“The word “Swahili” is derived from the Arabic word sahil which means coast. When the Arabs first saw the African people living along the coast they gave these coastal people who spoke Bantu languages the name “Sahili.” KiSwahili is a Bantu language to which many Arabic words have been added. This came about over a long history of… Read more

” The stories about major cities that preceded the Empire of Ghana mention towns south-east of Kumbi. Among these cities, we can mention: Umy, Nema and Dia. The city of Umy (104 -323 AD) was a very important city located north of the lake area. This city would have existed on the right bank of the Niger River, opposite the current city of… Read more

The Dogon’s cosmological tradition begins with a world system or plan that is expressed symbolically in their architectural form of an aligned ritual structure called a Granary. When you see pictures of their granaries their classic form is roughly pyramidal and includes a round base and a square, flat roof with an inscribed circle, four… Read more