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79

I N D I A N O C E A N TR A D I N G L I N K S : TH E

S W A H I L I E X P E R I E N C E

N O R M A N C . R O T H M A N

1. Introduction

The Swahili people of East Africa were traders on a global scale. At

one time or another, they were key players in the commerce and the

economy of the Mediterranean, Europe, and Asia . (Horton 1987; VanSert ima 1985). This s tudy exam ines the interaction betw een the Sw ahil i

culture of East Africa and the Indian Ocean. Before tracing this interac-

tion, a paragraph on the Swahili is useful.

The Swahili society was tied together by three basic elements: lan-

guage, ethnicity, and culture. As a language, Swahili or Ki-Swahili is

sti l l prominent in much of East Africa. Historically, the language, eth-

nicity, and culture have been centered on the coastal cit ies of East Africaas they are today especially in Kenya and Tanzania. Although a rather

small group, the his tor ical prominence of the Swahil i people has made

their language an official tongue of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. I t is

also widely used in other countries of East and East Central Africa

(Comoros , Maur i t ius , Madagascar , Mozambique , Zambia , Malawi ,

Somal ia , Eth iopia , Zimbabwe, Congo, Burundi , and Rwanda) .

Technical ly, Swahil i or Ki-Swahil i is a Bantu or Niger /Congo lan-

guage. Recent research has shown that i ts basic structure most closelyresembles the Sabaki sub- language of Northeast Coast Bantu. (Mazrui

and Shariff 1994). Ethnically, the ancestors of the Swahili were the

Bantu farmers who used iron hoes and iron spears and reached the coast

between 100 B.C. and 700 A.D. (see later sections of this paper) . Both

the language and e thnic composi t ion of this group are basical ly Afr ican

wi th admixtures f rom groups who came f rom the Indian Ocean—most-

ly Arabs, but also Persians, Indians, and Malays.

Even today, the Swahili people, who are mostly located in coastal

c i t ies such as Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Kilwa, and Zanzibar , have

retained a cultural distinctiveness, with a separate written language

using both Arabic and Latin characters in different scripts, a separate

artistic tradition, and such separate artifacts as i l lustrated Korans, dis-

t inct ive jewelry, indigen ous building m otifs , group -der ived mu sical

instruments , and even a dis t inct t radi t ion of wood-carving. Often they

are recognized through their dress , as the men of ten wear white gowns

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80 COM PARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS REVIEW

and the women wear black robes. Devout Muslims, they often send their

young men to mosque schools. They tend to practice tradit ional occu-

pations such as storekeeping and trading. (Mazrui and Shariff) .

Before studying the role of the Indian Ocean in trade and culture of

East Africa prior to the arr ival of Europeans, certain questions need to

be answered. First , what consti tutes the Indian Ocean for the purposes

of this study? Second, what do we mean by Islamic civil ization? Third,

what do we mean by mar i t ime his tory?

The Indian Ocean as seen by the main participants in the African

aspect of the Indian Ocean (Musl ims and South India) was one cont in-uum which extended f rom the Red Sea and eastern Mediter ranean al l

the way to the Straits of Malacca and to the Indonesian archipelago as

far as the present island of Sunda. The emphasis of both Muslims and

Indians in Africa was the East Coast, which was not only part of the

Indian Ocean l i t tora, but historically was part of Islam.

Is lam was unifying element in much of the Indian Ocean, especial-

ly on both sides—the east African coast and the Malay world. The east

African societies relied on Islam to help create their world since theiridentity derived not only from commercial l inks with co-religionists but

on specif ic modes of social and commercial behavior .

The Musl im rel igion gave prescr ipt ions as to everyday conduct .

The Koran had specif ic admonitions on fair practice in the market place.

The Koranic injunction to have balance scales led to the appearance of

a market inspector cal led the mu htash wh ose specif ic job was to over-

see local t ransact ions and check weights and measures among otherduties. Muslims in East Africa as elsewhere had specif ic rules in terms

of credit arrangements. There was a hierarchy of custom rates ranging

fro m 2.5% fo r bel ievers to 5% for "prote cted " non-bel ievers to 10% for

other non-believers. The Muslim influence was to be especially strong

in building and urban space, as will be seen later in the paper as well.

Overall , Muslims in East Africa believed that they belonged to the

um m a or ju m m a (a pol i tical /legal comm unity com pose d of bel ievers) .

(Risso 1995, 19-22)Finally one must come to terms with the role of marit ime history in

which a large body of water ( in this case the Indian Ocean) and i ts relat-

ed commercial act ivi t ies proved a decis ive determinant in a dominant

cosmopoli tan cul ture. I t was based on three factors—monsoon winds,

hospitable harbors, and l inks to hinter lands. All of these were cr i t ical in

the r ise of East African Swahili culture. The monsoon winds gave the

Indian Ocean a type of unity. In winter months, which go from

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NORMAN C. ROTHM AN 81

November through March, high pressure zones over the Asian landmass

and low pressure over the ocean produced prevai l ing winds blowing

southwest f rom India and China. Between Apri l and October , this pat-tern is reversed. (Chaudhuri 1990, 128-130). This made cross-cultural

exper iences such as those between Arabia and East Afr ica much more

likely. Also, the harbors from the Horn of Africa to present-day

Mozambique were easi ly avai lable even to dhows sai l ing back and for th

across from the Arabian Sea or down from the Red Sea. In addition, the

East Afr ican coast was comparat ively fer t i le and well-watered so that

vessels could get necessary supplies. (Watson 1998. 10-12).Rela ted developments in the above si tuat ion were navigat ional

breakthroughs and relevant ships based on materials available to East

Afr icans. The ear l iest sa i l ing vessels , dhows, were boats sewn together

with coral made f rom coconut f iber and with rectangular sa i ls made

from woven palm leaves. These boats were very s turdy and became the

dominant mode of seaborne t ranspor ta t ion by the e ighth century A.D.

Even today, these dhows are in use. These boats were guided by

wooden hulls nailed together and fit ted with movable cloth sails orlateen sails which allowed for sailing against the wind and were in use

centur ies before European adoption. In addit ion, outr igger vessels and

canoes with ski-like apparatus attached parallel to each other were bor-

rowed from the Malay peoples who had se t t led in Madagascar before

500 A.D. (Watson, 22) .

The most typical sailing vessel identif ied with the Swahili was the

mtepe. I ts mater ia l came from the East Afr ican coast and immediatehinterland. I ts hull was built from planks of t imber derived from teak or

mangrove while i ts rope (coir ) was made f rom coconut husks. The ves-

sel was 15 meters long and may date from the f irst century A.D.

(Horton, 88) . These types of vessels a l lowed trade among the Swahil i

cities in addition to Indian Ocean trade. By the end of the first millen-

nium A.D. , the magnetic compass had been adopted f rom the Chinese

and the astrolabe was also in use. The enabling conditions were thus in

place for inter-oceanic contact. (Watson, 24).

2. The Sett ing

The histor ic Swahil i Coast extends f rom present-day centra l

S o m a l i a ( j u s t north of Mogadishu) 2,000 miles southward to Cape

Delgardo in southern Mozambique. I t includes a number of is lands and

archipelagos in the Indian Ocean such as the Comoros, Zanzibar ,

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Pemba, and Mombasa. I t extends 20 miles to 120 miles inland.

(Kasimba 1999, 2) .

The area which eventual ly included 400 urban se t t lements received

its name from a Bantu language initially written in Arabic script (and

later written in its own script using Arabic letters). As will be seen in

Chronology, i t came to be seen as an intermediary between the Afr ican

hinterland and the Indian Ocean trading system. In reality, this coast—

parts of which were called Zanj and Azania by the Greeks, Phoenicians,

and Romans—had been par t of internat ional t rading systems before the

Christian era. Trading records, pottery artifacts, and coinage give sup-port to the role of this area in addition to the Greek document, The

Periplus of the Erytheum (Red) Sea, and the biblical record of the land

of f rankincense and myrhh. (Horton 1990, 95-99) .

Throughout the per iod under discussion (def ined as 100 B.C. to

1650 A.D.) , the "Swahil i Coast" was divided into three sect ions. The

northern sect ion was cal led the Benadir Coast—the southern par t of

today's Somalian coast ; the centra l por t ion was known as Zanj and cor-

responded to the coasts of modern-day Kenya and Tanzania ; and the

southern sector was called the Sofala Coast after i ts largest mainland

port and can be roughly equated to today's Mozambique Coast .

Along the Benadir Coast , the most important por ts were (and st i l l

are) Mogadishu, Merca (Merka) , and Barawa (Brava) . Although the

coast had long protected anchorages, the major inland river, the

Shab eele , provided eno ugh fer t i le land so as to grow fo od thereby m ak-

ing these cities self-reliant. Off the coasts, the presence of small islandscreated sealanes between the islands and the coasts which were ideal for

small boats . The Zanj coast began in what is today the northern coast of

Kenya. There the is lands of the Lamu archipelago were a proper envi-

ronment for boats , f ishing, bui lding mater ia ls , and plent iful plant and

animal material. In central Kenya, there were a number of towns at or

near the mouths of r ivers or creeks. In the south, Mombasa, situated on

an island, then as now dominated that part of the coast. The southern

sect ion of the Zanj coast corresponds to present-day coasta l Tanzania .

The major towns in this area were also located on islands off the coast-

-Zanzibar , Pemba, and Mafia . However , the most important town at this

time was the island city of Kilwa which was to dominate the gold trade

from the s ta te of Zimbabwe and i ts successors in south centra l Afr ica

between the twelf th and four teenth centur ies .

The winding coast of Mozambique was the southern por t ion of the

Swahili Coast. I ts major port of Sofala (hence its name) was under the

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NORMAN C. ROTHMAN 83

polit ical control of Kilwa. Overall , the other harbors were not as favor-

able for sail ing. However, i t was located across from the Comoros

Islands and Madagascar , so short- term trading did occur.(Watson, 13-17). Each of the sections acted as an entrepot for different parts of the

African continent. The northern cit ies tended to act as an outlet for ivory

and rhinoceros horn obtained from the African lake states of the Great

Rif t Valley. The central ci t ies acted as an outlet for products from the

Congo basin, especially Kasai and Katanga, such as copper and iron.

The southern cit ies were the urban areas which exported gold from the

southern savanna regions of nor thwest Mozambique and eastern

Z imbabw e . ( K us imba , passim).

3 . Chronology

The historical periods of the Swahili culture are based on archaeo-

logical excavation and are classif ied as Period 1 (100 B.C. to 300 A.D.) ;

Period 2 (300 A.D. to 1000 A.D.);Period 3 (1000 A.D. to 1500 A.D.);

and Period 4 (af ter 1500 A.D.)Although Period 3 is considered to be the classical era with the

greatest period of international contact, contacts existed earlier . From

Period 1, coastal s ett lem ents playe d an im portan t role in the export of

goods from the African hinter land to dhows waiting to transport local

commodit ies to markets across the sea. Boat bui lding in Afr ica goes

back to 600 B.C. as evident f ro m excavat ions on the East Afr ic an coa st .

The coast had huge amounts of f ish; the area also yielded mangroves

usefu l for bui lding mater ials and f i rewood. The re are also some rem ainsof iron artifacts if not iron smelting. Toward the end of this period, slag

found at some sites indicated some degree of mining. There is also evi-

denc e of ear ly farm ing. Archae ological excavat ions have shown cera m -

ics, glassware, and pottery from Greece, Rome, and Egypt in coastal

si tes of what is today Kenya and Tanzania. The Periplus of the

Erytheum Sea (Horton 1990; Kusimba, 68) , published at this t ime, l ist

a number of t rade i tems expor ted f rom Zanj .

By the t ime of Period 2, the former name of Azania had given way

to Zanj—Arabic for " land of Black people." There is greater evidence

of imported goods from Iran, India, China, and Egypt. I ron production

(both for local use and export) had begun in what is today southern

Tanzania and Nor thern M oza m biqu e. By 80 0 A.D . , the coast was pro-

ducing a great diversity of products. In addition to iron and copper

goods, ar t ifacts, ivory, amber, leopard skins, tur t le shells , and gold were

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expo rted. Texti les , ceram ics, beads, glass , and other goods w ere impo rt-

ed f rom throughout the Indian Ocean. Some raw mater ia ls imported

from abroad were now conver ted into f inished products such as text i les

into c loth a t workshops and warehouses in towns such as Kilwa.

(Kusimba, 34-35; Watson, 20) .

I t was in the area of metallurgy where Swahili craftsman achieved

such a high level of expertise that their products were in demand

throughout the Indian Ocean trading area . Craf tsman now produced a l l

aspects of smithing including smelt ing, melt ing, and forging so as to

produce cast- i ron and carbon steel . The resul tant product was achievedthrough such advanced processes as anneal ing and oxidat ion and

through open crucibles. The high quality result was obtained for use in

the form of nai ls and knives, Copper products were a lso produced f rom

the copper imported from the interior. They were then exported to

places such as India and the Persian Gulf to high praise. Various

observers, such as Al-Masud in the 10th century and al-Biruni, the most

renowned Arab scientist of the 11th century, praised Swahili iron for its

malleability. In fact, India re-exported iron prod ucts from the Swahili coast

to Europe because of its superior quality.(Kusimba, 36,101-106, 112).

By 1000 A.D . , a two-t ier system had eme rged. The Swahil i

obtained products from the African interior to use and to sell overseas

which include gold, ivory, rhinoceros horn, rock crystal, animal skins,

t imber , f rankincense and myrrh. They a lso t raded with both the inter ior

and the Indian O cean mark ets the produ cts produced on the coast . Th ese

included metal products , c loth, tor toiseshel l , ambergr is ( f rom whalesused to produce perfume) , mangrove poles , gra in and other farm prod-

ucts, salt , and jewelry. The Swahili cit ies continued to import glazed

ceramics, silk and cotton cloth, glassware, beads, metals, and other arti-

cles of trade. (Watson, 20).

Period 3 is often called the Golden Age of the East African city-

states in terms of international contact and trading links. By this t ime,

the Swahili towns had become the main purveyors of gold as well as

building mater ia ls f rom South Centra l Afr ica and Madagascar . New

luxury items that were imported from the li t toral of the Indian Ocean

became quite common. These included spr inkler bot t les and bowls in a l l

colors as well cobalt glass. Women of all classes possessed bronze mir-

rors, kohl sticks, and rock crystal beads(from a mineral produced in

Kenya) . I t was common to wear jewelry made f rom bronze, gold, and

silver. There was now a cash economy based on the minting of copper

and silver through mints located in cities such as Kilwa and Mogadishu.

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(Chi t t ick 1974,485-495; Chi t t ick 1984, 177) .

By 1300, major trading partners were Egypt—a source of glassware,

China—a source of s i lk , India—raw text i les , Ceylon and Pers ia—kohl

st icks and beads. Ceramics and pottery came from throughout the Indian

Oc ean. Ex ports such as t im ber we nt to Yem en, ivory to the Ara bian penin-

sula, and cereals, fruits, iron, and copper continued to go to the Indian

sub-continen t , (consult Midd leton 1992 for detai ls). Th e 15th century saw

the em ergence of China as a ma jor com m ercia l contact . Th e imperia l f lee t

sai led to East Africa in 1417 and 1435. Chinese lacquerware became

common. Is lamic pot tery and ceramics were par t ly superseded byChinese porcela ins , Chinese celadons such as Tongan and Longquan,

Indones ian containerware including Sawankhalok and Sisatchanala i jars ,

and pottery made from kilns located as far away Thailand and Vietnam.

Th e tas te for exot ic pot tery and o ther consu m er goods w as supplem ented

by local producers of materials from local ki lns and spindle whorls used

for weaving and texti les .(Kusimba, 37; Watson, 29).

By 1400, the larges t towns such as Pate , Mombasa, Mal indi ,

Merca, Ki lwa, and Lamu had es tabl ished merchant f lee ts so as to exer t

more contro l over overseas commerce. The larges t c i t ies a lso re inforced

thei r ro le as middlemen between the Indian Ocean and in ter ior Afr ica

by establishing trading partnerships with interior s tates and even buil t

watercraf t to sa i l the Zambezi and Tana r ivers . This was done to re in-

force the two-way ro le of the coas ta l c i t ies as exporter of Afr ican goods

from the interior and importer of Indian Ocean goods to the interior.

Rout inely , coas ta l c i t ies made c lo th ing from imported cot ton and s i lk( there were large war eho uses , for exam ple , in the c i ty of So fala) for sa le

in the interior. By this t ime, the interior trade had reached even further

in to southern Afr ica in the Kalahar i Deser t . At var ious s i tes , archaeo-

logical ev idence sugges ts that the San (Bushmen) t raded ivory and gold

for g lass beads f rom the coas t . One source es t imates that as much as 20

mil l ion ounces of gold were taken from south centra l Afr ica during the

per iod o f approx imate ly 800-1600 mos t ly th rough Swah i l i po r t s .

(Horton 1987, 93) .

At this t ime, the Swahil i had taken addit ional s teps to secure their

trading networks in the interior. They had a monopoly of seashells used

for a variety of purposes in the interior such as adornment and curren-

cy. They also monopolized the sal t t rade since they converted i t from the

sea off the coast and traded i t with inland people. Their advanced use of

technology especial ly in finished iron and texti les which their ware-

hou ses m ade fr om A fric an cot ton and s ilk imp orted v ia the Indian

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Ocean was a factor at this t ime. In fact, they util ized their giant mtepe

boats to t ranspor t camels and cat t le down the coast . The camels would

be util ized sometimes for the interior trade. (Horton 1987, 92).

By 1500, the Swahili city-states were exporting their own finished

goods to the Gulf region as well as Red Sea and Arabian Sea areas,

(water pots, cooking stoves, serving pots, cooking pots) . In addition,

they had become centra l to the funct ioning of the whole Indian Ocean

economy. Gold f rom in te r io r s t a t e s such a s Grea t Z imbabwe ,

Monomutapa, and Changamire via the East Afr ican coasta l s ta tes con-

st i tuted one metr ic ton annually and was the most important componentof the f inan cial basis of the Indian Oc ean trade. (In fact, alon g w ith West

A fr ican gold f ro m the fabled s i tes of W angara and B ouak e, A fr ican gold

dominated the world economy unti l large-scale exports of s i lver and

gold from the Americas began to arrive in the 1550's) . (Kusimba,

35-40; Curt in 1984, 21-24; 122, 141, 57-59) .

The coastal cit ies were now at the apex of wealth and power. They

establ ished trading si tes a t towns such as Zuama and Angoche on the

Zambesi . In these towns, gold, copper , and ivory were exchanged for

cotton, silk, and beads.Ungama on the Tana River l inked the coast to the

Kenyan and Tanzanian interior. Here, goods from both the coast and the

Indian Ocean were exchanged for millet , r ice, and bananas for local

coasta l consumption as goods that were to be t ransshipped overseas

including rock crystal, ivory, and rhinoceros horn. Each town now

imp osed tol ls on good s enter ing and leaving f ro m both the Indian O cean

and the interior. In fact, the towns also imposed custom duties on goodscom ing f rom other towns . (Kusim ba , 130-1 40)

This period saw the f inal tr iumph of Islam. In part, this was due to

the increasing importance of slaves as an item of trade from the interi-

or. There was a market for slaves (permitted in the Koran) especially in

the Arabian peninsula and Sind (now par t of Pakistan) . A common fa i th

proved to be an inescapable integrat ive mechanism. By the middle par t

of the 14th century, vir tually every large settlement had one or more

m osqu es (very of ten the most imp ortant bu i lding in the town) . (Chit t ick

1984 , 2 -9 ; 57-64) .

The first part of Period 4, approximately 1500-1650, saw the

decline and final fall of the Swahili city-states. There were a number

causes for this development. Firs t , there was internecine warfare among

the towns. Pate competed with Lamu in nor thern Kenya; Malindi com-

peted with Mombasa in southern Kenya; Zaniz ibar was a t odds with

Pemba; while the gold and ivory trade of the Zambezi basin put Sofala

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and Kilwa at odds. The ar r ival of precious metals f rom the Americas

diminished the uti l i ty of East African sources. Most fatally, the arr ival

of the Portuguese beginning in 1498 on the voyage to India, saw

destruct ive consequences . Enamored of a blue water pol icy which had

its as i ts objective control of strategic trading points from Portugal to the

Spice Is lands and antagonis t ic to Is lamic communit ies because of their

own s t ruggles against Musl ims, the Por tuguese at tempted conquest and

convers ion . They a l so a t tempted t r easure hunt ing expedi t ions to

Zimbabwe/Monomutapa in an at tempt to pursue their bul l ionis t /mer-

cantil ist f ixation with precious metals.The cumulative result of these sundry activit ies was the disruption

of the Swahili economy which was based on trading l inks and the

undermining of their Musl im-based cul ture through the at tempted

imposit ion of Catholicism. Beginning in 1644, the rulers of Oman grad-

ually took over the remnants of the Swahili ci ty states in coastal Kenya

and Tanzania while the Por tuguese remained in coastal Mozambique,

and the Benadir coastal s tates coalesced with the nascent Somali cul-

ture. In 1839, the Omani ruler moved to Zanzibar and attempted toimpose a new coastal trading network based on trading. This last chap-

ter ended in 1890 when colonial rule began. (Cur t in , 34-77) .

4 . Cosmopol i tan Inf luences in the Swahi l i Cul ture

The cosmopolitan atmosphere of the cities reflect the Indian Ocean

links in the areas of myth of origin and family heritage, religious obser-

vance, clothing, and architecture. As was related earlier, the Sw ahili-spea k-

ing inhabitants were mostly of African origin (with an admixture of immi-

grants from the Middle East). As was noted earlier, Swahili is a Bantu lan-

guage or more properly a Niger-Congo language—albeit with an Arabic

script and alpha bet— but the inhabitants, espec ially the elite class, had very

little trouble appropriating symbols from the Indian Ocean.

Ruling famil ies and upper-class famil ies rout inely claimed descent

f rom weal thy Pers ian, Indian, and Arab emigrants of noble descent .Most famously, for example, the rulers of Kilwa claimed descent f rom

the fabled Shirazi family of Persia. (Chitt ick 1974). As an extension of

the myth of or igin , upper class famil ies cal led themselves Waungwana

or f reeborn or or iginal owners descended f rom "Afr ican pr incesses" and

high-born foreigners . Therefore, they claimed ent i t lement pr ivi leges

denied to most others .

Famil ies lacking this eponymous impr imatur were class i f ied as

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commoners and were to be restr icted in their access to exotic trade

goo ds, acc ess to foreign m erch ants, and the r ight to live in or build stone

houses . Because of their "external or igin ," the Uungwana ( the Swahil i

noun object equivalent of Waungwana which is the people equivalent)

claimed these exclusive privileges. The eli te also made sure the source

of their wealth in Indian Ocean trading—access to trees for the building

of boats and ships was forbidden to commoners through their control of

town cou nci ls . (Midd leton, 8 9ff ; 203 ff ) . Their s tone houses exhibi ted

features associated with Islamic house motifs as arches and niches. (See

Chitt ick 1974; 1984).In general, the influence of Islam, not only as a religion but as a way

of life, thoroughly permeated Swahili culture. In addition to literacy in

Swahili based on Arabic script, literacy in Arabic was a sign of culture

and upper class. By the fourteenth century, the mosques were the most

important buildings in town and in many places they became the dividing

line between patr icians and commoners. They exhibited typically Muslim

features such as mehrabs and kubilu as well as the ubiquitous minarets.

They faced in the direction of Mecca and Medina. (Parenthetically, it isinteresting to note that Islamic tombs were often decorated with Chinese

porcelain (see Chittick 1974, chapter 7) and the Swahili language shows

foreign influence such as muhindi (Hindi for wheat) .

Dress also ref lected external inf luence. The el i te wore Musl im cer-

emonial c lothing on special days and in publ ic . The costume would

include such tradit ional i tems as the long white robe, a turban, a sword

and dagger , and sandals made of animal hide. In contras t , commonerswere forbidden to wear ceremonial robes or rel ig ious footwear , or even

to car ry ceremonial weapons such as the sword and dagger in publ ic .

(Kus imba, 146-148) .

Most visually, architecture and social space tended to mirror the

Musl im wor ld . Not only did the mosque divide many towns into upper

and lower sections, but the architecture ref lected r i tually influenced

habitations. In addition to the mosques and tombs, the grandest build-

ings were the great palaces which combined l iving quarters and gov-ernmental funct ions modeled on Baghdad and Cairo . The grandest

building was the sultan's palace in Kilwa, which was over an acre in size

and contained more than a hundred rooms in the Muslim style. In con-

trast , the quarters of the commoners in most Swahili ci t ies were small

and built f rom coral and sun-dried clay, sometimes with a l ime overlay.

Conversely, the houses of the upper classes were similar (but not

identical as Swahili architecture has dist inctive elements) to that of

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NORMAN C. ROTHMAN 89

wealthy famil ies of the Middle East as they were of ten mult i -s tor ied

with a front portico and an inner courtyard. Unlike the one or two room

clay and coral structures, there were private rooms as opposed to public

room s specif ica l ly preserved for the famil ies and househ olds. In a l l, the

differentiated status in various aspects of l ife was meant to convey a

"special" external origin which, in this case, derived from cultures pre-

dominantly but not exclusively Muslim, and which had come through

the Indian Ocean, (see Chit t ick, 1974;1984) .

5. Conclus ion

Fernand Braudel has posited that there are certain unities in t ime,

space, and structure which can unify a region . (Ch aud huri, 1985, Cha pte r

One). If one takes the Indian Ocean as a unit, one can seen certain pat-

terns in architecture, clothing, housing, l i teracy, religion (and by exten-

sion food since Islam implies Muslim dietary habits) and patterns of

urbanization beyond the obvious nexus to trade and economic activities.

In the Swahili instance, identity derived from the very concept of"foreignness." The myth of origin led to a construct of specialty derived in

part from an external origin. This construct was then combined with Islam

in a thoroughly syncretic manner which indeed served to organize time,

space, and structure. T he dom inan t activity of international and internal co m -

merce connected with the Indian Ocean co nferred a certain "exceptiona lity"

on those engaged in this enterprise. It was analogous to those who corre-

sponded with the realm of the supernatural beyond the lot of commoners.

The Swahili elite was able to use the idea of apartness in origin com-

ing fro m the Indian Ocean (which w as only partially true) and to com bin e

it with Islam so as set itself apart and reinforce its special position in soci-

ety. Islam a long w ith foreig n contacts g ave this class an aura w hich it tried

to replicate in as many facets of society and culture as possible.

Ultimately, this culture created itself from disparate elements from the

Indian Ocean. It is perhaps an irony of history that the same body of water

brought in the elements which eventually destroyed this culture.

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