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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 200,000 and 400,000 Swahili people. The name Swahili is derived from the Arabic word Sawahil, meaning "coastal dwellers", and they speak the Swahili language. They also speak official languages of their respective countries: English in Tanzania and Kenya and Portuguese in Mozambique. Note that only a small fraction of those who use Swahili are first language speakers and even fewer are ethnic Swahilis.
History
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 descendents of Persian colonists, the ancient Swahili are now recognized by most historians, historical linguists, and archaeologists as a Bantu people who had sustained and 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.
Portuguese arrival 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 .
By 1900 Britain and Germany had taken control of the area, and the foundations of the modern states of Kenya and Tanzania were laid.
Culture
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 suplementing fishing. Men tend to fish from boats, while women use wading nets.
Religion
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.
See also
External links
- The Story of Africa: The Swahili — BBC World Service
- Swahili Culture
"Swahili people"