For #WorldToiletDay
A thread on medieval and early modern African lavatories/baths/latrines
#triviaxt
#historyxt

The baths and toilets of Gedi (Inset),shanga and cities of medieval swahili (1000-1500AD) -Kenya, Tz

A common feature of a swahili house, the bath and toilet were

built in coral stone, with a raised platform and niches for water pots for the bath and a square platform with niches built over a cesspit 4-8m deep and an adjacent washbasin for cleaning

Found at Shanga (virtually all 54 houses Horton excavated),kilwa, kisimani mafia, takwa etc

Read under the Chapter: "swahili houses" by Thomas Gensheimer in "The swahili world" by Stephanie wynne-jonnes

Read starting with Pg 58 of
Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Community on the Coast of East Africa
Mark Chatwin Horton, Helen W. Brown, Nina Mudida

Makuria, alodia
christian nubia toilets and baths (550-1350AD)

Often located on top floor with paved, heated floors, decorated walls supplied with hot piped water
fired clay seats with drain basin for flush water discharging

Inset: ghazali & kulbnarti toilets & sewerage system

through ceramic pipe into a vaulted cesspit belowground
The house's toilets were lined up on either side away from main streets
Common in kulbnarti (inset) dongola (capital of Makuria), meinarti, soba (capital of aodia) monasteries like ghazali both for elites and commoners

See pg 171 of
The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia: Pagans, Christians and Muslims Along the Middle Nile
Derek A. Welsby

Toilets of Kumasi and asante empire cities (18th-19th century)
Often found on top floor (elites) and outdoor (commoners)
They were separate rooms built with fired clay and wood, flushed with boiling water; discharging sewage

Toilet room's windows ( top right corner of house)

Sewage through a pipe at the back of the house into a deep pit underground

The above house is Thomas Bowditch's illustration
The two windows on the top right are for the toilet room, he was in kumasi in the early 19th cent.
Here's a snippet of his description of kumasi toilets

See pg 306 in
Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: With a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa
By Thomas Edward Bowdich

Gao (9th-12th centh)
Bathrooms were built inside several houses excavated at the Old city

They were beautifully plastered, and had a drainage pipe connected to an outdoor pit
(Similar design to jenne, kumbi saleh, etc of which I don't hv pictures yet but will describe)

Read under:
Discovery of the earliest royal palace in Gao and its implications for the history of West Africa
Shoichiro Takezawa et Mamadou Cisse

Jenne-jenno (250BC-1400AD)
Found in several of the houses
the bath and/or latrine were found on the ground floor and through 3m long drainage/sewage channels were connected to 4.5m deep pits
Dated to phase vi (900-1400ad) associated with the resurgence of Ghana and rise of mali

Taken from:

Excavations at Jenne-Jeno, Hambarketolo, and Kaniana (Inland Niger Delta, Mali): the 1981 Season
McIntosh, Susan Keech

Toilets of Kumbi saleh, tegdaust and the cities of the Ghana empire (8th-13th cent)

The latrines were located on the lower floors built with drystone with paved floors and small rectangular holes in slab built over deep cesspools
(translation of bethier's excavations at kumbi)

Taken from;
Recherches Archéologiques Sur la Capitale de L'empire de Ghana: Étude D'un Secteur D'habitat À Koumbi Saleh, Mauritanie : Campagnes II-III-IV-V, (1975-1976)-(1980-1981)
Sophie Berthier

She has an entire section on kumbi saleh's latrines

Adding this correction for ghazali toilets to the thread https://mobile.twitter.com/arturobluski/status/1329370842212478976