Page 25 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 20

History

94. Gedi, near the coast of Kenya,
is one of the East African ghost
towns. Its ruins, dating from the
fourteenth or fifteenth centuries,
include the city walls, the palace,
private houses, the Great Mosque,
seven smaller mosques, and three
pillar tombs.

95. The ruined mosque in the Ken-
yan city of Gedi had a water purifier
made of limestone for recycling
Ruins of Gedi, Kilifi, Kenya. water.

96. The palace in the Kenyan city
long-practiced surgical team at work diaeval Sudan. A dignitary at Jebel of Gedi contains evidence of piped
conducting a well-tried and familiar Adda in the late thirteenth century water controlled by taps. In addition
operation with smooth efficiency.” AD was interned with a long coat it had bathrooms and indoor toilets.
of red and yellow patterned damask
85. Sudan in the mediaeval period folded over his body. Underneath, 97. A visitor in 1331 AD considered
had churches, cathedrals, monaster- he wore plain cotton trousers of the Tanzanian city of Kilwa to be
ies and castles. Their ruins still exist long and baggy cut. A pair of red of world class. He wrote that it was
today. leather slippers with turned up toes the “principal city on the coast the
lay at the foot of the coffin. The greater part of whose inhabitants
86. The mediaeval Nubian King- body was wrapped in enormous are Zanj of very black complexion.”
doms kept archives. From the pieces of gold brocaded striped silk. Later on he says that: “Kilwa is one
site of Qasr Ibrim legal texts, of the most beautiful and well-con-
documents and correspondence 90. Sudan in the ninth century AD structed cities in the world. The
were discovered. An archaeologist had housing complexes with bath whole of it is elegantly built.”
informs us that: “On the site are rooms and piped water. An archae- 98. Bling culture existed in early
preserved thousands of documents ologist wrote that Old Dongola, the Tanzania. A Portuguese chronicler
in Meroitic, Latin, Greek, Coptic, capital of Makuria, had: “a[n] . . . of the sixteenth century wrote that:
Old Nubian, Arabic and Turkish.” eighth to . . . ninth century housing “[T]hey are finely clad in many
complex. The houses discovered rich garments of gold and silk and
87. Glass windows existed in medi- here differ in their hitherto unen- cotton, and the women as well; also
aeval Sudan. Archaeologists found countered spatial layout as well as with much gold and silver chains
evidence of window glass at the their functional programme (water and bracelets, which they wear on
Sudanese cities of Old Dongola and supply installation, bathroom with their legs and arms, and many jew-
Hambukol. heating system) and interiors deco- elled earrings in their ears”.
rated with murals.”
88. Bling culture existed in the me- 99. In 1961 a British archaeologist,
diaeval Sudan. Archaeologists found 91. In 619 AD, the Nubians sent a found the ruins of Husuni Kubwa,
an individual buried at the Monas- gift of a giraffe to the Persians. the royal palace of the Tanzanian
tery of the Holy Trinity in the city city of Kilwa. It had over a hundred
of Old Dongola. He was clad in an 92. The East Coast, from Somalia to rooms, including a reception hall,
extremely elaborate garb consisting Mozambique, has ruins of well over galleries, courtyards, terraces and an
of costly textiles of various fabrics 50 towns and cities. They flourished octagonal swimming pool.
including gold thread. At the city of from the ninth to the sixteenth
Soba East, there were individuals centuries AD. 100. In 1414 the Kenyan city of
buried in fine clothing, including 93. Chinese records of the fifteenth Malindi sent ambassadors to China
items with golden thread. century AD note that Mogadishu carrying a gift that created a sensa-
had houses of “four or five storeys tion at the Imperial Court. It was, of
89. Style and fashion existed in me- high”. course, a giraffe.

WWW.MSINGIAFRIKAMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 20 | FEBRUARY 2022 25