CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image: Decorated Dhows

The photographic images in the Swahili Expressive Arts Collection represent the research and scholarship of Rebecca Gearhart, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology at Illinois Wesleyan University. Professor Gearhart’s area of interest is the arts, ceremony, and modern life of East Africa; she has lived and studied in the Swahili-Islamic community of Lamu on the northern coast of Kenya for twenty years. She uses images from this collection in teaching visual anthropology.

The dhow is a traditional wooden sailing vessel of Arab origin, historically used in trading in the regions of the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean. The Lamu archipelago still has an active dhow-making industry, particularly in the village of Matondoni. The dhows in this image are docked along the Lamu seafront before the annual race held during Maulidi, a festival celebrating the birth of Muhammad.

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