Themtepe is a boat associated with theSwahili people (the word "boat" in theBantuSwahili language beingmtepe). The mtepe's planks are held together by wooden pegs[2] andcoir[3][a], so it is asewn boat designed to be flexible[3][b] in contrast to the rigid vessels of western technique.
The cessation of the production ofmtepe has been ascribed to the arrival of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean in the 15th century, leading to boat builders adopting alternative, western shipbuilding techniques.[3]
James Hornell, 1941. "The Sea-Going Mtepe and Dau of the Lamu Archipelago" In:''Mariner's Mirror'', January 1941.
A.H.J. Prins, 1959."Uncertainties in Coastal Cultural History: The Ngalawa and the Mtepe.” In:Tanganyika Notes and Records No.55: pp.204-214.
A.H.J. Prins, 1982. “The Mtepe of Lamu, Mombasa and the Zanzibar Sea.” Pp. 85-100. In:From Zinj to Zanzibar: Studies in History, Trade and Society on the Eastern Coast of Africa.(In Honour of James Kirkman). Eds. J. de V. Allen and Thomas H. Wilson.Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde Vol.28. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
A.H.J. Prins, 1986. "Second Case Study: the Mtepe of the Swahili Coast." Pp.64-92. In: Ibid. ,Handbook of Sewn Boats: The Ethnography and Archaeology of Archaic Plank-Built Craft. Maritime Monographs and Reports No.59. Greenwich, London: The National Maritime Museum.
Arabia to China — the Oriental Traditions, Jeremy Green, inThe Earliest Ships: The Evolution of Boats Into Ships (Conway's History of the Ship),Naval Institute Press, 1996.
^They are in this manner similar to traditional lashed Polynesian craft, whose flexible construction techniques have in part been carried forward to modern cruising designs and championed byJames Wharram.[4]
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