"Wooden Dhows: East African coastal heritage"

The Indian Ocean trade has linked Africa, Asia and the Arabian peninsula for centuries. Wooden dhows like this one use seasonal monsoon winds (known as kusi) to sailed along the East African coast or for larger dhows, to the Arabian peninsula and across to India. One of the most favoured timbers for the hulls of dhows is the Pod Mahogany (Afzelia quanzensis). Which is also used to the doors of historic Swahili and Omani-Arab style buildings in Lamu and on Zanzibar. But over-exploitation of Afzelia quanzensis for export to China is a major challenge for this slow growing species with poor recruitment from seed. If this happens, the dhow trade will be a thing of the past.