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The Swahili people (Swahili: Waswahili, وَسوَحِيلِ) comprise mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab, and Comorian ethnic groups inhabiting the Swahili coast, an area encompassing the East African coast across southern Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, and northern Mozambique, and various archipelagos off the coast, such as Zanzibar, Lamu, and the Comoro Islands.
Swahili people inhabit the Swahili coast which is the coastal area of the Indian Ocean in Southeast Africa. It includes the coastal areas of Southern Somalia , Kenya , Tanzania and Northern Mozambique with numerous islands, cities and towns including Sofala , Kilwa , Zanzibar , Comoros , Mombasa , Gede , Malindi , Pate Island and Lamu . [ 32 ]
Swahili people speak Swahili as their native language, which belongs to the Bantu language family. Graham Connah described Swahili culture as at least partially urban, mercantile, and literate. [1] Swahili culture is the product of the history of the coastal part of the African Great Lakes region.
The Swahili city-states were independent, self-governing urban centres that were located on the Swahili coast of East Africa between the 8th and 16th centuries. These were primarily coastal hubs, including Kilwa, Mombasa and Zanzibar, which prospered due to their advantageous locations along Indian Ocean trade networks, enabling interactions between Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
The "Shirazi era" refers to a mythic origin in the history of Southeast Africa (and especially Tanzania), between the 13th century and 15th century, as recorded in the 15th century Kilwa Chronicle. [1] Many Swahili in the central coastal region claim that their towns were founded by Persians from the Shiraz region in the 13th century. [citation ...
Once just an obscure island dialect of an African Bantu tongue, Swahili has evolved into Africa’s most internationally recognized language. It is peer to the few languages of the world that ...
Swahilization or Swahilisation refers to one of two practices: . the cultural assimilation of local peoples in Southeast Africa into the Swahili people and their culture.; the post-independence promotion of the Swahili language by the governments of Southeast African former colonies as a national and official language, alongside a greater cultural assimilation policy of Africanization (see ...
The Swahili coast (Swahili: Pwani ya Waswahili) is a coastal area of East Africa, bordered by the Indian Ocean and inhabited by the Swahili people. It includes Sofala (located in Mozambique ); Mombasa , Gede , Pate Island , Lamu , and Malindi (in Kenya ); and Dar es Salaam and Kilwa (in Tanzania ). [ 1 ]