With over forty percent of the global population residing within 100 km of a coastline, coastal regions stand at the forefront of the climate breakdown. This project adopts a diachronic approach to investigate how Swahili coastal communities in Tanzania adapted to a spectrum of climatic and environmental stressors. 

Situated in tropical East Africa, this region has weathered a complex history of severe droughts, floods, storm surges, and other extreme natural phenomena. As part of the Swahili cultural world, the region also underwent profound sociopolitical transformations like the emergence of urban communities, widespread conversion to Islam, and the intensification of long-distance maritime trade with societies across the Indian Ocean.

Our research leverages environmental and archaeological data and will center on the coastal hinterland of Pangani Bay, a region with tremendous potential to illuminate the interconnected factors at the climate-environment-society nexus that shaped settlement organization, subsistence, infrastructural adaptation, governance frameworks, and long-distance exchanges with inland Africa and the Indian Ocean world across time.

This project is generously supported by an ARUA-U21 ECR Collaborative Award.