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Naivasha Virtual Fieldcourse

Early modern history

The Great Rift Valley, of which Naivasha is the highest lake, stretches across the whole of East Africa from Mozambique up to the Red Sea. The variety of human populations that inhabit it still today, including Bantu, Hamitics, Nilotics and Nilo-hamitics, testify its important role in creating a migration corridor connecting the southern and the northern portions of the continent. Further west, torrid deserts (the Sahara), impassable swamp (the Sudd in Sudan) and, to a lesser extent, impenetrable forests (in central Africa) since the dawn of mankind represented formidable barriers for the expansion of human populations.

Very little is known about the early modern history of the Rift Valley up to the recent arrival of the first Europeans. Historians have tried to interpret the oral history still included in the stories and legends that are part of the traditional culture of the tribes living in the Rift Valley today. The first written accounts were compiled by the European explorers that ventured towards the interior of the continent towards the end of the XIX century.

The modern history of East Africa started indoubtedly along the coast, a natural stop for merchant ships navigating the Indian Ocean that during November-February were blown onto to East African coast by the dominant north-easterly trade winds. At the end of the Long Rains (April-May) the winds would change direction and the ships could return pushed by the south-westerly monsoon. The first Arab traders are believed to have arrived as early as the first century A.D.; but also Persians, Romans and Greeks traveled down the East African coastline as is reported in geographical and historical accounts dating to the I and II century A.D. A further influx of people came from the interior during the III and IV century, when bantu tribes coming from central africa moved out towards the East African coast and over the years became the dominant ethnic group.

The first Europeans to settle down on the coast of East Africa were probably the Portuguese, which established a permanent base in Mombasa (meaning "the lower mount" in Portuguese) and, between 1593 and 1596, by order of King Philip I, built Fort Jesus on Mombasa island to protect their trading route, which extended far across the Indian Ocean and beyond. Struggles between Omani Arabs and Portuguese continued for more than two centuries, during which rich markets and cities developed (Lamu, Malindi, Mombasa, Pate,...), and a new tongue fluorished: Swahili, from the contamination of Omani Arabic and local bantu dialects.