Current Issues

In general, controlled stratigraphic excavations at major settlements on the East African coast, dated by imported ceramics, go some way toward providing a general framework for stone town urban development. They still fall short, however, of providing clear estimates of the volume and spatial extent of nonstone-built residential areas and the relation of the country towns to the archaeologically better known stone towns, for example, Shanga (Horton 1996). The recognition of clusters of coastal settlements, for example, by Abungu (1998), points to the need for a detailed investigation of an area larger than an individual site. The need is to establish the contemporary size and spatial layout of the sites that made up the settlement clusters, which might provide significant insights into subsistence, craft specialization, and the political organization of the Swahili city-states.

Trade and Urban Development

Interregional trade knowledge, which is often based on evidence of imported ceramics, has been seen as fundamental for the growth of towns in East Africa (Horton 1987; Kusimba 1999; Middleton 1992; Wright 1993). The limited concept of “the Swahili corridor” as a conduit of trade has been expanded with the recognition of a lattice of trading hubs linking the offshore islands and the East African coast extending far into the various interiors (Sinclair 1995). Wilson (1982) pointed out that Swahili town sites were situated, not only to facilitate trade, but also in terms of local agricultural potential. The distinction between coast and interior has begun to crumble with the progress of historical and archaeological research that focuses on local production and exchange (Haaland 1994–1995; Horton and Mudida 1993; Kusimba 1993; Mutoro 1998; Radimilahy 1998; Wright 1984). New methods of retrieval of evidence from archaeological excavations and computer-aided remote-sensing applications such as geographic information systems (GIS) are being developed to better address these issues.

Socioeconomic and Political Organization

Although archaeological and documentary evidence tell us something about the physical characteristics of the Swahili towns, we still know very little about their socioeconomic and political organization prior to the nineteenth century. Using scattered travelers’ accounts from the tenth century on, supplemented by Portuguese sources from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and ethnographic sources, numerous authors have attempted to reconstruct the sociopolitical and local and regional economic relationships of the Swahili (Allen 1993; Mazrui 1995; Middleton 1992; Nurse and Spear 1985; Pouwel 1987).

Current discussion focuses upon the difficulties encountered in trying to provide dynamic models of culture change and urban development. The roles of external-forcing mechanisms and human-induced environmental change in system collapse have also been the focus of recent discussion (e.g., Kusimba 1999; Sinclair 1995) as has been the suitability of different concepts of city and state in describing Swahili political organization (Kusimba 1999).

Paul J.J. Sinclair

References

Abungu, G. 1989. “Communities on the River Tana, Kenya.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge.

———. 1998. “City States of the East African Coast and Their Maritime Contacts.” In Transformations in Africa, 204–218. Ed. G. Connah. London: Leicester University Press.

Ådahl, K., and B. Sahlström, eds. 1995. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis figura nova series 27. Uppsala.

Allen, J. De V. 1980. “Settlement Patterns on the East African Coast c. 800–1900.” In Proceedings of the Eighth Pan African Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Studies. Ed. R. Leakey and B. Ogot. Nairobi: ILLMIAP.

———. 1993. Swahili Origins. London: J. Currey.

Allibert, C., A. Argant, and J. Argant. 1990. “Le Site de Dembéni (Mayotte, Archipel des Comores).” Études Océan Indien 11: 63–172.

Barradas, L. 1967. “A primitiva Mambone e suas immediacoes.” Monumenta 3: 23–41.

Broberg, A. 1995. “New Aspects of the Medieval Towns of Benedir in Southern Somalia.” In Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis figura nova series 27,