Swahili people

The Swahili are a people and culture found on the coast of East Africa, mainly the coastal regions and the islands of Kenya and Tanzania. There are between 200,000 and 400,000 Swahili people. The name Swahili is derived from the Arabic word Sawahil, meaning "coastal dwellers", and they speak the Swahili language.

History

Historically, the Swahili could be found as far north as Mogadishu in Somalia, and as far south as Rovuma River in Mozambique. They are descended from a mix of Black African (mostly Bantu and Cushitic who migrated south in around 1000), Arab, and Persian people (traders and settlers). By the 1100s the Swahili emerged as a distict and powerful culture, focussed around a series of coastal trading towns, the most important of which was Kilwa. Ruins of this golden age still survive.

Portuguese arrival on the coast in 1498 lead to the Swahili's loss of their independence in 1509. The Portuguese were displaced by the Omani Arabs by the late 1600s, who controlled the region. Between 1822 and 1937 it was even part of the Omani Empire, and the Sultan Seyyid Said transfered his capital from Muscat in Oman, to Zanzibar. The Arabs were active in the slave trade, and by the 1860s 70,000 people per year were being sold in the Zanzibar slave markets.

By 1900 Britain and Germany had taken control of the area, and the foundations of the modern states of Kenya and Tanzania were laid.

Culture

The Swahili are seen primarily as urban dwelling traders, although this is perhaps less true now than it was in the past, and the Swahili no longer dominate trade. Farming has become much more common, with coconuts, millet, rice, sorghum, fruit and vegetables suplementing fishing. Men tend to fish from boats, while women use wading nets.

Religion

Islam made its presence in the East African coast around the 8th century, when the traders from the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula continued to journey to these parts during monsoon seasons and to interact with the local people through trade, intermarriage and the establishment of coastal towns, and because of this influence most of the Swahili today are Muslim.

Today, in many villages and towns where Swahilis are the majority, mosques and madrasas form part and parcel of the Swahili peoples' lives, and Islam is being practiced by them. Some communities incorporate traditional African beliefs into their religion.

See also

• Swahili language
• Dhow

External links

• The Story of Africa: The Swahili — BBC World Service
• Swahili Culture