scholarly journals Muslim Cultures beyond the Aperture: An East African Photo-Story Illuminated by First-Hand Accounts

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 150-190
Author(s):  
Nasira Sheikh-Miller
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Family Members ◽  
East African ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Indian Ocean Trade ◽  
Personal Context ◽  
Muslim Culture

Abstract This paper is an exploration of Indian Muslim culture in East Africa through pre- and post-independence eras via the medium of photography. It examines the art and craft of photographic practice, the training of photographers, their social networks and those of their patrons, as well as the personal context of photographs. It also discusses the dispersal of archives and personal collections. It is based upon first-hand accounts from professional photographers, their family members as well as patrons, whose ancestors travelled from India via Indian Ocean trade routes. Fareh te chareh is a Gujarati proverb meaning ‘A person who roams advances.’

Ottoman Frontier Policies in North-East Africa, 1517–1914

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN ALEXANDER
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
East Africa ◽  
African History ◽  
East African ◽  
North East ◽  
Indian Ocean Trade ◽  
Secure Control ◽  
Islamic Empire

This chapter suggests that insufficient attention has been paid in accounts of north-east African history to the role of the Ottoman Turks. With the capture of Egypt from its Mamluk rulers in 1517, the Ottomans established their first foothold in Africa. However, several factors drew them further into the region. First, there was a threat presented by the Portuguese, who sought to establish a monopoly on the valuable Indian Ocean trade and who challenged Ottoman control of the Red Sea and the pilgrimage routes to Mecca and Medina. Second, the Ottomans wished to secure control over Africa's valuable exports, slaves and gold. Third, in accordance with the sultans' quest for legitimacy as rulers of an Islamic empire, their long-term aim was the inclusion of all north-east Africa into Ottoman territory and hence the Dar al-Islam.

scholarly journals The Ends of the Indian Ocean: Tracing Coastlines in the Tanzanian “Hinterland”

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 359-383
Author(s):  
Julia Verne
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
East African ◽  
Relational Thinking ◽  
East African Coast ◽  
East Central ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Empirical Ground ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Spatial Entity

Abstract:In recent years, several attempts to revitalize Area Studies have concentrated on oceans as the unifying force to create regions. In this respect, the Indian Ocean has become a prime example to show how economic as well as cultural flows across the sea have contributed to close connections between its shores. However, by doing so, they not only seem to create a certain, rather homogeneous, Indian Ocean space, they often also lead to a conceptual separation between “coast” and “hinterland,” similar to earlier distinctions between “African/Arab” or “East/Central Africa.” In this contribution, so-called “Arab” traders who settled along trade routes connecting the East African coast to its hinterland will serve as an empirical ground to explore and challenge these boundaries. Tracing maritime imaginaries and related materialities in the Tanzanian interior, it will reflect on the ends of the Indian Ocean and the nature of such maritime conceptualizations of space more generally. By taking the relational thinking that lies at the ground of maritimity inland, it wishes to encourage a re-conceptualization of areas that not only replaces a terrestrial spatial entity with a maritime one, but that genuinely breaks with such “container-thinking” and, instead, foregrounds the meandering, fluid character of regions and their complex and highly dynamic entanglements.

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.

The East African Campaign in the Rhodesian Herald

1986 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 283-293
Author(s):  
Thomas P. Ofcansky
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Military History ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
East African ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
News Agency ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
At Home

Although the East African campaign (1914-1918) was, in comparative terms, one of the Great War's minor episodes, it is a vital aspect of Africa's military history. Despite this importance, however, much remains unknown about this conflict, which claimed the lives of untold thousands of European and African soldiers. Understanding the operational and historical evolution of the campaign requires more than just a survey of books, articles, and official documentation. Newspapers such as the Leader of British East Africa and the East African Standard are invaluable sources for information about day-to-day fighting and living conditions. Unfortunately, very little work has been done with newspapers published outside the operational theater, which oftentimes contain materials unavailable elsewhere.One of the most important newspapers in this category was the Rhodesia Herald. Apart from the Reuter's News Agency field dispatches, the newspaper included scores of articles and letters to the editor written by Rhodesians from the front or by family members who remained at home. These items covered a wide range of topics, including recruitment difficulties, experiences of individual soldiers, and, perhaps most importantly, the exploits of the 2nd Rhodesia Regiment, which fought in the East African bush for twenty-three months.

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 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.

scholarly journals China’s Geostrategic Interests in the Indian Ocean Region: Implications for Kenya

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Paul Odhiambo
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Indian Ocean Region ◽  
East African ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Ocean Region ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Peaceful Development

Abstract China’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean cannot be gainsaid as the East Asian economic powerhouse engages in a series of activities to secure maritime routes for energy supplies; to guarantee its trade routes; and to exercise increased maritime influence on the sea lines of communication (SLOCs). Since the beginning of the 21st century, Beijing has enhanced its presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) through construction of ports, increased Chinese naval presence, participation in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, construction of a military base in Djibouti, One belt One road initiative and 21st century Maritime Silk Road. While China reassures of its peaceful development, critics contend that Beijing’s military-strategic intentions are aimed at dominance in the Indian Ocean. Countries of the IOR are a home to 2.5 billion people. About 80 percent of the world’s maritime oil trade flows through three chokepoints in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, Indian Ocean is emerging as a pivotal zone due to fast growing economies in the region. Due to its geostrategic significance, the Indian Ocean is expected to play a considerable role in the development of East African littoral states including Kenya. This paper analyzes the growing presence of China in IOR and how Nairobi’s engagement with Beijing could enable Kenya to realize its geostrategic interests in the Indian Ocean. The paper recommends that Kenya needs to have effective strategies to maximize the potential from its exclusive economic zone and secure its national interests as a littoral state.

Ceramics in Indian Ocean Trade

Matatu ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-45
Author(s):  
Villoo Nowrojee
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
East African ◽  
East African Coast ◽  
Indian Ocean Trade ◽  
African Coast

Abstract Ceramics have been extensively imported on the East African Coast over many centuries. The principal sources have been Iran and China, the latter trans-shipped through the port of Malacca and the Indian ports of the western Indian Ocean. These ceramics were used to embellish the gates and mihrabs of mosques, and the exteriors of elaborate tombs. They were vessels in homes and decorations on buildings. In the last two centuries, the old ceramics came to be supplanted by imported ware more utilitarian in make and appearance. These came in mainly from Holland, England and Germany. These products of Western Europe were influenced by the Islamic markets they had entered, while in turn these plates became an important part of the East African Coast’s architecture and Swahili traditions and homes.

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