Swahili, People of the Coast (2011)

Swahili, Peoples of the Kenya Coast, directed Sergio Dow, follows Dr. Chap Kusimba's more than two decades of research in East Africa. Dr. Kusimba has been carrying out archaeological research in Kenya since 1986. His research has been concerned with understanding the ancient and modern history of the peoples of the Kenyan coast and the interior. For this documentary, we learned a great deal about the history of Kenya. Informed largely through Dr. Kusimba's research at the ancient port city of Mtwapa. At Mtwapa and other Coastal towns the settlers interact with foreign merchants some of whom were Muslim, and through this interaction, a new culture that incorporated both African and Islamic traditions emerged. This culture is known as the Swahili coast or Peoples of the coast. The language mainly spoken here is Kiswahili. Pioneer scholars of the Swahili, were wrong in hypothesizing that the Swahili people and their language was a mixture of Arabic and African. Trade with Africa was a major catalyst for change including the introduction of Islam. As time went by, the volume and intensity of trade increased. They exchanged things consisting of ivory, cattle, milk, honey, pottery, beads, and much more. Today the coast and its people who practice more traditional crafts such as boat building have a much harder time competing with new technological innovations such as the introduction of large sea going ships. These ships have made it impossible for the locally made dhows to compete. As a result, local boat making had declined from 75 dhows a year to less than 10.