Swahili people

Swahili
Waswahili
Total population
ca. 500,000
Regions with significant populations
Tanzania (particularly Zanzibar), Kenya (110,614),[1] Mozambique, Oman
Languages
Swahili
Religion
Islam
Related ethnic groups
Mijikenda, other Bantu peoples, Omanis

The Swahili people (or Waswahili) are an ethnic and cultural group inhabiting the African Great Lakes region. Members mainly reside on the Swahili Coast, in an area encompassing the Zanzibar archipelago, coastal Kenya, the Tanzania seaboard, and northern Mozambique. The name Swahili is derived from the Arabic word Sawahil سواحل, meaning "coasts." The Swahili speak the Swahili language, which belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo family.

Definition

The Swahili people originate from Bantu inhabitants of the coast of Southeast Africa, in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. They are mainly united under the mother tongue of Kiswahili, a Bantu language.[2] This also extends to Arab, Persian, and other migrants who reached the coast some believe around the 7th and 8th centuries, providing considerable cultural infusion and numerous loan words from Arabic and Persian.[3] But according to Archaeologist Felix Chami notes the presence of Bantu settlements straddling the Southeast African coast as early as the beginning of the 1st millennium. They evolved gradually from the 6th century onward to accommodate for an increase in trade (mainly with Arab merchants), population growth, and further centralized urbanization; developing into what would later become known as the Swahili City-States.[4]

Religion

A Swahili woman from Zanzibar in Islamic dress

Islam established its presence on the Southeast African coast from around the 9th century, when Bantu traders settling on the coast tapped into the Indian Ocean trade networks. Because of the Indian Ocean Trade Islam emerged as a unifying force on the coast and helped to form a unique Swahili identity.

The Swahili people in turn introduced the Islamic faith to the hinterland.[5] British colonial officials favored the interpretation of foreign Asian origins to legitimize their own colonial occupation, according to Collins and Burns. Collins and Burns also point out that "After Kenya and Tanzania became independent in the early 1960s the relentless pendulum of inquiry oscillated towards an interpretation of the Swahili and their culture as fundamentally African in origin not an Asian import." Collins, R and James Burns. A History of Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge University press, 2007, p. 102.See also Kusimba, C. The Rise and Fall of Swahili States. Altamira Press, 1999.The Swahili follow a very strict and orthodox form of Islam. For example, Eid-ul-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, is widely celebrated in areas where the Swahili form a majority.[6] Further, large numbers of Swahili undertake the Hajj and Umrah from Tanzania,[7] Kenya,[8] and Mozambique.[9] Traditional Islamic dress such as the jilbab and thob are also popular among the Swahili. In addition to more orthodox practices, the Swahili also are known for their use of divination, which has adopted some syncretic features from underlying traditional indigenous beliefs. In addition to orthodox beliefs in djinn, many Swahili men wear protective amulets around their necks, which contain verses from the Qu'ran. Divination is practiced through Qur'anic readings. Often the diviner incorporates verses from the Qur'an into treatments for certain diseases. On occasion, he instructs a patient to soak a piece of paper containing verses of the Qur'an in water. With this ink infused water, literally containing the word of Allah, the patient will then wash his body or drink it to cure himself of his affliction. It is only prophets and teachers of Islam who are permitted to become medicine men among the Swahili.[2]

Language

Swahili Arabic script on One Pysar Coin from Zanzibar c. 1299 AH (1882 AD)
Swahili Arabic script on a Carved wooden door (open) at Lamu in Kenya
Swahili Arabic script on Wooden door in Fort Jesus, Mombasa in Kenya

The Swahili speak the Swahili language as their native tongue, which is a member of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger-Congo family. Its closest relatives include Comorian spoken on the Comoros Islands, and the Mijikenda language of the Mijikenda people in Kenya.[10]

With its original speech community centered on the coastal parts of Zanzibar, Kenya and Tanzania, a seaboard referred to as the Swahili Coast.[11] Swahili became the tongue of the urban class in the Great Lakes region, and eventually went on to serve as a lingua franca there during the post-colonial period.[5]

Economy

For centuries the Swahili depended greatly on trade from the Indian Ocean. The Swahili have played a vital role as middle man between southeast, central and South Africa, and the outside world. Trade contacts have been noted as early as 100 AD. by early Roman writers who visited the Southeast African coast in the 1st century. Trade routes extended from Somalia to Tanzania into modern day Zaire, along which goods were brought to the coasts and were sold to Arab, Indian, and Portuguese traders. Historical and archaeological records attest to Swahilis being prolific maritime merchants and sailors[12][13] who sailed the Southeast African coastline to lands as far away as Arabia,[14] Persia,[14] Madagascar,[12]:110 India[13][15] and even China.[16] Chinese pottery and Arabian beads have been found in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe.[17] During the apogee of the Middle Ages, ivory and slaves became a substantial source of revenue. Many captives of the Portuguese sold in Zanzibar ended up in Brazil, which was then a Portuguese colony. Swahili fishermen of today still rely on the ocean to supply their primary source of income. Fish is sold to their inland neighbors in exchange for products of the interior.

Although most Swahili live with living standards far below that of upper hierarchy of the wealthiest nations, the Swahili are generally considered a relatively economically powerful group due to their history of trade. They are comparatively well-off; According to the United Nations, Zanzibar has a 25% higher per capita GDP than the rest of Tanzania.[18] This economic influence has led to the continued spread of their culture and language throughout East Africa.

Architecture

Previously thought by many scholars to be essentially of Arabic or Persian style and origin; archaeological, written, linguistic, and cultural evidence instead suggests a predominantly African genesis and sustainment. This would be accompanied later by an enduring Arabic and Islamic influence in the form of trade, inter-marriage, and an exchange of ideas.[19][20] Upon visiting Kilwa in 1331, the great Berber explorer Ibn Battuta was impressed by the substantial beauty that he encountered there. He describes its inhabitants as "Zanj, jet-black in colour, and with tattoo marks on their faces", and notes that "Kilwa is a very fine and substantially built town, and all its buildings are of wood" (his description of Mombasa was essentially the same).[21] Kimaryo points out that the distinctive tattoo marks are common among the Makonde. Architecture included arches, courtyards, isolated women's quarters, the mihrab, towers, and decorative elements on the buildings themselves. Many ruins may still be observed near the southern Kenyan port of Malindi in the Gede ruins (the lost city of Gede/Gedi).[22]

Notable people

Tanzania

Zanzibar

Swahili-Zanzibari trader Tippu Tip

Kenya

Comoros

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Swahili.aspx#1
  2. 1 2 http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/Swahili.html
  3. ↑ Gilbert. Coastal East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean
  4. ↑ African Archaeological Review, Volume 15, Number 3, September 1998, pp. 199-218(20)
  5. 1 2 Harvey J. Sindima, Religious and political ethics in Africa: a moral inquiry, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998, page 144
  6. ↑ http://zanzibar.net/music_culture_festivals_events/religious_festivals_-_eid_ul_fitr
  7. ↑ "Tanzania Hajj pilgrims stranded". BBC News. 12 December 2007.
  8. ↑ http://allafrica.com/stories/200911191155.html
  9. ↑ http://www.hajinformation.com/display_news.php?id=1432
  10. ↑ William Frawley, International encyclopedia of linguistics, Volume 1, (Oxford University Press, 2003), page 181
  11. ↑ Daniel Don Nanjira, African Foreign Policy and Diplomacy: From Antiquity to the 21st Century, ABC-CLIO, 2010, p.114
  12. 1 2 Collins, Robert; Burns, James (2007). A History of Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge University Press. pp. 109–112. ISBN 9780521867467.
  13. 1 2 Bulliet, Richard; Crossley, Pamela; Headrick, Daniel; Hirsch, Steven; Johnson, Lyman (October 2006). The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History 2. Wadsworth Publishing. p. 381. ISBN 9781439084779.
  14. 1 2 The East African Slave Trade BBC, BBC, accessed February 15, 2012.
  15. ↑ The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume 3, Part 2. By Sir H. A. R. Gibb. pg. 206, (2001), accessed February 15, 2012.
  16. ↑ Swahili-Chinese interaction The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 1050 to c. 1600. By J. D. Fage. pg. 194, (1977), Cambridge Publications, accessed February 15, 2012.
  17. ↑ Garlake (2002) 184-185
  18. ↑ http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?q=Zanzibar&d=SNAAMA&f=grID:101;currID:USD;pcFlag:1;crID:836
  19. ↑ East African Coastal Historical Towns: Asiatic or African? - by Jacob L. Kimaryo (2000)
  20. ↑ Horton, Mark (1996). Shanga: the archaeology of a muslim trading community on the coast of East Africa. The British Institute in Eastern Africa.
  21. ↑ Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and hi Africa 1325-1354 - Medieval Sourcebook, Retrieved on 2007-08-28.
  22. ↑ Ruins of the walled city of Gedi, Kenya

F. Le Guennec-Coppens et D. Parkin, Autorité et pouvoir chez les Swahili, Karthala, 1998, p. 262

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article Swahili.
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