ABSTRACT
The people of much of the East African coast are different from their inland neighbours and have long been so. Five centuries ago, when Portuguese seafarers first rounded the southern tip of Africa and entered the Indian Ocean, they found a coastal society that was largely urban, mercantile, Islamic, and partly literate, with extensive maritime contacts. In contrast, most of the peoples of the adjacent interior remained farmers, pastoralists and huntergatherers, with their own African forms of religion. The inhabitants of the coast occupied a narrow strip fronting the ocean, stretching from southern Somalia to southern Mozambique, some 3500 kilometres. They also occupied a number of offshore islands, as well as the Comoro Islands and parts of Madagascar. In time, they became known as the ‘Swahili’, because most of them were and are speakers of ki-Swahili, a north-eastern Bantu language rich in loan-words from Arabic and other languages, but it is uncertain how long this name has been in use. Nevertheless, it is clear that many of the settlements of the coast and islands existed for a very long time, although often eventually abandoned. Collectively, various Arabic and even Chinese writers indicate their presence back to about 1000 years ago, and Greek sources suggest an origin almost 2000 years ago. The major problems have been to explain how such a development took place and to identify the people who contributed to its unique character.
