The latest ‘Inside Africa’ on CNN International explores the rich culture, architecture and history found along the Kenyan Swahili coast.
For thousands of years, the Swahili coast has brought traders, warriors and religions from Arabia, Asia and Europe, each tide leaving another layer of history and culture. ‘Inside Africa’ goes in search of what it looks sounds and feels like to be Swahili.
The programme begins its journey travelling north from the historic state of Mombasa to Malindi. The first stop is Tudor Creek, one of two waterways that separate the city of Mombasa from the Kenyan mainland, which flows into the Indian Ocean, providing both a lifeline for the Swahili people and a timeline of their history.
RafaelIgombo, the Public Programs Officer, reveals the history behind Tudor Creek’s Fort Jesus, which was built in the 15th Century to ‘Inside Africa’: “This fort was built by the Portuguese for a military fortification. Whoever was staying in the fort was ruling Mombasa.”
In the late 1400s Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama came ashore at Mombasa while leading an expedition to India. Nearly a hundred years later, the Portuguese built Fort Jesus, with help from the Swahili people.
Igombo tells ‘Inside Africa’: “The coral rock was cut out and is very hard. It’s not an easy job to have to cut out a passage like this. But the local people were strong and they would come here and stay for the whole day doing this work until the end of the day. It took nine months and two years to do all this work.”
The Europeans were far from the first people from beyond Africa to visit the shores along the coast. ‘Inside Africa’ reveals that there’s evidence that Arab traders, especially those from Oman, had been travelling and interacting with the people living on the coast for some time. Igombo explains to the programme: “The name Swahili, it means ‘people near the sea’. Or ‘people at the coast’. Swaha in Arabic.”
It is likely that the Arabs intermarried with the Swahili and certainly influenced the local culture in the area. Igombo explains to ‘Inside Africa’: “They had some local chiefs… They had also been converted to Islam. Some of their religious leaders were also in charge and the local Swahili people had their own system of rule before the Portuguese came. After a hundred years of ruling by the Portuguese, local people were not happy with the rule, because the Portuguese were arrogant, the Portuguese would sometimes burn their houses.”
Igombo explains to ‘Inside Africa’ that the Swahili people went to the Omanis for help, which began a war for control over Fort Jesus, which lasted nearly three years: a war that the Omani soldiers eventually won.
On a creek below Fort Jesus, ‘Inside Africa’ meets a Swahili fisherman and his crew. The water is the area has always been the main source of life for the Swahili people. For centuries, it’s been their method of finding people to trade with and today, many Swahili still make an income from fishing.
One of the fishermen, Maawiya Ahmed, tells ‘Inside Africa’: “For me I can describe a Swahili: they have their own language, they have their own plan according to how they used to wear their clothes. They have their own celebrations, a lot of things. Even how to wear even some clothes. Even food, we have our own food. That’s why we are original Swahili.”
Ahmed explains to ‘Inside Africa’ that there are not many people like him left. The old Mombasa used to be filled with so-called, ‘original Swahili’. He tells the show: “Now you can see even the old town is mixed up with a lot of traditional, and also foreign language, also foreign people.”
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In old town Mombasa ‘Inside Africa’ witnesses the Swahili architecture and design which still stands. The distinctive elements are the archways, ornate carvings and writings which have all been heavily influenced by traditional Islamic style. ‘Inside Africa’ finds a workshop at the Swahili Centre where young people are introduced to traditional Swahili furniture making.
‘Inside Africa’s’ search for the rich history of the Swahili culture next takes the programme north, up the beautiful Kenyan coast to a lost city, Jumba la Mtwana.
Makame Ali, a tour guide, tells the programme: “The name of this place, Jumba la Mtwana, is a Swahili word which means ‘the large house of slaves.” He explains that there is no evidence that this is what the people who lived there called the lost city: “When you look at the records of eastern trade slave, you can see that slave trade was established along the eastern African coast during the 16th and 17th century. And when we talk about the history of Jumba la Mtwana, Jumba la Mtwana was built in the 13th to 14th century. So there’s a contradiction there.”
This is part of the mystery, where little is known about the village. Carbon dating, and other evidence such as Chinese porcelain, suggest Omani Arabs founded the village in the mid-14th Century.
‘Inside Africa’ discovers that the existing inhabitants of the area came into contact with their international visitors. Researchers have found ruins from several buildings and estimate the town was more than 40 acres in size.
From Jumba La Mtwana, ‘Inside Africa’ heads 40 minutes North to Kikambala, where a new development of luxury homes and a hotel called Sultan Palace are being built by a Chinese company.
‘Inside Africa’ meets Daniel Kibindo, who is trained in Swahili design, working on one of the new houses. Like most Swahili traditions, he says this style has many influences, telling the programme: “The patterns are imaginative. You imagine the patterns and how they come to appear. So it takes long.”
‘Inside Africa’s’ journey culminates in Malindi, one of the oldest surviving towns in Kenya. Like the programmes other stops, Malindi is on the Indian Ocean about 120 kilometres North East of Mombasa.
What makes Malindi different from many of places on the Kenyan coast is the amount of recorded history. ‘Inside Africa’ reports the Portuguese explorer, Vasco Da Gama, visited in1498 and within a year the first Christian church was built.
25 minutes outside of Malindi is Gede, once a very important urban centre, but like many of the Swahili settlements, Gede too lies abandoned.
From the abandoned settlement, tour guide Kassim Muhammed asks ‘Inside Africa’: “When these people abandon this town, where did they settle? Did they reach a town and settle there, did they reach Mombasa and settle with these people? Did they go to Swahili, Malindi? These are the modern Swahili centres which came up.”
This particular ‘Inside Africa’ journey along the Kenyan Swahili coast concludes with these unanswered questions about the mysteries of the Swahili people.
They may have abandoned their cities under extremely difficult circumstances hundreds of years ago, but it’s clear that they made sure their culture would survive.
