Cultures of East Africa

1. Cultures of East Africa

2. 1-Explain how the Indian Ocean has created East Africa’s cultural diversity. • The cultural diversity of East Africa comes from contact among people from many cultures through trade. • Much of East Africa’s long coastline borders the Indian Ocean. • The Indian Ocean provides a trade and travel route for East Africans as well as for the people living across the ocean to the east. • These people include Arabs, Indians, and other Asians, even those from countries as far away from Africa as China and Malaysia.

3. Swahili • An ethnic group in East Africa that resulted from the mixing of African and Arab ways more than 1,000 years ago • Also a language

4. 2-What is one of the strengths of the Swahili people? • Their ability to adapt to other cultures. • At the same time, the Swahilis try to preserve their heritage: • The values, traditions, and customs handed down from their ancestors.

5. 3-Where do the Swahilis live? • Along East Africa’s coast from Somalia to Tanzania.

6. 4-Why are east African nations promoting the use of the Swahili language? • By promoting the use of Swahili, East African nations are helping to preserve their African heritage and to establish unity among different peoples. • Swahili is used among ethnic groups throughout the region for business and communication.

7. 5-What two religions have large followings in East Africa? • Islam was introduced to East Africa by Arab traders. • Christianity spread into Ethiopia in the A.D. 300s after being introduced to North Africa when the area was a part of the Roman Empire. During the 1800s, Europeans pushed into Africa and spread Christianity even farther.

8. 6-Explain the ideas Africans had about land before the 1800s. • Individual Africans did not buy or sell land. The very idea of owning land did not exist. • Families had the right to farm plots of land. • Extended families farmed the land to produce food for the whole group. • Men cleared the land and broke up the soil. • Women then planted the seeds, tended the fields, and harvested the crops.

9. 7-Who introduced the idea of privately owned land to Africa? • European settlers. • In parts of East Africa, the British set up plantations.

10. 8-What happened to the plantations when African countries became independent? • Their governments broke up the colonial plantations and sold the land to individual Africans. • Much of the land was poor farmland in areas where few people lived. • In fertile areas such as the Ethiopian Highlands and the Great Rift Valley, most of the land good for farming was already taken. • Many people lived in these fertile areas.

11. 9-Where have conflicts developed over land in East Africa? • In densely populated countries such as Rwanda and Burundi conflicts have developed over land.

12. 10-How do most Africans feel about the land where they grew up? • Most feel a strong bond to the land where they grew up

13. 11-If asked where home is, what will most East Africans say? • If asked where home is, an East African will usually name the village of his or her family or clan.

14. 12-Explain how traditional East African ideas about land differ from those of Europeans who took over parts of Africa. • Europeans: Individual ownership of land • East Africans: Everyone owned and benefited from the land