Swahili Architecture

The Swahili coast of eastern and south-eastern Africa has had a very long history as a locus within extensive interior and international trade networks. The region has acted as a 'middleman' between Indian Ocean and African trade routes for over 2000 years. As Islam spread out from the Arabian peninsula, trade became easier and more extensive, and wealthy Islamic merchants rose to form an elite group on the coast. The first evidence of Islam in the area is found in the 9th century,  and the creation of a shared African-Islamic identity became an important part of Swahili culture, cementing economic relationships through architecture and material culture.

Architecture and status became very intertwined. The houses built by the merchant class were often constructed from stone and dehydrated coral, and show very strong Islamic and Portuguese influences that starkly contrast to the more traditional mud and wattle buildings that were prevalent further inland. Doorways were very ornate to reflect the social symbolism with which they were imbued: only suitably wealthy and well-connected kin could enter, and high-status women were kept in the warrens of courtyards and secret passages within, literally never setting foot in the street. Trading deals, the lifeblood coastal culture, were conducted just within the doorway, according them a further level of importance.

The houses' interiors were also highly reflective of the area's deep cultural mix. Typically-Arabian niches were carved into the walls to house their owners' collection of goods traded from all over the world: artefacts from China, Iran, India and Indonesia have all been found, as well as from the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

Old, ornately-carved wooden doors from merchant houses in Lamu, Kenya's oldest occupied town.

Exterior of old house, date unknown (but looks 19th century) Tanzania.

Interior (note niches) of 19th-century house, Lamu.

Zerihun Seyoum

Zerihun Seyoum is a contemporary Ethiopian painter whose work usually depicts daily life in Ethiopia, from street scenes to airports. One of the major themes that runs throughout his body of work is the hybrid nature of life, with the traditional meeting the modern, and the mixing of different local and international cultural elements. His style also takes a hybrid form. For example, The Chain Seller shows a clear early 20th-century modernist influence, whilst Ethiopian Wedding blends modernism with elements typical of medieval Ethiopian church art - crowds of faces with large white oval eyes. Seyoum has a website with a great selection of his paintings here.

The Chain Seller, 2009

Checkpoint, 2007

Ethiopian Wedding, 2006

Ketta, 2003