scholarly journals Tracking epidemic Chikungunya virus into the Indian Ocean from East Africa

2008 ◽  
Vol 89 (11) ◽  
pp. 2754-2760 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kariuki Njenga ◽  
L. Nderitu ◽  
J. P. Ledermann ◽  
A. Ndirangu ◽  
C. H. Logue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Chikungunya Virus ◽  
Mosquito Vectors ◽  
East African ◽  
Genetic Elements ◽  
Coastal Kenya ◽  
New Variant ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
African Clade

The largest documented outbreak of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) disease occurred in the Indian Ocean islands and India during 2004–2007. The magnitude of this outbreak led to speculation that a new variant of the virus had emerged that was either more virulent or more easily transmitted by mosquito vectors. To study this assertion, it is important to know the origin of the virus and how the particular strain circulating during the outbreak is related to other known strains. This study genetically characterized isolates of CHIKV obtained from Mombasa and Lamu Island, Kenya, during 2004, as well as strains from the 2005 outbreak recorded in Comoros. The results of these analyses demonstrated that the virus responsible for the epidemic that spread through the Indian Ocean originated in coastal Kenya during 2004 and that the closest known ancestors are members of the Central/East African clade. Genetic elements that may be responsible for the scope of the outbreak were also identified.

scholarly journals A 17-My-old whale constrains onset of uplift and climate change in east Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (13) ◽  
pp. 3910-3915 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Wichura ◽  
Louis L. Jacobs ◽  
Andrew Lin ◽  
Michael J. Polcyn ◽  
Fredrick K. Manthi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Beaked Whale ◽  
East African ◽  
Surface Uplift ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Mantle Processes ◽  
The Impact

Timing and magnitude of surface uplift are key to understanding the impact of crustal deformation and topographic growth on atmospheric circulation, environmental conditions, and surface processes. Uplift of the East African Plateau is linked to mantle processes, but paleoaltimetry data are too scarce to constrain plateau evolution and subsequent vertical motions associated with rifting. Here, we assess the paleotopographic implications of a beaked whale fossil (Ziphiidae) from the Turkana region of Kenya found 740 km inland from the present-day coastline of the Indian Ocean at an elevation of 620 m. The specimen is ∼17 My old and represents the oldest derived beaked whale known, consistent with molecular estimates of the emergence of modern strap-toothed whales (Mesoplodon). The whale traveled from the Indian Ocean inland along an eastward-directed drainage system controlled by the Cretaceous Anza Graben and was stranded slightly above sea level. Surface uplift from near sea level coincides with paleoclimatic change from a humid environment to highly variable and much drier conditions, which altered biotic communities and drove evolution in east Africa, including that of primates.

scholarly journals The Moderate Impact of the 2015 El Niño over East Africa and Its Representation in Seasonal Reforecasts

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (22) ◽  
pp. 7989-8001 ◽  
Author(s):  
David MacLeod ◽  
Cyril Caminade
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Lower Troposphere ◽  
Eastern Indian Ocean ◽  
East African ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Short Rains

Abstract El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has large socioeconomic impacts worldwide. The positive phase of ENSO, El Niño, has been linked to intense rainfall over East Africa during the short rains season (October–December). However, we show here that during the extremely strong 2015 El Niño the precipitation anomaly over most of East Africa during the short rains season was less intense than experienced during previous El Niños, linked to less intense easterlies over the Indian Ocean. This moderate impact was not indicated by reforecasts from the ECMWF operational seasonal forecasting system, SEAS5, which instead forecast large probabilities of an extreme wet signal, with stronger easterly anomalies over the surface of the Indian Ocean and a colder eastern Indian Ocean/western Pacific than was observed. To confirm the relationship of the eastern Indian Ocean to East African rainfall in the forecast for 2015, atmospheric relaxation experiments are carried out that constrain the east Indian Ocean lower troposphere to reanalysis. By doing so the strong wet forecast signal is reduced. These results raise the possibility that link between ENSO and Indian Ocean dipole events is too strong in the ECMWF dynamical seasonal forecast system and that model predictions for the East African short rains rainfall during strong El Niño events may have a bias toward high probabilities of wet conditions.

The History of Islam in East Africa

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicitas Becker
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Minority Status ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
East African ◽  
Nation States ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The Government

The history of Islam in East Africa stretches back to around 1000 CE. Until the mid-20th century, it remained largely confined to the coast and closely bound up with the history of the Swahili towns situated on it. The Swahili language remains central to many East African Muslims, hence the occasionally heard phrase, “Swahili Islam.” East African Muslims are mostly Shafiites and some belong to Sufi orders, especially Qadiriyya and Shadhiliyya. Since c. 1850, Islam, with many variations in ritual, has become the religion of speakers of a multitude of languages across the region, second only to Christianity. The region’s independent nation-states initially promised equality for all religions within a secular order. Since c. 1990, though, the minority status of East African Muslims has fed into a multitude of grievances related to the region’s economic and political impasses. This situation has led to growing movements of Islamic preaching and activism, supported by increased contacts with congregations elsewhere in the Indian Ocean. At times, they have influenced electoral politics, especially in Zanzibar, where Islamic activism resonates with fear of marginalization by the mainland. In Kenya, Somali-influenced Islamist terrorists committed a series of atrocities in the 2010s. East African governments, in turn, have been proactive in tracking and disrupting such networks, and in Kenya, the government engaged in targeted assassination. Nevertheless, peaceful coexistence between Muslims and adherents of other religions remains the norm in East Africa, and its dynamics are often poorly understood.

scholarly journals East African origins for Madagascan chickens as indicated by mitochondrial DNA

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 160787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael B. Herrera ◽  
Vicki A. Thomson ◽  
Jessica J. Wadley ◽  
Philip J. Piper ◽  
Sri Sulandari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Dna ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
East Africa ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
East African ◽  
Mitochondrial Dna Control Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean

The colonization of Madagascar by Austronesian-speaking people during AD 50–500 represents the most westerly point of the greatest diaspora in prehistory. A range of economically important plants and animals may have accompanied the Austronesians. Domestic chickens ( Gallus gallus ) are found in Madagascar, but it is unclear how they arrived there. Did they accompany the initial Austronesian-speaking populations that reached Madagascar via the Indian Ocean or were they late arrivals with Arabian and African sea-farers? To address this question, we investigated the mitochondrial DNA control region diversity of modern chickens sampled from around the Indian Ocean rim (Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa and Madagascar). In contrast to the linguistic and human genetic evidence indicating dual African and Southeast Asian ancestry of the Malagasy people, we find that chickens in Madagascar only share a common ancestor with East Africa, which together are genetically closer to South Asian chickens than to those in Southeast Asia. This suggests that the earliest expansion of Austronesian-speaking people across the Indian Ocean did not successfully introduce chickens to Madagascar. Our results further demonstrate the complexity of the translocation history of introduced domesticates in Madagascar.

‘Indian’ metalwork in East Africa: the bronze lion statuette from Shanga

Antiquity ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (234) ◽  
pp. 11-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.C. Horton ◽  
T.R. Blurton
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
East African ◽  
The West ◽  
East African Coast ◽  
Early Date ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
African Coast ◽  
The Indian Ocean

There are few frontiers from later periods whose archaeology is more beguiling than the east African coast. To the east are the sea-routes of the Indian Ocean, to the Islamic world, to India, to Indonesia, to China. To the west are the distinctive cultures of medieval Africa. And on the coast are the settlements where the east and the west touch. This paper works towards the wider issue of circum-maritime cultures from a single find from the new excavations at Shanga which have revealed mosques of a remarkably early date.

A Long-Distance Nexus in the Indian Ocean: Gujarati Banias, Brokers, and Middlemen in Eighteenth-Century Portuguese East Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-254
Author(s):  
Luís Frederico Dias Antunes
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Small Island ◽  
East African ◽  
Commercial Activity ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
East African Coast ◽  
African Coast ◽  
The Indian Ocean

Abstract Historiography has long recognized the strategic importance of Diu as a commercial hub in the Indian Ocean, despite the decline it experienced in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. A great deal of Diuese commerce, along with the island’s privileged connections with East Africa (especially Mozambique), was sustained by the activity of the Banias—Hindus and Jain—who had long used this small island as a platform for trade. This article analyzes the forms of organization, commercial and financial techniques, and main roles of the Banias of Gujarat, one of the largest and most important urban merchant communities in India and in other Asian and African markets along the Indian Ocean. In the case of Diu, we seek to understand the extent to which the financial capacity and commercial experience of the local Banias allowed them to dominate most commercial activity in Mozambique from the late seventeenth century onwards. We examine the internal structure of the Banias’ merchant communities, the hierarchical dependencies and trade links between the Banias of Diu and of Mozambique, and, lastly, the adaptation of their experience and commercial techniques to the East African coast.

Shipping and Trade between Hamburg-Bremen and the Indian Ocean, 1870–1914

1982 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-386
Author(s):  
Hermann Kellenbenz
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
First World War ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Early Years ◽  
World War ◽  
Short Survey ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
First World

This study is intended to give a short survey on the development of shipping and trade between two main German ports and the Indian Ocean from the early years of the Bismarck period to the beginning of the First World War. The study deals with the area from East Africa to East India and from Indochina to Indonesia. China, the Philippines, and Australia will not be considered. It is based on an analysis of published material.

scholarly journals The Geology of Portuguese Nyasaland

1922 ◽  
Vol 59 (5) ◽  
pp. 200-212
Author(s):  
Robert R. Walls
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Dark Continent ◽  
The Indian Ocean

Portuguese Nyasaland is the name given to the most northern part of Portuguese East Africa, lying between Lake Nyasa and the Indian Ocean. It is separated from the Tanganyika territory in the north by the River Rovuma and from the Portuguese province of Mozambique in the south by the River Lurio. The territory measures about 400 miles from east to west and 200 miles from north to south and has an area of nearly 90,000 square miles. This territory is now perhaps the least known part of the once Dark Continent, but while the writer was actually engaged in the exploration of this country in 1920–1, the Naval Intelligence Division of the British Admiralty published two handbooks, the Manual of Portuguese East Africa and the Handbook of Portuguese Nyasaland, which with their extensive bibliographies contained practically everything that was known of that country up to that date (1920). These handbooks make it unnecessary in this paper to give detailed accounts of the work of previous explorers.

scholarly journals A 1000-yr-old tsunami in the Indian Ocean points to greater risk for East Africa: COMMENT

Geology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. e515-e515
Author(s):  
Paul Graham Somerville
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
The Indian Ocean
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