Africa's east coast is blessed with a plethora of stunning islands, each one washed by the warm waters of the azure Indian Ocean. During the period of the Scramble for Africa, almost every country in the larger region to varying degrees became part of a European colonial empire. Inshore, people often mistake the pectoral fin of a sunfish floating on the surface to be that of a sharks dorsal fin. The continent is almost centered over the equator stretching from the consistently warm waters of the Mediterranean in the north right down to the frigid South Atlantic in the south. While Madagascar is dominant, there are several smaller islands. Prevailing climatic conditions and the regions' geomorphology allowed the establishment of flourishing European style settlements like Nairobi, Vila Pery, Vila Junqueiro, Porto Amlia, Loureno Marques and Entebbe.[68]. They are solitary and derive their name from the beautiful colour and spots. ~ Peet J. van Eeden, ? The coast of East Africa stretches 4,600km from southern Somalia to the Natal shores of South Africa. Sharm el-Sheikh has become . A dense concentration of box jellyfish in the Atlantic Ocean, Cape Town, South Africa Geo Cloete (Photographer of the Year 2018 Semi-finalist), In 2016, I published a photo of an unusual and yet to be described behaviour displayed by box jellyfish. We facilitate ranger training and provide equipment. In the East, Africa faces the Indian Ocean. . An ever-growing population dependent on timber and fuel wood continues to put pressure on this dwindling natural resource. [70] In 1922, the British gained a League of Nations mandate over Tanganyika which it administered until Independence was granted to Tanganyika in 1961. To the west, Africa has its longest coastline with the Atlantic Ocean. Click the image for a larger view. The Arabs reclaimed much of the Indian Ocean trade, forcing the Portuguese to retreat south where they remained in Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) as sole rulers until the 1975 independence of Mozambique. Coastal erosion threatens the nesting beaches of marine turtles and harms mangrove forestswhich are already being battered from increased storm surges, and vulnerable to future sea level rise. The east coast of Africa holds a bounty of life that rivals the land. History buffs should spend some time in Lamu Town, which is full of old Swahili architecture, with buildings made of mangrove timber and coral stone, and huge, carved wooden doors. All rights reserved. [71], There are movies that have depicted East Africa in various forms. With 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world's human population.Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the . Ancient Settlement The ancient peoples of what would become the Swahili Coast prospered thanks to agriculture and animal husbandry, aided by a regular annual rainfall and shallow coastal waters plentiful in seafood. Around 1,200 miles from the east coast of Africa, Mauritius is best known for its beautiful beaches, lagoons, reefs, and rainforests. For all its richness, the region also has some of the highest rates of people living below the poverty line on the planet. [citation needed] As cattle terminology in use amongst the few modern Bantu pastoralist groups suggests, the Bantu migrants would acquire cattle from their new Cushitic neighbors. We work with farmers to adopt practices that conserve resources and use less space, ensuring forest remains intact for wildlife. The ocean's name, derived from Greek mythology, means the "Sea of Atlas." It is second in size to the Pacific Ocean. It imported large quantities of Islamic pottery and, in the 9th and 10th centuries, Chinese porcelain. Pop. Tanzania and Uganda fought the UgandaTanzania War in 19781979, which led to the removal of Uganda's despotic leader Idi Amin. We hope to create an unprecedented data set that will be shared among NGOs, governments, universities and scientists in order to assess coral and fish population health, human usage, and fishing practices. This is . Local merchants gathered ivory from the south, gold from the western interior and frankincense and myrrh from northern Africa. Coastal storms bring stronger winds creating greater wave damage along shorelines. Although no houses were being built of coral, stone mosques were being constructed. Aromatic gums, tortoiseshell, ivory, and slaves were traded in return. A windswept and beautiful coast is the face that South Africa presents to the world - at turns tempestuous and tamed, stormy and sublime. Washington, DC 20037. Africa has a huge range of coastline which borders not only two oceans, but two seas as well. This photo depicts a portion of the base of the smack, illustrating the dense concentration of jellyfish. ~ Geo Cloete, ? East Africa is the part of Africa around and east of the Great Rift Valley, a land feature stretching from the Red Sea in the north, the Guardafui Channel in the east, and the Mozambique Channel in the southeast. A team of researchers . 1: The Swahili Coast of East Africa | From 1000 to 1500 CE, numerous Swahili states emerged along this 1,000 mile stretch from Mogadishu in the north (present-day Somalia) to Sofala in the south (present-day Mozambique). Fast as they are, I doubt this shark was quick enough to outrun the storm. ~ Adam Mitchell, ? This . In rural areas, people have lost crops and livestock and face hunger and outbreaks of malaria. They dubbed the part of the coast to which they sailed Azania, or the Land of Zanjby which they meant the land of the blacks and by which they knew it until the 10th century. Sailors and Daughters reveals the expansive maritime societies of Zanzibar, the east African coast, and beyond. Not a lot is known about the species, but they occur in deep water reefs and is vulnerable to overfishing. Gujarati traders were already criss-crossing the ocean for biashara with the Swahili Coast of Eastern Africa. WWF helped Mozambique establish the Quirimbas marine reserve in 2002. Eastern Africa consists largely of plateaus and has most of the highest elevations in the continent. In fact, a 2015 study published in Geophysical Research Letters showed that by closely watching these tropical disturbances off the coast of western Africa, researchers . When ships were powered by sails, the seasonally alternating Indian Ocean monsoon winds allowed for efficient sea voyages up and down the coast. 352-55), which traded East African products to India, the Far East, and the West. Nilotic languages, such as Luo, Kalenjin, Maasai and Nuer, are spoken in lesser numbers, primarily in the African Great Lakes and Nile Valley. We collaborate with authorities on a comprehensive investigation of illegal practices in an effort to create new policies and standards that mandate sustainable forest management and trade. In the African Great Lakes region, Niger-Congo languages of the Bantu branch are most widely spoken. Updates? Elephants, rhinos, lions, wild dogs, and more iconic species roam the landscape. The amount of water being transported by the Agulhas . sapiens, representative of the earliest Homo sapiens, and suggested that Homo sapiens arose between 350,000 and 260,000 years ago through a merging of populations in South and East Africa. In fact, on the coast of Somalia, many years can go by without any rain whatsoever. [29], According to both genetic and fossil evidence, it has been posited that archaic Homo sapiens evolved into anatomically modern humans in the Horn of Africa around 200,000 years ago and dispersed from there. Only in quite recent times has agriculture spread to the more humid regions south of the equator, through the spread of cattle, sheep and crops such as millet. Though the straits were never completely closed, there may have been islands in between which could be reached using simple rafts. Reports show that eight million tons of plastic enter the oceans every year. Only with more knowledge can we hope to make informed decisions. Chami, F. A. WWF continues to support law enforcement and promote awareness of illegal wildlife trade. Madagascar is also considered to be the world's fourth-largest island which offers a plethora of unique collection of flora and fauna. [45] The ancient Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Pharaonic Egypt during the times of Pharaoh Sahure and Queen Hatshepsut. The Big Five of the Ocean: Exploring the Waters of East Africa. However, the official Omani Arab presence in Kenya was checked by German and British seizure of key ports and creation of crucial trade alliances with influential local leaders in the 1880s. Over a period of many centuries, most hunting-foraging peoples were displaced and absorbed by incoming Bantu communities, as well as by later Nilotic communities. East Africa Discover East Africa & the Indian Ocean Islands - Enjoy Breathtaking Scenery, Wonderful Plants & Trees, Countless Varieties of Birds & Abundant Wildlife East Africa is home to some of the continent's most famous sights, but also some of its least explored corners. The Periplus Maris Erythraei. In 2011 with WWFs support, the government of Mozambique officially created the Lake Niassa Reserve. Unusually, most of the rain falls in two distinct wet seasons, one centred on April and the other in October or November. Ancient Africa's east coast was home to trading cities, a region that subsists primarily on international import and export. 1. [30][31] The recognition of Homo sapiens idaltu and Omo Kibish as anatomically modern humans would justify the description of contemporary humans with the subspecies name Homo sapiens sapiens. At about 30.3 million km 2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surface area. The East African Islands are in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa. At the same time, inland areas were restored, enabling mangroves to adapt to sea level rise. Shaped by global plate tectonic forces that have created the East African Rift, East Africa is the site of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, the two tallest peaks in Africa. World Wildlife Fund Inc. is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization (tax ID number 52-1693387) under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. 1969. (Translation by H. Frisk, 1927, with updates and improvements and detailed notes). Ships sailed from there to western India to bring back cotton cloth, grain, oil, sugar, and ghee, while others moved down the Red Sea to the East African coast bringing cloaks, tunics, copper, and tin. Tanzania has known stable government since independence although there are significant political and religious tensions resulting from the political union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. The inhabitants, whose main local currency was cowrie shells, traded with the peoples of the Persian Gulf and, by the early 11th century, had first come under Muslim influence. The main ethnic groups of Eritrea, the Tigray and the Tigre, are speakers of Semitic languages. KEN MORIYASU, Nikkei Asia chief desk editor June 30, 2021 03:53 JST. Let's work together to safeguard these globally important reefs for the benefit of communities, the marine ecosystem, the nations of Kenya . East African coastal cities participated in a larger Afro-Asian trade network a thousand years before Vasco Da Gama peeked around the Cape of Good Hope to find the way to sail to India. Between the 14th and 15th centuries, large African Great Lakes kingdoms and states emerged, such as the Buganda[65] and Karagwe[65] kingdoms of Uganda and Tanzania. [44] The old kingdom's first mention dates to the 25th century BCE. It is narrow, swift and strong. By 1300, like the inhabitants of neighbouring Mafia, they were living in Muslim towns, the rulers of which were Shites. traverses the expanses of the Southern Ocean south of Africa, south of Australia, and the south Pacific. This ocean stretches around the world at southern latitudes, where it circumnavigates Antarctica. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Author: George McCall Theal Source: Wikimedia Commons License: Public Domain For example, we work with farmers to adopt drought resistant crops and conserve natural resources in the face of water shortages. Some of the earliest hominin skeletal remains have been found in the wider region, including fossils discovered in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia, as well as in the Koobi Fora in Kenya and Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. We also introduced a new program of raising goats and offered improved husbandry techniques to reduce the animals impact on vegetation and crops. Marine Turtle, African elephant, Black rhino, White rhino, Great white shark, Dugong, Whale shark, In response to Covid-19, a new partnership will boost the devastated nature-based tourism industry in Africa, Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing. Rising demand and weak enforcement have led to a higher incidence of elephant poaching and increasing ivory markets. (1999). [40][41], The migration route of the "Out of Africa" theory probably occurred in East Africa however through Bab el Mandeb. Between the 19th and 20th century, East Africa became a theatre of competition between the major imperialistic European nations of the time. The Omani Arabs posed the most direct challenge to Portuguese influence in the African Great Lakes region.By this time, the Portuguese Empire had already lost its interest on the spice trade sea route due to the decreasing profitability of that business. For discussion of the physical and human geography of individual countries in the region and of their late colonial and postcolonial history, see Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda. The climate of East Africa is rather atypical of equatorial regions. A humpback whale breaches in the waters by Nosy Boraha Island (le Sainte-Marie), Madagascar Gudkov Andrey (Photographer of the Year 2018 Top 101), ? Turn-of-the-century maritime photographs, dhows off the east African coast Monsoon Dhows Sailors have harnessed the Indian Ocean's monsoon winds for at least two millennia. Research has shown that most of the monster storms that hit the US and Canada start out as a distinct weather pattern in the atmosphere over western Africa, specifically a spot off the coast of the African Cape Verde islands.. Some geologists studying the Canary Islands predict that the western side of a volcano eventually will slide off into the ocean, sending a 300-foot high wave of liquid destruction our way. We also provide tools to reduce conflict with wildlife. Join us as we take a glimpse into the underwater world of our African oceans and seas through the eyes of photographers who submitted their photos into ourPhotographer of the Year2016, 2017 and 2018 competitions. Chili bombs, a mixture of dried elephant dung and hot chili, are placed in crop fields to keep elephants away because they do not like the smell of chili. Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Learn how and when to remove this template message, List of kingdoms in pre-colonial Africa East Africa, List of African cuisines East African cuisine, Music of Africa West, Central, Southeast and South Africa, Sub-Saharan African music traditions East Africa, Traditional African religions East Africa, Writing systems of Africa Ancient orthographies, List of ethnic groups of Africa East Africa, History of science and technology in Africa, genocide of Hutus in 1972 and genocide of Tutsis in 1993, "United Nations Statistics Division- Standard Country and Area Codes Classifications (M49)", "Overview of Module Twenty: Southern Africa", 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2012.RLTS.T6557A16980917.en, 10.1175/1520-0442(1999)012<3457:gpoirv>2.0.co;2, "A dipole mode in the tropical Indian Ocean", "A geographically explicit genetic model of worldwide human-settlement history", Searching for traces of the Southern Dispersal, "Genomic evidence for an African expansion of anatomically modern humans by a Southern route", "Genetic and archaeological perspectives on the initial modern human colonization of southern Asia", "Meet the Contenders for Earliest Modern Human", "Stratigraphic placement and age of modern humans from Kibish, Ethiopia", "Scientists Are Amazed By Stone Age Tools They Dug Up in Kenya", "A Cultural Leap at the Dawn of Humanity New finds from Kenya suggest that humans used long-distance trade networks, sophisticated tools, and symbolic pigments right from the dawn of our species", "Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age", "Scientists Find the Skull of Humanity's Ancestor on a Computer By comparing fossils and CT scans, researchers say they have reconstructed the skull of the last common forebear of modern humans", "Deciphering African late middle Pleistocene hominin diversity and the origin of our species", Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies, "Forgotten Ancient History of East Africa", "The Bantu Migration | World Civilization", "Perspectives on the African past Google Books", "Uganda and Its Peoples: Notes on the Protectorate of Uganda, Especially the Anthropology and Ethnology of Its Indigenous Races", "Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea: A History of the Comoros by Iain Walker (Review)", "Book review. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Lake Niassa is an important source of freshwater, home to over 1000 fish species and critical to the livelihoods of the people of Mozambique. XXXIV 1999, pp. The southern part of East Africa was occupied until recent times by Khoisan hunter-gatherers, whereas in the Ethiopian Highlands the donkey and such crop plants as teff allowed the beginning of agriculture around 7,000 BCE. Though there is some suggestion that in the 10th century the Muslims had not yet begun to move farther south than Somalia, on Qanbalu they soon became rulers of a pagan population, whose language they adopted. This region already suffers from unpredictable rainfall and frequent drought, along with intense rains and flooding. Italy gained control of various parts of Somalia in the 1880s. Coastal East Africa encompasses a beautiful tapestry of land and seafrom mountains and grasslands to mangroves and fringing coral reefs. Sunday 6 October 2002. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Chapter 8: "The Cinnamon Route". Trade, which seems to have been by barter, was considerable, with the main export probably of ivory. Safaris, discussions & donations that make a real difference in Africa. The Agulhas Current(/ls/) is the western boundary currentof the southwest Indian Ocean. Portugal's main goal on the Swahili coast was to take control of the spice trade from the Arabs. Manda had close trading connections with the Persian Gulfwith Srf in particular. The British Empire set foot in the region's most exploitable and promising lands acquiring what is today Uganda, and Kenya. East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. The wildlife of East Africa is quite extraordinary, and a cruise can be easily combined with a Kenyan or Tanzanian safari. However, politics have been turbulent at times, including the attempted coup d'tat in 1982 and the 2007 election riots. In southwest Africa, the plains and plateaus of Namibia are found . The situation is exacerbated by large-scale illegal logging, which is often exported to international markets. Compass in the dark at Atlantis Reef dive site, Simons Town, South Africa Peet J. van Eeden (Photographer of the Year 2017 Top 101), I went diving at the newly discovered Atlantis reef. [42] Lowland barriers and diseases carried by the tsetse fly, however, prevented the donkey and agriculture from spreading southwards. At this stage, the Portuguese presence in East Africa served the purposes of controlling trade within the Indian Ocean and securing the sea routes linking Europe to Asia. Stretching from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica, the Atlantic Ocean is bordered by the Americas to the west and Europe and Africa to the east. The main coastal settlements were situated on islands, largely, no doubt, because of the greater security these provided against attacks from the mainland; and their populations seem mostly to have been made up from migrants from the Persian Gulfsome from the great port of Srf, others from near Bahrainthough conceivably some too came from Daybul, at the mouth of the Indus River, in northwestern India. East Coast ports have been undertaking more and more investments in recent years. Birth of undersea volcano off the east coast of Africa recorded in great detail. The Agulhas Current flows from northeast to southwest, almost hugging the east coast of South Africa, and transports warm water from the Indian down into the Southern Ocean. Portuguese naval vessels were very disruptive to the commerce of Portugal's enemies within the western Indian Ocean and were able to demand high tariffs on items transported through the sea due to their strategic control of ports and shipping lanes. 2010-10-06 07:36:31. The two currents do not "meet" anywhere along the south coast of Africa. [51] The Swahili culture that emerged from these exchanges evinces many Arab and Islamic influences not seen in traditional Bantu culture, as do the many Afro-Arab members of the Bantu Swahili people. The water temperature right now is at least 32F and at most 85F. Copy. Eastern Africa has a diverse climate change that consist of hot, dry desert regions, cooler, and highlands. The regions vegetation ranges from woodlands and grasslands in the wetter regions to thornbushes in semiarid areas. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Starting in the 1850s, the small protectorate of Djibouti became French Somaliland in 1897. The region also comprises the countries of Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea, which are .