Question

Discuss five economic benefits trade brought to the Kingdom of Zimbabwe and the Swahili coast.

Your answers for prompt 1 should continue to prompt 2, which requires you to provide answers to the following:

• who were the trades partners of each of the two civilizations
• provide a list of at least 6 trade goods that were traded in these two civilizations
• identify some of the social and cultural benefits trade brought to both civilizations

YOUR ANSWER SHOULD NOT BE LESS THAN 350 WORDS

Answer 1

as trade intensified between Africa and Asia , prosperous city - states florished along the eastern coast of Africa , These includes Kilwa , Mombasa , MAlinidi , Sofala and others. The city states traded with inland kigdoms like the great Zimbabwe to obtain gold , ivory and iron ,. These materials were then sold to places like India , Southern Asia and China , Thse were Africa's exports in teh Indian Ocean trade , These items jcould be sold at a profit because they were scarce in asian countries ,,

earlier interracial marriages were not uncommon , and gradually over the centuries , a new and distinct ethnic group developed, that know as the Swahili . Today a millions of Swahili people live in the nations of east Africa , where the swahili ( or more precisely , Bantu ) language , many words in Swahili can still can be traced back to Arabic and Hinidi origin ,

Goods which came to the Swahili city states were collected from Africa's interior including southern africa where kilwa had a trade emporium , sofala , near the kingdom of great Zimbabbwe , These goods could be consumed in teh cities themselve s, that passed on to other African communities ( after payment of duties to the cities ' rulers ) or exported away from the continent by sea . In the other direction , goods came from Arabia , persia and the India and although these places from China and southernt Asia , Again the foreign products were both consumed in the Swahili city states and traded on to Africa settlements throughout EAst and southern Africa . Finally swahili city states also manufactured goods for the both their own residents and for trade such as pottery , cloth and highly decorated siwa, the typically brass trumpet of the region.

Goods from africa included are as;-

• Precious metal - iron , gold and copper ,
• Ivory
• cotton cloth
• pottery
• trtise shells
• incense
• spces
• salt
• rock crystal
• hardwoods
• timber
• perfumes
• animal hides and slaves

Goods that are imported from the outside Africa are included ;-

• Precious metal jewellery
• glassware
• glass beads
• pottery frpm muslims states
• ming porcelain
• faience

Great Zimbabwe , an extensive stone ruins of an Africa Iron Age city , It lies in Southern Zimbabwe , about 19 miles suthern east of Masvingo . With an economay based on cattle husbandary , crop cultivation and the trade of gold on the coast of the  Indian ocean , Great Zimbabwe was the heart of thriving trading empire from 11th to the 15th centuries , The word Zimbabwe , the country's nameshake , is a shona ( Bantu ) word meaning " stone houses" Great Zimbabwe was largely abandoned durin the 5 th century . with the city declin , its stone working and potterry making techniques seem to have transfered southwasd to khami ( now also in ruins ) ,