ABSTRACT
Towns are a relatively recent phenomenon in East Africa. Unlike many parts of West Africa with the possible exception of Mengo (Kampala), the region possessed no ancient metropolitan cultures, with temple or palace complexes and traditions of market trading. Only in the Islamic culture of the coast was there any early experience of town life. The Arab city-ports of Lamu, Malindi, Mombasa and Kilwa, and the island emporium of Zanzibar possessed a highly developed urban culture in the middle ages, but, although they conducted trade with the peoples of the hinterland, they had virtually no influence on the interior of East Africa, their position became more and more precarious, attacked both by land and sea. The long-drawn-out struggle with the Portuguese seafarers, and the depredations of warlike tribes such as the Zimba and Galla (Kenya) were inhibiting factors. The ruins of Gedi, near Malindi in Kenya, give the visitor some idea of the achievements of this urban civilization, but they are also a commentary on its vulnerability—in this case, to attack by the Galla. The spread of towns only became possible in the nineteenth century with the opening up of the interior by Arabs from Zanzibar, and one of the first towns to be founded by them in the interior was Tabora in 1852.
