The Lost Cities and Amazing Heritage of Kenya

The coast of Kenya has a series of impressive medieval ruins. Amongst the monuments are tombs, grand houses, mosques, and palaces. East African archaeologists date the high point of this heritage to the 13th century. The Kenyan museums contain impressive, reconstructed artefacts that animated the urban life of these lost cities.
In this lecture, Robin Walker will present this heritage and put it in its proper place as a powerful chapter in Africa's history.
A lecture by Robin Walker
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac...
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[@challalla]

I was fortunate enough to wander the Gede (Gedi) ruins as a teen and remember wondering why it wasn't more famous

[@londonbowcat1]

6:30 James Kirkland. Ali Mazrui

[@kevinfarquar211]

I thought the Gedi featured a lot in the star wars films - so are famous!

[@barbararowley6077]

Thank you Sir, for a fascinating and educational lecture. It’s such a travesty that there was ever anyone who thought ancient African monuments couldn’t have been built by the local cultures - much worse that those thoughts still exist.

[@georgeoguda9644]

I know and have visited all the Kenyan Swahili cities with my favourite being Gede. I love Jumba la Mtwana in Mtwapa especially in the evening. The Swahili are Bantu and African to the core with later Arabic influences. By the way, Vasco da Gama was navigated to Cochin in India on his first voyage by a pilot donated by the Sultan of Malindi. Something the history books and Vasco da Gama never acknowledged.

[@lisak9361]

FACTS!!

[@pharoah-ahmose6075]

Alot of credit is given to Arabs which is sad

[@ralami6183]

One of our Great teachers that is still around. Thank you for everything you do Brother!

[@DangerDave-e7u]

Thank you, professor.

[@felixotuoke5419]

Brilliant historical facts. Excellently educative and informative. ❤

[@NaderAbedrabbojanineh-nh1kr]

If You Go To The History of East Africa ... You Can See That This Culture was So Great even During The Egyptians Times ... Africa was a Cradle of Cultures that influénced even The Universal Culture ...

[@adegirly]

true!...

[@leobvenzen8565]

The cultural unity of Afrika is discussed in Diop's work! Afrika has one fundamental Culture, with said Culture having multiple, different and diverse expressions.

[@NaderAbedrabbojanineh-nh1kr]

@@leobvenzen8565 You mean The Suahili Culture , Zulu , Egyptian , Nubian , Cartagian etc ... All are one ... Certainly not ... Son different Cultures from diverse origins

[@wendellminott576]

​@@adegirly😊😊😊

[@ario2264]

There was nothing there in Egyptian times.

[@maggieadams8600]

Thank you, it was so interesting to learn about the rich heritage of Kenya

[@londonbowcat1]

9:44 Arabs are not africans

[@maggieadams8600]

@@londonbowcat1 I wasn't aware that I'd said that they were, however, I think Moroccans are partly Arabic in descent as well as African, and there's nowt wrong with that!

[@bjrnryrvik3498]

Thank you for a fascinating lecture.

[@jasondiasauthorpage615]

Thank you for this.

[@andrewjohnson8232]

Superb lecture.

[@RHampton]

Great lecture.

[@addisonline3947]

Great compilation ❤👈

[@Nghilifa]

Thanks for this! 👏🏿

[@carolrhoden5370]

thank you for shearing your pictures and knowledge.

[@zielfab.maslin1507]

Very informative. It's interesting to know that there's still a lot of history of countries to study.

[@mattdavis4937]

Thank you!

[@mohaumotloi1523]

Outstanding presentation 👏🏾

[@dablaccseaproductions5279]

Robin Walker is the goat

[@mariahamilton5305]

Really enjoying this so far, but the mention of chillies in 13nn food, is that a mistranslation, or did they get traded from S America earlier than previously thought?

[@debrajohnson3851]

Not to be mean, but do you really believe no chilies grow on the continent of Africa? Are you actually that uninformed ?

[@MrJamesr007]

@@debrajohnson3851 Established thinking is that chillies are from the new world and only came to the old world in the colombian exchange.

[@saraswatkin9226]

@@debrajohnson3851 East Africa had vast asian cultural influence especially with spices from India. Kenya was very cosmopolitian during British rule.

[@Irene-im8xi]

Yes chilli's were unknown in Europe and the rest of the world outside S America until the 16th Century. In India food was made hotter by using black pepper to spice it before they had chillies.

[@georgeoguda9644]

@@MrJamesr007 certain varieties may have originated from Mexicobut African had those small and very potent chilli and by the way how would that modern thought explain Bhut jolokia (Nagaland natural hottest chilli)‽ was that from the new world, too? And only reached Nagalandand bypassed Bengal and Bangladesh for the mountainsof Nagaland. Africans were using the minute chilli in medicinal preparation.

[@antikseyyah]

Thanks for the info!

[@realitytube6290]

Zanzibar minted the first coin before the british pound ajd electricity was available on the islamd before England had any at the time.

[@indigenousnorwegianeuropa4145]

Very interesting indeed

[@londonbowcat1]

12:20 Ibn Battatua the gift of the observer or travels in Asia and Africa

[@juliandaffern9556]

Brilliant.

[@jefmweds]

We the Bantu didn’t come from Congo as books suggest, Every old man says for example Meru came from an island near the coast where they had been enslaved for many years. A correct history needs to be done for teaching in schools. I my culture…baobab tree is considered holly and should never be cut. When a very important person passes on, locals describe the death as “A baobab tree has fallen” shows how significant baobab tree was in ancient times for my community

[@kim1570]

Indeed. We came from various areas in North East Africa and the Nile Valley.

[@Heegooat]

Apparently meru say they came from manda island, they actually use the same name as the island. They were being captured by white people /Persians and they followed Tana river up to maua Highlands.

[@globalcitizen1138]

@@Heegooatdo a deep Google search of MERU in general you will see a link with mist ancient civilizations . Something very significant about the Meru.

[@jeffb395]

As children shosho taught us we came from the island and travelled north and then south. due to the Arab invasion of Egypt.

[@Musick79]

I want maps, photos, along with my lecture… I’m visual!

[@debrajohnson3851]

Sixteen cities are listed under Ham in Genesis 10 of the Holy Bible. We were the first to be civilized and this video manifests our ancient reality. Slowly, the lies from the West are crumbling!

[@philjones6054]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@user-mt4fw6sh9e]

Go read a book.please

[@debrajohnson3851]

@@philjones6054 gee, that was my reaction when I counted the cities of Japheth/ Gentiles.

[@helenamcginty4920]

The bible is not s history book. Genesis is myth. Much of it based on much older myths from Mesopotamia. The rest is mainly a justification for land grabbing. So much has been disproven, eg Jerico was a small village when the Israelites were taking over the area. I believe there is evidence that a larger older town had been damaged by an earthquake some hundreds of years previously. So they maybe just incorporated a folk memory into their story.

[@darrellroberson8339]

Ms. Johnson, Thank you for sharing. Don't waste your time replying to idiots. They still believe in the great organstrated steal by trump and his resounding efforts to pardon Insurrectionist 🙄

[@tuomasronnberg5244]

Kenya, where you can see lions

[@tehutimes1]

India has lions, the Balkans had lions until 400 b.c.e. or c.e., Turkey killed their lions off in 1921, & Iran extirpated their last lions in 1964. Lions aren't & haven't been restricted to Kenya & the rest of the African continent.

[@YaBoiDREX]

@@tehutimes1 cool but nobody asked

[@Minptahhathor]

​@@YaBoiDREX wild

[@lisak9361]

Lamu was an important city

[@londonbowcat1]

18:30 Basil Davidson

[@realitytube6290]

Lamu is the centre of the swahili civilisation and very important till present day eve though the previous Kenyan government gave illegal lands to people of the kikuyu tribe from northern Kenya to over populate the area from its origin inhabitants.

[@lisak9361]

The Mijikenda actually found the Swahili at the coast. The Mijikenda migrated with the eastern Bantu movement from central Africa and no scholar actually "believes" or would even suggest that the Mijikenda became the Swahili. That's absurd!

[@kaialexandro]

Swahili is 90% mijikenda words. What's absurd is the idea that a language would precede its speakers in arriving at a place

[@lisak9361]

@@kaialexandro *Bantu* words NOT Mijikenda! Research!!

[@kaialexandro]

@@lisak9361 Mijikenda is BANTU. I don't need to research because I am a native Kiswahili speaker and also a Mijikenda by tribe and I can assure you over 90% of Kiswahili language is composed of words from the MIJIKENDA tribes 😊the other ~10% is portuguese, arabic, persian, Indian and english

[@kaialexandro]

@@lisak9361 Not just in vocabulary but in sentence structure and grammar. Kiswahili language and culture was that of trade along the Indian ocean coast and the interior African tribes that existed centuries long before contact with Arabs and others

[@lisak9361]

@@kaialexandro Ignorance is real! Moving on...

[@davidblush]

Surely I speaker knows that the Jamaicans are not all the product of an enslaved people, but rather were the indigenous inhabitants of the 'island', which included people sent to the west indies islands from the Americas - North and South - indigenous Americans with Afro phenotypes millennia before Cristobel Colon arrived there in the 15th Century

[@halganbedel1103]

The name Gedi is a Somali ajuuraan suldan and is also commonly used name for man

[@realitytube6290]

This is not the same but it may sound the same or alike.

[@chukwukahenry2483]

That was not Indians that is the ancients ibo tribal civilization from western Africa they were the early hunter gatherers and African civilizations

[@anthonysamuels3408]

I don't thinks you right some itching their is you telling it so I don't have believe

[@saraswatkin9226]

Somalia was never part of British East Africa which was Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania so when did Somalia become part of East Africa? Kenya is rich with ancient Islamic culture and tradation with arab dhows sailing from Arabia along the East Coast and they built the Fort in Mombasa, Kenya which is still present.

[@andrewjohnson8232]

Incredibly silly comment.

[@georgeoguda9644]

Why do you insist on naming them "Arab dhows"? Could it have been "Swahili African dhows"? It's usual difficult to accept that they were African but that is the role of selective historical portrayal of Africa's history.

[@georgeoguda9644]

The fort was not built by arabs. Please remove the bigoted spectacles.

[@maragolihistory2118]

Somalis migrated to East Africa few years ago. So how do you know about us??

[@lisak9361]

He didn't say that Somalia (a conical construct) was part of British East Africa!!!! He said it was part of it along the coast, from Mogadishu, is part of the Swahili Coast - which is correct!!

[@Lydiard91]

Yawn. Maybe look at actual civilisation?

[@catherinesterling1685]

You mean the ones yt people fabricated

[@supahotjoe6493]

Greeks and roman’s could not even invent their own writing script independantly 💀👋

[@Lydiard91]

@@supahotjoe6493 Whereas you don't even know how to use a writing system given to you.

[@supahotjoe6493]

@@Lydiard91Atleast my ancestors were able to invent independant writing scripts lool you got yours from the phoenician who them themselves got it from the Kemites (Yeah the Black africans who lived in Egypt and are responsible for that civilization when your ancestors were living in caves living like savages).

[@supahotjoe6493]

@@Lydiard91 The Greeks and the Romans did not even invent their own alphabet: The Latin script evolved from the Etruscan alphabet, which itself was derived from the Greek alphabet. The earliest Latin inscriptions appear around the 7th century BCE, and the script underwent various modifications and refinements over time. The Greek alphabet, which is the writing system used for the Greek language and has been adapted for writing other languages as well, has a long and complex history with origins in the ancient Greek world. It is believed to have evolved from the Phoenician alphabet. The earliest known Greek inscriptions date back to the 8th century BCE, and they exhibit a transitional phase between the Phoenician and Greek alphabets. Over time, the Greek alphabet developed into the system that we recognize today, with 24 letters. The earliest complete Greek alphabet, known as the "Euboean" or "Western Greek" alphabet, appeared in the 7th century BCE.