Swahili Port Cities

On the Swahili coast of East Africa monumental stone houses tombs and mosques mark the border zone between the interior of the African continent and the Indian Ocean. Prita Meier explores this coastal environment and shows how an African mercantile society created a place of cosmopolitan longing. Meier understands architecture as more than a way to remake local space. Rather the architecture of this liminal zone was an expression of the desire of coastal inhabitants to belong to places beyond th...See More