East African Coast

Abstract

The East African coast along the Indian Ocean was home to one of the best‐known civilizations of the African past. Indeed, it is often referred to as the Swahili Coast, referencing the cosmopolitan culture shared between the city‐states that thrived there in the early second millenniumce. Those communities were enriched through Indian Ocean trade, which brought cultural influences, most notably Islam, as well as wealth. Archaeological and historical evidence has described the characteristics of this culture, and identified its roots in the African communities of the coast and coastal hinterland from the first millennium.