Baobab trees may be a proxy for measuring long-term use of land by humans. They live long, have economic benefits, and are used as shrines and markers on landscapes. Archaeologists have long suspected an association between baobabs and human settlements. Wolfgang Alders, who researches early urbanism and the first migrations by farmers to the Tanzanian coast, Jonathan Soon Lim, an archaeologist and remote sensing scientist and engineering PhD candidate, and Logan Brunner used thousands of drone photos to connect the baobabs living today to ancient Swahili sites. Their findings suggest that the Unguja Island community’s protection of baobabs today is rooted in stewardship that extended deep into the past.
How did baobab trees get to Unguja Island?
Unguja Island, in Zanzibar, Tanzania, is part of the cultural region known as the Swahili Coast. The Swahili Coast stretches from southern Somalia to Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, north-west Madagascar and the Comoros. The ancient Swahili were fishers, farmers, artisans and merchants who founded towns and cities across coastal eastern Africa from the 7th century AD onward.
