Page 47 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 35

Ar
Cultur
t &
Art & Culture
e

Panoramic view of the Sultan palace.
Image: Samuel Phillips

(including Arabs and the Chinese), and many
other architectural marvels, tells a very

different story from the one often portrayed by
foreign scholars of African history.

Meet Zena: The Historian and Researcher

“Welcome to Gedi National Monument. This
site is currently a UNESCO World Heritage
site. The ruins we will be visiting are enclosed
within two walls: an outer wall that spans 45

acres and an inner wall that covers 18 acres,”
Zena, our tour guide, began as she welcomed
us to Gedi, an ancient Swahili city in Malindi.
As it turned out, Zena was not just a tour guide,

as we had initially thought, but a historian
One of the streets in Gedi city. Image: Samuel Phillips

ISSUE 35 | MARCH 2025 47