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Historical Sites Travel through History
T
anzania has a long history of human habitation stretching back to our most distant ancestors. The so-called ‘bantu migrations’, occurring between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago, brought agriculture and pastoral knowledge to the area as competing groups spread over the country in search of fertile soil and plentiful grazing for their herds. European missionaries and explorers mapped the interior of the country by following well-worn caravan routes, including Burton and Speke who LQ MRXUQH\HG WR ILQG WKH VRXUFH RI WKH 1LOH Traditional ways of life remained largely intact until the arrival of German colonizers in the late 19th century. On the Swahili Coast, Indian Ocean trade began
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Dar Life I SEPTEMBER 2021
“The Islands of Kilwa Kisiwani and the nearby ruins of Songo Mnara are among the most important remnants of Swahili Civilization on the East African Coast”. as early as 400BCE between Greece and Azania, as the area was commonly known. Around the 4th century AD, coastal towns and trading settlements attracted bantu-speaking peoples from the African hinterland. They settled around mercantile areas and often facilitated trading with the Arabs and Persians, who bartered for slaves, gold, ivory, and spices, sailing north with the monsoon wind.
