Great Britain had so long regarded all
Africa beyond the Atlas not owned by France, Spain or Portugal as hers for the
taking, that it required the Berlin Conference to convince her statesmen that a
new claimant had arisen with colonial aspirations and scant scruples as to
their gratification. The Congo, the Niger and the rest of West Africa having
been disposed of, that vast section of East Africa beyond the Portuguese
territories was the next subject of heated diplomacy.
The Story of Africa and Its Explorers,
Volume 4 (1895). By Robert Brown
Since
this post is written in English, the terms in the title will be translated to English.
The word Swahili is from Arabic ‘sawahil’ meaning coast. The word coast is English
for coast. The word ‘Pwani’ is from Kiswahili, meaning coast. These three words
all mean the same thing.
According
to Merriam-webster dictionary; Coast means ‘the land near a shore: SEASHORE’.
When
the Arabs from southern Arabia invaded the coast of East Africa, many indigenous
people were displaced. A good example is the present day ‘Ameru’, who have
preserved in their history, their displacement from the island of Mbwaa (present
Manda Island) in Lamu area by “Nguo Ntune”. Nguo Ntune "Red clothes" is the Meru name for invaders of their island (Mbwaa)who subsequently enslaved
them (ca. 1700). Probably East African coastal Arabs. Red clothes could be
associated with the kufiyya scarf, a popular scarf worn by Arabs till today, which
originated in southern Arabia.
The
Kimeru word Mbwaa is synonymous with the Kiswahili word Pwaa, which means ‘coast’.
The
present Ameru, who were known by a different name (Ngaa?) in the past before
forming the Meru nation with other indigenous peoples they found in the
interior, had established a hub of iron-smelting in the island. This was
destroyed by the invaders who put up their own system.
"In the beginning, we were not
called 'Meru.' In fact, no one now living recalls our tribal name. My
grandparents may have known, but I was too young to ask. Now I am too old to
remember."[1]
Gituuru wa Gikamata
Kiramana age-set
After
displacement by the internationally-backed Arab invaders, they migrated up into
the interior following the Kilulumi river (River Tana) until they reached and
settled in the east of the Mt. Kenya area. There, they formed a new nation
called Ameru after uniting with other indigenous peoples they found in the
area. Just like other people in the area, they successfully cordoned-off their
nation against marauding slave raiders for centuries.
The
Yarubid dynasty (Arabic: أسرة آل يعرب) (also the Yaruba or Ya'arubi) were
rulers of Oman between 1624 and 1742, holding the title of Imam. They expelled
the Portuguese from coastal strongholds in Muscat and united Oman. Their
forces expelled the Portuguese from East Africa and established settlements on Zanzibar, Mombasa and other parts of the coast. They are the
most likely to have displaced the present-day Ameru from Manda Island in the 1700s.
The dynasty lost power during a succession struggle that started in 1712 and
fell after a prolonged period of civil war. They were succeeded by the Busaid dynasty
(Arabic: آل بوسعيد, Arabic pronunciation: [aːl
buː sa.ʕiːd]),
also known as Al Said dynasty, which is the current ruling royal house of the
Oman.
The
most notable Busaidi sultan was Sayyid Saïd bin Sultan al-Busaidi (Arabic: سعيد بن سلطان, Sa‘id bin Sulṭān) who was
Sultan of Muscat and Oman, the fifth ruler of the Busaid dynasty from 1804 to 4
June 1856. He is often referred to as the Lion of Oman (أسد
عمان), as one of the greatest Omani sultans.
He is noted for having moved his capital to Zanzibar, during which time the
Omani Empire reached the zenith of its power and wealth. He was also arguably,
the most favorite Arab among the British.
In
1820, he launched a punitive expedition against the Bani Bu Ali tribe of Oman
with the assistance of the British East India Company. It was defeated, but the
following year a larger Company force returned and defeated the tribe.
The
British were interested in the Indian ocean due to protecting their trade route
to India. They were constantly in competition with the French who gave them the
biggest headache in ending slave trading in the Indian ocean due to their
capacity to wage war against them. They found a useful ally in the Omanis – themselves
slave traders and plantation owners - as a proxy against the French. As part of
this, they assisted the Omanis to occupy a strip of coastal land and some
islands in east Africa. Sayyid Saïd bin
Sultan al-Busaidi was completely beholden to the British. The Mazrui Arabs, who
held some territories in the coast of present-day Kenya, knowing of this
relationship, were wary of losing the territories and repeatedly pleaded to the
British for protection. Moreover, they offered their occupied territories to
the British to rule, and to the surprise of the British, went ahead to hoist a British
flag in Mombasa. The attempts however failed due to British anxiety in
upsetting their ally Sayyid Saïd bin Sultan al-Busaidi.
The
conquest of Mombasa preyed on Sayyid Saïd bin Sultan al-Busaidi’s mind to the
extent of intruding itself into state and personal relations. So, in the manner
of a 16th century European monarch, as a strategy to strengthen his
arms for conquest of Mombasa, he sent out his wishes for a romantic
relationship and marriage with the widowed Queen Ranavolana of Madagascar – who
was described by Capt. Henry hart as “a ruthless termagant with a well-trained
army and a considerable talent for administering poisons.” Said pleaded his
love and his need for reinforcements but Ranavolana demanded evidence for
devotion in the form of expensive gifts, with no guarantee that she would ever
return the equivalent in manpower. So, the suit collapsed, with the sultan
comforting himself a little ruefully with the thought that even if Malagasy
troops had materialized, the English would not have approved the union.
With
the founding of the Suez Company in 1858, the British buy-in, and the
subsequent completion of the canal in 1869, the relevance of sultans dwindled. The coastal strip that Oman had acquired was declared a British protectorate
on an agreement of compensation of £17,000 annually, which was reduced to £16,000
upon cession of a section at juba land to Italian Somaliland. The Omani
Sultanate of Zanzibar was finally ousted in the Zanzibar revolution of 1964 led
by Field Marshall John Okello, and the island was returned to Africans.
The
dialect of Unguja Island (Zanzibar), known as Kiunguja, was picked as the reference
for standardization of Kiswahili language in 1930 under the name “Standard
Swahili” (Kiswahili Sanifu) by the Interterritorial Language (Swahili)
Committee set up by the British colonial government.
Under
Arab governance, and in Arabic language, the land was called ‘Swahili’, under British
governance, and in English language, it was called ‘coast’, under African governance,
and in Kiswahili language, it is called ‘Pwani’.
References
1. Robert Brown (1895). The Story of Africa and Its
Explorers, Volume 4
2. Retrieved 17-May-23 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coast
3. [1]. Laughton, William Henry. Six interviews,
May 1969, Hull, England. Educational missionary, Methodist Mission Society
(later, United Methodist Mission), 1931–1957. Carried out anthropological
research in North Imenti, Tigania, 1930s. Topics: identification of potential
informants, anthropological and historical orientation.
4. Fadiman, Jeffrey (1993). When We Began There Were
Witchmen: An Oral History from Mount Kenya. University of California Press
5. Graham, Gerald S. (1967). Great Britain in The Indian
Ocean: A Study of maritime enterprise 1810-1850
Comments
Post a Comment