World Maritime Day 2022 – 29 September
https://www.un.org/en/observances/maritime-day
Today is World Maritime Day! The theme in 2022 is ‘New technologies for greener shipping’ – international shipping transports more than 80 per cent of global trade, hence the need to support a green transition into a sustainable future.
On this day, it’s relevant to remember that communities living along the coast have for thousands of years made use of trade winds to carry trade goods across the sea. The Swahili communities on the east African coast utilised the cyclical winds ‘kusi’ and ‘kaskazi’, one way from December to March and the other way from April to August, to sail the traditional dhow, reminding us of the long history of ‘green technologies’ in this part of the world. Archaeological objects available show us the range of goods they traded in and their trading partners from far away lands.
Stéphane Pradines has described the trade in the 11th-13th centuries, for instance: “The boats left from the Persian Gulf between November and December, calling at Merka and Barawa, then descending towards Lamu and Mombasa, before arriving at the end of February in Zanzibar and Kilwa. They left in the spring with the reversal of the monsoon winds.”
(in Original French: “Les bateaux partaient du golfe Persique entre novembre et décembre, faisaient escale à Merka et Barawa, puis descendaient vers Lamu et Mombasa, avant d’arriver fin février à Zanzibar et à Kilwa. Ils repartaient au printemps avec le renversement des vents de la mousson.”)
(PRADINES St., “Commerce maritime et islamisation dans l’océan Indien : les premières mosquées swahilies (XIe-XIIIe siècles)”, La mer et le sacré en Islam médiéval 130, 2012 https://journals.openedition.org/remmm/7446?lang=en).
(Image above, which is of modern Kilwa fishing village alongside the archaeological site of Kilwa Kisiwani, is from David Stanley at https://www.flickr.com/photos/79721788@N00/34150114536 on CC BY-2.0)