24 AFRICA SPEAKS 



The history of Mombasa is interwoven with that of 

 the entire East Coast and reaches far back into the 

 dim past. Somewhere about three thousand years ago 

 the mighty Bantu race was filtering into the unknown 

 interior of the continent, and at about that time the 

 ancient Phoenicians landed along the north coast, 

 founding Carthage. Before the Romans razed Car- 

 thage in 146 B.C. and later destroyed or absorbed the 

 Phoenicians into the Roman race, these ancient people, 

 or a kindred Semitic people, had left their mark in 

 northern Africa and in Egypt, and to this day their 

 descendants are the dominant race in Abyssinia. 



The old Portuguese Fort of Jesus dominates Mom- 

 basa town and harbor, and from it still flies the red 

 flag of Seyyid Khalifa Bin Harub, Sultan of Zanzibar, 

 for a strip of land ten miles in width, from the sea 

 inland, is still under the suzerainty of the sultan. The 

 fort now serves as a prison and signal station, and it 

 is from here at midday that a cannon is fired to set the 

 correct time. Old Portuguese inscriptions and a 

 colored bas-rehef of the Virgin and Child can still be 

 seen on the crumbhng walls. Many of the ancient 

 guns still point silently seaward, never to speak again. 



The Arabs practically controlled all of East Africa 

 until, in the fifteenth century, the Portuguese rounded 

 the Cape of Good Hope and Vasco de Gama anchored 

 at Mombasa in April of 1498. This gallant navigator 

 lost no time in securing a foothold for his countrymen. 

 Seven years later Sofala and Mombasa were captured. 

 Another four years found the Portuguese building a 

 capital at Malindi to rule over the new Province of 

 Ethiopia, which extended from near the present bound- 

 ary of Itahan Somahland to Sofala, south of Beira. 



