2.5: Swahili City States

The Rise of the Swahili City-States

Starting in the seventh century, settlements on the coast of East Africa began to participate in Indian Ocean trade. Geographically, the area was well suited for oceanic trade. In the summer, the monsoon winds blew sailing ships northeast toward the coast of India, and winter winds blew them in the opposite direction. With the monsoon winds, sailors could travel from west India to east Africa in 20-30 days. Arab Muslim merchants began to settle permanently in the region and often intermarried with the African Bantu peoples who lived in the area.

The east African city-states, inhabited primarily by Sunni Muslim merchants and artisans, grew in size until a number of large port cities extended southward along the coast from what is now Mogadishu, Barawa, Mombasa, Malindi, Pemba, Zanzibar, Kilwa, and Sofala. The people of the coast came to speak Swahili, which combined the grammar of African Bantu languages with a Bantu and Arabic vocabulary. This common language enabled people from a wide variety of ethnic groups to trade with one another. Additionally, many along the coast also spoke Arabic which was the written language they used.

A large variety of products were traded in the cities of the Swahili coast: gold, iron, copper, salt, valuable hardwoods such as ebony and sandalwood, ivory, tortoise shells for making decorative objects like combs, and animal hides. These goods were brought overland across trade routes from the African interior and then were either purchased by the cities’ inhabitants for their own use or resold elsewhere in Africa or in Arabia, Persia, and India. Additionally, merchants from Kilwa, Malindi, Mogadishu, and Mombasa voyaged to and from Malacca. In Figure 2.5.1, Swahili culture is along the east coast of Africa and is shaded in green. The major trade routes of the Indian Ocean World include several cities along this east African coast. This green coastal region immediately south of the Horn of Africa shaded in purple was home to a number of city-states that prospered in the Indian Ocean trade.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): City-States of the Indian Ocean Trade, Rice University & OpenStax, CC BY

Government and Economy during 1400s

There were about forty Swahili towns along the east coast of Africa which stretches 2000 miles from Somalia to Mozambique. Most of these towns were ruled by a Muslim sultan. The governments were funded by collecting import and export taxes. For the most part, contact between the coast and the interior was extremely limited, because a plateau 1,200 meters above sea level separated the east coast from the interior. Therefore, it was difficult to go back and forth between the coast and the interior where people spoke Bantu languages. There is no evidence that the towns tried to take over the interior or convert the polytheistic people of the interior.

The northern half of the coast exported frankincense and myrrh which are used for incense. By the 1400s, slaves became a major export from the northern half as well. People captured in the interior were marched to the Swahili coast and held there until buyers for them could be found. The primary buyers were Arab Muslims who wanted laborers but were not allowed to enslave fellow Muslims. Most of the enslaved Africans were destined for the Arabian Peninsula and elsewhere in the Middle East or North Africa. Some were sold as far away from their homes as India or China. Women and children were preferred for household service, but men might find themselves forced into service as soldiers, sailors, or agricultural workers.

Gold was an important export especially in the southern half. During 800 to 1600 CE, 20 million ounces of gold were exported off the Swahili coast. The southern half also exported ivory to China and India. The wealth generate along the coast was enormous as elites lived in large stone houses and ate off of Chinese porcelain. Villages bordering the towns had non-Muslim farmers that produced food for the towns. The two groups had good relations.

Kilwa

There was considerable commercial activity in Kilwa which was located in present-day Tanzania. By 1400, it was most powerful of the city-states of the Swahili coast. Kilwa had a good harbor and was the most southernly point in east Africa that a ship could reach in one monsoon season. Gold from the interior was brought to Sofala, but merchants could not travel directly from Asia to Sofala in one monsoon season. Kilwa was the closest port. In the 1180s, the ruler of Kilwa gained control of the port city of Sofala, on the African mainland in what is now Mozambique. Therefore, control of Sofala enabled the sultan of Kilwa to establish or assume control of other cities and island states in East Africa, including Mombasa, Pemba, Mafia, Mozambique, Malindi, Imhambane, Comoro, and Zanzibar. For the most part, Kilwa monopolized the gold trade. In addition to luxuries and spices, coastal merchants imported cowry shells which were used as currency in the interior where the gold was located. However, cotton cloth from India was the largest import. This imported cotton cloth was needed purchase gold from Sofala. Kilwa also produced cotton cloth to trade with the interior.

Kilwa’s architecture attested to its wealth The city had buildings with domes and vaults including the Great Mosque and a major palace, known as Husuni Kubwa. The sultan’s palace had over 100 rooms. Kilwa also had large warehouses and customs houses. At its height, Kilwa had about 12,000 inhabitants. The government issued gold coins and was funded by taxing trade.

Great Zimbabwe

The Shona were Bantu speakers that lived between the mining areas and the coast. For the most part, they were middlemen. Shona merchants brought in Indian textiles and exchanged them for gold and ivory. It is unclear how products moved from the interior to the coast. They probably exchanged hands several times. The Shona established a series of independent kingdoms. The largest kingdom was called Great Zimbabwe which had about 20,000 people and was initially established around 1000 CE. Overall, Great Zimbabwe’s wealth came from the gold trade, and its merchants were Bantu African who imported luxuries like Ming Chinese porcelain.

Great Zimbabwe was an economic powerhouse in the interior. This city was a cotton spinning, iron-smelting, and iron tool manufacturing center. In fact, Great Zimbabwe had specialist mining and metal- working sectors. There were large stone built structures and an acropolis. The largest structure was the palace known as the Elliptical Building. Great Zimbabwe is Shona for “Houses of Stone” and is the largest archeological site in Africa besides the pyramids of Egypt.

Review Questions

• How was the Swahili Coast significant to the Indian Ocean trade?
• What evidence do we have of prosperity in eastern sub-Saharan Africa?