The Portuguese and the Swahili, from foes to unlikely partners: Afro-European interface in the early modern era

How interlopers were transformed into guests

Studies of early Afro-European history are at times plagued by anachronistic theories used by some scholars, who begin their understanding of the era from the perspective of colonial Africa and project it backwards to the 16th and 17th centuries when first contacts were made; such as those between the Swahili and the Portuguese. They construct an image of Portugal as a growing industrial power, with its formidable military; confronting a pre-industrial and fragmented Swahili society whose adherence to Islam reminded the Portuguese of their bitter conflicts with their own Moorish conquers, hence providing further impetus for the conquest of the Swahili; they thus characterize the relationship as primarily antagonistic, exploitative and destructive, and one that heralded a precipitous decline of the classical Swahili civilization.¹

This old understanding of Luso-Swahili relations has since given way to more comprehensive studies of the complex dynamics, shifting alliances and cultural exchanges between the Swahili and the Portuguese in the centuries following their first encounter, a closer examination of the era reveals a more equal and mutually beneficial level of political, economic and cultural exchange, in which the Swahili were indispensable commercial allies of the Portuguese, while the Portuguese became important political partners of the Swahili, despite the continuous tension and discordance between them, a significant level of cooperation was attained that resulted in the re-orientation of the intra-Swahili power dynamics as different Swahili cities leveraged Portuguese (and other foreign militaries) to expand their political control and grow their wealth, while managing to maintain their political autonomy. Rather than a rapid decline of the classical Swahili civilization, the era witnessed a resurgence of many ancient cities and the emergence of new city-states as the region entered a new golden age, enabling the Swahili to defeat the first wave of colonization.

This article explores the intricacies of Luso-Swahili interactions in the political, cultural and economic spheres including key events that defined the dynamic of exchange between both groups.

Map of the Swahili coast showing the city-states mentioned in the article

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The Swahili coast on the eve of the Portuguese; decline of Kilwa and Mogadishu, the rise of Mombasa and Malindi.

The east African coast from Mogadishu in southern Somalia to Sofala in Mozambique was in the late 15th century dominated by hundreds of independent city states and towns primarily populated by an African group of bantu-speakers known as the Swahili, these were mostly engaged in farming and fishing, with a significant merchant class that maintained extensive trade with the Indian ocean world, the mainland African kingdoms, and each other; in a pattern of exchange characterized by open ports, with multifaceted, reciprocal relationships which were governed by the commercial freedom and political autonomy, rather than through coercion.² The wealthy Swahili elites and rulers constructed large coral-stone houses with sunken courtyards and elaborately decorated reception rooms where trade was carried out, the majority of the population had adopted Islam over the centuries and worshiped in the lavishly built mosques, with their domed and vaulted roofs, and spacious layout, the largest mosques could accommodate hundreds of worshippers on Friday and the populations of the cities ranged between 30,000 and 5,000³. The cities were often governed by a council of elders derived from old, autochthonous descent groups whose authority was characterized by a degree of cooperation in kinship and marriage bounds that transcended individual city-states forming a sort of loose federation often for military alliances.⁴ Matters of taxation, trade, justice, and military organization were in the hands of these descent group alliances and the appointed leader among these usually referred to as a sheikh (although sultan/king is used in Portuguese and later sources) levied duties from ships coming into their harbor, of which a significant portion was paid to the council of elders.⁵ In the late 15th century, the coast was at the acme of its prosperity but important shifts in power and wealth had occurred, the most notable was the growth of the cities of Malindi and Mombasa and the gradual decline of Kilwa. While Kilwa had flourished from its re-export of gold and ivory from the southern city of Sofala to the Indian ocean merchants in southern Arabia and Gujarat (in India), the cities of Mombasa and Malindi exploited their hinterlands for ancillary products for trade, such as ivory, skins, agricultural products, ambergris, and cowries with trade items flowing through a series of hinterland cities such as Gedi, Mnarani and Ungwana that extended dozens of kilometers inland but remained politically autonomous of their coastal trading partners⁶. While the bulk of ocean-going vessels docked at Swahili ports appear to have been foreign owned, there are records of Swahili voyages to southern Arabia, western India (especially to Gujarat) and Malaysia (especially the city of Malacca)⁷, local industries primarily involved the production of cloth in the cities of Pate, Kilwa, Mogadishu and Sofala where fine cotton cloth was woven, dyed and attimes embroidered with imported silk threads, most of this cloth was consumed locally while some was exported inland to the south-east African kingdoms of the Zimbabwe plateau such as Mutapa and Great Zimbabwe where these Swahili cloths, as well as imported cloth, were exchanged for gold an ivory.⁸ Large quantities of this gold were mined and brought from the interior to the coast, and while this mining process wasn't the primary economic activity of the interior states, the re-export of the gold was important for some of the Swahili cities especially Kilwa which retained a portion of the gold from the trade through taxes and some of which was spent locally in minting its coinage in the manufacture of jewelery and as a store of wealth. The city of Sofala is estimated to have exported between 1-1.3 million mithqals of gold a year (estimated around 8.5-12 tones at the end of the 15th century) as well as tens of thousands of kilograms of ivory⁹ both of which were transshipped to Kilwa, and later to the northern Swahili cities and across the Indian ocean. In the patchwork of polities that dominated the coast, the powerful city-states, like Malindi, Mombasa and Kilwa, collected tribute from other smaller Swahili cities and towns such as Pemba, Songo Mnara and Mafia, cloth industry and maritime trade were the basis of their wealth, and Arabic literature and Islam were central to their cultural fabric; it was these familiar characteristics of the Swahili societies that were integral to expressions of what was deemed a “respected society” in the Portuguese imagination, laying the groundwork for a complex relationship between the two societies.¹⁰

the 11th century Mosque of kilwa, a 14th century house at Songo Mnara and 14th century coins of a Kilwa sultan

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"We seek Christians and spices": violent first contacts between the Portuguese and the Swahili

The Portuguese sailors led by Vasco Da gama first arrived at the island city of Mozambique in January 1498, a relatively small Swahili town, upon sighting its white-washed coral stone houses, its distinctive urban character, and its harbor with both local and Arab ships, the exhilarated sailors were glad they had arrived in familiar territory. a contemporary chronicler described the city as such: "The men of this land are russet in colour (ie: African/Swahili) and of good physique. They are of the Islamic faith and speak like Moors. Their clothes are of very thin linen and cotton, of many-coloured stripes, and richly embroidered. All wear caps on their heads hemmed with silk and embroidered with gold thread. They are merchants and they trade with the white Moors (ie: Arab), four of whose vessels were here at this place, carrying gold, silver and cloth, cloves, pepper and ginger, rings of silver with many pearls, seed pearls and rubies and the like.". The sheikh of the mozambique island (mentioned as Musa bin Bique in later sources) assumed that the Portuguese sailors were Ottoman Turks (and the Portuguese were aware of this presumption), he thus came out and exchanged gifts with the Portuguese sailors who invited them onto their ship where he was treated with ceremony, with the sound of trumpets and a parade, he asked them for a Quran but Da Gama said he had left his in Turkey, and that he was on his way to India to purchase spices, to which the sheikh responded that he would only need gold and silver to purchase the spices, afterwhich da Gama requested pilots from the sheikh to direct him to India which the sheikh later availed. After a while, one of the sheikh's pilots recognized the sailors as Christians and informed the sheikh who realized the deception, and prepared for war. The Swahili ships (mtepes) he had were light, sewn rather than nailed, and often had few sails, and were enough to carry several dozen fighters but the Portuguese ships which were mounted with matchlocks and cannon ultimately outmatched them and the sheikh was forced to retreat. The Portuguese later sailed off in haste after these hostilities, determined to reach Kilwa, only for their ships to be blown back to Mozambique island, and while the first battle had ended in a truce, the sailors once again demanded supplies and a dispute arose that ended with Mozambique island being looted of its grain, jewelry and books in Arabic, afterwhich it was bombarded.¹¹

15th/16th century House ruins and graves on Mozambique island from the Swahili era

Rather that Kilwa, the Portuguese had sailed past it to Mombasa where they arrived in April 1498, and a pattern started to emerge with their first encounters which were now colored by the events on Mozambique island. Despite an invitation from the Mombasa sultan to dock in the city’s harbor, Vasco Da Gama’s fleet declined the offer, and as news of events of the Portuguese actions in Mozambique reached Mombasa soon after their arrival; both the Mombasa sultan and Vasco Da Gama knew they had not arrived in peace, the Mombasa sultan then sent small boats to encircle the ships and sabotage them while Da Gama’s crew tortured some Mombasans they had lured onboard for information. The ships then sailed to Malindi a few days later, where they encountered a similar unease, but upon learning that Malindi and Mombasa were rivals and out of the need for more supplies for his crew, Vasco Da Gama was more open to meeting with the Malindi sultan especially for pilots to guide him to India. His sailors and the Malindi elites exchanged gifts until the sultan was invited on Da Gama's ship with ceremony and cannon fire, but Da Gama declined an invitation to visit the sultan's palace, sending his companions instead. Malindi's harbor, while smaller than Mombasa's, was frequented with many ships from Arabia, Persia and India especially from Gujarat, among the last group was a sailor named Ibn Majid who was directed to the Portuguese by the sultan, he then guided their ships to the Indian city of Calicut where they arrived in May 1498.¹² On their return voyage, Vasco da Gama's ships bombarded the coast of Mogadishu, most likely to scare off any local ships from attacking them as they hurried further south approaching Lamu where they repeated the same action until they reached Malindi, where they stopped for supplies as well as for pilots to guide them south along the coast, but a leaking ship from among their crew was abandoned, they then passed by Zanzibar which they attacked and seized four ships that they used for their return journey to Portugal.¹³

ruins of a 16th century house in the city of Fukuchani¹⁴, Zanzibar

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Conquests, resistance and an uneasy truce: the Portuguese on the Swahili coast in the 16th century

“The houses were ‘built in our ways’ with beautifully carved doors, the wealthier citizens wore ‘gold and silk and fine cotton clothes’. Around the town were orchards and gardens with ‘many channels of sweet water’. The palace, a complex of audience chambers and private rooms, surrounding a central pool with fountains, overlooked the ocean and had its own landing-place”¹⁵ (Portuguese description of Kilwa)

In 1500, a Portuguese fleet under the command of Pedro Cabral sailed for the indian ocean with the intent of controlling the gold trade from the Swahili and the spice trade from India, arriving at Kilwa after briefly passing by Sofala, the reigning sultan of Kilwa Ibrāhīm b. Sulaymān had prepared for their arrival as best as he could, fortifying access points along the coast and recruiting archers from the mainland, he invited Cabral for a customary tour of his palace but the latter declined, and Cabral offered the same for the sultan to tour his ships but the latter also declined, the sultan later sent a pretender to negotiate with the Portuguese (unbeknownst to them), the latter asked that Kilwa cedes to them control of Sofala and they also requested the conversion of Kilwa court to Christianity, but received no response from the pretender. Cabral then decided to continue to Mombasa and Malindi where he found that the former was attacking the latter for its alliance with the Portuguese, but only managed to stay a few days in Malindi for supplies and left a few settlers before continuing to India and later returning to Lisbon.¹⁶ It was the 1502 voyage of Vasco Da Gama when the Portuguese crown was intent on conquering the Swahili coast, and establishing themselves at Kilwa and Sofala to control its gold trade, Da Gama forced the Kilwa sultan to sign a treaty placing his city-state under Portugal's suzerainty (although this act proved ephemeral), Da Gama sailed to Calicut which he ruthlessly bombarded. In 1505, another much larger fleet under Francisco de Almeida arrived at Kilwa, noticing the absence of the Portuguese flag and the insolence shown to them by the sultan whom hat they considered their vassal, Almeida invaded Kilwa with 200 armed men, looting it thoroughly of its gold and silver as well as luxury cloths, before setting it ablaze, the Portuguese then hurriedly installed a new sultan named sheikh Ankoni and a new treaty was signed with the latter that placed Kilwa under Portuguese crown and a fort was constructed. Almeida’s fleet then sailed for Mombasa where the sultan was ready for battle having constructed a fortress, salvaged a few cannons and guns form a wrecked Portuguese ship, and hired the services of one of the Portuguese settlers whom he had converted to Islam. A bitter war was fought and the Portuguese ships were damaged by Mombasa's cannon fire but after the fort's gunpowder had blown up in the cross exchange, the Portuguese invaded the city, looting it and setting it ablaze.¹⁷

Mombasa beachfront in the late 19th century and the 15th century Mbaraki pillar built next to a now collapsed mosque¹⁸

Resistance in Mombasa, smuggling in Angoche and an intellectual synthesis at Kilwa

The Portuguese then attempted to establish a colonial administration that tied their east African and Indian coastal possessions after conducting several attacks on the cities of Mogadishu, Brava, Mafia, Zanzibar and Pemba, and the imposition of customs duties on every merchant ship sailing to their ports, they set up a captaincy at Mozambique island and Sofala, and a customs house in Malindi and Kilwa, but both were later abandoned in 1512 and 1513 as the Swahili and other merchant ships avoided Malindi, as well as in the face of local resistance in Kilwa that ultimately led to the restoration of the deposed sultan. The now collapsed gold, ivory and cloth trade was gradually revived, with gold exports rising from a few hundred kilograms in the early 16th century to about 1,487 kg by the mid 17th century, (although this was only a fraction of the pre-Portuguese volumes of 8,000-12,000 kg and much of it was smuggled through networks beyond Portuguese control), annual ivory exports recovered from 20,000 in 1520 to 110,000 kg by 1679 and cloth imports reached 280,000 pieces in the early 17th century.¹⁹ Portuguese officials stationed at Sofala and Mozambique regulated commercial vessels through a pass system, leveeing taxes on both overland and maritime merchants, channeling their trade to Portuguese customs houses thus generating revenue for the colonial administration, but also giving the southern Swahili coast more importance than the north especially after the closure of the Malindi and Kilwa factories.²⁰ In general however, the Portuguese presence did not contribute to a weakening of the Swahili city-states but reshuffled the old networks which benefitted some of the polities at the expense of others notably Malindi which extended its control to the Pemba islands and Pate, which took advantage of its location at the junction of Portuguese and Arab spheres of interaction, and its local textile industries to grow its wealth and power at the expense of the older, established cities like Kilwa.²¹ After the Portuguese abandonment of their Kilwa and Malindi factories, most of the Swahili cities had re-asserted their independence, the declining cities such as Kilwa then shifted their focus to their immediate hinterland’s ivory trade after their gold entrepot of Sofala had been seized by the Portuguese and the "smuggling" of gold by Kilwa merchants through the city of Angoche (north of Sofala) had been gradually suppressed, while Mombasa weathered several Portuguese attacks in 1528, 1529 and successfully repulsed one attack in 1541, remaining the wealthiest Swahili city in the mid 16th century, even as Malindi was leveraging Portuguese forces to attack Pemba and surrounding islands, the activities of the Portuguese officials in Malindi paradoxically eroded the Malindi sultan’s economic base and sent the city into a gradual decline ²²

ruins of the iconic pillar tombs of Malindi and surrounding houses, most of these date from the 14th and 15th century when the city was at its height before its steep decline in the 16th century, the existing city was built near these ruins but much later from 1640 to 1861²³

In the parts of the coast where there was a level of Portuguese control, Portuguese administrators came to depend on the Swahili elites and merchants, this dependence was not only born out of an ignorance of East Africa, but also as a result of the ease with which many Portuguese could interpret the Swahili world conceptually, materially, and religiously²⁴ This dependence is perhaps best attested in creation of the Kilwa chronicle, whose two versions, the Tārīkh (also titled : Kitab al-Sulwa ft akhbar Kilwa ) and the Crônica de Kilwa, relay a complex myriad of historical events especially leading up to the early 16th century when it was written; at time when the Portuguese were attempting to install a favorable sultan Mohammed Ankoni, with the Tārīkh being written in response to the Crόnica after the old lineage of sultan Ibrahim was restored in 1512, the Crόnica was itself co-written by the allied Kilwa elites and the Portuguese themselves, the former group included Mohamed Ankoni who was installed in 1505 with little support from the Kilwa elders who assassinated him, the Portuguese then tried to install his son and later his nephew in 1506 but the rapid decline of the gold trade and the city's prosperity led them to abandon this project and the city altogether, allowing for deposed sultan Ibrahim to re-ascend to the throne in 1512, these two chronicles, which are the oldest preserved Swahili chronicles and among the oldest in Africa; are the legacy of this encounter.²⁵

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The Ottoman threat and the creation of a colonial administration on the Swahili coast

Until the arrival of the Ottoman fleet in the late 16th century, a delicate political and economic equilibrium had been maintained between the Swahili cities and the Portuguese who were mostly concerned with the southernmost part of the coast and the interior kingdom of Mutapa. This allowed the cities of Mombasa, Mogadishu, Brava, Zanzibar and Kilwa to recovered and the cities of Malindi, Lamu, Pate, Faza to emerge as equally powerful.²⁶ But as early as 1542, the Swahili were initiating diplomatic contacts with the Ottomans to throw off the commercial yoke of the Portuguese, this action prompted a series of Portuguese attacks on several cities including Mombasa and Mogadishu but these were mostly repulsed, leaving them undeterred by the Portuguese threats, the Swahili diplomatic missions to the ottomans continued and in the 1550s and 1560s, the Ottoman corsair Sefer Reis travelled to the Swahili cities but wasn't open to the prospect of open military confrontation with the Portuguese at the time. This conciliatory state of affairs changed by the 1570s and in 1586, the Ottoman Corsair Mir Ali Beg arrived in Mombasa after responding to a request for military assistance from many of the coastal cities (except Malindi which stayed loyal to the Portuguese), he soon left to return in 1588 with a fleet, he then established a strong defensive position in Mombasa, constructing a stone tower with artillery mounts in preparation for the huge Portuguese armada that had been sent out from Lisbon for this encounter, but Mombasa was coincidentally attacked by a force from the hinterland known as the Zima, a northern offshoot of the Maravi kingdom that had flourished in the hinterland of Sofala from the Portuguese ivory trade, and had in the same year sacked the city of Kilwa before proceeding north to Mombasa²⁷, The Zimba threat forced Ali to split his forces between defending the city from the land and the sea, resulting in the battle for the latter being easily won by the Portuguese fleet and the Zimba chasing the besieged forces of Ali out of the island and into Portuguese ships where they were captured as well as their Swahili allies including the sultan of Mombasa.²⁸ Mir Ali's expeditions were conceived by the Ottoman sultan as the first step in an extended effort to create a centralized Ottoman imperial infrastructure throughout the Indian Ocean but the loss at Mombasa affirmed Portuguese control of the coast which had previously been semi-independent.

painting of Portuguese ships made in 1540, these types of vessels called carracks served both commercial and military functions ( No. BHC0705 royal museums greenwich)

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The Portuguese era of the Swahili coast (1593-1698): an overview of a Luso-Swahili political and cultural synthesis

Between 1593 and 1596, the Portuguese constructed Fort Jesus to secure their east African possessions, in theory, all Swahili polities were subject to a single political entity: the Portuguese “Estado da India” with its administrative center in Goa (india) controlling the entire coast from Brava (in Somalia) to Sofala (in Mozambique), but in practice their presence at Fort Jesus didn't result in any significant political change in the rest of the Swahili coast , local rulers in other cities also remained in power, while cities such as Pate, Lamu, Angoche and Faza repeatedly asserted their independence and hardly submitted any tribute²⁹, the city of Malindi exploited its advantageous alliance with the Portuguese, while it had lost its prosperity to Mombasa and was even the focus of an attack by the latter in 1590, Malindi's rulers leveraged Portuguese alliance to extend its control over the neighboring polities on Pemba island and was later granted the Mombasan throne and one-third of Mombasa’s lucrative customs revenues following the transfer of the Malindi royal family to Mombasa in 1593 which they controlled until 1630³⁰, for much of the 1590s, the Malindi sultan exercised significant political power from Mombasa essentially as the ruler of a client state rather than a colonial vassal and several prominent Malindi elites are attested in other Swahili cities during this time especially at Mafia island where a factor of the Malindi sultan was stationed³¹ and on Kilwa itself where a prominent Malindi family settled later constructing several monuments, this changed at the turn of the 17th century as the Portuguese administration set itself up at Fort Jesus, gradually eroding the Malindi sultan’s political and economic base.

ruins of the “Malindi mosque” and cemetery in Kilwa, built by a prominent Malindi family living in the city³²

In the cities of Faza, Zanzibar, Siyu, Lamu, Pate and Mombasa, and Mombasa Island the Portuguese built churches were a small Christian community grew comprising of settlers and African converts, but the proselytizing zeal of the Portuguese missionaries eventually led to clashes that pitted the Muslim religious leaders against the increasingly parochial behavior of the missionaries³³, but the uneasy relationship was nevertheless tolerated by the Swahili rulers such as the sultan of Faza who used the Portuguese and Augustinian missionaries as a defense against his rivals in Lamu, helping them construct one of their churches in Faza, explaining that "in the church I have walls which guard my city; and, in the Fathers, soldiers to defend it"³⁴

16th century Portuguese churches on Malindi (with surrounding Portuguese tombs) and the chapel of Our Lady of the Baluarte on Mozambique island

In this melting pot of diverse communities, the now established trade and political relationships were strengthened by strategic marriages between the Swahili elites and the Portuguese, while the majority of Luso-Swahili marriages were politically non- consequential unions between the settlers and the local women, a few marriages among the Swahili elites are noted such as the marriage between prince Yusuf bin Hasan of Mombasa to a Portuguese woman while he was living in Goa, another was the marriage of the brother of the sultan of Pemba to a Portuguese woman for which he received the island as dowry from the Portuguese, another was with a niece of the sultan of Faza who was married to a wealthy Portuguese settler which also earned him the factorship of Mombasa as dowry, the last two marriages and their exchanges of dowry in the form of political and economic privileges reveal their purely strategic nature and the equality with which the Swahili elites and the Portuguese perceived each other.³⁵

Despite the antagonism between Portugal and Pate, the Portuguese traders were forced to trade in Pate's cloth which was in demand across the coast as well as the interior in the Mutapa kingdom, inadvertently enriching their primarily coastal foes.³⁶In Kilwa, the Portuguese set up a factor to monopolie the ivory trade with the Yao³⁷, (a group from the interior that brought ivory to the coast), but succession disputes and political upheaval associated with the Portuguese presence had taken its toll on Kilwa's internal politics and in 1614 and 1616, two sultans were assassinated in close succession as rival factions allied and opposed to the Portuguese battled for control of the city.³⁸ In the coastal hinterland adjacent to Sofala, Swahili merchants played an important role hauling the interior goods like ivory and gold, and dominated the trade routes extending into the interior states of Mutapa and Great Zimbabwe. The Swahili traders who had been well established in the region before the Portuguese proved indispensable even after the Portuguese had established themselves at Sofala, between the 1520s and 1550s, the high customs duties the Sofala officials charged forced the Swahili merchants to redirect their gold trade through the city of Angoche, which prompted a Portuguese expedition into the interior to suppress this "smuggling", as well as establishing markets and settlements in the interior at Sena and Tete in 1531 and 1544 and a trading factory at Quelimane,³⁹but all three already had substantial settlements of Swahili merchants and these merchants were intimately involved in the politics of the interior states especially Mutapa such that when a Jesuit mission arrived at the Mutapa court to convert its King in the 1560s, the Swahili merchants were found at the court and they are said to have been among the conspirators who killed the missionaries for their notoriety. When a Portuguese expedition to conquer the Mutapa Kingdom in 1571 travelled through Sena, hundreds of Portuguese died and the Swahili merchants of Sena were killed by the Portuguese in retaliation because they believed the Swahili were using a form of magic, this killing leading to the decline of Sena and the concentration of most Swahili merchants at Sofala and Mozambique island⁴⁰

Fort São Sebastião on Mozambique island, built in the mid 15th century

Mozambique island was sacked in 1607 and 1608 by the Dutch and much of the old Swahili town was destroyed, while it was rebuilt not long after and flourished into the 18th century, the position of its Swahili traders had been displaced by Portuguese interests, following the concentration of Portuguese captaincy activities at Mozambique in the course of the 17th century. This also brought the downfall of sofala, which went into rapid decline in the same century, its Swahili merchants abandoned it and by the mid 18th century, the great trading entrepot was mostly underwater. References to Swahili activities in these southern regions declined in the late 17th and early 18th century as the growing afro-Portuguese community in the region and the emerging autochthonous merchant groups on the Mozambique mainland gradually displaced the Swahili merchants.⁴¹

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A short lived colonial empire: the end of the Portuguese era of the Swahili coast (1631-1698)

Strains between the Portuguese colonists and their Swahili vassals begun to boil over in the 1630s, only a few decades after much of the coast had formally fallen under Portuguese control. In 1631, king Yusuf Hassan of Mombasa led a rebellion against the Portuguese, he had ascended to the throne as King of “Mombasa, Malindi and Pemba” in 1626 and upon observing the cruelty of his Portuguese overlords, seized the fort Jesus and killed most of the settlers in Mombasa. A massive Portuguese armada with 20 ships carrying 1,000 soldiers was sent against him that year but he was able to withstand its siege of Fort Jesus (since its excellent defenses had been built for the exact purpose) and defeat the soldiers on land forcing them to retreat, but he later decided to escape with two of the ships they had left behind hoping to appeal to the reluctant Ottomans to support his war and uproot the Portuguese from the coast, he occasionally returned to pirate the Swahili coast and raise rebellions against the Portuguese⁴²In the mid 16th century, the Swahili city-states begun establishing political ties with the rising Omani empire in Muscat hoping to undermine Portuguese control, in 1652, Zanzibar were the first to leverage the Omani attack on Portuguese’ Swahili possessions to declare themselves independent ( although by the 1680s, they were again allied with the Portuguese against the Omanis), the city of Pate, which had for long escape direct Portuguese control and joined prince Yusuf in his ill fated rebellion of 1637, now became closely associated with the Omani attacking Portuguese possessions and rebelling in 1660,1678 and 1686; chipping away Portuguese control with each revolt, Pemba also joined in the frenzy of rebellion, attacking Portuguese possessions in Kilwa in 1652 and gradually expelling remnants of the Portuguese settlers on its island by 1694. This period of conflict culminated in the 1696 siege of Mombasa after the steady deterioration of Portugal's sea power in the western half of the indian ocean, a diverse coalition of disgruntled Mombasa elites, Majikenda (from the mainland), Omani (from Arabia), Pate, Bajuni, Oromo soldiers, fought against an equally diverse coalition of 6,500 defenders including 1,000 Portuguese, 2,500 Swahili soldiers from Malindi, Faza and the rest were Mombasa residents, and after more than 2 years, the impregnable Fort Jesus fell in 1698 and with its end concluded the period of Portugal's colonialism of the Swahili coast.⁴³

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Keeping the Portuguese and the Omanis at arms-length: The era of Swahili independence (1698-1812)

The Omanis attempted to take over the colonial administration left by the Portuguese, trying to monopolize the Swahili trade and undermining the local authorities, especially those that had been allied with the Portuguese, their policies had the effect of limiting Swahili political autonomy and commercial freedom and thus proved very unpopular, very quickly. In the early 18th century (less than a decade into Omani control of the coast), some of the Swahili elites begun allying with the Portuguese to overthrow the Omanis; after the Omanis attacked Kilwa in 1699 for resisting their rule, Kilwa killed Omani traders and seized their goods and in 1708, and following this attack, the Omani soldiers that had garrisoned at Zanzibar, Mombasa, Pate, Kilwa and Pemba became the focus of increasing Swahili attacks and rebellions. When the reigning Zanzibar queen (who had been deposed and later restored by the Omanis) left a letter for the Portuguese imploring them to aid her daughter's ascension to the throne, this letter was intercepted by the Omanis who imprisoned her son Mfalme Hassan in Muscat, the Omanis also imprisoned the daughter of the Kilwa's Queen regent Fatima binti sultan named Mwana Nakisa in 1709, for attempting to ally with the Portuguese against them, but she was later released after a large ransom was paid, this heavy-handedness prompted a series of letters from the Kilwa royals to the Portuguese in which they expressed the very low opinion that Swahili elites had of the Omanis; Mwana Nakisa wrote that "this year the Arabs who came from Masqat are all scabs, striplings and weaklings", she urged the Portuguese to assist Kilwa in liberating the coast and resume the cloth trade from India which the Omanis had closed in favor of their own cloth, Kilwa's princes also wrote to the Portuguese about the Omani suppression of trade writing that "all the coast does not want the Arabs" complaining that the cloth they sent for trade was undesirable. In 1728, the Portuguese recaptured Fort Jesus as the Omanis were embroiled in civil war but the Swahili soon expelled their erstwhile liberators for their heavy hand-ness and this time without any external help.⁴⁴Until the late 18th century Swahili polities maintained complete political and commercial autonomy that lasted well upto the battle of shela in 1812 when Most of the important cities came under Oman control. Some of the Swahili states nevertheless remained sympathetic to the Portuguese and in 1770, the Portuguese mounted a failed attempt to retake Fort Jesus from the Mazruis of Oman who had garrisoned themselves inside it and were wrestling control of the city from the swahili⁴⁵, Other states such as Kilwa continued trade relations with the Portuguese merchants especially those settled on Mozambique island.

letters written by Mfalme Fatima; queen of kilwa; her daughter Mwana Nakisa; and Fatima's brothers Muhammad Yusuf & Ibrahim Yusuf (heir to Kilwa’s throne) written in 1711 (Goa archive, SOAS london)

Fortress building increased along the Swahili coast in the 18th century as a consequence of the militarization and the political upheavals of the period. Swahili cities had since the 6th century been primarily defended by city walls with guard towers and gates, and the construction of free-standing fortresses was first used in Kilwa in the 13th century (pre-dating the Portuguese era), because the primary foes of the Swahili at the time came from the mainland rather than from the sea, so none of the fortresses and defensive constructions were built facing the sea. This changed during the political upheavals of the Portuguese and Omani era as Portugal’s swahili possessions where threatened primarily from the sea; initially by the ottomans and later by the Omanis and other Europeans such as the Dutch. The Swahili cities inherited these same naval threats after defeating the Portuguese, and new maritime threats such as the Sakalava of Madagascar and frequent Omani incursions necessitated the construction of sea-facing fortresses, some of the Swahili-built fortresses from this era include the 18th century fortified palace of the Kilwa sultans and the fortress of Mutsamudu on the Comoros island of Ndzawani, and later in the 19th century, the city of Siyu built its own fortress to guard against Omani incursions. These Swahili fortresses display some Portuguese and Omani influences but retain a largely distinct Swahili character in their spatial layout and construction style.⁴⁶

The ruined fortress of Husuni Ndongo in kilwa, built in the 13th century

ruins of Kilwa’s Makutani Palace, originally built in the 15th century but extended and fortified in the 18th century.

ruins of the 18th century Mutsamudu fortress on the island of Anjouan, Comoros

Conversely, the rebuilt Mozambique island of the 17th and 18th century, despite having a large number of Portuguese settlers, retained the typical Swahili aesthetic; with coral construction, sunken courtyards, zidaka interior decoration and narrow streets. Interspaced between these were Portuguese churches, governors residences and other buildings giving it a hybridized architectural style.

beachfront of the island of Mozambique

The Mozambique island's prominence in the Swahili world withered away as the lucrative ivory trade gradually shifted to Zanzibar and Kilwa by the 19th century, and its function as a transshipment point for European ships was gradually eroded by the Comoros islands especially with the establishment the sultanate of Anjouan at Nzwani by a Kilwa diaspora in the 16th century whose capital Mutsamudu was a favorite of English and French ships on their way to India ⁴⁷ and the island was transformed into a major slave port in the late 18th and early 19th century but these were largely sold in Brazil. Portuguese presence in the southern region was gradually displaced by French and English interests in Mauritius and Madagascar in the late 18th century, confining the Portuguese to Mozambique and its immediate hinterland.

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Conclusion: from interlopers to visitors, the Portuguese legacy in Swahili history.

A closer study of Luso-Swahili relations reveals a familiar pattern in east African history, in which Swahili political elites used foreign powers to leverage factional interests and maintain control over the continental–oceanic interface. In this typical Swahili form of integrating newcomers, the Portuguese weren't treated exceptionally but like the rest of the foreign groups that had come before them, and despite the occasional violence between the two and the constantly shifting alliances, the Swahili and the Portuguese came to regard each other commercial, cultural and political equals, trading with each other, living next to each other and fighting together, as the historian Jeremy presholdt explains; “the Portuguese conceptualized the Swahili as familiar”; as both a commercial partner and a religious opponent, while the Swahili viewed the Portuguese as military power which they could manipulate to serve their interests, and an important commercial partner whose trade was vital to their cities' prosperity; "In comparison to other African societies which had contact with the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, the Swahili coast is unique in that nowhere else did the Portuguese arrive with such violence and yet build such intimate relationships with regional populations" ⁴⁸

The history of Luso-Swahili relations conforms to the general pattern of early afro-European political and cultural interface that explains how African societies such as the Swahili, Kongo, Mutapa defeated the first wave of colonialism (that had largely succeeded in the Americas and south-east Asia against similarly centralized societies); the equal political, economic and cultural partnerships which these African societies initiated with the various foreign powers that washed upon their shores ultimately served African interests, and enabled them to maintain their political autonomy while prospering from the increasing volume of trade. As the historian Randal Powells explains on why and how different groups of immigrants were integrated into Swahili society; “the basic challenge for the Swahili town was that of maintaining order and continuity in town life while creating unity out of diversity, one society out of many, it was from contesting binaries within towns that change took place, and their countervailing institutions which helped make the town a unit”⁴⁹

The Portuguese, like the Arabs, Indians and Chinese that had come to the east African coast before them, became another group of wageni (guests); who were tolerated, courted or discarded according to the interests of the Swahili, blending into the cosmopolitan society.

Fort Jesus, Mombasa

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1. the transition from “classical Swahili” history to the early modern era is briefly discussed by most Swahilists but a more comprehensive treatment of the topic can be read from Jeremystholdt’s “Portuguese Conceptual Categories and the "Other" Encounter on the Swahili Coast”, as well as J Thornton’s “Early Kongo-Portuguese Relations” for a similar encounter on the opposite side of central Africa.

2. The Swahili World by Stephanie Wynne-Jones pg 518)

3. Port Cities and Intruders by Michael Naylor Pearson pg 43

4. Horn and Crescent by RL Pouwels pg 26-34)

5. A Comparative Study of Thirty City-state Cultures pg 470-471)

6. Horn and Crescent by RL Pouwels pg 25-27)

7. When Did the Swahili Become Maritime by J Fleisher

8. Port Cities and Intruders by Michael Naylor Pearson pg 121-125)

9. Port Cities and Intruders by Michael Naylor Pearson pg 48-50)

10. Portuguese Conceptual Categories and the "Other" Encounter on the Swahili Coast by Jeremy Prestholdt pg 384-386)

11. Empires of the Monsoon by Richard Seymour Hall pg 161-164)

12. (the claim that Ibn Majid guided Da Gama’s ships is disputed) Empires of the Monsoon by Richard Seymour Hall pg 164-170),

13. The Swahili world pg 243, Empires of the Monsoon by Richard Seymour Hall pg 176)

14. The Swahili world by Stephanie Wynne-Jones pg 243

15. description of kilwa; Empires of the Monsoon by Richard Seymour Hall pg 187)

16. Empires of the Monsoon by Richard Seymour Hall pg 186-188)

17. Empires of the Monsoon by Richard Seymour Hall pg 202-214)

18. Swahili Port Cities by Prita Meier pg 89-63

19. Port Cities and Intruders by Michael Naylor Pearson pg 49-50),

20. The Swahili World by Stephanie Wynne-Jones pg 519-520)

21. The Swahili World by Stephanie Wynne-Jones pg pg 376)

22. Ivory & Slaves in East Central Africa by Edward A. Alpers pg 46-48)

23. The Swahili World by Stephanie Wynne-Jones pg 212

24. Portuguese Conceptual Categories and the "Other" Encounter on the Swahili Coast by Jeremy Prestholdt pg 387)

25. The Arts and Crafts of Literacy by Andrea Brigaglia, ‎Mauro Nobili pg 181-203)

26. Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century by Bethwell Allan Ogot pg 373

27. Ivory & Slaves in East Central Africa by Edward A. Alpers pg 50)

28. Global politics of the 1580s by G Casale pg 269-273)

29. Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century by Bethwell Allan Ogot pg 374)

30. Swahili Origins by James De Vere Allen pg 206-208)

31. Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa by Edward A. Alpers pg 46

32. Kilwa: A History of the Ancient Swahili Town with a Guide to the Monuments of Kilwa Kisiwani and Adjacent Islands by John E. G. Sutton pg 142

33. The History of Islam in Africa by Nehemia Levtzion pg 260-261

34. The Swahili World by Stephanie Wynne-Jones pg 520)

35. Portuguese Conceptual Categories and the "Other" Encounter on the Swahili Coast by Jeremy Prestholdt pg 394)

36. The Swahili World by Stephanie Wynne-Jones pg 615)

37. Ivory & Slaves in East Central Africa by Edward A. Alpers pg 69)

38. The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 1600 to c. 1790, by Richard Gray pg 529)

39. Ivory & Slaves in East Central Africa by Edward A. Alpers pg 43-44)

40. A History of Mozambique by M. D. D. Newitt pg 57)

41. A History of Mozambique by M. D. D. Newitt pg 132-136)

42. Empires of the Monsoon by Richard Seymour Hall pg 266-274)

43. The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 1600 to c. 1790 pg 529-530, Empires of the Monsoon by Richard Seymour Hall pg 308-316)

44. Ivory & Slaves in East Central Africa by Edward A. Alpers pg 71-75)

45. Ivory & Slaves in East Central Africa by Edward A. Alpers pg 134)

46. Swahili pre-modern warfare and violence in the Indian Ocean by Stephane Pradines

47. The Comoro Islands in Indian Ocean Trade before the Nineteenth Century by M. Newitt pgs 145-160

48. Portuguese Conceptual Categories and the "Other" Encounter on the Swahili Coast by Jeremy Prestholdt pg 398-399)

49. Horn and Crescent: Cultural Change and Traditional Islam on the East African Coast, 800-1900 Randall L. Pouwels pg 33-34