How nature is chipping away 800 years of Gedi history

By AMOS KAREITHI

Not even the world’s most reinforced monuments and the grandest pieces of architecture can stand up to nature, which has a way of reclaiming its own.

This reclamation, at one of Kenya’s oldest settlement, has been as gradual as an army of ants chipping away pieces of microscopic bits from gigantic creatures, ultimately reducing it to nothing.

A section of Gedi Ruins. One of the trees in Gedi that has cannibalised part of the wall near the 12th century mosque site. INSET: Pieces of China excavated from the ruins. Their existence proves that the town had connections with China, whose coins were also discovered in a house. [PHOTOS: AMOS KAREITHI/STANDARD]

One of the agents of nature, the strangler fig has locked another tree in an embracing kiss of death, slowly suffocating and swallowing it whole in the space of a few years.

This aptly captures the forces at work. The triumph by nature over man-made monuments at this ancient ruined city is symbolised by another species of fig tree that has in several decades swallowed a whole wall of impenetrable coral stones and limestone and finally colonised what was once an insurmountable wall.

The coral walls, thick and cemented together by limestone, the precursor of the cement used today, was meant to last forever by builders whose mastery of construction has weathered almost 800 years. For over centuries, some of these walls have held their ground, withstanding bombardment by heavy canon fire, humid weather floods and centuries of neglect under decaying vegetation.

But these walls of resilience are now under a new threat from a coloniser whose persistence is surely winning the endurance test. Gedi, the ancient city that has survived centuries of hard living, now has to contend with a new enemy in the form of a fig tree that has defied the conventions of germination.

Climbing over the rough walls which kept armed intruders at bay, one of the trees that started off as a minute seed, then sapling with weak, hairy dangling roots, has achieved a feat which 800 years of attacks, neglect and humidity could not do.

Thanks to the tree, whose roots are now firmly grounded at foundation, the ancient wall has been cannibalised, leaving gaps that armies of intruders can ease through. The curator at Gedi ruins and Museum, Ali Mwarora, explains that when the city was abandoned the roots of giant forest trees slowly embraced the ruins, holding them firmly and only to pull them down when they themselves succumbed to old age. At the height of its glory, Gedi’s City’s walls were strong enough to keep away marauding cannibals, the Zenji, as well as warriors from its precincts.

Welcome to the marvels of Gedi, an ancient cosmopolitan settlement where some of East Horn of Africa’s earliest wars were fought and lost even as Europe, Middle and Far East as well as Africa met to trade. The dense vegetation that once colonised Gedi and its environs still lingers layers of decayed matter and sandy soils, concealing acres of undiscovered artifacts that could shed light to the secrets of the city, 700 years ago.

Revealing discoveries

"Although Gedi City situated 65 miles from Mombasa or 10 miles from Malindi, at the height of its glory occupied an area of 45 acres. It is interesting that only five acres of the original town has been excavated," explains Mwarora. And what secret the excavated area has yielded! The archeologists have uncovered a life where the rich lived in houses made of coral stones and limestones.

Archeologists and historians belief that the town of Gedi was established by the Swahili people in 12th Century and strategically located, just one kilometre from the sea and was called Kilimani. The residents of the town were preoccupied with trading and received merchants from various parts of the world, as was discovered by archeologists after they unearthed some merchandise from different parts of the world. It is estimated that Gedi had a population of 3,000 people, who professed the Islamic faith, as evidenced by the various mosques whose remains have been uncovered during the excavations.

One of the most revealing discoveries was the excavation of a 12th century mosque by Stephen Pradines outside the outer wall of the settlement, where yet another mosque dating back to 13th century stood. The Frenchman further discovered a mass grave where a number of infants are suspected to have been buried, possibly after dying from an epidemic. This supports one of the theories advanced for the evacuation of the city, suggesting that the residents were running away from a plague that had also wiped out millions in Europe.

"It is believed that plague was brought to Africa by the Portuguese. It had no cure at that time and for Gedi people to take precaution they had to abandon their town," Mwararo explains. However, this theory contradicts arguments by Historians that Gedi had very little contacts with the Portuguese who visited the East Coast in 1948 and immediately established a church in Malindi.

Historians talk of an invasion of Gedi by a war-like pastoral community, the Oromo or the Galla, who came all the way from Ethiopia and subdued the people of Kilimani. "It is believed that Gedi is a name derived from the Galla (Oromo) language, meaning something precious, as it has water and pasture, the two most important things that pastoralists wanted.

Punitive expedition

The name could also mean the name of the warrior who led the attack of Gedi in the 15th century. James Kirkman, author of Gedi, argues that something happened in the settlement that brought life to an end. "All the surface areas are pockets of exclusively 15th century porcelain showing that in the 16th century only part of the built up area was occupied" Kirkman explains.

Gedi’s location between two opposing cities, Mombasa and Malindi, could have put it in harm’s way, especially after Mombasa was attacked by the combined forces of Portuguese and Malindi destroyed Mombasa, which decided top revenge as soon as the Europeans had gone. Kirkman argues, "It is possible that Gedi was destroyed by the punitive expedition sent to Malindi by Mombasa after it was destroyed by Nuno Da Cunha in April in 1529. The people of Mombasa thought that Gedi being so close to Malindi must have combined forces to attack Mombasa.

According to Kirkman, by the time the Portuguese operated from their headquarters in Malindi, Gedi was in ruins, though they could not mention it although shards of porcelain unearthed in the ruins suggest that it was occupied in the late 16th century.

With the decline of the Wagalla, who were frequently harassed by the Maasai, Gedi was abandoned as the pastoralist could not hold onto the town any more especially after Arabs from Lamu joined forces with Zanzibar soldiers to occupy Malindi. Mwarora explains that Gedi’s collapse may have been hastened by the recession of the coastline by several kilometres, the dropping of the water table that led to scarcity of water.

This is attested by the depth of the wells that are scattered all over the portion of the town that was inhabited by the high and the mighty, including the king and the Imam. "All the wells are over 60 feet deep. This is strange for settlement that was set on a shoreline. It can only suggest that at the time, the residents were forced to dig deeper after the water level receded. It is possible the residents experienced a severe water shortage and had to flee," Mwarora adds.

Gedi’s problems were compounded by repeated attacks by the war like Gallas, finally reducing it into a ghost town whose palaces, mosques and houses were left to rot. The desolate city that had been uninhabited for over 200 years was ‘discovered by a Zanzibar resident, John Kirk, in 1884 when he visited the East Coast and stumbled on the ruins. Gedi remained forgotten for another half a century until 1927 when the colonial authorities who had taken Kenya gazetted the ruins as historical monument.

The first attempt to restore the ruined city started in 1939, during the Second World War when the Public Works Department patched up the crumbling walls. But it was not until nine years later when the actual excavations started. It has been about eight centuries since the ancient city was started at the Coast and how some of the now gnawed out buildings have remained standing is a baffling mystery. Ironically, even in death, the ordinary people who once served the king of Gedi still hold on to their secrets in their unmarked graves for archeologists have just scratched the surface in their excavations. "The houses of the ordinary people, made of red earth poles and makuti have since collapsed but if one was to dig in their quarters it is possible there will be a lot of discoveries," the curator adds.

Although the unexplored part of Gedi holds so much promise, considering that the city’s only five acres have been excavated, the task ahead is daunting for it takes a lot of time and millions of shillings to execute such a project. Archeologists too are racing against time: for the tropical climate with humid temperatures and wild vegetation is rapidly finishing off the job the Waggalas left undone, completely obliterating Gedi and forever concealing the secrets.

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