From Kilwa Kisiwani to Highland Park

Part 8 of 13 in our journey from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo
(Connecting Landmarks in Michigan and African History)

Highland Park Ford Plant

Highland Park, MI was launched into the spotlight when Henry Ford purchased 160 acres of land just north of Manchester Street between Woodward Avenue and Oakland Street. Construction of the Highland Park Ford Plant (designed by Albert Kahn) was completed in 1909. The small village of Highland Park went from a population of 4,120 in 1910 to around 46,500 in 1920. At Highland Park, Ford would relocate his Piquette Avenue Assembly Plant and implement the first assembly line for the production of automobiles. At its peak it would produce 1000 "Tin Lizzies" a day.

Chrysler headquarters before
demolition

In 1913, Highland Park's Brush-Maxwell automotive factory opened as a division of the United States Motor Car Company. The factory complex shared space with the Chalmers Automotive Company. Chalmers ended production in 1923 and in 1925 the Maxwell Motor Company was reorganized into the Chrysler Corporation. The original Brush-Maxwell plant would grow to a size of 150 acres and become home to Chrysler for the next 70 years.

But just as quickly as the automotive industry arrived, it left Highland Park. Ford Motor Company downsized its operations in the late 1950s and eventually sold the factory in 1973. The Chrysler Motor Company moved its headquarters to Auburn Hills between 1991 and 1993 dislocating a total of 6,000 jobs. Highland Park's population dropped from a peak in 1930 of 52,959 to 11,176 in 2010.

Packard Motor Plant

Fisher Body Plant 21

Ford Piquette Avenue Plant

What remains today is a city struggling to recover from the loss of its auto industry. The city and its surroundings are littered with the history of its once mighty automobile production. In addition to the Ford and Chrysler plants, you can still find other abandon automotive manufacturing monuments. At Detroit's Milwaukee Junction, one can find Henry Ford's first assembly plant and the Fisher Body Plant 21. Not far from Piquette Avenue, you can find the Packard Motor plant. And there are many more abandon sites that provided the parts and raw materials in support of these might assembly plants.

The Mosque of Kilwa

As one looks at the photos of these abandon factories, I can't help but compare them to ruins found on the east coast of Africa. The ruins are remnants of a great trading empire that once supplied goods across the Indian Ocean to India, China, Indonesia, Arabia and Rome. These cities were the melting pots that gave birth to the Swahili culture. Today, when comparing these decaying structures to those found in Highland Park and Detroit, the same emotions are invoked. Just how mighty were these cities? What did they produce? How did they so quickly disappear?

Trade along the east coast of Africa existed as far back at 60 AD. The cities included Kilwa Kisiwani, Songo Mnara, Kizimikazi, Sanje Majoma and Unguja Kuu. The greatest of these cities was Rhapta, whose location today is still debated, but whose trading might lives on in the ancient Roman navigating guide the "Periplus of the Erythraarean Sea" (Periplus of the Red Sea).


The great Muslim explorer Ibn Batutta reached the city of Kilwa in 1331 and wrote,

"We ... traveled by sea to the city of Kulwa [Kilwa in East Africa]...Most of its people are Zunuj, extremely black...The city of Kulwa is amongst the most beautiful of cities and most elegantly built...."

The Mosque of Kilwa

The great Mosque of Kilwa built in the 11^th century is probably the most famous piece of architecture that remains from these cities. Built out of coral stones and lime mortar, it contains sixteen domes believed to be the first true domes on the east African coast. The largest dome would retain its title as the largest on the east African coast until the 19^th century. Proof of the city's trading might is found in the Mosques' chief decoration of embedded Chinese porcelain. Other buildings on Kilwa include the Husuni Kuba palace built around 1310 and the Geraza (Swahili for 'prison').

Songo Mnara

At Songo Mnara, one can find the remains of five mosques, a palace complex and some thirty-three domestic dwellings constructed of coral stones and wood.

At Unguja Ukuu, oral legend tells of how a local land owner, Mohammed was Joka, could foresee the future and could cast spells making the city invisible. For a period, it was the capital of Zanzibar.

The Chinese explorer
Cheng Ho

These cities were trading with India and the Chinese long before the arrival of the Europeans. Goods exchanged included ivory, tortoise shells, gold, spice, and iron. In 1417, the great Chinese explorer Cheng Ho (or Zheng He) on his sixth of seven expeditions reached East Africa. He is said to have traveled with more than 300 ships and 28,000 men. The largest of his vessels was 444 ft. in length (By comparison, Columbus' Santa Maria was 60 ft. in length). After the death of the Chinese Emperor in 1425, contact with the Chinese ended opening the door to the Europeans.

Indian Ocean Trade Routes

The Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama reached east African shores in 1488. Finding little gold, the Portuguese besieged cities like Kilwa and indulged their appetite for slave trade. And with their arrival, began the slow decline and eventual abandonment of most of these trading cities. By 1840 Kilwa was abandon.



Songo Mnara

Kilwa Kisiwani

We know very little of what life was like in these Swahili cities. It wasn't until the 1960s that the search for the City of Rhapta began in earnest. Serious archaeological investigation of Kilwa didn't begin until the 1950s. Much of Kilwa's mysteries remain unexcavated. In 2008, the World Monuments Fund included Kilwa on its Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. It seems amazing that ruins such as these remain unstudied. These are truly lost cities and it's my hope that their mysteries can be solved before they are forever lost to time and the elements of nature.