Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania - Feb 22nd

Dar Es Salaam was the first of 3 stops on the Sultan Coast, controlled by Persian sultans beginning in the 10th century; with Arab sultans gaining control in 1260; then 200 years of the Portuguese rule starting in 1500; and finally coming under the Sultan of Oman in 1700. In the 1890s first cousins Queen Victoria and Kaiser Wilhelm divided the area up into German East Africa (Tanganyika) and British East Africa (Kenya), thus setting the stage for Robert Redford and Meryl Streep to star in "Out of Africa." Zanzibar became a British Protectorate and retained its Sultanite. Germany ceded Tanganyika to the UK in 1918. Britain granted the whole area independence in the early 1960s.

Wooden dhows made by hand are still used extensively for local trade and transport:

Local dhows

We visited the Tinga-Tinga art co-op featuring a distinctive local painting style. Below are some examples. The vendors pursued us very aggressively.

Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, is in Tanzania. They slap the name and image on everything – the Kilimanjaro Cement Co, T-shirts, paintings, and of course, beer. One of the best beer labels ever:

So this is Tanzania: dhows, Kilimanjaro, aggressive street vendors, and the origin of man. Yes, the origin of Homo sapiens. You remember Dr. Louis Leaky, his wife Mary, and their archaeological discoveries at Olduvai Gorge? No? OK then, visit the Tanzanian National Museum in Dar Es Salaam:

Mesopotamia may be the cradle of civilization, but Africa is the cradle of human origin, particularly the Great Rift Belt in East Africa, as the above depiction of major hominid fossil discoveries shows.

Above, a depiction with fossils of the part of the hominid family tree leading to modern man

Above, as almost everyone except US fundamentalists agree, modern man (Homo sapiens) emerged in the east African great lakes region one million years ago. Slowly spreading across sub-Saharan Africa for 900,000 years, a small band went north and crossed the Red Sea only 100,000 years ago. Descendants from this group diffused throughout the entire world.

The stretch of former Arab East African trading ports encompassing Dar Es Salaam, Zanzibar and Mombasa is also called the Swahili Coast. This originally Bantu dialect became the common trading language (lingua franca) of East Africa. Much is borrowed from Arabic and it also incorporates some German, Portuguese, English, Hindustani, and French. There are only 15 million native speakers, but it is the national language of countries with over 200 million people. So Masai warriors speak Masai as a first language and Swahili as a second language. If you are still reading this far down, you are really hard core.

Tomorrow I will post Zanzibar.