A review of Kenya’s Swahili Coast – From the Roman
Empire to 1888 by Judy Aldrick, Old Africa books, 2024.
This book provides a general overview
of centuries of the politics and culture of Africa’s east coast. It is quite readable.
Various sections cover key events, rulers, wars, squabbles, invaders,
explorers, missionaries, and personalities. The sum is a good appreciation of
what happened on the coast and how it evolved, prospered, and declined, until
the end of the 19th century.
The east African coast was known to the outside world –
Romans and Chinese – thousands of years ago. However, it became a more active
trading destination during the spread of Islam. Various independent city states
peopled by a polyglot of persons from Arabia, India, and Africa, who became
known as the Swahili people, traded slaves, ivory, grain, mangrove poles and
other products to and from Arabia and the Indian sub-continent via the annual
change in the monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean. The Swahili towns were trading entrepôts,
they did not control the hinterland.
Little written has descended from this era, but ruins and oral stories
indicate well-developed self-contained societies.
All that changed with the arrival of the Portuguese
beginning with Vasco Da Gama in 1488. Better ships and weaponry enabled the
European invaders to assert control of the coast. Stark evidence of Portuguese
power is Fort Jesus in Mombasa. Completed in 1593 this bastion still dominates
Mombasa’s old harbor. Portuguese
fortunes all along the coast waxed and waned as its garrisons struggled to
govern the various towns and control trade with the east.
As Portuguese sea power gave way to Dutch and English
prominence, its political control of the coast passed to Arab potentates from
Oman and Zanzibar. In turn, the succession of Sultans often resorted to
indirect rule, relying on local families to govern coastal entities. The Mazrui family of Mombasa, for example,
produced 10 successive liwalis (governors) who effectively controlled
the key city for a hundred years.
Yet, as this book reports, never was everything peaceful and
happy. Squabbles, intrigue, fighting,
ruling family dynamics, competition between the Swahili towns, loyalty to
contesting overlords or protecting powers, economic fortunes – especially the
devastating impact of the elimination of slavery – all combined to render the
scene changing and complex. Author
Aldrick delves into this morass of confusion and provides a coherent compendium
of key events and personages.
Comment: I lived in Mombasa for three years and got to know
the author, and the modern city, and some of the past, but this book has many
revelations. I enjoyed the vignettes about individuals. I had not realized there were so many
quasi-independent Swahili towns with their own liwalis. Similarly, I learned that many neglected
settlements like those on Pate Island were once important players.
This book is a must read for those interested in Kenya’s
history. It provides a long-needed layman’s look at the storied past of the
coast.
