eastern Africa, part of sub-Saharan Africa comprising two traditionally recognized regions: East Africa, made up of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda; and the Horn of Africa, made up of Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Meanwhile, in 1884, a narrow coastal strip of Somaliland came under British control (British Somaliland). Should we carry along the same path, its estimated that there will be no fish left in the ocean by 2050. Sunday 6 October 2002. Following the Zanzibar Revolution of 1965, the independent state of Tanganyika formed the United Republic of Tanzania by creating a union between the mainland, and the island chain of Zanzibar. Further information in the sections of Architecture of Africa: Further information in the sections of History of science and technology in Africa: Since the end of colonialism, several East African countries were riven with military coups, ethnic violence and oppressive dictators. Miller, J. Innes. To comment on this story: Download our app here - it's a troll-free safe place . Aksum was at the time ruled by Zoskales, who also governed the port of Adulis. For example, men from local villages are now employed as game scouts, patrolling for poachers over hundreds of miles, often on foot. Lake Niassa is located in Mozambique and shares borders with Malawi and Tanzania. [70] In 1922, the British gained a League of Nations mandate over Tanganyika which it administered until Independence was granted to Tanganyika in 1961. The kingdom is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as an important market place for ivory, which was exported throughout the ancient world. Casson, Lionel (1989). The three main colors of the African country were beige, red, and blue. Today, tourism is an important part of the economies of Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, and Uganda. Its a beautiful part of the world this blue desert with its hidden abundance of life. The Atlantic is, generally speaking, S-shaped and narrow in relation . Only in quite recent times has agriculture spread to the more humid regions south of the equator, through the spread of cattle, sheep and crops such as millet. A green turtle swims in the blue waters at Marsa Abu Dabbab in the Red Sea, Egypt Cristian Umili (Photographer of the Year 2018 entrant), ? However, politics have been turbulent at times, including the attempted coup d'tat in 1982 and the 2007 election riots. Aromatic gums, tortoiseshell, ivory, and slaves were traded in return. Coastal East Africa encompasses a beautiful tapestry of land and seafrom mountains and grasslands to mangroves and fringing coral reefs. (US) +1 (786) 655-4040, *Call costs: Local rates apply from South Africa, UK and US otherwise international rates apply, newsletter@africageographic.com Eastern Africa is populated by 160 different ethnic groups or more, depending on the method of counting. Because of their early dating and unique physical characteristics idaltu and kibish represent the immediate ancestors of anatomically modern humans as suggested by the Out-of-Africa theory. WWF works with government and communities to develop land use plans that allow wildlife movement and human use to coexist. This Somaliland protectorate was just opposite the British colony of Aden on the Arabian Peninsula. It is narrow (approx. Though the straits were never completely closed, there may have been islands in between which could be reached using simple rafts. Carefully selected conservation projects one-stop, seamless, transparent donations APP subscribers only. They sailed there with the northeast monsoon, returning home in the summer with the southwest. 11. A close up of a giant sea clam in Sodwana Bay, South Africa Peet J. van Eeden (Photographer of the Year 2017 Top 101), Giant sea clams typically occur on the east coast of Africa in clear water of less than 10 metres. Though the majority of its houses were of wattle and daub, there were also some of stone. All travel bookings booked via Trust my Travel are financially protected by them. Best Answer. Eastern Africa consists largely of plateaus and has most of the highest elevations in the continent. At Lake Malawi, they finally met the recently created British Protectorate of Nyasaland (nowadays Malawi), which surrounded the homonymous lake on three sides, leaving the Portuguese the control of lake's eastern coast. Portuguese naval vessels were very disruptive to the commerce of Portugal's enemies within the western Indian Ocean and were able to demand high tariffs on items transported through the sea due to their strategic control of ports and shipping lanes. Lucas Jackson/Reuters Elsewhere in the US, the West Coast is getting hit by huge storms coming from the goofy jet stream . The Omani Arabs posed the most direct challenge to Portuguese influence in the African Great Lakes region.By this time, the Portuguese Empire had already lost its interest on the spice trade sea route due to the decreasing profitability of that business. [40][41], The migration route of the "Out of Africa" theory probably occurred in East Africa however through Bab el Mandeb. All rights reserved. Ethiopia remained independent until 1936 when, after the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, it became part of Italian East Africa. Around 1,200 miles from the east coast of Africa, Mauritius is best known for its beautiful beaches, lagoons, reefs, and rainforests. editors@africageographic.com This includes some of the biggest animals in the sea: whale sharks, giant manta rays, humpback whales, dolphins, tiger sharks, and all the colors and wonder of tropical fish and coral reefs. In rural areas, people have lost crops and livestock and face hunger and outbreaks of malaria. Dhows were used in the nineteenth century to carry slaves from the East African coast to various islands in the Zanzibar archipelago. A senior U.S. Navy officer says that his service no longer considers the East Coast of the United States as an "uncontested" area or an automatic "safe haven" for its ships and submarines. [76][77][78], South Sudan peacefully seceded from the Sudan in 2011, six and a half years after a peace agreement ended the Second Sudanese Civil War. [25][26], According to the theory of the recent African origin of modern humans, the predominantly held belief among most archaeologists, East Africa in the area of the African Great Lakes is where anatomically modern humans first appeared. Elephants, rhinos, lions, wild dogs, and more iconic species roam the landscape. In March 1505, having received from Manuel I of Portugal the appointment of viceroy of the newly conquered territory in India, he set sail from Lisbon in command of a large and powerful fleet, and arrived in July at Quiloa (Kilwa), which yielded to him almost without a struggle. Such trade goods as they obtained from the interior were apparently bought by barter at the coast. It's more than 41 million square miles, the second . 10. (1999). With maximum velocities of around 8.5 km/h, it is one of the fastest and strongest flowing currents in the world. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Lake Niassa is an important source of freshwater, home to over 1000 fish species and critical to the livelihoods of the people of Mozambique. Within this region, WWF works in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique and the western part of the Indian Ocean. The equator runs through Africa, from Gabon in the west to Somalia in the east, and nearly splits the continent into two equal parts. Once implemented, the law will save the lives of up to 5,000 marine turtles per year and allow Mozambican fishers to sell their shrimp to the U.S. market. Overfishing, coastal development, pollution, the unknown consequences of climate change, and more immediate effects of shark finning and manta ray poaching are some of the most threatening concerns. [71], There are movies that have depicted East Africa in various forms. Popular Destinations Tanzania Such local participation and management will help ensure protection of the lakes vital resources for future generations. Just as there are major conservation issues for the animals on the continent of Africa such as poaching, habitat destruction, and other threats, there are many issues and concerns for the East African marine ecosystems and animals. In 1890, beginning with the purchase of the small port town of (Asseb) from a local sultan in Eritrea, the Italians colonized all of Eritrea. Unusually, most of the rain falls in two distinct wet seasons, one centred on April and the other in October or November. East coast rock lobsters found in the Indo-West Pacific region, from East Africa along the coast of the Indian Ocean, as far as the Malay Archipelago, and then along the coasts of the Pacific Ocean to Japan in the north and Australia, New Caledonia and probably the Marquesas Islands in the south. Coverage of the regions physical and human geography can be found in the article Africa. A humpback whale breaches in the waters by Nosy Boraha Island (le Sainte-Marie), Madagascar Gudkov Andrey (Photographer of the Year 2018 Top 101), ? The visibility was less than five metres, and it was a disappointing dive. Wildlife need corridors to move safely and easily between protected areas. East African Islands Type: territory Description: Islands in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa. Some of the island's historical buildings could be seen from the ocean, especially the House of . One particularly powerful western boundary current is the Gulf Stream. 82 Likes, 0 Comments - skhathisomusa dumani mthembu (@skhathisomusa) on Instagram: "African East coast | tropics #eastafrica #mombasa #coast #ocean #tropicalparadise #beach #film" The Agulhas Current(/ls/) is the western boundary currentof the southwest Indian Ocean. Location: Africa The British Empire set foot in the region's most exploitable and promising lands acquiring what is today Uganda, and Kenya. The Dragonfly Sea, by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. It is lined with coral reefs, majestic islands, and, under the surface, animals bigger than any of the "Big Five", and none of them are in game parks! The wildlife of East Africa is quite extraordinary, and a cruise can be easily combined with a Kenyan or Tanzanian safari. WWF, in partnership with CARE, has worked to train local rangers to patrol nesting sites along these islands and marine turtle poaching has decreased significantly. Logging also opens up previously inaccessible forests to poachers and illegal wildlife traders. They are filter feeders by their specialised gills. By the 5th/11th century the Indian Ocean trade had shifted to the ports at the head of the Persian Gulf, in particular K and Hormoz (Ricks, pp. [24] Temperatures in East Africa, except on the hot and generally humid coastal belt, are moderate, with maxima of around 25C (77F) and minima of 15C (59F) at an altitude of 1,500 metres (4,921ft). Warming seawaters threaten the incredible diversity associated with the regions coral reefs, leading to die-offs from bleaching. When we think "Africa," we think of the "Big Five"lions, elephants, leopards, buffalo and rhinosthat crisscross the African Savannah. The Western Hemisphere includes about half of Antarctica and all of North and South America which includes the Caribbean and Central America as well as Greenland. [48] The Bantu expansion was a long series of physical migrations, a diffusion of language and knowledge out into and in from neighboring populations, and a creation of new societal groups involving inter-marriage among communities and small groups moving to communities and small groups moving to new areas. We work with famers to improve soil fertility, resulting in greater yield on less land. Ancient Settlement The ancient peoples of what would become the Swahili Coast prospered thanks to agriculture and animal husbandry, aided by a regular annual rainfall and shallow coastal waters plentiful in seafood. East Africa & Indian Ocean cruises. Physical Geography. Kilwa Kisiwani, located on the southern coast of modern-day Tanzania, is a prime example of how city-states in Africa developed and became wealthy while maintaining autonomous rule. Here the situation differed somewhat from that in the north, and, though tortoiseshell and rhinoceros horn were exported from thereas were quantities of ivory and coconut oilno mention is made of slaves. [30][31] The recognition of Homo sapiens idaltu and Omo Kibish as anatomically modern humans would justify the description of contemporary humans with the subspecies name Homo sapiens sapiens. East Africa is a region that begins in Tanzania in the south and extends north through the great grasslands and scrub forest of the savannas of Kenya and Uganda and then across the highlands of Ethiopia, including the Great Rift Valley. The East African Islands are in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa. From the 1840s, cameras traced the international migrations of traders, sailors, sons, and daughters through Indian Ocean ports, continuing trade that dates back over five millennia. 1: The Swahili Coast of East Africa | From 1000 to 1500 CE, numerous Swahili states emerged along this 1,000 mile stretch from Mogadishu in the north (present-day Somalia) to Sofala in the south (present-day Mozambique). There appears also to have been a rather extensive trade with the island of Madagascar. (2009 est.) KEN MORIYASU, Nikkei Asia chief desk editor June 30, 2021 03:53 JST. 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