Swahili Culture Reconsidered:

Abstract

Summary J. de V. Allen was until recently curator of the Lamu Museum. In this article he presents a new view of Lamu society. There was a major economic and cultural renaissance in the northern Swahili world between c. 1700 and 1885 coinciding with Pate's political supremacy and declining when Oman asserted itself in the region and Indian and Western commerce began to intrude. Evidence for this renaissance can be found not only in the abundant architectural remains but in the opulence of the material culture generally. It must have been financed from three sources: from products found in or near the coast towns; from natural products brought from the interior; and from large-scale agriculture and trade in livestock when political conditions on the mainland permitted. An examination of the material remains and of the eighteenth and nineteenth century economy reveals that Swahili society was at this time far more homogeneous and Swahili culture far less dependent upon Arabia and India than has generally been assumed. So much so that it is hard to believe the same was not true of earlier periods also, since this latest great flowering of the culture is unlikely to have occurred in conditions totally antithetical to those of any previous Golden Age.