Research On Mombasa Architecture In The Period Of East African Protectorate (1895-1920)

The Kenyan port city of Mombasa is historically one of the quintessential representatives of the East African city-states.Due to its geographical location,the East African coast has for a long time been a place where the Bantu and Islamic civilizations met and fused,giving birth to the unique Swahili civilization of East Africa.Since its foundation,Mombasa has been a major player in the Swahili city-state.The white coral stone buildings of the East African coast are a traditional feature of Mombasa’s architecture.Since the opening of the New Passage,Western Christian civilization has also had a direct influence on the architecture of the East African coast,leaving behind medieval-era Western-style buildings such as Fort Jesus on Mombasa.By the time of the East African Protectorate,the three cultures of Swahili,Islamic and Christian had different cultural influences on Mombasa,and the different cultural impacts have led to a very different style of architecture in Mombasa,reflecting the complex cultural context between the indigenous traditions of the port city and Western civilization at the time.Stone architecture has a long history on the East African coast,and the stone buildings of Mombasa are typically Swahili in colour.The Swahili culture is the result of the interaction of multiple cultures,which naturally manifests itself in the same and different architectural expressions as the related buildings.After a thousand years of change,the new stone houses in Mombasa still bear traces of their past,and the Bantu elements in them have endured.The predominantly Muslim Swahili people naturally built their own stone mosque architecture,and in Mombasa the traditional Swahili mosques,represented by the Mandhry and Mnara mosques,have both the Islamic flavour common to mosques and an architectural identity that is inseparable from the local character.After the opening of the New Route,Western colonists extended their influence to the East African coast,which had a huge impact on the region.Particularly in the 19 th century,while the Western colonisers gained ownership of traditional Swahili buildings in terms of architecture,they adapted these mansions in the context of the times.During the period of the East African Protectorate,the waterfront houses,represented by the Leven House and the Hinawy House,were altered to varying degrees,and their overall architectural structure and detailing was adapted as occupants from different regions and cultural backgrounds lived there and renovated them,based on Swahili-style dwellings in the colonial style of the time,the most typical of which is the colonial veranda.Foreign architectural culture was also absorbed into Mombasa.Unlike the Leven House and the Hinawy House,which were indigenous to Western Europe and Central Asia,the Fort Jesus and the Mombasa Memorial Cathedral are typical examples of exotic architecture built on the East African coast by Western colonialists that absorbed the Swahili style indigenous to East Africa.Fort Jesus,a defensive fortress built by Portuguese colonists in Mombasa during the early colonial period,is a typical example of European military defence architecture of the time,but its building materials and masonry techniques are all locally Swahili elements.The Mombasa Memorial Cathedral,on the other hand,is a successful example of integration into local architectural life,not only in its use of coral stone,but also in its overall architectural style,which is similar to that of East African architecture.The Mombasa Club,a representative of British club culture in Mombasa,is built in coral stone and steel with a tropical feel in its continued expansion,but its architectural significance is more a reflection of European life in Mombasa during the colonial period.Throughout the series of histories from the formation of the East African city-state of Swahili to the transformation of the East African Protectorate into a Kenyan colony,the local architectural style of Mombasa has changed with the changing themes of the times.During the period of the East African Protectorate the city of Mombasa was one of the most colourful periods in its architectural history,with a mixture of different types of architecture.While the stone architecture established the fundamental position of Swahili culture in Mombasa,the process of localisation of foreign architecture in Mombasa formed a useful cultural complement to Mombasa architecture at the architectural level.The local architectural practice of these two types of architecture illuminates the integration and divergence between the two sides,which in turn leads to the cultural product of the architectural and cultural context that followed the East African Protectorate period.The commonalities and differences in the different buildings of Mombasa during the East African Protectorate period show the openness and tolerance of Swahili culture from an architectural point of view,reflecting the life of Swahili,Arab and European people in Mombasa at that time.