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The Swahili Community of Mombasa, 1500–19001

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

F. J. Berg
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Extract

The Swahili community of modern Mombasa is composed of an amalgam of the descendants of the city's early ‘Shirazi’ settlers and more recent immigrant Swahili groups, most of which migrated south to Mombasa Island during or after the sixteenth century. It appears likely that the ‘Shirazi’. dynasty and its retainers were themselves derived from older Swahili settlements along the southern Somali coast.

After the ‘Shirazi’ polity was destroyed by. the Portuguese and their local allies in 1591–93, Mombasa's accretions of foreign Swahili gradually reorganized themselves into twelve mataifa or ‘tribes’. These twelve mataifa grouped themselves into two separate and sometimes hostile confederations, the Thelatha Taifa (The Three) and the Tisa Taifa (The Nine). Political unity was maintained by means of a loosely structured state system in which foreign dynasties of Omani Arabs, first the Mazrui and later the Busaidi, bridged the gap between the two confederations.

During the Mazrui period (approximately 1735–1837), Mombasa was an independent city-state which enjoyed political hegemony over much of the Kenya and north Tanzania coasts. Under Busaidi rule (1837–95) the city lost its independence and was incorporated in the Zanzibar Sultanate. Differences between the Thelatha Taifa and the Tisa Taifa slowly faded during the Busaidi period and have almost disappeared since 1900. Though precolonial social and political structure is still perceptible in the modern Swahili community of Mombasa, it has for the most part become vestigial.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , January 1968 , pp. 35 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

2 Lambert, H. E., in ‘The Twelve Tribes and the Arab community of Mombasa’, Mombasa Social Survey, 2 volumes (privately mimeographed, 1958), vol. I, 41–42, offers a full discussion of the evolution of the meanings associated with the word ‘Swahili’.Google Scholar

3 Trimingham, J. S., Islam in East Africa (Oxford, 1964), 1–18,Google Scholar supported by Chittick, H. N., ‘The Shirazi colonization of East Africa’, J. African Hist. VI (1965), 275, 292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Mataifa is the usual plural of taifa–a Swahili borrowing from Arabic–but the singular is always used in reference to the Thenashara Taifa or its two subdivisions, the Thelatha Taifa and Tisa Taifa.

5 Several lists of the subdivisions of the Mombasa Swahili have at various times been drawn up. The most complete was compiled in 1899 by A. C. Hollis and is deposited in the Kenya National Archives (hereafter abbreviated to KNA), Deposit I, Coast Province, Bundle II, Msa/6.

6 ‘Shirazi’ origin for these sheikhly families is borne out by several Arabic chronicles and Swahili traditions; specific kinship ties are sometimes mentioned in Portuguese documents and histories.

7 (a) Santos, J. dos, Ethiopia Oriental, ed. Cordeira, L., two volumes (Lisboa, 1891), I, 436–40,Google Scholar mentions the dynastic link between Mombasa, and Kilifi, Gray, J. M., ‘Portuguese records relating to the Segeju’, Tanganyika Notes and Records, xxix (07 1950), 89–90,Google Scholar summarizes this information. (b) de Barros, J., Da Asia, ed. Cidade, H., four volumes (Lisboa, 1945–1946), Decada II, Livro I, 12–16,Google Scholar touches on the Mombasa–Hoja connexion. This is summarized in Strandes, J., Portuguese Period in East Africa, trans. Jean, Waliwork (Nairobi, 1961), 74–5.Google Scholar Identification of Hoja with Ungwana has been suggested by Kirkman, J. S., Men and Monuments on the East African Coast (London, 1964), 78–9.Google Scholar

8 Barros, Decada IV, Livro, 3, 134–6;Google ScholarStrandes, , Portuguese Period, 124–5, summarizes Barros.Google Scholar

9 (a) Barros, Decada I, Livro, 10, 420–2, reports the exile (about 1507) and death in Mombasa of Sheikh Hasan of Kilwa.Google Scholar There is a translation in Theal, G. M., Records of South-Eastern Africa, seven volumes (London, 1900), VI, 288–9.Google Scholar (b) Dos, Santos, Ethiopia, I, 384–5, reports the deposition and flight to Mombasa (about 1585) of a ‘king’ of Pemba.Google Scholar

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13 Lambert, H. E., Chi-Chifundi, a Dialect of the Southern Kenya Coast (Kampala, 1958).Google Scholar

14 Guilain, M., Documents sur l'histoire, la géographie et le commerce de l'Afrique Orientale, three volumes (Paris, 1856–1858), III, 237–8.Google Scholar Also Burton, R. F., Zanzibar: City, Island and Coast, two volumes (London, 1872), II, 75–6. Census statistics supply no information about the subject, but general opinion in Mombasa holds that the Thetatha Taifa are still numerically predominant.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Eleven letters of appointment issued by the sultans to various matamim are known to exist as translations and/or Arabic copies made from originals. Some are among the exhibits of Civil Appeal 12/1913 in the archives of the Kenya High Court in Nairobi. Others are part of the records of the Mombasa Afro-Asian Welfare League. Still others are in private hands in Mombasa.

16 Information from Sheikh Hyder M. Elkindy, Deputy Tamim of the Thelatha Taifa. Lanibert's, H. E. findings in ‘The Twelve Tribes’, 60–2, are similar.Google Scholar

17 Taifa and mbari names come from the Hollis compilation in the KNA. Details as to origins come from Thelatha Taifa traditions collected by Guillain and summarized in Documents, III, 242−3.

18 Lambert, , Chi-Jomvu, 12–13.Google Scholar

19 Guillain, , Documents, III, 246.Google Scholar

20 Hollis's compilation, KNA; later taken up and elaborated by Prins, A. H. J., Swahili- Speaking Peoples of Zanzibar and the East African Coast (London, 1961), 80.Google Scholar

21 Three letters of appointment issued to taifa sheikhs have come to light in the files described in note 14 above.

22 Some of these embassies are discussed in the Mombasa Chronicle, translated by Guillain and James Emery in Guillain, , Documents, I, 614–22,Google Scholar and in Owen, W. F. W., Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar, two volumes (London, 1833), I, 414–22.Google Scholar

23 ‘Kongowea’ in Taylor, W. E., African Aphorisms or Saws from Swahili-Land (London, 1924), 80–3. Text in Ki-Mvita and English.Google Scholar

24 ‘News of Mombasa’ in Arabic-script Ki-Mvita and English translation, KNA, C.P. I, Bundle II, Msa/14.

25 Hichens, W., ‘A chronicle of Lamu’, Bantu Studies, XII (1938), 3–33. Hichens summarizes Juma bin Rashid's Khabari ya Ngozi—undated—in a footnote on page 9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Krapf, J. L., Dictionary of the Suahili Language (London, 1882), 270, entry under ‘Mvita’.Google Scholar

27 Guillain version: Documents, I, 614.Google Scholar Emery version: Voyages, I, 414.Google Scholar

28 Sacleux, quoted by Gray, J. M. in ‘Nairuzi or Siku ya Mwaka’, TNR, XXXVIII (03 1955), 22, identifies the grave as that of Shehe bin Misham, the last Shirazi ruler, but this is incorrect.Google ScholarKrapf, , Dictionary, 270, identifies it properly.Google Scholar

29 Trimingham, , Islam in East Africa, 1–18,Google Scholar and Chittick, , ‘Shirazi Colonization’, 275, 292.Google ScholarCf., Burton, Zanzibar, II, 76: ‘they [the Taifa Kilindini] migrated to Shungwaya alias Shiraz and eventually to Mombasah’.Google Scholar

30 Guillain, , Documents, III, 240–3.Google Scholar

31 Lambert, , Chi-Jomvu, 70–3.Google Scholar

32 Guillain, , Documents, III, 242–3.Google Scholar

33 Details of the third sack of Mombasa are given by dos Santos, , Ethiopia, I, 245–8 and 408–18,Google Scholar and summarized by Strandes, , Portuguese Period, 152–7.Google Scholar

34 The Mvita and Jomvu mataifa of the Tisa Taifa currently claim to be descended from these Shirazi and the Portuguese. Information from Sheikh Hyder M. Elkindy.

35 P. de Rezende, ‘Descripsam da fortalleza da Mombasa’, translated by Gray, J. M., ‘Rezende's description of East Africa in 1634’, TNR, XXIII (06 1947), 14.Google Scholar

36 Hollis's compilation, KNA.

37 Letter of 15 February 1593 to Viceroy Mathias de Albuquerque. A translation forms part of the collection in the library of the museum of Fort Jesus National Park, Mombasa. I am indebted to Mr J. S. Kirkman for access to it.

38 Mwana Mkisi, as noted earlier, has been superseded as spiritual founder of the city by Shehe Mvita.

39 Guillain, , Documents, III, 240–6.Google Scholar Summaries appear in Prins, A. H. J., Coastal Tribes of the North-Eastern Bantu (London, 1956), 46, and in an unpublished MS. by J. S. Kirknian, ‘The Jumaa of the Three Tribes of Mombasa: a Swahili mosque’ (1957), Fort Jesus museum library.Google Scholar

40 All three villages exist today. The British Museum's Rezende Map of 1634, published in Boxer, C. and de Azevedo, C., Fort Jesus and the Portuguese in Mombasa (London, 1960), 81, indicates settlements at Likoni and Mtongwe; the Ngare area is not part of the map. An island settlement is marked out slightly south of the one occupied by Kilindini Town in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.Google Scholar

41 Guillain, , Documents, III, 240–41. Several Nyika and Segeju traditions claim that the Segeju were one of the first (most say the very first) groups to abandon Shungwaya: Kwale and Kilifi District Books, KNA, C.P., I, KWL/I and KFI/I.Google Scholar

42 According to a tradition collected by H. B. Sharpe, the Segeju and Digo were formerly known as ‘Wakirao’ (‘How the Wasegeju received their name as told to me by an Msegeju elder’, KNA, KWL/I). Kirao, however, is stated by Hollis to be the left bank of the Tans River, and thus might be considered a part of Shungwaya: Hollis, A. C., ‘Notes on the history of Vumba, East Africa’, J. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. XXX (1900), 276–7.Google Scholar

43 Father, Monclaro, Relacço da Viagem, trans. Theal, Records, III, 214.Google Scholar

44 Guillain discusses the Swahili–Nyika alliances in detail (Documents, III, 244–5).Google Scholar Prins, relying heavily on Guillain, summarizes them in Swahili-Speaking Peoples, 98–9. Prins sees the Thelatha Taifa–Nyika relationship as being conducted through the tamim; Guillain regards it as concentrated in the taifa sheikhs. Guillain is correct (information from Sheikh Hyder M. Elkindy and from a MS. history by the former Chief Kadhi of Kenya, Sheikh Al-Amin bin Ali al-Mazrui, ‘The history of the Mazrui dynasty of Mombasa’, as yet unpublished, but translated and mimeographed by J. M. Ritchie, lately of Mombasa).Google Scholar

45 An interesting migrant Swahili family history, misleadingly titled ‘Memoirs of Bwana Shehe wa Stambuli Abala’, is filed in KNA, C.P., I, Bundle III, Msa/14. Though undated, it evidently covers the period 1830–1900, and describes various difficulties with the Galla, marriage and other relationships with the Nyika, and local intrigues on Pate and in Mombasa. It unfortunately exists only in the form of a half-literate translation.

46 Hollis's compilation, KNA. The taifa names of some of the most recent Tisa Taifa adherents have varied slightly from time to time, as Hollis points out.

47 Strandes, , Portuguese Period, chs. 12–18, summarizes events during these years.Google Scholar

48 Since the Segeju were reported to be ‘infesting’ Malindi as late as 1634, it is unlikely that the Galla made their presence felt in the region till a decade or more later (RezendeGray, ‘Description’, 44).

49 The most complete account of the Mazrui is the Sheikh Al-Amin MS. The Mombasa Chronicle is mostly concerned with the early maliwali. Guillain is informative for all periods (Documents, in, 258–62, 544–5, 601–1).Google Scholar

50 The core of the Mombasa polity consisted of Mombasa and Kilindini Towns, the mainland settlements of the Thelatha Taifa, and two or more mainland villages occupied by the Jomvu, notably Jomvu kwa Shehe and Maunguja. For the earlier secession of the Jomvu from the Mvita see Mwidani bin Mwidadi, ‘Khabare za Kale za Jonvu’, trans. L. Harries, Swahili, XXXI (1960), 140–9Google Scholar and ‘Usulu wa WaJomvu’ in Lambert, , Chi-Jomvu, 76–9. Since Shirazi times, Mombasa has always consisted of several settlements in addition to the principal built-up area facing Mombasa Harbour.Google Scholar

51 Mombasa Chronicle: Owen, , Voyages, I, 41819;Google ScholarGuillain, , Documents, I, 618–19. The Sheikh Al-Amin MS. discusses the matter in detail, mentioning that the Thelatha Taifa and Nyika sacked Mombasa Town at one point in the war.Google Scholar

52 Mombasa Chronicle: Owen, , Voyages, I, 419–21;Google ScholarGuillain, , Documents, I, 619–21. Also Sheikh Al-Amin MS.Google Scholar

53 Ibid.

54 Guillain, , Documents, I, 548–9. Sheikh Al-Amin has a slightly different version, but in essentials the two agree.Google Scholar

55 One example of the kind of service performed for the Nyika by the Swahili sheikhs is still remembered in Mombasa. The Tamim of the Tisa Taifa, Sheikh Khamis bin Kombo al-Mutwafy, appealed to Sultan Barghash of Zanzibar to intervene on behalf of the Giriama, who were being harassed by the Mazrui of Takaungu. I am indebted to Masoud A. Mohamed (al-Mazrui) for this information.

56 Emery, J., entry for 15 10 1825, ‘A journal of the British establishment at Mombasa’, PRO, Adm. 52/3940, records Nyika participation in the installation of Liwali Salim bin Hemed.Google Scholar

57 Guillain, , Documents, III, 262–3;Google ScholarBurton, , Zanzibar, II, 78.Google Scholar

58 Liwali Salim's friendship for the poet Bwana Muyaka is only one example of this; others are mentioned in the Sheikh Al-Amin MS.

59 Guillain, , Documents, I, 601–5;Google ScholarKrapf, J. L., Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labors…. in Eastern Africa (London, 1860), 536–7.Google ScholarCf. the Mazrui couplet against the Kilindini quoted by Edward, Steere, Swahili Tales (London, 1889), xi: Wakilindini si watu ni punda milia,/Walikuza nti yao kwa reale mia. (The Kilindini are not men but mere zebras;/They have sold their country for a hundred dollars.)Google Scholar

60 It is possible that taifa notables wielded tamim-like powers before the sultans began appointing matamim. Descendants of the Sheikhs of Malindi, whom the Mazrui made their wazirs, may have occupied such a position: Guillain, , Documents, III, 260-2.Google Scholar

61 Said bin Sultan to Sheikh bin Mshirazi, Tamim of the Thelatha Taifa, 29th Safar, 1257 (A.D. 1841), files of the Mombasa Afro-Asian Welfare League. I am indebted to Sheikh Hyder M. Elkindy for access to these papers.

62 Guillain tells how the customs compensation was, by 1848, reduced to a fraction of its former value: Documents, III, 261.Google Scholar This is corroborated by Consul, John Kirk, Parliamentary Papers (1874), lxii [c. 1064], p. 100.Google Scholar

63 Said bin Sultan made provision for a government-recognized Sheikh of the Arabs of Mombasa, whose position was analagous to that of the matamim.

64 The IBEA Company, by appointing one of the contestants, might be said to have caused the dispute. But Mazrui traditions make it clear that the IBEA Company was merely the catalyst in a situation that had been taking shape for many years. I am indebted to Masoud A. Mohamed, formerly of Takaungu, and to his family for this information.

65 ‘Correspondence respecting the recent rebellion in British East Africa’, Parliamentary Papers (1896), lix [c. 8274], pp. 87, 103.Google Scholar

65 Ibid. 106.

67 List of proscribed persons (marginal note), Kwale District Book, KNA, C.P., I, KWL/I.

68 Condition and progress of the East African Protectorate… to 1898’, Parliamentary Papers (1898), lx [C. 8683], p. 8.

69 Slavery, as distinct from the slave-trade, was not abolished on the coast until 1907.