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The Expansion of Islam and Trade in Africa | Africa's Great Civilizations | PBS LearningMedia

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The period from the eleventh through seventeenth centuries represents a golden age in Africa with an expansion of trade, commerce and prosperity. On the east coast, Swahili merchants took advantage of trade winds to engage in trade relations with the Middle East, India and China.

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Having learnt about Mwaka Koga, how does the New Year reflect a mixture of cultures? 

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Having learnt about Mwaka Koga, how does the New Year reflect a mixture of cultures? 

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Based on your understanding of the Swahili coast and people so far, how did Swahili people adapt Islam into their lives? (Provide examples). 

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Based on your understanding of the Swahili coast and people so far, how did Swahili people adapt Islam into their lives? (Provide examples). 

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Based on my understanding of the Swahili coast and people so far, the Swahili people adapt Islam into their lives through culture of marriage, burial and made the new traditions their own.

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The Swahili people adapted Islam into their lives through different means. One of the examples could be literacy. To read the Quran, they needed to be literate, and so they started learning the alphabet which also helped them write history, and poetry which helped them advance their cultural heritage, and to also preserve it.

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Arabian traders brought Islam to the Swahili Coast. The Swahili adopted Islam and adapted it with African culture. Examples include: the way they treat the deceased, the manner in which they mark burials, the way they construct ancestors, and the practice space of the mosque. Islam also brought to them the entry to the common market of the Indian Ocean, which helped improve trade and networking. Their language, Key Swahili or Kiswahili, was also influenced. Furthermore, literacy was positively affected due to the necessity to read the Quran and they wrote poetry and history with the alphabet taught to them.

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The Swahili adapted it in their lives with the terms of trade and being part of the Islamic brotherhood allowed them access to certain networks. The people also created a language called key Swahili which was an African language that used lone words from Arabic. They were able to take words from the african lagnuage and arabic to make a dialect to unify the cultures along the coast. They also used the arabic alphabet in the Quran to write poetry to write history of the Swahili town. This contributed to the preservation of culture and traditions that originated from a different religion but was absorbed.

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The Mwaka Koga reflects the mix of the two cultures. This is because the Swahili people sacrifice goat or sheep (the Islamic tradition of eid ul adha). When celebrating the new year, they go around the city saying “Allahu Akbar” while singing local songs. This is an integration of the Islamic culture into the Swahili culture.

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The new year reflects the mixture of culture because they've incorporated many of their already existing traditions, and incorporated new traditions from Islam. One example of the incorporated traditions could be the people reciting "Allahu Akbar" o the communal sacrifice of the goat or sheep which is also common in the Islamic culture during Eid al Adha

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The Swahili people adapted Islam into their own indigenous cultures. They adapted a few Arabic words (like salaam said as Salama). They adopted a few of the traditions and integrated it into their own daily life.

They also adopted the religion and till today, in places like Dar Es salaam and Zanzibar, Azaan can be heard throughout the city on the loudspeaker while going to morning khane. Also in Dar Es Salaam, during Maulid and other such celebrations, the streets are decorated with flags that have the moon and star on them. Eid is a 2 day public holiday there. And there r rly pretty decorations when it is any Islamic festival.

They adopted some of the Islamic rules as well. In Zanzibar, when the sultan was there, people could not wear shorts. This rule was actually continued for a while with the Zanzibarian government. But since Zanzibar is a popular tourist spot, they took it down to be inclusive to all people.

In Ramadan, ismailis do  iftar in khane with khari and meethi rub(I don’t know how to say it in English). And people sometimes bring their own food or the food they bought from Nandi and share. Sometimes the mks keep dinner. This complies both with Islamic and Tanzanian culture.

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The New Year reflects a mixture of cultures, for example, the Mwaka Koga cooks goats just like we Ismaili Muslims do on Eid al-Adha. Also on Eid, we dance.

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They took it as an advantage to being more holy and having a religion in which they can learn but also as an advantage to unlock different trades with people they couldn't before they were muslims or ismaili

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different cultures celebrate the new year in a different way. The Mwaka Koga is one of the ways the swahili people celebrate new year and by doing what they do to help keep strong within their religion they purify themselves and chant prayers to Allah.

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To answer this question, we’d have to trace back into the origins of Kiswahili or Key Swahili, their language. This native tongue came to be with influences from Islam and terms belonging to Arabia, Persia, and India. The rise of new languages obviously impacted cultures and new mixes of cultures appeared. Mwaka Koga is a celebration that was born due to these mixes of cultures (‘Allahu Akbar,’ belief in spirits, killing a goat to eat as a sacrifice - Prophet Ibrahim).