ABSTRACT
The port cities of East Africa provide detailed examples of the social organisation and urban structures of the Swahili communities who participated in the monsoon-based trade of the Western Indian Ocean. The paper identifies the archaeological, as well as ethnographic and historical evidence focusing in particular on the post-medieval period. Particular features of the port cities are described — the social landscape, the architecture and house structure — and the mercantile context is explored. While the paper identifies the need to understand African urbanism on its own merits, it suggests that some of the insights may be of wider interest for comparative study. These communities and their merchant elites had long participated in a global trade long before the period of European expansion in the late 15th century and the arrival of the Portuguese had a minimal impact on this society; the real threats to their long-term survival came with the arrival of mass tourism in the late 20th century.
