East African Seaports: An Application of the Concept of 'Anyport'

first century A.D., when the writer of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea1 visited Mombasa and described trading stations along the coast to which Arab traders from the northern shores of the Indian Ocean brought wheat, sugar, cotton and china in exchange for slaves and ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoiseshell and cinnamon. Early trading activity was based upon the seasonal reversal of winds in the Indian Ocean and upon the use of Arab sailing dhows; and because only the most rudimentary port facilities were needed, there existed a large degree of flexibility in terms of port sites. No fundamental change took place in this trade pattern until the nineteenth century when several factors combined to produce an acceleration and a reorientation of trade. In the earlier years of the century, African traders were moving increasingly to the coast, and Arabs penetrating farther inland from their base at Zanzibar; later European exploration and administration presented new necessities and opportunities for trade. Thus, the coastlands which for centuries past had been, in trading terms, nothing more than the western shore of the Indian Ocean,2 on the outer fringes of maritime circulations, became the maritime faqade of a developing region of considerable economic potential. This new orientation involved a crystallization of the formerly fluid pattern of port sites, as rail links were built inland and investment in port facilities grew, and the coming of the age of steam navigation also made possible the utilization of harbours hitherto neglected by the dhows. Five ports handling ocean-going vessels have emerged during the past 75 years to serve the needs of East Africa today: Mombasa, Tanga, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and Mtwara (Fig. I). Although there are important variations between the five seaports in terms of situation and site conditions, and in terms of facilities and traffic levels, they have shared many common features during their modem growth. This paper is concerned with the analysis of the development of these terminals within the framework of the 'Anyport' technique. The situation of the East African port group as a whole is generally advantageous, and site conditions at individual terminals do not present any insuperable obstacles to physical expansion, in the context of the functional framework within which each port now operates and is likely to continue to operate in the foreseeable future. The conditions of land and water situation which now favour the growth of the seaports have largely arisen during the last Ioo years; developments on both the landward and seaward sides, in transport and in economic and political geography, have now intensified and enormously widened the significance and relationships of the seaports, so that they no longer lie in a backwater but maintain links with major seaports in all the inhabited continents. The East African coast is equipped with several good natural harbours, where adequate shelter and deep water close inshore remove that dependence upon tidal fluctuations which so rigidly restricts shipping manceuvres in many