1393 Sofala

1393 Sofala (1936 KD) is a main-belt asteroid discovered on May 25, 1936, by C. Jackson at Johannesburg (UO).

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Sofala

Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique. It was founded by African and Indian Ocean traders linked to the Global Monsoon Complex, including Swahili and Somali merchants and seafarers.

History

One of the oldest harbours documented in Southern Africa, medieval Sofala was erected on the edge of a wide estuary formed by the Buzi River (called Rio de Sofala in older maps). Sofala was founded about the year 700 and was part of a long line of trading centres stretching from Kismayu, incorporating Mombasa, Malindi, and Zanzibar. Sofala played host to assorted African trading communities, Swahili, Arab, and Persian traders, among others who frequented the coast. Complex trade routes from the coast entered deep into the hinterland from where most tradeable goods, including ivory, were sourced.

The Buzi River connected Sofala to the internal market town of Manica, and from there to the goldfields of Great Zimbabwe. Sometime in the 10th century, Sofala emerged as a small trading post and was incorporated into the greater global monsoon complex. In the 1180s, Sultan Suleiman Hassan of Kilwa (in present-day Tanzania) seized control of Sofala, and brought Sofala into the Kilwa Sultanate and the Swahili cultural sphere. The Swahili strengthened its trading capacity by having, among other things, river-going dhows ply the Buzi and Save rivers to ferry the gold extracted in the hinterlands to the coast.

Sofala (Drysdale)

Sofala is a 1947 painting by Australian artist Russell Drysdale. The painting depicts the main street of the New South Wales town of Sofala. The painting won the Wynne Prize for 1947. The Art Gallery of New South Wales describe the work as "one of [his] finest paintings, representing the artist at the height of his powers." and that "the painting transcends literal description of a particular place to become an expression of the quintessential qualities of an inland Australian country town".

Drysdale painted the work after a trip in 1947 with fellow painter Donald Friend to the country around Bathurst, including the villages of Hill End and Sofala. In Sofala, Drysdale made some sketches of the main street and took some photographs. On return to Sydney, both Friend and Drysdale worked on a painting of the main street. Friend said of Drysdale:

The painting was exhibited in the Macquarie Galleries in December 1947. During this exhibition, Hal Missingham—Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales—nominated the painting for the Wynne Prize. The awarding of the Prize to Sofala "marked a dramatic move away from the traditional pastoral imagery of Australian landscape painting". Following the award the art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald said of the work:

Sofala (disambiguation)

Sofala may refer to: