Swahili Coast Trade
The monsoon trade linking East African city states with Arabia, Persia, India and China.
Overview
From around the 9th century, Swahili towns such as Kilwa, Mombasa, Lamu, Zanzibar and Sofala grew rich as middlemen between the African interior and the Indian Ocean. Gold from the Zimbabwe plateau, ivory, mangrove timber and enslaved people went out on dhows that rode the northeast monsoon south and the southwest monsoon home. In return came Indian cloth, beads, Persian pottery and Chinese porcelain, shards of which litter coastal sites. Islam and the Swahili language spread with the trade. Kilwa minted its own coins at its height. Portuguese raids after 1498 and later Omani rule reshaped but did not end the commerce.
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