The mtepe is a boat associated with the Swahili people (the word "boat" in the Bantu languages Swahili language being mtepe). The mtepe's planks are held together by wooden pegs[A.H.J. Prins. "Uncertainties in Coastal Cultural History: The Ngalawa and the Mtepe” Tanganyika Notes and Records No.55: pp.204-214] and coir
Extinction
The cessation of the production of
mtepe has been ascribed to the arrival of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean in the 15th century, leading to boat builders adopting alternative, western shipbuilding techniques.
[Robert Marshall Adams B.A.S. Construction and Qualitative Analysis of a Sewn Boat of the Western Indian Ocean. University of Minnesota, 1985.]
Preservation
Nearly a dozen photographs and nine known model
mtepe have been preserved.
Three models are kept at the Fort Jesus Museum, a
Portugal fort built in 1591 located on
Mombasa Island,
Kenya.
One model is kept at the
Lamu Museum, north.
One model is kept at the National Maritime Museum,
Greenwich,
London.
One model is kept at the Science Museum,
Kensington,
London.
See also
External links
Further reading
-
James Hornell, 1941. "The Sea-Going Mtepe and Dau of the Lamu Archipelago" In: Mariner's Mirror, January 1941.
-
A.H.J. Prins, 1959."Uncertainties in Coastal Cultural History: The Ngalawa and the Mtepe.” In: Tanganyika Notes and Records No.55: pp.204-214.
-
A.H.J. Prins, 1982. “The Mtepe of Lamu, Mombasa and the Zanzibar Sea.” Pp. 85-100. In: From Zinj to Zanzibar: Studies in History, Trade and Society on the Eastern Coast of Africa.(In Honour of James Kirkman). Eds. J. de V. Allen and Thomas H. Wilson. Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde Vol.28. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
-
A.H.J. Prins, 1986. "Second Case Study: the Mtepe of the Swahili Coast." Pp.64-92. In: Ibid. , Handbook of Sewn Boats: The Ethnography and Archaeology of Archaic Plank-Built Craft. Maritime Monographs and Reports No.59. Greenwich, London: The National Maritime Museum.
-
Arabia to China the Oriental Traditions, Jeremy Green, in The Earliest Ships: The Evolution of Boats Into Ships (Conway's History of the Ship), Naval Institute Press, 1996.
Citations
Notes
