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Summaries · Grade 6 History › Indian Ocean trade: Swahili, dhows and sacred kings
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Indian Ocean trade: Swahili, dhows and sacred kings

Indian Ocean trade: Swahili traders, dhows and monsoon winds, and sacred kingship at Mapungubwe. Read one part at a time and tap “I know this”. Then test yourself in the quiz.

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The trade network

KilwaGreat ZimbabweMapungubwe
From the interior to the coast: Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and the port of Kilwa. Sofala lies on the coast of Mozambique.
Exports from the interiorImports from overseas
Gold and ivoryGlass beads, cloth and porcelain

Chinese porcelain at Mapungubwe proves trade with far lands. The Silk Road was an old land route from China. Globalisation: countries linked through trade and ideas. Europeans used pepper to flavour and preserve food. When Da Gama sailed up the east coast he found busy ports run by Swahili traders. A caravel is a small, fast Portuguese ship; a compass needle points north.

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The Order of Mapungubwe

The Order of Mapungubwe is South Africa’s highest award; Nelson Mandela was the first to receive it, in 2002.

Dhows sailed with the monsoon.
Dhows sailed with the monsoon.
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Remember this and test yourself

Remember this: your summary
  • Order in the Limpopo valley: Schroda → K2 → Mapungubwe Hill.
  • Sacred leadership: the king lived on top, closer to the ancestors, whom he was believed to speak to.
  • The Swahili were traders on Africa’s east coast; their language, Swahili, is an African language with many Arabic words. Kilwa (island off Tanzania) grew rich from gold.
  • A dhow has a triangular sail. From about November to March the north-east monsoon blows dhows from Arabia and India to East Africa; from about April to September the south-west monsoon blows them back home.
  • After Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe (stone walls without cement) rose: two different places.

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Memory trick

The monsoon is a two-way street: out on one wind, home on the other.

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Important words

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