Swahili Coast 斯瓦西里海岸

Rich history, diverse culture, palm trees, beautiful beaches, Indian Ocean, magical islands, spices, sea food, sea breeze, coral reefs, Swahili language, friendly and beautiful people are a few words you can use to describe Swahili coast, and yet that is not even fair because this place is more than that.

丰富的历史，丰富的文化内涵，棕树，美丽的海滩，印度洋，美丽的岛屿，香料，海鲜，海风，斯瓦希里语，友好又美丽的人这些是一些可以描述斯瓦西里海岸，但是还是不够因为这里有更多精彩。

Starfish on the beach 海滩上的海星

Stunning view 美丽的景色

Where？ 在哪?

Swahili coast is along the coast of East Africa and it can be safe to say that it covers cities along the countries of: Mozambique, Tanzania, Comoros, Kenya, Somalia and Madagascar.

斯瓦西里海岸在东非海岸，可以这海岸包括在莫桑比克，坦桑尼亚，科摩罗，肯尼亚，索马里和马达加斯加的城市。

Let's go fishing~ 钓鱼吧

Civilization 文明

The earliest settlers were highly skilled people and they practiced ironworking, farming, fishing and trading. Around 2 A.D due to its strategic location, this site evolved to be a major commercial and cultural exchange between East Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Europe. 

来这里最早的人是很技术很高而且他们早就开始用铁，农业，钓鱼和做生意。因为这里的位置，它后来变成了东非与中东，亚洲和欧洲贸易和文化交流中心。

It is said that, many traders once they got here, they never wanted to go back home. This contributed to a highly diverse culture in this region. For the need of a common language, Swahili language developed and so is the Swahili culture.

听说很多商人来这里就不想走所以可以看去来这里的人文化丰富，不同的种族都集中在这一片土地。为了方便交流，斯瓦希里语就出现。 

Honeymoon comes to my mind, you?

看这个就想去度蜜月

Swahili Language 斯瓦希里语

Swahili is mainly a bantu language, there're words borrowed from Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, Germany, English and many other languages to suit the demands of the overgrowing immigrants by the time.

For example "Tisa" which means "nine" was borrowed from Arabic word to replace "Kenda".  "leso" which means "handkerchief" was borrowed from Portuguese. "Shule" which means "School" was borrowed from German.

斯瓦希里语本身是班图语，但是还借了很多阿拉伯语，波斯语，葡萄牙语，德语，英语等等。

比如“Tisa”意思是“九”是从阿拉伯语借的。 “leso” 是从葡萄牙语借的。“Shule”意思是“学校”是从德语借的。

Swahili women wearing Kanga

斯瓦西里女人穿的Kanga

 Swahili people also developed distinctive dressing styles, art, music and architecture. The most influencial dressing style is Kanga which is mostly worn by women.

In Kenya Swahili culture is more pronounced in Mombasa, and Lamu, here you can see men wearing kanzu and a small, white, rounded hat with elaborate embroidery which is prominent in almost all the Swahili coast. Swahili women will wear some buibui and cover their heads with Hijabu.

斯瓦西里人还有很多特色的衣服，艺术，音乐和建筑。最普遍的Kanga，这个衣服一般都是女生穿着。

在肯尼亚斯瓦西里文化大部分在蒙巴萨和拉姆，这里经常能看到男的穿着Kanzu和白色帽子。女生大部分穿着“Buibui”然而头上盖着一个“Hijabu”

Swahili people also have a distinctive style of art which can be seen in their carpets, rugs, porcelain, architecture and jewelry. These were largely influenced by Asians. 

这里的艺术一般都在地毯，瓷器，建筑和首饰上看到的。这些都有亚洲的影响。

Lamu Furnitures 拉姆家具

The most influencial style of music in the Swahili culture is Taarab which was born in the islands of Zanzibar, it borrows from Indian and Arabic melody, it is slow but poetically rich. Chakacha is also an influencial style of music in the Swahili coast. 

在斯瓦西里文化的最有名的音乐风格是在桑给巴尔开发的Taarab，这风格有阿拉伯和印度的音乐因素，节奏有点慢但是歌词很丰富。Chakacha也是这里的最有名的音乐风格。

We won't cover foods in this section because much more details has been covered on the respective countries. We will share the links below for you to see for yourself. But for now, we will share a few pictures to get you started~

因为以前已经报道到了关于这些地方的食物，我们这里就不能再报道了，但是还是会给你看看一些

Coffee 咖啡

Beaches 海滩

These are the countries along the Swahili coast 想看更多内容请继续看下面这几个链接:

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