Swahili Coast | Culture and People | Picture Gallery

[Baron Shani]

The Origin of The Swahili Towns

Scholars had, up to the end of the twentieth century, debated the origin of the Swahili people and their stone town culture. Such debates revolved on the question of who the Swahili people were (Allen 1974, 1983; Nurse and Spear 1985; Pouwels 1987; Horton 1987; and Chami 1994, 1998). The original popular conception was that the Swahili people and their culture originated from the Middle East. These were alleged to have arrived in waves of immigration. Individuals in these waves founded settlements, which later grew into larger Swahili stone towns. Chittick (1974, 1975) used chronicles, particularly that of Kilwa, and archaeology to argue that the earliest immigrants could have arrived on the East African coast not earlier that the ninth century. This view suggested, therefore, that the Swahili people were originally Persians or Arabs who would later have mixed with Africans. Due to their alleged origin in the Muslim world the Swahili people were necessarily Muslims and people of towns.

Archaeologists such as Horton (1987), influenced by Allen (1983), suggested that the Swahili were people of Cushitic origin, from the northeast of Africa, who were originally pastoralists. The pastoralists, who are alleged to have ruled the Bantu speakers in a mythical land called Shunguaya, mixed with Bantu speakers, adopted Islam and spread to the rest of the coast and islands of East Africa. In this theory the Swahili people are seen as Africans who also mixed with the people of the Middle East in the process of adopting Islam and trade. This position was made more prominent in the 1990s (Horton 1990; Abungu 1994–1995; Sutton 1994–1995) in an attempt to quash the discovery that the Swahili people were Africans of Bantu origin, people of the general region of Eastern and Southern Africa who were agriculturalists and fishermen.

Felix Chami - Cities and Towns in East Africa

[Baron Shani]

Celebrating Islamic New Year in Zanzibar

[Baron Shani]

Lamu, Known for their Maulid festivals and sometimes considered some of the best boat builders on the coast







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[Baron Shani]

Mombasa "Old Town"

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[Baron Shani]

Pate Island, some of them are decendants of shipwrecked chinese sailors







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image hosted on flickr

[Baron Shani]

Bagamoyo, Tanzania





Kaole Ruins

[Hadrami]

Il likey the thread
Make sure to visit this one too: The African Sahel | Gallery | Its peoples, cultures and landcapes

[Rayman87]

great thread

[kiligoland]

kenya, lamu, swahili coast

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IMG_1745 by HippoBippo, on Flickr

[kiligoland]

Ampitheatre of Old Fort from Beit el-Ajaib

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zanzibar51 by bramhubbell, on Flickr


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zanzibar60 by bramhubbell, on Flickr

[Baron Shani]

Originally Posted by Hadrami

Il likey the thread
Make sure to visit this one too: The African Sahel | Gallery | Its peoples, cultures and landcapes

Appreciate that,

I got the idea from that thread

[Baron Shani]

Island of Mozambique



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[Baron Shani]

Ngazija, Comoro

[Baron Shani]

[firoz bharmal]

I been to Kenya Nairobi and Mombasa where Swahili is common languange.....I come to know that its very near to Arabic and nice to hear ..very respectful language...

So Karibu and Jambo to this thread and carry on......

[Baron Shani]

Swahili woodwork


Kiti Cha Enzi, traditionally reserved for the leaders

[Baron Shani]

Chests

image hosted on flickr

[Baron Shani]

image hosted on flickr

[Baron Shani]

Siwa, ceremonial side blown horn

[Mkenyasili]

Wow! Nice thread, beautiful culture. Keep them coming Kiswahili kitukuzwe!!!