From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Swahili Waswahili
Total population
between 300,000 and 750,000
Regions with significant populations
Dar-Es-Salaam (Tanzania), Kenya, Mozambique, Somalia
Languages
Swahili, Portuguese, English, Somali
Religions
Islam
Related ethnic groups
Bantu, Arab, Persians

The Swahili are a people and culture found on the coast of East Africa, mainly the coastal regions and the islands of Kenya and Tanzania, and north Mozambique. There are between 300,000 and 750,000 Swahili people^{[citation needed]}. The name Swahili is derived from the Arabic word Sawahil, meaning "coastal dwellers", and they speak the Swahili language. They also speak the official languages of their respective countries: English in Tanzania and Kenya, Portuguese in Mozambique and Somali in Somalia. Note that only a small fraction of those who use Swahili are first language speakers and even fewer are ethnic Swahilis.

Contents 1 Definition 2 History 3 Culture 4 Religion 5 Resources 6 See also 7 External links

There are three definitions of who are considered Swahili people. The first are the original inhabitants of the region in question, likely Bantu in origin (some suggest Afro-Asiatic) and speaking a proto-Swahili dialect. The second definition is limited to those that came from the Middle East and Persia after the advent of Islam, as early as the 7th-8th c. CE, and mixed with the local people there, providing considerable cultural infusion and numerous loan words from Arabic and Persian. The third is comprised of all of the above groups, in addition to the numerous peoples in the interior of Africa and other Asian immigrants that adopted the Swahili language^[1].

This last definition is the most inclusive, represents the vast majority of those identifying themselves as Swahili, and possibly the most accurate given the levels of heterogeneity found among these people. The basis for inclusion here is almost exclusively linguistic, or those speaking the Swahili language. The linguistic definition is also the most accurate historically in some senses in that self-identification in the region was linguistic until the arrival of the Europeans, who imported concepts of ethnic and racial distinctions.

Trade with the east coast of Africa can be traced as far back as the Ancient Egyptians and Phoenecians.^[2] This relationship, and settlement, continued throughout the centuries, primarily by people from Yemen and Hadhramaut, including Jewish converts called the Ha-Redeye. Settlement also occurred through large numbers of Shirazi, Omani, and East Indian traders.

Historically, the Swahili could be found as far north as Mogadishu in Somalia, and as far south as Rovuma River in Mozambique. Although once believed to be the descendants of Persian colonists, the ancient Swahili are now recognized by most historians, historical linguists, and archaeologists as a Bantu people who had sustained important interactions with Muslim merchants beginning in the late 7th and early 8th century AD. By the 1100s the Swahili emerged as a distinct and powerful culture, focused around a series of coastal trading towns, the most important of which was Kilwa. Ruins of this golden age still survive.

The arrival of the Portuguese on the coast in 1498 (it is now commonly thought that it was closer to 1502) led to the Swahili's loss of their independence in 1509. The Portuguese were displaced by the Omani Arabs by the late 1600s, who controlled the region. Between 1822 and 1937, it was even part of the Omani Empire, and the Sultan Seyyid Said transferred his capital from Muscat in Oman, to Zanzibar. The Arabs were active in the slave trade, and by the 1860s, 70,000 people per year were being sold in the Zanzibar slave markets^{[citation needed]}.

By 1900, Britain and Germany had taken control of the area, and the foundations of the modern states of Kenya and Tanzania were laid.

Although the Swahili are seen primarily as urban dwelling traders, they no longer dominate trade. Farming has become much more common, with coconuts, millet, rice, sorghum, fruit and vegetables supplementing fishing. Men tend to fish from boats, while women use wading nets to catch different types of fish.

Islam made its presence in the East African coast around the 8th century, when the traders from the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula continued to journey to these parts during monsoon seasons and to interact with the local people through trade, intermarriage and the establishment of coastal towns, and because of this influence most of the Swahili today are Muslim.

Today, in many villages and towns where Swahilis are the majority, mosques and madrasas form part and parcel of the Swahili peoples' lives, and Islam is being practiced by them. Some communities incorporate traditional African beliefs into their religion.

1. ^ Gilbert. Coastal East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean
2. ^ Phonecians in East Africa http://phoenicia.org/phoeEastAfrica.html

• Swahili language
• Swahililand

• The Story of Africa: The Swahili — BBC World Service
• Swahili Culture