The eastern coast of Africa linked the interior of the continent with the Indian and Arab world and became a major hub of trading and cultural blending as far back as the 7th century. Many of the Arabs who came to the Swahili coast were from Oman, and their cultural influences are still seen today. The video describes the Swahili culture as "the fusion of the African with Arab, some Indian, and later European influences." For example, the Swahili language is largely rooted in Bantu cultures with a significant portion also coming from Portuguese and Arabic. People traded goods such as gold, ivory, and ebony, but also shared customs and ideas. Over time this blending of culture created a distinct Swahili culture rooted in African traditions and infused with Arab, Indian, and European practices. One of the biggest impacts of this blending is the establishment of Islam throughout the eastern coast of Africa. Many of the coastal cities have large populations of practicing Muslims, even when the interior population is more heavily Christian. Much of the video echoed the thesis of the article I read describing the dangers of distilling African history and culture into a single narrative. Indeed, it seems like many of the people of the Swahili coast have one foot rooted on African soil and the other across the Indian Ocean. 

A new understanding that I came to while watching the video was how the establishment of Islam changed the self-perception of some people living on the eastern coast of Africa and how this led to slavery in that region and beyond. Some African that identified more as Arabs and Muslims saw themselves as foreigners. Because they saw themselves as separate from the rest of their African compatriots, they were agents who worked on behalf of Arab slave traders by acquiring African slaves from the interior and then selling the slaves to Arabs who then brought them to the Arabian peninsula across the Indian Ocean. Approximately 14 million slaves were believed to be sold along the Swahili coast during the 7th-19th centuries. I was surprised by how the elevation of their Muslim identity allowed these slave trader agents to dissociate themselves from others in their own country to the extreme of buying and selling human beings.