The Swahili Coast: East Africa and the Indian Ocean

Ibn Battuta, 14th century Moroccan traveler
When he visited Mogadishu, Kilwa, and other parts of the East African coast, Battuta made sure to identify most of the inhabitants as "black-skinned Zanj," also taking note of facial scarification and the beautiful architecture of the region, particularly Kilwa. Furthermore, Ibn Battuta describes the inhabitants of Zeila and Berbera as black people, clearly distinguishing them from lighter-skinned Arab Muslims from the Arabian peninsula. Read the following from Ibn Battuta's own writings: We stayed one night in this island [Mombasa], and then pursued our journey to Kulwa, which is a large town on the coast. The majority of its inhabitants are Zanj, jet-black in colour, and with tattoo marks on their faces." He goes on to describe the trade in gold and other resources between the coastal Swahili town of Sofala and interior peoples, in this case, the Shona and other cultures that produces the hundreds of 'zimbabwes' across modern Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Based on archaeological work, Chinese porcelain and presumably textiles from the "Middle East," India, and Asia were traded in exchange for gold, ivory, iron, and other eastern African products of the hinterland societies. The slave trade only in later centuries emerged as a major commodity in East Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries when actual Arabs did settle in Zanzibar and establish imperial control over large sections of the East African coast. Neverthelesss, Zanzibar literally means land of the blacks, from the Persian "Zanj" for dark-skinned peoples of the East African coast.

Palace of the Sultan of Kilwa, likely made in the 14th century or earlier. Interestingly, Ibn Battuta describes Kilwa and Mombasa as cities expertly constructed with wood and ranks the Swahili towns as among the most beautiful in the world. However, as one can clearly see here, the use of coral stone and other types of stone for construction means that by the end of the 1st millenium CE, Swahili towns were also using large amounts of stone with some Islamic influences in the mosques and palaces. Archaeologists have also uncovered continuity in the transition from pre-stone to stone cities, with a general "African" layout of the pre-Islamic 

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. did a problematic documentary series that included an episode about the Swahili coast that simply reiterated some of the worst previously held beliefs on the origin of Swahili city-states. Watch it here, the second half of the video. However, some of the waSwahili reinforce these beliefs, especially an elder in the ancient town of Lamu, off the coast of Kenya. Though obviously of African ancestry, he claims he has no African ancestry, which has a complex origin that Gates never interrogates. He does, however, demonstrate the African origins of the Swahili through archaeology (the ancient ruins of Shanga, the Bantu-origins of kiSwahili and how the British colonial government favored those who identified with Arabs, thus giving an incentive for colonized subjects to claim an Arab identity). Furthermore, Gates shows his views evidence of widespread, African-derived spirit cults and spirit possession, something one rarely sees with Persians and Arab Muslims from the "Middle East." Thus, Gates does some justice, simply by giving life and visuals to the fascinating world of the Swahili coast and key ancient towns, such as Mombasa, Lamu, Gedi (ancient city with plumbing!, and Zanzibar. One of the problems with how Gates treats the Swahili's history is neglect of the fact that many latched on Arab or Persian lineages because of their Islamic faith.

Iskander (Alexander the Great Fighting people of Zanzibar. From Persia. Ignore the fact that Alexander never reached Zanzibar...)

Basil Davidson, well-known English historian, also included the Swahili coast in a documentary on Africa. Watch it here to see Davidson take the view to many of the same Swahili ruins and towns constructed with coral stone. Furthermore, he also includes unique aspects of Swahili architecture, such as the pillar tombs, as part of Swahili local variation and stylistic independence from Middle Eastern Islamic architecture.

Here, this article explains through analysis of skeletal remains from early Swahili coastal settlements that the peoples of the coast were essentially "Negroid" or closely related to hinterland inhabitants of modern Kenya and Tanzania. This article from the Field Museum says the same, that early Swahili settlements, at least from the sites they've excavated, were more like neighboring East Africans from the interior rather than "Arabs" or Persians. Archaeological expeditions as well as analyses of physical remains have dispelled any myths about Arab or Persian colonization of the East African coast in distant times. Trade with this region goes back to the days of the Roman Empire, when Rhapta and coastal areas of the Horn of Africa were involved and connected with the Indian Ocean world. Furthermore, the ancient kingdom of Axum was a naval power in the southern Red Sea and one specialist in the Swahili world argued for influence from the Horn of Africa for the unique and beautiful coral stone architecture appearing at some Swahili ruin sites.

Part of the confusion regarding Swahili origins are the fictive lineages and oral traditions of the waSwahili themselves, often linking themselves to Arab and Persian colonizer myths. Part of this stems from the Swahili's Islamic faith, which distinguishes them from other East Africans in Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique. Furthermore, Africans from the interior were often labelled washenzi and considered 'barbarians' because of their lack of Islam. In order to increase their prestige within the broader Islamic world during the period of Omani dominance from Zanzibar, as well as British colonialism, many claimed Arab or Persian descent as a further method of raising their status in a time of universal denigration of Africans as black savages and slaves. The irony is that many of the Swahili themselves are descendants of slaves from East and Central Africa who gradually converted to Islam and became part of the Swahili cultural zone in the 18th and 19th centuries. Another contributory factor is the attribution of their origins in the Pate Chronicle and other oral and written traditions to Persian, specifically Shirazi, immigrants who intermarried with local peoples. This is plausible in that foreign traders likely did intermarry with local elites in the early centuries of Swahili trade with the Indian Ocean world, but the long history of 'civilization' on the coast predates significant Arab or Persian immigration. However, as a cosmopolitan region of the world connected to Southwest Asia, India, and China, many local elites probably did intermarry with Arabs or Asians. That did not change their perception by others though, since Ibn Battuta identified the Swahili of the 14th century as dark-skinned people with facial tattoos, hardly similar to Islamic Arabs and Southwest Asians.

Another problem with the effort to identify the Swahili with Arab civilizations colonizing the coast is the obvious fact that Swahili is a Bantu language. Though it has many loan words of Arabic origin, it's fundamentally Bantu and closely related to other East African Bantu languages, part of the reason it became a lingua franca in pre-colonial East Africa. The Swahili even used the Arabic script to write in their own language, composing poetry and histories of their particular towns. Their use of mtepes, or advanced ships and nautical knowledge was likely influenced by Arab sailors, which may be reflected in the vocabulary pertaining to sailing. Regardless, the Swahili were connected to the Comoros islands, likely traded with Madagascar, and perhaps crossed the Indian Ocean themselves since Swahili cultural material has been uncovered in port towns in Southwestern Asia and India. In addition, al-Masudi, a 10th century geographer, describes unique royalism rooted in East African Bantu-speaking concepts of kingship and royal regalia, as well as the term mfalme for the kings of the Swahili coast.

Chinese documents also reveal the dark-skinned, East African indigenes of "Bobali" (modern Somalia) and other parts of the coast. The people are described as dark-skinned with tightly curled hair, features that could be found in some Southeast Asians, but, in the context of East Africa, demonstrate that the Swahili coast has always been inhabited primarily by 'black' Swahili people.

In spite of my purpose of writing this post to prove beyond doubt the "African" origins of Swahili civilization, I understand cultures advance through interactions with others and the cosmopolitan world of the Swahili coast clearly interacted with a much broader world than East Africa. No cultures exist in a vacuum, and clearly, every culture changes over time. Also, no such thing as a monolithic African culture exists, but it remains important for Africanists such as myself to disprove assumptions about a lack of African agency and innovation. Thus, many African archaeologists and historians have gone to great lengths to prove unquestionably the African origins of the Swahili peoples. They have done so through analyses of ancient crania from the 1st millenium CE, reviews of written sources from Arabic, Persian, Chinese, and European records, as well as archaeological work that has demonstrated continuity in architectural patters, unique pottery related to that of geographically close hinterland societies, the Bantu structure of the Swahili language, and the unique aspects of Swahili kingship, as well as Swahili religious expression, music, and spirituality.