at the same time, travel guides could ​

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the time of departure down to the day.

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

resources

wind

rain

Monsoon

predict

Indian Ocean Trade Expands

• East Africa's participation in Indian Ocean trade grew by the 700s CE

  • Muslim merchants from the growing state in the Arabian Peninsula came to East Africa

    • They settled in ports on the African coast

• Ideas began to spread such as improving shipbuilding and navigation

  • Dhow ships - triangular sails to travel with monsoons winds

    • carry heavier and larger loads that benefitted all, not just the rich

  • Compass - travel in the right direction, invented by China

  • Astrolabe - determine location using the stars, invented by Greece and made better by Muslim scholars

Match

Match the cause with the most likely effect

• Traders used ships that carried heavy loads

• Ideas spread through trade

• Muslim Merchants arrived in East Africa

People traded more everyday goods

Groups shared technological advances

Africa becomes more involved with trade

• People traded more everyday goods

• Groups shared technological advances

• Africa becomes more involved with trade

Swahili Culture

• Many people on the East African coast came from Bantu cultural groups

  • these groups shared ethnicities and languages

• Muslim merchants who settled on the coasts, married into Bantu families

  • gained power in ruling families

  • combined the culture of the two groups to become the dominant culture and language of the East African coast

• The Swahili language is a combination of Bantu languages and Arabic

  • Swahili is an Arabic word meaning "coast"

Growth of City-states and Kilwa

• The city-state of Kilwa was one of the most powerful

  • trade link to Indian Ocean trade and areas further south

• Major gold mines were just south of Kilwa near the port of Sofala

  • they controlled the export of gold by transporting it from Sofala and selling it to merchants

  • declined after Portuguese sailors arrived in the 1400s CE and gained control over trade

• Cities on the Swahili coast became city-states

  • successful between 1100 CE and 1500 CE

  • 35 city-states

  • all shared a common Swahili culture despite individual governments

• Muslims made up most of the elite class, rulers, and merchants

  • Non-Muslims were considered lower-status

• Not concerned with conquest for territory, but more so with trade control

Open Ended

Choose one of the East African geographic features below, and talk about how it impacted the development of the Swahili city-states.

monsoon winds, Poet of Sofala/gold mines, maritime trade routes, and location on the coast