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THE SWAHILI ARCHITECTURE OF , : ORAL TRADITION AND SPACE

Kalandar Kamalkhan

School of Architecture McGill University January 2009

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

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•+• Canada DEDICATION

To the three beautiful women who I have loved most. • To my daughter, Nazneen, who passed away before I started writing this Dissertation. • To my mother, Nuratun, who passed away during the writing of this Dissertation. • To my wife, Khadija, who lived to see the completion of this Dissertation.

Dedication ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many institutions and individuals have been instrumental in helping me complete this Dissertation successfully. I would like to thank the following:

• My supervisor, Prof. Robert Mellin for his invaluable input.

• Prof. Ricardo Castro of my Ph.D. Committee for his words of wisdom.

• Prof. John Galaty of my Ph.D. Committee for his anthropological advice.

• Prof. Derek Nurse of Memorial University for his invaluable input and advice on and identity.

• Dr.Jennifer Carter for painstakingly editing this Dissertation.

• Prof. Alberto Perez Gomez for opening my eyes to new methodologies to study architecture

• Prof. Martin Bressani for making me a better writer for scholarly work.

• Mrs. Luciana Mukosia Adoyo for her assistance.

• Mr. Daniel Faucher and Ms. Anna Drblik for their support.

• The Ford Foundation International Fellowship Programme for sponsoring my study for a period of three years.

• McGill University for offering me educational facilities to complete my studies

• The National Museums of Kenya for providing me a Study Leave to undertake my studies.

• All my friends and colleagues whose names, if I were to mention here, would be inexhaustible.

To all of you I say, Asante Sana, Shukran Jazeellan, Merci Beaucoup, Vielen Dank, Bahut Shukriya, which, when translated, mean THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!

A cknowledgements TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2 LIST OF FIGURES 5 ABSTRACT 8 RESUME 9 CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 10 Research Objectives 10 Methodology: Oral tradition and Architecture 12 Fieldwork: Un-structured Interviews and Participant Observation 20 Oral Traditions and Vernacular Architecture 24 Ritual, symbolism, hermeneutics and architecture 31 Studies on Swahili architecture 34 CHAPTER TWO - THE WASWAHILI: LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY 39 Travellers' narratives and historical accounts of the 'Ancient' 46 Chronicles of the Waswahili 53 The Lamu Chronicle 56 CHAPTER THREE - THE SWAHILI TOWN OF LAMU 61 The Lamu archipelago 61 Introducing Lamu 63 Founding rituals 68 Orientation 71 City walls 72 Social divisions 77 The architecture of the 'Mitaa' 83 Public rituals: Zinguo and Maulidi 88 Zinguo 88 Maulidi 93 Other new rituals '.. 101 3 Table of Contents CHAPTER FOUR-COMMUNAL AREAS 103 The 104 Colour symbolism 109 Purification 110 The Baraza 113 TheMadrasa 114 Cemeteries 116 CHAPTER FIVE- THE SWAHILI HOUSE 122 The Swahili stone house 123 Entering the Swahili house 128 Inside the Swahili house 138 Furniture 150 The Swahili concept of space in oral tradition 155 Decorative plasterwork and ornamentation 164 Swahili private rituals and their meaning in architecture 171 Kuzaliwa or the birth rite of passage 172 Kutahiri or the circumcision rite of passage 173 Harusi of the wedding rite of passage 173 Matangaorthe funeral rite of passage 175 Mud-and-thatch houses 178 Seafront Verandah Houses 180 Usita wa Mui buildings 182 CHAPTER SIX- CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES AND RITUALS 184 The 'Fundi' or mason 187 The construction process 192 CONCLUSIONS 207 APPENDICES 217 BIBLIOGRAPHY 226

Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. The Waswahili: Arabised Africans? 39 Figure 2. The Waswahili: Africanised Arabs? 40 Figure 3. Portuguese map 52 Figure 4. Eastern coast of Africa 52 Figure 5. Lamu town map 54 Figure 6. Walled town of Parte 55 Figure 7. town map 55 Figure 8. Ruined town of Takwa on Manda Island across , showing the town wall 56 Figure 9. Aerial sketch of Lamu town 65 Figure 10. Lamu seafront showing verandah houses 66 Figure 11. Remains of Parte town wall 73 Figure 12. Daka (entry porch) and Kitoto (winding alley) 80 Figure 13. Kitoto (winding alley) and Wikio (bridge room) 81 Figure 14. New Mtaa of Kashmiri 82 Figure 15. Mud and thatch houses of Kashmiri 82 Figure 16. Celebrating the Arabic New Year 92 Figure 17. Use of camels to symbolise Islam 92 Figure 18. Maulidi Ziyara or procession 95 Figure 19. Maulidi Ziyara or procession at the cemetery 95 Figure 20. Sacred open ground outside Riyadha mosque 100 Figure 21. Riyadha mosque of the Masharifu 106 Figure 22. Trefoliated mosque 107 Figure 23. A Swahili child dressed for the , Chuoni or Koranic school 116 Figure 24. Domed tomb 121 Figure 25. Ziyara ya Langoni or Langoni cemetery on the north 121 Figure 26. Plans of Lamu Swahili house 124 Figure 27. Lamu Swahili house plan 125 Figure 28. Swahili external door 129

5 List of Figures Figure 29. Carved Swahili doors 130 Figure 30. Two-person Shiraa or woman tent used for privacy 135 Figure 31. One-person Shiraa 136 Figure 32. Space Used by Women When Opening the Exterior Door 137 Figure 33. Behind the Tekani 137 Figure 34. Typical Lamu Swahili house plan and section 139 Figure 35. Interior courtyard of the Swahili house 140 Figure 36. Swahili house ceiling decoration 141 Figure 37. Miliya or galleries inside the Swahili house 142 Figure 38. Msana wa tini with its bare furniture 142 Figure 39. 'Master Bedroom' 143 Figure 40. Entry to the Nyumba ya Kati 144 Figure 41. Kikoi and Leso - Male and Female night-gowns 144 Figure 42. Interior of the Choo or wash-room 146 Figure 43. Birika la Choo or water-reservoir inside the wash-room 146 Figure 44. Entry from Nyumba ya Kati to the Choo or wash-room 147 Figure 45. 'Peephole' entry from nyumba ya kati to the internal choo or toilet 147 Figure 46. Entry to the Meko or upper kitchen..... 148 Figure 47. Inside a Swahili Meko or kitchen 149 Figure 48. Kiti cha Enzi 151 Figure 49. Swahili traditional furniture 151 Figure 50. Lion-clawed bedstand know as Matendeu 152 Figure 51. Kasha or wooden chest for storing valuables 153 Figure 52. New 'Western' furniture and synthetic flowers 159 Figure 53. Swahili Zidaka 166 Figure 54. Zidaka or walled decoration with artefacts displayed 167 Figure 55. Trefoliated Zidaka 167 Figure 56. Kasaor Turtle' wall decoration - trefoliated 170 Figure 57. Bwana Harusi or the Bride-groom (Human-scale model) sitting on the Kiti cha Mpingo 174 Figure 58, Palm thatched houses 'mistakenly' called Swahili houses 180 6 List of Figures Figure 59. Verandah building 181 Figure 60. Typical plans and sections of Seafront Verandah houses 182 Figure 61. House and Shop buildings on Usita wa Mui (the town street) 183 Figure 62. Swahili house wall under repair 198 Figure 63. Swahili arch under repair 199 Figure 64. Swahili traditional building style 199 Figure 65. Mafundi (masons) repairing Zidaka (wall decorations) 199 Figure 66. Zidaka wall decoration being repaired by Mafundi (masons) 202 Figure 67. Zidaka or niche being repaired by a Fundi (mason) 202

List of Figures o ABSTRACT

This dissertation is about the architecture of the Swahili peoples living along the eastern coast of Africa. Specifically, it explores the links and relationships between oral traditions, rituals and the built environment of the Waswahili (sing. Mswahili) or the 'people of the coast'. The 'ambiguous' and 'anomalous' identity of the Waswahili raises important questions on the definition and the understanding of Swahili architecture. To understand Swahili architecture, one must, first, understand the language and identity of the Waswahili. This dissertation makes use of new sources for the interpretation of the built environment of the Waswahili as depicted in the standing 18th century buildings in Lamu town, the oldest living town on the eastern coast of Kenya. Designated on UNESCO's World Heritage List, Lamu has a unique architecture that has often been misinterpreted and misunderstood, and such studies often lack authenticity. This dissertation is an attempt to bridge the gap between the identity and the built environment of the Waswahili and to portray Swahili architecture through oral discourse.

u

Abstract/Resume o RESUME

Cette dissertation a pour sujet l'architecture du peuple Swahili vivant le long de la cote est de l'Afrique, plus specifiquement, les liens et les relations entre les traditions orales, les rituels et l'environnement construit par les Waswahili (sing. Mswahili), ou « les gens de la cote ». L'identite « ambigue et anormale » des Waswahili amene d'importantes questions sur la definition et la compehension de l'architecture Swahili. Pour mieux comprendre l'architecture Swahili, on doit tout d'abord comprendre la langue et l'identite des Waswahili. Cette dissertation utilise de nouvelles souces ^interpretation de l'environnement construit des Waswahili, tel que represente dans les immeubles du 18eme siecle dans la vile de Lamu, la plus vieille ville de la cote est du Kenya toujours existante. Inscrite sur la liste du patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO, Lamu possede une architecture unique qui fut souvent mal interpretee et mal comprise, et de telles etudes manquent d'authenticite. Cette dissertation a done pour but de faire le pont entre l'identite et l'environnement construit des Waswahili, et de dresser le portrait de 1'architecture Swahili par le discours orale.

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Abstract/Resume CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION

Research Objectives

Lamu, the oldest living town on eastern coast of Kenya, has been used as a case study to understand the origin and identity of the Waswahili. Reference has been made to other Swahili towns such as Mombasa, , Patte and other former Swahili city-states such as Kilwa, Siyu and Gede. Commonalities between these Swahili towns are more pronounced than their differences.

I do not profess to, methodologically, begin new research of the Waswahili and their built environment, but I strive to take a 'fresh look' as the late former Curator of Lamu Museum, James de Vere Allen (1981) said:

My purpose is merely to demonstrate that the archaeologists have not by any means always confirmed the picture furnished by the documents, usually rather the reverse; and that they have also uncovered a number of new problems. If therefore we now call in new sources to help us reinterpret the area's past, we are not attempting to overturn a version which can already be considered incontrovertible - there are, on the contrary, excellent grounds for taking a fresh look.1

My effort in providing a 'fresh look' at Swahili architecture stems from my personal work experience and cultural background. To my knowledge, this study is the first to be undertaken by a Mswahili, as I was not only born and bred in a Swahili society, but I also worked for several years in Lamu. Beginning with my undergraduate studies and continuing through my research at the Master's level, I have attempted to understand concepts underlying the interesting history and architecture of the Waswahili. The questions posed in my study have been overlooked by much of the architectural discourse. Like many professionals, I was perhaps too deeply involved in understanding

1 J. de Vere Allen, " and the Nature of East Coast Settlement," The International Journal of African Historical Studies 14, no. 2 (1981): 309.

10 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity the technical concepts of architecture, such as structure, room sizes, services, cost, etc. In my involvement in these aspects, I failed to recognise that there was something missing in my architectural education and training.

There are as many ways to understanding the culture of a group of people as there are to understanding their architecture. While the concept of architecture as an end-product of available materials, local technology and the physical setting may have some validity, this way of understanding tells only part of the story. Architecture is the process of building and is determined by the culture of the people and their way of living. To understand the culture and the Lebenswelt of the people is to understand their architecture and vice versa.

The objective of this study is to understand the intrinsic meaning of architecture beyond the preoccupations of building science. Working for over a decade in Swahili towns, I took architectural issues in Lamu and Mombasa for granted as explicated by 'Western' researchers without going into a deeper understanding of architecture as understood by the Waswahili inhabitants themselves in a real life-world. My displacement from my workplace in Africa as well as the perspective of the courses in the History and Theory of Architecture Programme that I engaged in at McGill University have provided me with the opportunity to reconsider the assumptions that I had made and to reflect deeper on my understanding of architecture as lived by the Waswahili. themselves. Encountering hermeneutics and phenomenology in the Graduate Programme in the History and Theory of Architecture at McGill University changed my perception of science, rationalism and functionalism. This softened my emphasis on quantitative rationalist justification, which explains why studies such as the one undertaken by Glassie (1995) motivate me to analyse and understand architecture using sources that are not easily quantifiable and then to extract meaning from such sources.2 I have attempted to look at new possibilities and I have tried to understand architecture through the eyes and lives of those who experience it.

2 Henry Glassie, Passing the Time in Ballymenone: Culture and History of an Ulster Community (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995). 11 Chapter 2 — The Waswahili: Language and Identity My motivation for this study dates back over three decades to my early days as a student. Ever since my school-days, I have always studied subjects that were scientific in nature. I believed that science was an answer to the questions I had always had. To me, science explained the cause and effect of any issue and questions that I had in my mind. Nothing except my belief in God could convince me or answer my questions if the explanation was un-scientific. Even my desire to shape my career as an architect was driven by my belief that architecture, as a discipline, belonged to the sciences rather than the humanities.

Methodology: Oral tradition and Architecture

In the book, "Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology", Vanina notes the special nature of oral tradition as historical sources. Mentioning oral tradition as both, a process and a product, Vansina (1985) cites the different genres for generating messages. These genres include news (eyewitness, hearsay, visions dreams, and hallucinations), the interpretation of experience (reminiscence, commentaries, verbal art) and oral history.3 Vansina continues to note the use of oral tradition as historical evidence; evidence he interprets through genres and symbols. Vansina's writings marked the point of departure of my research. Having been convinced that oral tradition can be used to generate messages and become an authentic source of history, I set out on my mission. Naturally, as a student trained in architecture, my problem was how I would go about investigating the relationship between oral tradition and architecture in order to understand architecture as a response to human action than an end product of science and technology.

Having worked for many years for the National Museums of Kenya - a research and scientific institution - I had always relied on history that was explained scientifically by archaeologists, who used different techniques like excavations and carbon-dating to interpret their findings and to explain their theories and hypotheses. Reading more and

3 Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition as History (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 3.

12 Chapter 2 — The Waswahili: Language and Identity more on the subject of oral tradition further raised my conviction that there were other ways than science to explain and to understand a group of people, their culture and their architecture.4

There are many different ways of studying and understanding buildings and the architecture and townplanning of a group of people. Buildings can be studied chronologically to trace change over a certain period of time. Buildings can also be studied using the construction method and the thoughts of the designer.

Material culture may provide the only tangible source of data endemic in the interpretation and the understanding of the culture of a group of people. Methodologies in the interpretation process of material culture may have made progress, but this development process has reached a stagnant point. New methodologies are required to interpret material culture. Presently, institutions like UNESCO have, in their employ, experts who are trying to explore methodologies to assess and evaluate the 'intangible' aspects of the heritage of a people or, in other words, the non-material culture.5 Such

Some of the books I have read on oral tradition and history include the following:

• James Hoopes, Oral History: An Introduction for Students (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979). • Vansina, Oral Tradition as History. • Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology ( London: Routledge and Paul, 1965). • Paul R. Thompson, The Voice of the Past: Oral History (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). • David P Henige, Oral Historiography (London; New York: Longman, 1982). • Ruth H Finnegan, Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts: A Guide to Research Practices (London, UK; New York: Routledge, 1992).

All these books emphasized the importance of oral traditions as important historical sources.

5 UNESCO's CONVENTION FOR THE SAFEGUARDING OF THE INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE identifies the "intangible cultural heritage" as the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills - as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith - that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. 2. The "intangible cultural heritage", as defined in paragraph 1 above, is manifested inter alia in the following domains:

13 Chapter 2 — The Waswahili: Language and Identity 'intangible' aspects of the culture of a group of people include, among others, songs, dances, poetry, aphorisms and proverbs. UNESCO has been able to develop management plans for the preservation of artifacts, buildings and towns, which all belong to material culture studies, yet this institution has yet to develop a methodology, leave alone a management plan, to help preserve the non-material aspects of culture. My study, I believe, is a major shift from the traditional study of material culture and is brought about by the need to have a 'fresh look' at the way we have looked at life and culture. The need. for taking a 'fresh look' is emphasized by Nezar Al-Sayyad (2006) who notes that "epistemologically, or with regard to our ways of knowing and classifying, the meaning of the vernacular also has to change."6

As Rapoport (1969) notes, there is a link between behaviour and form in two senses; "first, in the sense that an understanding of behaviour patterns, including desires, motivations and feelings, is essential to the understanding of built form, since built form is the physical embodiment of these patterns; and second, in the sense that forms, once built, affect behaviour and the way of life."7 When studying the culture and architecture of a group of people, the relationship between behaviour and the resultant built form cannot be overlooked. The behaviour of a group of people may be studied in several ways: by technical analysis, psycho-analysis and linguistics, among many others.8

(a) oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage; (b) performing arts; (c) social practices, rituals and festive events; (d) knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe; (e) traditional craftsmanship. 6 Lindsay Asquith and Marcel Vellinga, eds., Vernacular Architecture in the Twenty-First Century: Theory, Education and Practice (London; New York: Taylor and Francis, 2006), foreword. 7 Amos Rapoport, House Form and Culture (Eaglewoods Cliff, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1969), 16. 8 There is a need to consider many factors , other than the physical determinist view, when studying the architecture of a group of people. The physical determinist view looks at buildings as a product of the site constraints, the available building materials and the local building skills. However, a building is not just a product of these three factors, but a result of a multitude other factors.

14 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity My own desire to understand architecture stems from the rich oral tradition of the Waswahili. Being an oral rather than a written language, Kiswahili has a rich vocabulary of words borrowed from Arabic, Indian and Persian languages, amongst others. As a Mswahili myself, my greatest dilemna was in producing a printed dissertation. Having grown up in an 'oral' society, I should have probably not written down this dissertation at all. Ideally, I should just have made an oral presentation of my research; something that would be hard to be accepted in an institution like McGill University.

The use of oral tradition does not require 'hard data' or statistical justification to understand the culture of a people. What is needed is what Armstrong (1971) called humanistic anthropology "to make meaningful constructions that extend our knowledge of the range of the possibilities of living human life. It is, in a sense, creative or imaginative anthropology that the humanistic anthropologist practices."9 Armstrong (1971) also wrote about what he termed 'affecting presence' which brings feelings or which affect a work. To put it in his own words:

I shall speak of affecting things and events, which are those cultural objects and happenings resulting from human actions directed toward producing them rather than anything else, which is to say they are not accidental. These objects and happenings in any given culture are accepted by those native to that culture as being purposefully concerned with potency, emotions, values, and states of being or experience - all, in a clear sense powers.10

Armstrong (1971) relates beauty to powers and continues further to note that in the case of Yoruba sculptures, the goal of the artist is to present rather than represent the works:

Presentation, not representation, is the goal of the artist; even though representation is sometimes achieved, this is another and quite different function of the work - no necessarily and affecting function, irrespective of the fact that emotional

Robert Plant Armstrong, Wellspring: On the Myth and Source of Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), 4. 10 , The Affecting Presence; an Essay in Humanistic Anthropology (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971), 3-4.

15 Chapter 2 — The Waswahili: Language and Identity attachment may exist between the model for and the perception of the work.11

The humanistic anthropologist who looks for the 'soft evidence' may have no anthropological or scientific models to interpret the findings. Rationalist studies are quantitative and may be used to obtain extrinsic meaning by using structural analysis to come to a conclusion. The meaning of such a study originates from the outside. On the other hand, humanistic anthropology with its 'soft evidence' that is qualitative in nature may be used to obtain the intrinsic meaning which comes from the inside. Armstrong (1971) looks and compares the two types of studies and notes:

The social scientific study of the affecting presence is rationalistic and quantitative; it is 'functionalistic, and essentially extrinsic to the work itself. The human study is qualitative, evaluative, concerned with the interiors dynamics of the work; but while it so confines its attentions to the work and values and feelings, it is not exclusively or necessarily intrinsic. By quantitative I mean a concern with measurement and with the structural analysis of context; extrinsic refers to the direction in which this interest in quantification is taken, in this instance from the work outside to the context. By qualitative I intend to denote a concern with the thing itself, in its own terms, and whether the thing is good or bad, effective or pointless; and the intrinsic is the field of qualitative concern. Functional pertains to the fit of the work in its context, while relational refers to the inner-relatedness of the parts of the work. The view of the affecting presence here developed entails intrinsic study, for the work is regarded as self-contained, self sufficient, a presence in and of itself.12

We tend to forget that, though science does explain most of our actions, there are certain things that just cannot be explicated by the sciences. Science has so far not been able to come up with reasonable explanations for certain phenomena in life. Perez-Gomez13 (1983) explains the inability of science to explain certain things in life in the following words: "The atomic theory of the universe may be true, but it hardly explains real issues of human behaviour." It is this inability of science and the need to look elsewhere for

11 Ibid., 5. 12 Ibid., 35-36. 13 Alberto Perez-Gomez. Architecture and the crisis of modern science. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1983), p. 6.

16 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity alternative methods to explain our 'life-world' that have been the driving impetus for this study.

De Rivera and Sarbin (1988) note:

When we study other cultures of 'fringe' groups in contemporary society, or even our own history, we find beliefs that seem implausible to us. The Aztec's offering of thousands of human hearts to feed the sun, the burning of witches during the middle ages, the hundreds of recent reports of abductions by extraterrestrial aliens are but a few examples of behaviour that is based on beliefs that seem strange to us and to demand some sort of psychological explanation. The ability to imagine is a fact of life.14

There is, thus, a need for more creativity and imagination in the interpretation of a people's culture. The subject of creativity and imagination goes back to the times of Aristotle, who noted that the word 'imagination' meant how something appears, whether an object is present, absent or thought about. He notes:

Thinking, too, which may be right or wrong (right thinking is prudence or science or true opinion, but wrong thinking is the contrary of each of these) is not the same as sensing; for sensation of the proper sensible is always true, and it exists in all animals, but thinking may also be false, and it belongs to no animal which has no power of reasoning. Imagination, too, differs from sensation and from thought; but without sensation there can be no imagination, and without imagination there can be no belief.15 (De Anima 427b)

Shelley (1821) analogised imagination to reason by noting that "reason is the enumeration of quantities already known; imagination is the perception of the value of those quantities, both separately and as a whole. Reason respects the differences, and

14 Joseph de Rivera and Theodore R. Sarbin, eds., Believed-in Imaginings: The Narrative Construction of Reality (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1998), 3. 15 Aristotle, Aristotle's on the Soul (De Anima) trans. Hippocrates G. Apostle (Grinnell, Iowa: Peripatetic Press, 1981), 47.

17 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity imagination the similitudes of things. Reason is to imagination as the instrument to the agent, as the body to the spirit, as the shadow to the substance."16 Shelley's analogy was in response to counter critics of poets and their poetry terming them as liars. Italian literary critics of the 19th century had termed poets' imagination as reflected in their poetry were pure lies.

Comparing historians with poets, Aristotle in Poetics notes:

It is also apparent from what has been said that this too is not the task of the poet, i.e.., to speak of what has come to be, but rather to speak of what sort of things would come to be, i.e., of what is possible according to the likely or the necessary. For the historian and the poet do not differ in speaking either in meters or without meters (since it would be possible for the writings of Herodotus be put in meters, and they would no less be a history with meter than without meters). But they differ in this: the one speaks of what has come to be while the other speaks of what sort would come to be. Therefore poiesis is more is more philosophic and of more stature than history. For poetry speaks rather of the general things while history speaks of the particular things. The general, that it falls to a certain sort of man to say or do certain sorts of thing according to the likely or the necessary, is what poetry aims at in attaching names.18 (On Poetics, Chapter 9, 1451b 1-10)

This shows that poetry, just like chronicles, rituals, proverbs, metaphors as genres of oral tradition, may not be entirely historically accurate, but neither can they be termed as false. This applies to imagination too.

16 Percy Bysshe Shelley, ed., Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments (London: Edward Moxan, 1852). 17 J. M. Cocking, Imagination: A Study in the History of Ideas, ed. Penelope Murray (London; New York Routledge, 1991), xi. 18 Aristotle, On Poetics, trans. Seth Benardete and Michael Davis (Indiana: St. Augustine's Press, 2002), 26-27.

18 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity Perhaps no one sums up better the use of imagination than Nigel Thomas, a contemporary philosopher, who defines imagination as "what makes our sensory experience meaningful, enabling us to interpret and make sense of it, whether from a conventional perspective or from a fresh, original, individual one. It is what makes perception more than the mere physical stimulation of sense organs. It also produces mental imagery, visual and otherwise, which is what makes it possible for us to think outside the confines of our present perceptual reality, to consider memories of the past and possibilities for the future, and to weigh alternatives against one another. Thus, imagination makes possible all our thinking about what is, what has been, and, perhaps most important, what might be."19

My study looks at what I would term non-scientific methods of investigation to understand the Waswahili, their culture and their architecture. The field of non-scientific and other qualitative methods is vast. In my research, I investigate historical accounts of travellers who first noted the existence of the East African coast. Other historical information used in my research are the Chronicles that passed from one generation to the next and which have been collected and documented by Western researchers and scholars. Historical poems, in particular, Al-Inkishafi, or the Awakening of the Soul has provided powerful imagery of the rise and fall of Patte town by describing its architecture. Contemporary poetry, proverbs and other sayings have also been used in my investigations. Informal and unstructured interviews with the elders, now residing in Lamu or other Swahili towns like Mombasa, Patte, and other coastal towns in Kenya have provided me with invaluable information. Perhaps the greatest asset in carrying out this study has been my own recollection of past narratives. Having grown up and worked in Swahili towns, I have encountered narratives about the Waswahili, their culture and their architecture. Perhaps, at that time, these narratives did not have much

Nigel Thomas is a contemporary philosopher, cognitive scientist, and historian of science and psychology. He teaches part-time as an adjunct professor, at California State University, Los Angeles, and, on-and-off, at other colleges in the Los Angeles area. The above "quote" was solicited from him by the editor of a prospective "lifestyle" magazine called AfterFive that was supposed to begin publication in late 2002 or early 2003. It was going to be included in a brief feature on Imagination that was planned for the first issue, but which was never published. The quote was obtained on www.imagery-imagination.com

19 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity meaning for me, in terms of understanding the Waswahili. My recollection of these narratives has provided me with a better insight towards understanding the Waswahili, their culture and their architecture.

Fieldwork: Un-structured Interviews and Participant Observation

My fieldwork involved interviewing several elders of Lamu town, concentrating especially on the older masons, religious leaders and other elders. These interviews were informal and unstructured in order to elicit new information. Among the Waswahili, formal or structured interviews do not work as the Waswahili are reluctant to fill in questionnaires that are normally used during structured interviewing. I personally interviewed all the subjects - some of them individually and some of them in small groups of three or four persons. The idea was to let the informants lead the conversation while I tried to probe them at certain intervals in order to extract information that I required from them. While I did take a few notes during these interviews, most of the information was recorded on a digital tape recorder. I tried to spend more time listening to the informants and posing questions at intervals; hence the voice recordings. Informants were not only from Lamu, but also from Parte and Mombasa. One of my main tactics was the use of mild provocation. When I talked to my informants or even when I talked to my friends, I provoked them, in a mild sense, into discussing controversial aspects. As an example, I would suggest to my informants and friends that Waswahili dealt in slavery and so they were mainly Arabs. The issue of slavery and the slave trade by the Waswahili is controversial and no Mswahili would accept that they kept slaves, even though there is a lot of truth in that the architecture of the Swahili houses revealed sleeping spaces for slaves. I found the method of provoking my informants and friends very useful as a heated debate and discussion would ensue. It was in this ensuing discussion that I would extract valuable information.

Another fieldwork method that I used was participant observation. An advantage I had in my fieldwork was my understanding of the Swahili language and its different dialects and

20 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity the fact that I worked in Lamu for over ten years (between 1988 and 1998) as a restoration architect. In the course of undertaking my duties, I came into contact with several resource persons, some of whom have long died. However, the content of those informal interviews has always remained with me. The biggest advantage was the fact that my wife hails from Lamu. The people of Lamu or Waamu, as they are called, do not trust outsiders with inside information.20 The Waamu have been the subject of past researchers who have written negatively about them. The Waamu, throughout history, as will be seen later, have always accommodated foreigners and outsiders. Being a maritime people, the Waamu have a popular song:

Tanga lenufungani kaekae Your sail, tie it very tight Baharini lisiwaewae So that your vessel does not go astray Hii ndo Amu atakao naae This is Amu (Lamu), anyone may come

However, not everyone who comes to Lamu is accepted into the Waamu society. A foreigner will always remain a foreigner and an outsider will always remain an outsider. This is mainly because of the distrust that the Waamu have on foreigners and outsiders. The fact that I married a woman from Lamu helped me to acquire inside information because once a person is married to an indigenous Muamu, he or she is totally and unequivocally accepted in the society. I undertook participant observation with the greatest of ease without encountering much suspicion. I easily integrated into Lamu society as I was considered a bona fide member of the society.

The fieldwork was done in two phases. The first phase was to gather early information in order to shape my understanding of the issues. The second phase was undertaken in the middle of my study. This was the hardest part of the study as it was during this stage that

Amu is the name used for Lamu Town and the people inhabiting Amu are called Waamu; the singular noun being Muamu. 21 Past researchers have tried to integrate into the Waamu society only to go back and write books and dissertations that the Waamu perceived as negative and derogatory to their culture and belief. Such writings include: • Minou Fuglesang, Veils and Videos: Female Youth Culture on the Kenyan Coast (Stockholm: Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, 1994). • Abdul Hamid Zein, The Sacred Meadows: A Structural Analysis of Religious Symbolism in an East African Town (Evanston, 111: Northwestern University Press, 1992). 21 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity Kenya had just conducted its General Elections and the populace revolted against the announced results. Kenya was on the brink of civil war. Even as a Kenyan, my travel was restricted due to violence that erupted after the elections.

Even with extensive experience, I still had to do fieldwork at various intervals for my research. I knew all of my interviewees personally, having either worked with them or collaborated with them during my working years in Lamu. This made my work much easier as I had garnered their trust and support. Undertaking my research as an insider had its advantages and, of course, shortcomings. This 'emic' study will be biased and personal.

Non-fieldwork methods included perusing chronicles written for several Swahili towns like Lamu, Parte, Mombasa and Kilwa. Poetry written from the 18th century was also part of my textual research. This formed part of my investigation of oral traditions and was complemented by my personal understanding and further readings of Swahili proverbs and aphorisms. These and other sources of oral traditions further aided my understanding of Swahili architecture.

In trying to understand Swahili oral tradition, I have attempted to discover the meaning and experience of space in Swahili architecture. My study has gone beyond "peoticising" space in Swahili houses and city-states by analysing rituals and symbols through phenomenological enquiry, with a focus on inducing intrinsic meaning. I have attempted to move away from the semiotic perception of symbols as values, numerical or otherwise.

Marvin Harris, Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture (New York: Random House, 1979), 32. Harris defines emic and etic operations of enquiry as: "Emic operations have as their hallmark the elevation of the native informant to the status of the ultimate judge of the adequacy of the observer's descriptions and analyses. The test of the adequacy of emic analyses is their ability to generate statements the native accepts as real, meaningful and appropriate. In carrying out research in the emic mode, the observer attempts to acquire a knowledge of the categories and rules one must know in order to think and act as a native Etic operations have as their hallmark the elevation of observers to the status of ultimate judges of the categories and concepts used in descriptions and analyses. The test of the adequacy of etic accounts is simply their ability to generate scientifically productive theories about the causes of socio- cultural differences and similarities. Rather than employ concepts that are necessarily real, meaningful and appropriate from the native point of view, the observer is free to use alien categories and rules derived from the data language of science. Frequently, etic operations involve the measurement and juxtaposition of activities and events that native informants find inappropriate and meaningless."

22 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity I have used oral tradition in reconstructing the history and architecture of the Waswahili in Lamu, complemented by fieldwork and un-structured interviews. Accordingly, my study attempts to connect Swahili rituals to architecture using oral tradition as a source and hermeneutics to understand and interpret oral tradition. Humanistic anthropology rather than social anthropology has been used to understand the value of human experience. Imagination has been the key word in filling the gap between the reading of oral tradition and its understanding.

This research ultimately attempts to answer the questions in the past that I overlooked owing to my blind adherence to science as the ultimate answer to questions that had lingered on my mind for many years. Hopefully, my 'fresh-look-attitude' will help me to understand better the hidden meaning of architecture as lived by the Waswahili. Having lived and worked in Swahili towns the whole of my life, I gathered many 'oral' narratives that did not make sense until now. Even though personal, these narratives have enriched my research and have furthered my understanding of the culture and architecture of the Waswahili. Mahgoub (1990) explains that "the meaning of architecture can only be understood when studied through the experiences of those who live it."23 An analogy of a study like this one as undertaken by an insider as contrasted to that of an outsider can be made to that of a map drawn by an insider or inhabitant of a town as contrasted to one drawn by a surveyor or an engineer. To reiterate this point, Martin Packer (1985) wrote:

The difference between a rationalist or empiricist explanation and a hermeneutic explanation is a little like the difference between a map of a city and an account of that city by someone who lives in it and walks its streets. The map is the product of detached description (though the description relies on kinds of direct practical involvement, guided by specialized tools and instruments - measuring rods, theodolites - whose role is covered up when the map is finally drawn). Different maps will emphasise different aspects of the city: its street layout, its transportation or its phone lines. However all these maps are abstract formalizations, capturing only those features of the place that would be unchanged if no one lived there. They are designed

23 Yasser Osman Moharam Mahgoub, "The Nubian Experience: A Study of the Social and Cultural Meanings of Architecture" (D. Arch. Diss., University of Michigan, 1990).

23 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity to serve a stranger to the city as much as - perhaps more than - a resident. The account one would give of living in a city on a daily basis, on the other hand, is likely to be personal, incomplete and prejudiced. Therein lies its usefulness to a newcomer who has come to stay or (to make the simile more accurate) to someone who already lives in the city, but now wishes to know it better and to live it more fully. The professional mapmaker must regard a city as merely a juxtaposition of physical objects. For its inhabitants, it is a system of possibilities and resources, frustrations and obstacles, and two people will find both commonalities and differences in their accounts of it.24

Notwithstanding how risky or biased and personal this study may be, as Clare Melhuis has stated, "perhaps one should accept that life itself is unclear and full of risks - and it is in this arena, not the rational, logical world of academic discourse that architecture takes place."25

The subject matter of my research is vernacular architecture under which, I argue, Swahili architecture falls. What is vernacular architecture? The word vernacular can be considered in etymological terms to mean a language indigenous to a place or of a group of people. Vernacular, therefore, is something unique or special to a place or to a group of people. Vernacular architecture, when analysed in etymological terms, would be architecture as practiced or as undertaken by indigenous people who occupy the buildings themselves. Vernacular architecture is architecture as practiced by indigenous peoples without, necessarily, the need for imported processes.

Oral Traditions and Vernacular Architecture

Before continuing further, let me trace the history and origin of vernacular architecture. The term 'vernacular architecture' first came into being in the 19th century and was used by architects, historians and archaeologists to refer to the traditional rural buildings of the

Martin J. Packer, "Hermeneutics Inquiry in the Study of Human Conduct," American Psychologist 40, no. 10 (October 1985): 1091-92. 25 Clare Melhuis, "Editorial: Why Anthropology?," in Architectural Design Profile: Architecture and Anthropology (New York: VCH Publishers, 2000), 7.

" 24 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity countryside; buildings that "were not affected by the intellectual and artistic currents of the Renaissance." Interest in vernacular architecture was possibly a result of three things:

1. The need to group buildings not covered by traditional architectural history.27 2. The concern for the destruction of unprotected historic buildings.28 3. The rapid colonization of the non-Western world and scientific exploration.29

Vernacular architecture, as seen in the Western perspective, referred to any building that was not covered within the confines of art history or architectural history. Buildings defined as vernacular did not fit within the bounds of art history or architectural history as these studies covered more the aspects of decorative arts and architecture. Dell Upton (1983) categorises vernacular architecture not by the typology of buildings, but as an approach to architectural studies and notes that "vernacular architecture has been, mainly by default, an interdisciplinary or, more correctly, a multidisciplinary enterprise...vernacular architecture has been examined from the perspectives of art and architectural history, social history, folklore, anthropology, historical and cultural geography, archaeology, architectural theory and sociology, to name only those disciplines that come immediately to mind. "30

In the 19th century, especially in Europe, the increased interest in historic monuments and their preservation resulted in the documentation of buildings. 'Technical analysis' studies, used as a way of documentation, led to different aspects of recording, typological classification, measured drawings and other different types of technical surveys. This

Dell Upton, "The Power of Things: Recent Studies in American Vernacular Architecture," American Quarterly 35, no. 3 (1983): 265. Upton cites Richard Guy Wilson's "The Early Work of Charles F. McKim; The Country House Commissions," Winterthur Portfolio, 14 (1979), 241n.20. 27 Ibid. 28 Sarah Pearson and Bob Meeson, eds., Vernacular Buildings in a Changing World: Understanding, Recording and Conservation (York: Council for British Archaeology, 2001), 4. 29 Asquith and Vellinga, eds., Vernacular Architecture in the Twenty-First Century: Theory, Education and Practice, 3. 30 Upton, "The Power of Things: Recent Studies in American Vernacular Architecture," 263-64.

25 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity concern for historic monuments led to the formation of different societies for the protection of historical buildings.

Lindsay Asquith and Marcel Villinga (2006) note that "interest in vernacular architecture in the sense of non-classical and non-western buildings can be traced back to the 18th century, while the first scholarly analyses of vernacular architecture as rural, non- monumental and pre-industrial traditions started to appear in the late 19l century."31 During the colonisation of the non-Western world by the Western colonialists, many travellers, missionaries and colonial officials wrote travel accounts of the non-Western world that they encountered. Buildings that they came across were different from the ones that they had seen back home. Many of these travellers' accounts were shaded by home-sickness and by feelings of nostalgia for their own home country.

Studies in vernacular architecture in Europe started with the inventories of historic buildings for the purpose of enacting legislation for the protection of these 'monuments'. There was concern that the progress of knowledge was leading to the decay of the built heritage. These studies led to the formation in Britain of the Vernacular Architecture Group in 1952 as "people wanted to know not just what buildings there were, but how style, construction and plan forms evolved...Buildings were analysed structurally, and relatively simple measured drawings, sections as well as plans, played a prominent part in survey."32 Regional surveys of vernacular buildings were adopted and measured surveys of individual buildings were not deemed necessary. Sarah Pearson and Bob Meeson (2001) note that "it was more important to cover the ground and gain an overview than to survey any individual building in more detail than was necessary."33 Archaeological excavation studies in the 1970s were a means of trying to discover new facts about buildings, even though these buildings were "restricted to those of national importance."34 Social historians in England tried to uncover "evidence for aspects of the

31 Asquith and Vellinga, eds., Vernacular Architecture in the Twenty-First Century: Theory, Education and Practice, 3. 32 Pearson and Meeson, eds., Vernacular Buildings in a Changing World: Understanding, Recording and Conservation, 5. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid., 7. 26 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity past that can be known imperfectly or not at all from other kinds of evidence... and asked what people had in the past."35 Vernacular architectural historians studied social structures through the sizes of the houses and the sizes of the rooms that they contained.

Studies in vernacular architecture in America have mainly relied on detailed investigations of material culture. These earliest studies involved the "collection of scientific data about the oldest houses in the original New England colonies, so that the vague descriptions of too many of our town histories may be supplemented by accurate measured drawings."36 Vernacular architectural historians "incorporated the systematic inspection of standing buildings along with supporting evidence such as historic photographs."37 Research on vernacular architecture along these lines also encompassed the use of literature. Cultural geographers linked vernacular architecture to human activity. This marked the "entry of American folklorists into vernacular architecture studies in an enduring way."38 Studies in this type of vernacular architecture linked the built form to the local culture and followed a line of thinking in linguistics. Falling into this category is Henry Glassie's Folk Housing in Middle Virginia (1975) which connected folk housing to cultural patterns through structural linguistics. "In effect, Glassie argued, every house is composed of distinct geometric components that are linked and integrated to generally accepted rules of architectural 'grammar'."39 Linguistics has been used by semioticians to understand the meaning of buildings through architectural symbolism. "Symbolism is a form of social interaction that has been of considerable interest to recent anthropologists and linguists, and much of the symbolically oriented study of architecture, vernacular or otherwise, draws upon those disciplines in its search for the meaning of buildings."40 This type of research on vernacular architecture has assumed that the built environment embodied the desires of the owners and users directly.

Upton, "The Power of Things: Recent Studies in American Vernacular Architecture," 268. 36 Ibid.: 265. 37 Ibid.: 270. 38 Ibid.: 271. 39 Thomas Carter and Bernard Herman, "Introduction; Towards a New Architectural History," Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture A (1991): 2. 40 Upton, "The Power of Things: Recent Studies in American Vernacular Architecture," 275.

27 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity Dell Upton (1983) states that the integration of oral literature to architecture as undertaken by Glassie (1995) in Passing the Time in Ballymenone: Culture and History of an Ulster Community may be the most promising for future development.41 This study was a phenomenological shift by Glasssie from the one done in Folk Housing in Middle Virginia i.e a shift from the use of structural linguistics to oral literature.

While material culture studies have provided good insight into understanding various aspects of vernacular architecture, it has not developed proportionately in terms of methodology or quality. Material culture as used by anthropologists employs the physical artifact as an object of study and uses fieldwork as a methodology. On the other hand, architects use the building as the source of data, while still employing fieldwork as a methodology to understand the architecture of the group of people being studied. Rapoport (1969) argues that peasant peoples or, in other words, non-Western group of peoples, regard most of their activities as ceremonial and "what distinguishes these people from each other is not their material life - which tends to vary very little - but their ceremonial, and this is inevitably reflected in their buildings."42

Studying the Yoruba tribe of , Robert Plant Armstrong (1971) engages in 'humanistic anthropology' rather than 'social anthropology'.43 Humanistic anthropology, according to Armstrong (1971) is the "study of the condition and the experience of being a human being" and is "dedicated to the understanding and the appreciation of a human being."44 On the other hand, traditional anthropology is "chiefly dedicated to the objectives of testing often small hypotheses of structure or process which are culture- (or even village-) specific."45 While the social anthropologist looks for hard data to test his or her hypotheses, the humanistic anthropologist is comfortable with the "soft evidence" of

41 Ibid.: 278. 42 Rapoport, House Form and Culture, 43. 43 While anthropology is the study of man, it has different areas of study. It is not my intention to discuss all these subsets of the field of anthropology. 'Social anthropology' is the study of man's behaviour and institutions and uses hypotheses to test culture-specific aspects of a group of people. However, 'humanistic anthropology', unlike 'social anthropology', is the understanding, the experience and the appreciation of being a human being. 44 Armstrong, Wellspring: On the Myth and Source of Culture, 2. 45 Ibid.

28 Chapter 2 — The Waswahili: Language and Identity human experience. Armstrong (1971) goes on further to categorise humanistic anthropology as an "art rather than a science" and dedicated to the illumination of human experience and not to "reverifiable knowledge."46 Most importantly, "the aim of humanistic anthropology, in a word, is the discovery of the lived cultural world, or the culturality of the lived world."47

He employs 'syndesis' rather that the traditional 'synthesis' to analyse Yoruba sculptures. Syndesis, as explicated by Armstrong, is the process of connecting with the past, using material culture and extracting information by the connection from the present to the past. Armstrong is concerned with qualities and values which constitute the existence of human activity.48 While material culture may be more powerful than words, and easier to 'syndesise', as Armstrong (1971) would describe, the results from these studies have tended to be purely descriptive and less and less analytical.49

Recent studies have tended to use oral history to obtain a clearer picture of the architecture of a group of people and to better understand the people inhabiting such architecture. The study on Ballymenone by Glassie (1995) uses oral literature from the small Ulster town community to interpret their architecture and the material culture. Glassie has shown the way for future studies integrating oral literature with architecture.50 One such study was undertaken by Charles Martins (1980) who used oral history and accounts of traditional life to reconstruct the architecture of a community in Hollybush, Kentucky.51 This method was complemented by an architectural analysis of the area. Martins notes that:

Architectural analysis in combination with oral history may hold more clues to the past than one without the other. Together they

46 Ibid., 7. 47 Ibid., 17. 48 , The Affecting Presence; an Essay in Humanistic Anthropology, xvii. 49 Ibid. 50 Glassie, Passing the Time in Ballymenone: Culture and History of an Ulster Community. 51 Charles E. Martin, "Hollybush: The Eclipse of the Traditional Building System in a Mountain Community: An Architectural and Oral Historical Study" (Ph.D. Diss., Indiana University, 1980).

29 Chapter 2 — The Waswahili: Language and Identity may give us more penetrating glimpses into cultural process than many of the 'accepted' social sciences. The folklorist seeks to incorporate the humanist's viewpoint with the exactitude of science. We are all looking to bridge time, if not to apply the information we find, than for the pure selfishness of simply wanting to know. Folk architecture and oral history may give a panoramic view of past peoples where other disciplines have us looking through a telescope locked in one position.52

Even though architecture reconstructed from oral history may suffer some distortions, the studies arising out of them are reliable to a great extent and are not just purely impressionistic. In another recent study, Jin Feng (1993), sought to discover the experience and meaning of Chinese architecture as conveyed in Shin-Ji - (The Book of Songs) - the earliest anthology of Chinese poetry, which is believed to have been edited by Confucius.53 Feng analysed selected ancient poems and strived to re-discover and re­ present the experience and meaning of architecture as the core tradition. Feng's study sought to "convey an understanding of these poems in three major contexts: the paleographical, literal and historical context" while probing the meaning to present the "intended and implied experiences of architectural space as place."54

Vansina (1965) noted the problem of apparent and intended meaning. Apparent meaning is obtained when a researcher with little or no knowledge of the language of the people studied or when a researcher deals with unfamiliar cultures. According to Vansina (1965) "some words are key words; they cannot be understood unless one is thoroughly acquainted with the society and culture from which they stem."56 On the other hand, intended meaning, as explicated by Vansina (1965) "simply refers to the quality of understanding the meaning of a message in the same way that others in the culture understand it, or as closely as possible to come to that ideal."57

52 Ibid., 24. 53 Jin Feng, "Beyond Form and Structure: A Study of the Paleographic and Poetic Reflections of the Meaning and Experience of Chinese Architecture" (Ph.D. Diss., University of Michigan, 1993). 54 Ibid. 55 Vansina, Oral Tradition as History, 83. 56 Ibid., 85. 57 Ibid., 91. 30 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity The researcher or inquirer can solve problem of apparent and intended meaning by having a good command of the language of the people being inquired. Vansina (1965) emphasizes that "a good knowledge of the language on works with allows one to easily move from apparent to intended meaning. In poetry this may be much more difficult and there is not always unanimity about the intended meaning, which is precisely what makes it poetry."58

To add an anecdote to explain the difference between apparent and intended meaning, let me narrate my own experience. During the course of understanding this research, I came across a movie known as 'Bon Cop, Bad Cop' which was partly filmed in Quebec. With my little knowledge of the French language, I tried to watch this movie in French with English translation. I was seated next to a woman who was always laughing and enjoying the movie, whereas I found the movie boring. Since I knew the woman, I asked her what was funny in the movie. She explained to me that even if she told me, there was no way I could understand the humour. Even after her explanation, true to her words, I could not find the humour and why she was laughing and enjoying the movie. Probably, I, even with the English subtitles of the movie and my little knowledge of the French language was only grasping the apparent meaning while she, because of her knowledge of the French language and Quebec culture, understood the intended meaning.

Ritual, symbolism, hermeneutics and architecture

At this juncture, I will define concepts of rituals, following which, I shall relate these studies specifically to the Waswahili. What do I mean by rituals and symbols? Rituals may be classified as private and public. Private rituals are those undertaken by individual households or within individual families. These may include what van Gennep (1960) terms as 'rites of passage'.59 Private rituals include, among others, activities such as circumcision, weddings and funerals or, better explained, as the transition from one stage

58 Ibid., 87. 59 Arnold van Gennep, Rites of Passage, trans. Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960).

31 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity in life to the next. Public rituals, on the other hand, are activities undertaken by a whole community and involve the participation of the members of such a community. Examples of such public rituals may include, but are not restricted to, activities such as New Year celebrations, town-cleansing, processions and celebrations of communal holidays.

Edith Turner (2000) talks of the nature of ritual: "What is the nature of ritual? It is work done at the behest of and under instruction from spirits, gods, or powers, and it is work that has efficacy in its performance. It is unlike utilitarian work whose usefulness is seen in its result, not in the doing of it. Yet ritual is also done to achieve something."60 Ritual is, thus performed to express or to communicate a message. However, the performance of a ritual is "not to say that it is a show, performed to impress people."61 Ritual is undertaken with more seriousness than a performance and is intended to portray an internal message.

Ronald Grimes (1982), while discussing and explaining on ways to map rituals, and relating rituals to architecture, mentions ritual space and asks several questions with regard to the connection between rituals and architecture: "Where does the ritual occur - indoors, outdoors, in a randomly chosen place, in a special place? If the place is constructed, what resources were expended to find or build it? Who designed it? What traditions or guidelines, both practical and symbolic, were followed in building it?"62

As the art of interpreting the written word, hermeneutical enquiry as can also be utilised to go beyond the written text (art, fables, story-telling, drama, poetry, among others). The study of hermeneutics involves not only linguistic expressions, but also non- linguistic aspects. Looking at art and noting that "hermeneutical experience should be led by the text", 63 Palmer (1969) believes that "aesthetics must be swallowed up in

Preface by Edith Turner in Ruth-Inge Heinze, ed., The Nature and Function of Rituals: Fire from Heaven (Westport, Conn.; London: Bergin and Garvey, 2000), vii. 61 Ibid. 62 Ronald L Grimes, Beginnings in Ritual Studies (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1982), 21. 63 Richard E. Palmer, Hermeneutics: Interpretation Theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger and Gadamer (Evanston, 111.: Northwestern University Press, 1969), 244.

32 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity hermeneutics.... to enable the truth of being to become manifest." The study of hermeneutics enables one to understand, interpret and assert one's critical reflection on a subject matter. Hermeneutics also considers action undertaken in the performance of ritual. Undertaking a critical reflection of the performance of rituals and other forms of oral tradition, rather than written texts only, hermeneutics as a methodology is useful for the understanding of an 'oral' society like the Waswahili.

In studying ritual space (as coined by Grimes) of the Waswahili, I will look closely at the nature of space, its special status, its history, its sacredness or profaneness, shape and size, orientation, symbolism and relationship with other spaces not otherwise considered to be ritual spaces.65 Private space will be explored in contra-distinction with public space. Grimes (1982) explains how one can map rituals by asking questions to understand how ritual space may be interpreted.

Touching on symbolism, Raymond Firth (1973)66 traces the scope and meaning of symbols from the classical times when "words related to symbol had a variety of meanings, arranged around a notion of matching entities; a sign or mark whereby one person gave another to understand something..." Firth goes on to investigate symbols and symbolic interpretation in Christianity and in Jewish Kabbalah and, later, turns to philosophers' views on symbols and symbolism. Without going deeper into this issue, and, even though tempted to use Firth's instrumentation of symbols as expression, communication, knowledge and control, I can safely define symbols as ways of expression and communication to the other.

The choice of my definition will become clearer further in my study of the Swahili, who also use symbols as talismans and protection against evil and the 'evil eye'. Rituals and symbols are used by communities to express themselves in a more lucid manner. Such expression, I believe, is manifested in the cultural and built environment. What makes my study unique for Lamu is the fact that it has been done by an 'insider' using non-

64 Ibid., 245. 65 Grimes, Beginnings in Ritual Studies. 66 Raymond William Firth, Symbols: Public and Private (London, UK: Allen and Unwin, 1973), 54.

33 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity rationalist and non-positivist methods for analysing the built environment of the Waswahili.

Studies on Swahili architecture

Today, our understanding of the Waswahili and their settlements can be attributed to two professions: archaeology and anthropology. Researchers have used social anthropology or structuralist methods to investigate different subjects pertaining to the Waswahili. Particular studies on Lamu have varied from analysing the religious community of Lamu (also known as Masharifuf1, researching women and modern media68, poetry69, history70 commerce71, to name just few. Other studies have included archaeological excavations undertaken along the northern coast of Kenya. Mark Horton and John Middleton (2000) note that:

"There has been much writing on the Swahili, by both, their own scholars and western-trained historians, anthropologists, linguists and archaeologists.72 Each discipline has looked at a particular type of evidence and has attempted to place it within a wider framework, but it is probably fair to state that a comprehensive 'history' of the Swahili is yet to be written; nor could such be easily undertaken within the modern economics of publishing, the rapid pace of research and post-modern perspectives."73

67 Zein, The Sacred Meadows: A Structural Analysis of Religious Symbolism in an East African Town. 68 Fuglesang, Veils and Videos: Female Youth Culture on the Kenyan Coast. 69 Ann Biersteker, Kujibizana: Questions of Language and Power in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Political Poetry (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996). Patricia W. Romero, Lamu: History, Society, and Family in an East African Port City (Princeton: M. Wiener, 1997). 71 Marguerite Ylvisaker, Lamu in the Nineteenth Century: Land, Trade, and Politics (Boston: African Studies Center, Boston University, 1979). 72 Mark Horton and John Middleton, The Swahili: The Social Landscape of a Mercantile Society (Oxford; Maiden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2000), 1. 73 Ibid. Postmodernism in the sense noted here refers to the period after Modernity and started taking place in the 1960s. Postmodernity refers to the present age and is used to designate a myriad of trends in arts, philosophy and architecture among others that deviated form Modernity. When referred to architecture, postmodernism is used to designate the use of an international style where aesthetics, style and form collide. 34 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity Very little research has been undertaken on the architecture of the Waswahili. The first extensive research on Swahili architecture can be attributed to Usam Ghaidan74 (1976), an Iraqi professor of architecture, who undertook a study of the conservation of Lamu town in the early and mid-1970s. A house-to-house survey was undertaken and detailed information was collected. A detailed inventory of a number of buildings was undertaken. Empirical analysis of this information led Ghaidan to deduce that the concept of Swahili architecture was culturally determined. Regarding the subject of architectural conservation, Ghaidan's study was later followed up by UNESCO-sponsored research on the conservation of Lamu town. This culminated in the report Planning Lamu written by Francesco Siravo (1986), an architect/townplanner. Siravo's report was a direct extraction of Ghaidan's fieldwork observations and documentation.75 The main difference was that Siravo's study contained a legal framework and set of laws for the implementation of the architectural conservation of the historic Lamu town, which remains the oldest living town in Kenya.

Prior to these two reports, was a study by the then-Curator of Lamu Museum, James de Vere Allen which resulted in the small booklet (1979), The Swahili House: Cultural and Ritual Concepts Underlying its Plan and Structure. 76 Allen recognized the need to re- interpret Swahili house plans in sites dating from centuries earlier than the 19 century. Allen studied the ritual use of space in Swahili houses pertaining to wedding and funerals and their influence on the design of the Swahili house. In concluding his study, Allen carried out a horizontal analysis of different Swahili sites along the eastern coast of Africa and he re-interpreted different spaces within the 'Swahili house'.

A more detailed study was undertaken by an archaeologist/psychiatrist, Linda Donley- Reid (1988), in which she used ethnoarchaeology, specifically the use of analogy, to study Swahili material culture and Swahili houses, rather than examining whole Swahili

74 Usam Ghaidan, Lamu: A Study in Conservation (Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1976). Also, , Lamu: A Study of the Swahili Town (Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1975). 75 Francesco Siravo and Ann Pulver, Planning Lamu: Conservation of an East African Seaport (Nairobi: National Museums of Kenya, 1986). 76 J. de Vere Allen, "The Swahili House: Cultural and Ritual Concepts Underlying Its Plan and Structure," Art and Archaeology Research Papers (Dec, 1979). 35 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity settlements. In the second half of her Dissertation, Donley-Reid studied the influence on Swahili towns by Indian Ocean traders, especially from northwestern India. As a female researcher, Donley-Reid found it easier than her male predecessors to collect ethnographic information within the Swahili houses and Indian houses, by interviewing the female household members.

The studies I am describing were undertaken either by "outsiders" or "non-architects" and, while well-intentioned, lack certain 'inside' information. Possibly, the first 'imaginative' attempt to link Swahili architecture to its literature (oral and written) was undertaken by S. Yahya (1995), a local land economist, in a paper entitled "Architectural Imagery and Symbolism in Swahili Literature." 78 In his paper, Yahya highlighted "the strong linkage between literature and architecture in Swahililand."79 He wrote about "buildings and poetry, about houses, abodes and habitats as in their assorted metaphorical senses as projected in prose, proverbs, poetry and other manifestations of Swahili fantasy."80 However, Yahya examined only a few selected aspects, noting that "the literature is rich in images and renderings which are beautiful in their own right, but also symbolises future states, alternative situations and other worldly situations."81 Further, Yahya writes "Buildings, enclosed spaces, open spaces, structures, streets and city scenes appear often in Swahili poetry, prose, riddles, proverbs and other forms of oral literature. This is because Swahili culture is largely an urban civilization."82

This elegantly written paper by Yahya establishes my point of departure. In his own words, Yahya notes that "the significance of all this for the architectural scholar and commentator is its potential for enlarging the designer's tool-box, deepening our

Linda Donley-Reid, "The Social Uses of Swahili Space and Objects" (Ph.D. Diss., University of Cambridge, 1988). 78 Yahya used hermeneutical phenomenology to link Swahili literature and poetry to Swahili house architecture and Swahili townplanning. Unlike the Western archaeologists, Yahya's paper was not based on positivist or scientific excavations in-situ, but was rather based on the employment of hermeneutics of Swahili writings to derive meaning to Swahili architecture. 79 Saad Yahya, "Architectural Imagery and Symbolism in Swahili Literature," in All-Africa Seminar on African Architecture and Planning in the 21st Century (Nairobi: 1995). 80 Ibid. 81 Ibid. 82 Ibid.

36 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity appreciation of 's architectural heritage, and enhancing our capacity to merely enjoy and derive pleasure from the many beautiful cities and villages which comprise Swahililand."83

Unlike Western cultures, the Swahili peoples have no treatises, leave alone architectural ones from which to read and understand architecture, as the Swahili culture was, and still. remains, a verbal culture, rather than a written one. Since Swahili architecture is a product of the group, my own study looks at rituals and other forms of information termed as oral tradition and attempts to make connections to Swahili settlements and architecture. I will briefly describe some important rituals that have some implications on the Swahili built environment. These rituals will be understood through different earlier researchers and my own conclusions will be made as to their connection with Swahili towns, with Lamu as a case study. Swahili public rituals are communally held and induce meaning to Swahili towns as shall be seen in Chapter Three. The study and interpretation of these rituals will be complemented by the understanding and interpretation of Swahili oral tradition and strongly bound together by unstructured interviews that I undertook in the course of this research. I hope my research will provide fresh insights without necessarily totally discarding what has been written by Western archaeologists and other recent contemporary researchers. My study complements previous research and goes beyond functionalistic explanations that have been presented previously, so as to attempt to discover the intrinsic meaning of Swahili architecture using non-positivist sources and explanations.

Even with communal commonness in architecture, minor differences between individual houses do exist. These differences may be the product of the site constraints, the number of household, the financial capacity of the house-owners and, most importantly, the meaning attached to the individual houses by the owners themselves. Private Swahili rituals which are carried out within the house help us understand the inner qualities of the Swahili house and the relationship between behaviour and the built form. These shall be discussed in Chapter Five.

37 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity I would do this study a great injustice if I did not mention a major limitation that, had I undertaken to overcome, could have further improved my understanding of Swahili architecture. I did not interview many women, especially the older genre. In Lamu, as is the case in other Swahili towns, the aspect of a man interviewing a woman is seen as a cultural taboo. I could have used women interviewers to obtain more information from the elderly women, but my desire to be in control of received information and to receive first-hand information rather than relayed information could not allow me go ahead and undertake this process. It was even suggested to me to use my wife as an interviewer to obtain information form women informants. Nevertheless, I did undertake a few unstructured interviews with a few women, mainly those whom I could approach and talk to without being seen as intruding into Swahili cultural taboos. Women scholars have, in the past, undertaken several studies of the Waswahili or, specifically, the Waamu. I believe their studies also suffer a major limitation in that they could not approach the Waswahili men to interview them. Caplan (2007) notes this limitation stating that "while male anthropologists may have difficulties in obtaining access to domestic space, they are of course advantaged in terms of participation in men's meetings (baraza) and mosque spaces in which female participation would be difficult..."85 However, I hope my study will provide an 'insider's fresh look,' and that will complement the studies undertaken by women scholars.

84 Some of the studies include: Fuglesang, Veils and Videos: Female Youth Culture on the Kenyan Coast. Donley-Reid, "The Social Uses of Swahili Space and Objects". Marina Tolmacheva, ed., The Pate Chronicle (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1993). Alice Werner, "A Swahili History of Pate," Journal of the Royal African Society 14, no. 54: 55: 56: (1915). 85 Pat Caplan, '"but the Coast, of Course, Is Quite Different': Academic and Local Ideas About the East African Littoral," Journal of Eastern African Studies 1, no. 2 (July 2007): 314.

38 Chapter 2 - The Waswahili: Language and Identity CHAPTER TWO - THE WASWAHILI; LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY

The Swahili peoples (Waswahili) are a mixture of Bantus and Orientals (Arabs, Indians, Persians, among other) and can be found along the east coast of Africa - stretching from Somalia in the north to Mozambique in the south. The name Waswahili derives from 'sahil,' an Arabic word meaning the 'coast.' According to one informant, the Swahili peoples originated from Arabia and found their way and acquired their name from the 'sawahil' (the south-west coast in relation to the position of the present Swahililand from Arabia).87 More often than not, the Swahilis have been described as either 'Africanised Arabs' or 'Arabised Africans.'

Figure 1. The Waswahili: Arabised Africans?

Bantu is derived from the Zulu word, Abantu, meaning people. It is believed that the Bantu first originated around West Africa and spread over to central and southern Africa as they looked for better grazing land for their cattle. Currently, the Bantu are known more as a language group than as a distinct ethnic group. Swahili is the most widely spoken Bantu language and is considered the lingua franca of over 50 million people living in the countries along the east coast of Africa.

87 According to the informant, a Swahili elder living in Mombasa, whom I had interviewed in his office, the Waswahili, as a group of people, originated from Prophet Noah. This information given by the informant is debatable and I cannnot substantiate this statement. It is possible that this information was volunteered in a religious context rather than an academic context. According to the informant, there were three different groups of Waswahili. The first group came from Yemen and traveled through Ethiopia to East Africa and was later called Wangozi. The Wangozi derive their name from wearing skins (or ngozi in Swahili language). The second group fled from Arabia (due to civil war) and settled in East Africa and were mainly business people. The third group came from Oman to fight and remove the Portuguese invaders who had rampaged the eastern coast of Africa. The Omanis mixed with the locals through intermarriage and formed the Waswahili group.

39 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity Figure 2. The Waswahili: Africanised Arabs?

Middleton and Horton (2000) explore the Waswahili and note that "it has been held that there is no society that can be called Swahili, there being only coastal settlements whose populations have been so called by others.. ,"88 This perception can never be further from the truth. It is true to say that even the governments in East Africa tend to hold the perception that there is no group called the Swahili. This perception is purely political and is by commission rather than omission. The loss of identity of the Swahili as a group started during the colonial times where the colonial regimes used the 'divide and rule' method to discriminate against the . Due to religious reasons, the colonizers intended to isolate the Waswahili from the black African hinterland. Up to the present times, this colonial perception has held place among the upcountry (non-coastal) peoples in Kenya, Uganda, and other East African countries, whereby anyone claiming to be a Mswahili (Swahili singular), is looked upon with suspicion and is perceived to be sly and cunning. Even the present democratically elected East African governments and its citizens still hold this false perception i.e. that there is no single group or tribe known as the Waswahili. This is clearly manifested in such reports as the one by the Kenyan Ministry of Tourism that 'incorrectly' notes that "there is no such thing as a Swahili tribe or group."89 While undertaking this research, I identified myself as a Mswahili, whereby I was questioned by civil servants and other Kenyans, who

88 Horton and Middleton, The Swahili: The Social Landscape of a Mercantile Society, 1. 89 Quoted by Alamin M. Mazrui and Ibrahim N. Shariff, The Swahili: Idiom and Identity of an African People (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1994). 40 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity categorically denied the existence of a group of people known as Waswahili. What is disturbing is that even the well-established institutions of higher learning in Kenya, like the University of Nairobi, prepare piles of reports talking of Swahili villages purportedly in the hinterland of Kenya.90 To-date, people who call themselves Waswahili are lobbying the Kenyan Government to gazette the Waswahili as the 43rd tribe of Kenya and to gain official state recognition as to their 'existence'.91 Even more disturbing is the discrimination and marginalization of the Waswahili that is deeply rooted in the higher echelons of the East African governments. A case in point was when, during the advent of multi-party politics in Kenya, top government opposition figures were politicians who identified themselves as Waswahili. A former dictatorial president, totally opposed to multi-party democracy and trying to garner the vote of the 'African' populace, publicly told a top Mswahili opposition figure to pack up his belongings and go back to Yemen, where he had ancestral links, thus claiming that the opposition figure was not a Kenyan citizen. In his reply, the Mswahili opposition politician suggested that while he would go back to Yemen, his ancestral land, the former president would have to go back to Sudan, where the Kalenjin tribe to which the former president belonged, had their ancestral roots. Ever since this debate between the former president and the Mswahili politician took place, respect and recognition for the Waswahili as a tribe has been growing.

The life and the civilisation of the Waswahili revolve along this eastern coast as these people have lived along this coast for over a thousand years and know of no other place they can call home. Middleton (1964) notes that "just as there is a single Swahili civilization despite variations in detail, so there is a single Swahili coast that forms a unique land- and sea-scape."92 The Swahili have a single civilization, even though there are small differences within the language, culture, way of life and even architecture and

Report by University of Nairobi, Housing Research and Development Unit on The Future Planning of a Majengo: Swahili Village, Masaku, as quoted by Allen, "The Swahili House: Cultural and Ritual Concepts Underlying Its Plan and Structure." 91 During the course of undertaking this research, I helped in lobbying a few people to come up with the idea of gazetting the Waswahili as the 43rd tribe in Kenya. This was my reaction to the recognition of the Kenyan government of the Nubians as the 42nd tribe of Kenya. 92 John Middleton, The World of the Swahili (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992), 3. 41 Chapter Two —The Waswahili: Language and Identity planning. However, the similarities are more compelling than the differences, thus rendering such differences obsolete and un-noticeable.

Western and local scholars alike have devoted research time to searching for the 'real' identity and origin of the Waswahili. To-date, the identity and origin of the Waswahili is still not clearly understood. It is this obscurity of the identity and origin of the Waswahili that makes any study of this unique group of people even more challenging and interesting. Tracing the origins and identity of the Waswahili by pursuing the different arguments brought forth by Western and local scholars alike, is, in itself, a study that may take decades to conclude and, even then, without much success. While Western scholars in the 1960s have branded the Waswahili as Arabs, local scholars have Africanised the Waswahili. Caplan (2007) notes:

Mazrui and Shariff maintain that the 'European fetish' about Swahili 'Arab-ness' has had its reaction in the Swahili nationalists' stress on 'African-ness'. They see this as 'part and parcel of that wider syndrome of intellectual dependency precipitated by the colonial and neo-colonial experiences in Africa rooted in the interests of global capitalism.' For this reason the Swahili nationalists' position is 'strongly affirmative about Africa, but apologetic about Arab links."93

I would argue that prior to the arrival of the Arabs, Indians, Persians and even the Chinese (before the arrival of the Portuguese and other colonialist regimes), there was in existence a group of people along the eastern coast of Africa, known as the Wa-ngozi.94 A direct translation of this word implies that these people most probably wore leather skins to cover their bodies. They spoke a language known as Kingozi. This language has literally disappeared, although, astounding as it may seem, a small portion of the elderly population in Mombasa does speak it, but only among themselves.95

Caplan, '"but the Coast, of Course, Is Quite Different': Academic and Local Ideas About the East African Littoral," 309. Caplan quoted from Mazrui and Shariff, The Swahili: Idiom and Identity of an African People, 48. 94 Ngozi is the Swahili word for skin. Wangozi, when literally translated, would mean 'people of the skin'. 95 According to Derek Nurse, there are two interpretations of what Kingozi is or was. One strong version is that Kingozi was never spoken, but was only a wriiten language, used for poetry. See Pere C. Sacleux, 1939, Dictionnaire Swahili-Francaise, pp 386-87, who states that there are versions of Kingozi in four 42 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity With the arrival of the Arabs and other Orientals, Kingozi received some new words. The Wangozi not only traded with the Arabs, but also inter-married with them. The Arab merchants exchanged and bought goods like ivory and other animal trophies which could not be obtained except in the hinterland of the eastern coast of Africa. The Arabs, not daring enough to venture into the hinterland, exchanged such goods with the Wangozi, who acted as middlemen, between the mainly African population of the hinterland and the traders from Arabia and the Persian Gulf, thus gaining immense wealth and power from this trade in the process.

With the coming of Arab and Persian merchants and people from the Indian sub­ continent, the Wangozi had to look for ways of communication, as trade profited them in more ways than one. With trade and inter-marriage, new Arabic, Persian, Indian (and, later, Portuguese and English) words found their way into the Kingozi vocabulary, thus forming a new language known as Kiswahili. Today, Kiswahili is spoken in East, Central and Southern Africa, and, after Arabic language, is probably the most widely spoken language in Africa.

Describing the identity of the Waswahili is a complex issue, with language and religion being seen as the two main criteria. Ahmad Nassir, a leading Swahili poet and one of the few remaining persons who speaks the Kingozi language, challenges those who try to discredit the identity of the Waswahili96 In his poem Nawau' za Waswahili (I am asking the Waswahili), Nassir argues that where there is a language, there is also a group of people who own the language and who speak it. I agree with Nassir that where there is a language, there is a group of people who speak that language, as language cannot exist in

quite different dialects (Unguja, Mvita, Amu, Gunya). The other version is the vesion here - the original Swahili language. 96 Ahmad Nassir J. Bhalo, Malenga Wa Mvita. Diwani Ya Ustadh Bhalo, ed. Shihabuddin Chiraghdin (Nairobi; Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press, 1971; reprint, 1982), 63-64. Nassir was one of my main informants who traced for me his lineage and the origin of the Wangozi as regards to the identity of the Waswahili. The title of Nassir's book is Malenga wa Mvita which, when translated, means the 'poet of Mombasa', is a collection of his poetry. 43 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity a vacuum. Nassir laments the aspect that where there is a language known as Kiswahili, yet they say that there is no tribe as Waswahili. Nassir writes the following:97

Lugha nyingi duniyani, zatamkwa mbalimbali Na zote ulimwenguni, zina wenyewe mahali Si Hindi si Uzunguni, mewaumba Jalali Jee hichi Kiswahili, ni lugha ya watu gani ? (Verse 2)

Wahindi wana Kihindi, kwa kabila mbalimbali Na Wanandi ni Kinandi, ndizo zao akuwali Wengine ni Kilindi, wana yao ya asili Jee hichi Kiswahili, ni lugha ya watu gani? (Verse 4)

Mara nyingi husikiya, kuwa hichi Kiswahili Hakina mtu mmoya, ambaye ni chake kweli Na wengine huteteya, kina wenyewe asili Ndipo ha'amba Kiswahili, ni lugha ya watu gani? (Verse 6)

Najamii wengineo, wana lugha mbalimbali Na kujuwa ya wenzao, ni kujifunza ya pili Lakini wana na zao, lugha za tangu asili Jee hichi Kiswahili, ni lugha ya watu gani? (Verse 8)

Miye mefikiri mno, kuamuwa jambo hili Na haona lugha hino, lazima ina asili Kwa sababu kulla neno, Una mwanzo wa usuli Ndipo ha 'amba Kiswahili, ni lugha ya watu gani? (verse 10)

Na iwapo atakuja, wa kunijibu suali Namuomba jambo moja, twambiyane kiakili Tusionyane miuja, jambo nisilo kubali N'anambiye Kiswahili, ni lugha ya watu gani? (Verse 12)

Many world languages are differently pronounced And all of them in the world have speakers somewhere Not only in India, not only in Europe, has God created them What about Kiswahili, who does this language belong to? ....(Verse 2)

Wakamba98 have their own language, their original language And the Europeans have their different languages And others are the Wakilindi" having their own original language What about Kiswahili, who does this language belong to? ... .(Verse 4)

97 The translation is mine. 98 Wakamba is a Kenyan tribe living in the Eastern Province. 99 Wakilindini are one of the Coastal Groups living in Mombasa. This group forms one of the 3 Swahili nations or group. 44 Chapter Two —The Waswahili: Language and Identity Many times have I heard that this Kiswahili No single group or person truly owns it And others note that Kiswahili is indeed a language owned by Waswahili And this is why I am asking, who does this language belong to? (Verse 6)

And other societies or tribes have different languages And to know other languages, they have to learn them But they do have their own languages, their original languages What about Kiswahili, who does this language belong to? ... .(Verse 8)

I have given a lot of thought to answer this question And I conclude that this language must have its original people Because every single word has its original roots And this is why I ask, who does this language belong to? ....(Verse 10)

And if someone comes forward to answer my question I ask him to discuss this in a sensible manner Let the person not talk rubbish as this, I accept not Let the person tell me, who does this Kiswahili language belong to?....(Verse 12)

Kiswahili, as a language, was written using Arabic script, denoting the influence of the Arabs on the peoples inhabiting the eastern coast of Africa. Today, the Roman alphabet has taken over, although again, there still do remain a few elderly people who write Kiswahili using the Arabic script. Emphasising the influence of the Arabs does not only end with the language. Religion was another influencing factor. It is widely believed that the Wangozi believed in ancestral worshiping and did not follow a particular world religion such as Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism. The arrival of Arab merchants brought Islam to the Wangozi of East Africa.

Today, while a large population speaks Kiswahili, it is safe to say that anyone calling himself or herself a Mswahili (a Swahili person) practises Islam as the main religion. Not everyone who speaks Kiswahili is a Muslim, but all who call themselves Waswahili are Muslims.

The mistaken notion that anyone who speaks Kiswahili as his or her first language is a Mswahili has resulted in various institutions - national and international - designating

0 Kiswahili is the Swahili language spoken by the peoples along the Eastern Coast of Africa. 45 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity various districts or wards or mitaa in Nairobi as Swahili towns. Slum towns like Majengo, Pumwani, California and even Eastleigh on the outskirts of Nairobi have been tagged as "Swahili" towns in several United Nations report. The mere fact that residents in these slum towns, consisting of mud-and-thatch houses, speak Kiswahili as a language, I argue, does not qualify these towns as Swahili towns. The concept of what constitutes a Swahili town will be made clearer in this study.

Travellers' narratives and historical accounts of the 'Ancient' Swahili Coast

One of the earliest documents to refer to the eastern coast of Africa is the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, recording the trade pattern between the West and the East. The exact authorship and date of this document is unknown, but it is widely believed that it was written in 60 A.D.101 The Periplus gives a brief account of the east coast of Africa:

Beyond Opone, the shore trading more toward the south, first there are the small and great bluffs of Azania: this coast is destitute of harbours, but there are places where ships can lie at anchor, the shore being abrupt: and this course is of six days, the direction being south-west. Then come the small and great beach for another six days' course and after that in order, the Courses of Azania, the first being called Sarapion and the next Nicon: and after that several rivers and other anchorages, one after the other, separately a rest and a run for each day, seven in all, until the Pyralae islands and what is called the channel: beyond which, a little to the south of south-west, after two course of a day and night along the Ausanitic coast, is the island Menuthias, about three hundred stadia from the mainland, low and wooded, in which there are rivers and many kinds of birds and the mountain-tortoise. There are no wild beasts except the crocodiles: but there they do not attack men. In this place there are sewed boats, and canoes hollowed from single logs, which they use for fishing and catching tortoise. In this island they also catch them in a peculiar way, in wicker baskets, which they fasten across the channel-opening between the breakers.102

101 The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century, trans. Wilfred H. Schoff (New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corp. Exclusively distributed by Munshiram Monoharlal Publishers), 1974), 15. 102 Ibid., 25.Note No. 15 46 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity The Periplus continues:

Two days' sail beyond, there lies the very last market-town of the continent of Azania, which is called Rhapta, which has its name from the sewed boats (rhaption ploiarion) already mentioned; in which there is ivory in great quantity, and tortoise shell. Along this coast live men of practical habits, very great in stature, and under separate chiefs for each place. The Mapharitic chief governs it under some ancient right that subjects it to the sovereignty of the state that is become first in Arabia. And the people of Muza now hold it under his authority, and send thither many large ships; using Arab captains and agents, who are familiar with the natives and intermarry them, and who know the whole coast and understand the language.103

Al Masudi, (304 A.H ca.916 AD), probably the first Muslim writer to describe the east African coast, noted the mercantile character of the peoples of the land of Zinj.104 Al- Masudi wrote, "the land of Zinj produces wild leopard skin. The people wear them as clothes, or export them to Muslim countries."105Al-Masudi went on to describe the society of the people of the Zinj, noting that it was monarchical and led by Wafalme or kings, who ruled by custom and by political expediency.

To go back to the Zanj and their kings, these are known as Wafalme, which means son of the Great Lord, since he is chosen to govern them justly. If he is tyrannical or strays from the truth, they kill him and exclude his seed from the throne; for they consider that in acting wrongfully he forfeits his position as the son of the Lord, the King of Heaven and Earth. They call God Malkinajlu, which means Great Lord.106

103 Ibid., 28.Note. No. 16 104 Zanj or Zinj referred to the East African littoral as far back as the 9th century and meant the 'land of the blacks'. This lends more credence to the indigenous character of the Waswahili. 105 G. S. P Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Select Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962), 15. Taken from Al-Masudi's Muruj al-Dhahab wa Ma'adin al-Jawhar, translated by the editor from the text in Les Prairies d'Or (C.B.Meynard and P.de Courteille, Paris), 9 volumes. 106 Ibid., 16. 47 Chapter Two —The Waswahili: Language and Identity He goes on to describe their elegant language and, in the process, extolling Swahili poets:

The Zanj have an elegant language and men who preach it. One of their holy men will often gather a crowd and exhort his hearers to please God in their lives and be obedient to him. He explains the punishments that follow upon disobedience, and reminds them of their ancestors and kings of old. These people have no religious law: their kings rule by custom and by political expediency.107

Al-Idrisi, an Arab geographer, visited Mombasa between 1100 and 1166, and was probably the first person to mention the town of Mombasa. Al-Idrisi described Mombasa as:

a small place and a dependency of the Zanj. Its inhabitants work in the iron mines and hunt tigers. They have red-coloured dogs which fight every kind of wild beast and even lions. This town lies on the seashore near a large gulf up which ships travel two days' journey; its banks are uninhabited because of the wild beasts that live in the forests where the Zanj go and hunt, as we have already said. In this town lives the King of Zanzibar. His guards go on foot because they have no mounts: horses cannot live there.108

The Periplus and Al-Idrisi mention animals such as the tortoise (probably meaning the turtle) and red-coloured dogs that Mary Douglas (1999) coins anomalous.109 The study will delve further on the theme of the anomalous that is inherent in Swahili society and architecture.

Turning to European travelers, it is worth noting that "Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe anything Marco Polo (ca 1295) says when he describes the cities he visited on his expedition, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian

107 Ibid. 108 Ibid., 20. 109 Mary Douglas, Implicit Meanings: Selected Essays in Anthropology (London; New York: Routledge, 1999). Douglas looks at ambiguous elements and animal symbolism for ritual use in the Lele culture. In the present study, the use of ambiguous animals that are used as symbols in Swahili wall decorations will be investigated. 48 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger of his."110 Marco Polo continues to describe different cities and gives those cities different names until some point in time when Kublai Khan, noticing that Marco Polo's cities resemble one another, reconstructs the cities himself and asks Marco Polo to confirm their existence. '"I have neither desires nor fears', the Khan declared, 'and my dreams are composed either by my mind or by chance. Cities also believe they are the work of the mind or of chance, but neither the one nor the other suffices to hold up their walls. You take delight not in a city's seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours.111 Or the question it asks you, forcing you to answer, like Thebes through the mouth of the Sphinx.'" Even though Marco Polo traveled the silk road and did not travel much of East Africa, it is said that he did actually pass by Madagascar and Zanzibar. Marco Polo described Zanzibar as a large and splendid island where the people were idolaters, having a king and a language of their own and paying tribute to none. He describes the appearances of men and women, their diets and concluded by telling Kublai Khan : "You should know that the men of the island are good fighters and acquit themselves very manfully in battle; for they are very brave and almost without fear of death..."113

Chinese travelers' accounts of the east coast of Africa are even more intriguing and peculiar. In 1414, the Emperor of China received a giraffe as a gift from the king of Bengal. The following year, the ruler of the town of Melinda (now called Malindi in Kenya), presented the Chinese Emperor with a giraffe. "It was the giraffe, therefore, that caused the Chinese to sail to Africa."114 The giraffe was seen by the Chinese as a mythical animal (like the unicorn) and "was regarded as a happy portent; it was a sign of Heaven's favour and proof of the virtue of the Emperor."115 However, the first Chinese

110 Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, trans. William Weaver (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974), 3. 111 My own question in this research is how can non-scientific or non-positivistic aspects of a culture can be taken as the Truth and how these can be extrapolated to give meaning to architecture. 112 Calvino, Invisible Cities, 44. 113 Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Select Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century, 26. 114 J. J. L Duyvendak, 1889 China's Discovery of Africa; Lectures Given at the University of London on January 22 and 23, 1947 (London, UK: A. Probsthain, 1949), 32. 1,5 Ibid. 49 Chapter Two —The Waswahili: Language and Identity information on the east coast of Africa was recorded by Tuan Ch'eng-shih who wrote the Yu-yang-tsa-tsu (a compendium of various kinds of knowledge) in the 9 century narrated that:

The land of Po-pa-li is in the south-western Ocean. The people do not eat any cereals but they eat meat: more frequently even they prick a vein of their oxen, mix the blood with milk and eat it raw." They have no clothes, but they wrap round their waists a sheep's skin which hangs down and covers them.116

Accounts of travels by Arab geographers include those of Ibn Battuta (whose real name is Muhammad Abdallah) who was born in Tangier in 1304. At the age of 21, while setting out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Battuta lost his way, but later completed one of the main five pillars of Islam. Ibn Battuta travelled to India and to other parts of the world and narrated accounts of his travels to the east coast of Africa (ca 1331):

I embarked at Maqdashaw (Mogadishu) for the Sawahil country, with the object of visiting the town of Kulwa (Kilwa) in the island of the Zinj. We came to Mambasa (Mombasa), a large island two days 'journey by sea from the sawahil country. It possesses no territory on the mainland. They have fruit trees on the island, but no cereals, which have to be brought to them from the Sawahil. Their food consists of bananas and fish. The inhabitants are pious, honourable and upright and they have well-built wooden . We stayed one night on this island and then pursued our journey to Kulwa, which is a large town on the coast. The majority of its inhabitants are Zanj, jet-black in colour, and with tattoo-marks on their faces. I was told by a merchant that the town of Sufala lies a fortnight's journey (south) from Yuri in the country of the Limis, which is a month's journey distant from it. Kulwa is a very fine and substantially built town and all its buildings are of wood...117

Even though most of these travellers' accounts do not specifically mention the architecture of the Swahili peoples, there is some mention of the identity and culture of

116 Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Select Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century. Taken from Duyvendak, 1889 China's Discovery of Africa; Lectures Given at the University of London on January 22 and23, 1947, 13-14.

117 Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354, trans. M. A. Movahhed (Tehran: B.T.N.K, 1958), 112. 50 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity the peoples living on the eastern coast of Africa. It is interesting that Ibn Battuta mentioned seeing "wooden mosques". Recent research by archaeologists has supported this statement by showing positive indications of timber structures in the sub-strata of the sites excavated on the northern coast of Kenya. Most of the travellers' (European or non- European) accounts of the people and land of the Zinj mention, among other things five aspects in common: trade, clothing, society, language and religion. These accounts note the role of the people of Zinj as middlemen between the interior and the coast of East Africa. They also note that the people of Zinj wore animal skins as clothes, hence the name Wangozi (people who wear skins). The society is monarchical, led by an Mfalme (king) while the language is elegant or poetical. The way of the religion, as described in travellers' accounts is that of custom worship. Analyzing these travellers' accounts and the common denominator as noted by the different travelers, it is safe to say that there is very little mention of architecture. However, the five common themes vis-a-vis trade, clothing, society, language and religion do have significant bearing on the architecture of the people of Zinj. The important message that can be extracted from these travellers' accounts, and especially as recorded by Al-Masudi is that the people of Zinj or the Waswahili are just and do not act wrongfully: qualities that the Waswahili have never been rightfully accorded by other tribes on the eastern coast of Kenya.

51 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity o

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0 500 1.000 3 s|/ L„ 1 Miles Figure 4. Eastern coast of Africa u 52 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity Chronicles of the Waswahili

The Waswahili kept records of their history through chronicles. These chronicles were basically oral history that was passed from one generation to the next. Certain families were known to learn and memorise their history, learning it by rote. The chronicles were town-based. In essence, this means that each Swahili town or city-state had its own chronicle. These oral histories were passed from one generation to the next upto the present time. Western researchers have managed to collect some of these chronicles and written them down.118 It is widely believed that there may be more chronicles within certain Swahili noble families who possess them within their libraries, but they are reluctant to show these chronicles to Western researchers because of lack of trust. My own experience dates back to over ten years. A Western researcher approached me to help her obtain a manuscript that was compiled my uncle. The manuscript was on the history of Baluchi soldiers who fought side by side with the Omani Arabs to depose the Portuguese form the eastern coast of Africa. The manuscript was based on oral history of the Baluchis who have often been forgotten to be mentioned in the history of East Africa, yet they played a very important role and continue to play important role to this very day. As my uncle had died long time ago, I approached my cousins and requested them to avail to me the copy of that manuscript. However, they refused my request. I asked my father to approach his nephews and nieces and ask them for the manuscript, but in vain. To this day, that particular manuscript may be lying somewhere with my cousins or they could have been totally lost. I could not trace the manuscript since one of my cousin who was helping me also died about two years ago.

Some of the best-known and most-researched chronicles of the Waswahili include the Kilwa Chronicle, the Patte Chronicle, the Mombasa Chronicle and the Lamu Chronicle. Even though these four chronicles vary in content from each other, their similarities are more pronounced than their differences.

1,8 Tolmacheva, ed., The Pate Chronicle. Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Select Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century. Werner, "A Swahili History of Pate."

53 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity o th The chronicles of the Waswahili date back to the 9 century and goes all the way upto the 19th century. These chronicled the founding of the Swahili towns, the genealogy of the Sultans or rulers and where they came from, certain episodes of the history of the eastern coast of Africa and most importantly, the chronicles sung praises of their respective towns and fighters.

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Figure 8. Ruined town of Takwa on Manda Island across Lamu island, showing the town wall

The Lamu Chronicle

As a language, Kiswahili is more of a spoken, rather than a written one. Even famous Swahili poets like Muyaka bin Haji, Kijumwa and, Sayyid Abdalla bin Ali bin Nassir never kept written records of their poetry. Rather, the poets recited their poetry in front of their patronage and those gathered around would grasp the words and memorise the poetry, which would be passed on from one generation to the next, without ever being written down or even losing their originality. This tradition continues to the present day where one of the greatest living Swahili poets, Ahmad Nassir, never writes down his poetry. To add an anecdote, I have tried to persuade Ahmad Nassir to put his poetry to pen; a proposal that he has outwardly rejected. He has, however, recited many of his 56 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity poems to me and advised me to write them down for posterity; an exercise that I have not yet started, leave alone completed. However, a few of his poems have been compiled into books by his friends and relatives. This goes to show that Kiswahili, as a language, is more of a verbal than a written one.

Touching on the issue of chronicles in Swahili culture, I argue that they contain truth that cannot be discarded. Even though the chronicles were never written down by the Waswahili themselves, they were passed through generations who had learnt these stories by rote. The chronicles were collected by Western researchers who compiled them in written form and analysed them for authenticity and truth.119 Some Western scholars even went to the extent to confirm the truth of the chronicles by conducting archaeological excavations.120 The Swahili chroniclers may have left out some aspects of history, but they have provided useful anecdotes leading to particular events in history. While the Swahili chronicle cannot lay claim to providing a comprehensive history of Swahili city- states, it, as Hichens (1938) notes, "deals with salient episodes to the omission of much of the incidental event leading to them; yet it includes anecdotes of a kind which, catching the popular fancy, are often remembered than the graver issues of the civil destiny."121 Even the Patte Chronicle considered by many scholars as the most complete of all the Swahili Chronicles, does not provide a comprehensive history of Patte.122 The usefulness of these Swahili chronicles needs to be considered in light of a comprehensive history of the entire Swahili coast and they are important documents of Swahili historiography. Purely scientific methods often used in archaeology cannot provide an in-depth understanding of life on the Swahili coast. The fact that the Swahili chroniclers practised learning by rote and the mere survival of the chronicles lend further credence to the study of oral tradition and to the validity of these sources without necessarily corroborating them with other scientific methods. In short, the existence of these chronicles can explain more of the Swahili history than may be explained by the excavations of archaeologists.

119 Werner, "A Swahili History of Pate." Tolmacheva, ed., The Pate Chronicle. 120 Horton and Middleton, The Swahili: The Social Landscape of a Mercantile Society, 1. 121 William Hichens, "Khabar Al-Lamu; a Chronicle of Lamu by Shaibu Faraji Bin Hamed Al-Bakariy Al- Lamuy," Bantu Studies XII (1938): 3. 122 Tolmacheva, ed., The Pate Chronicle. Tolmacheva quotes A. H. J. Prins, "On Oral Historiography," Journal of the East African Swahili Committee, no. 28 (1958): 26. 57 Chapter Two —The Waswahili: Language and Identity These excavations confirmed what the chronicles narrated. The Swahili chronicles are of the genre of traditional historiography that provide information on the founding of Swahili towns and the ruling lineages, while also shedding light on the inter-relationship of neighbouring Swahili city-states.

Lamu, as it is officially known, or Amu, as it is called by its inhabitants, was formerly called Kiwa Ndeo, which in archaic Kiswahili language means 'the proud isle'. Lamu or Amu is the name given to the island as well as the town and is the most prominent of the islands within the Lamu archipelago. The word 'Lamu' itself is said to have derived from the Banu Lami, an Arab tribe, which settled on the island.

According to the Chronicler of Khabar-al-Lamu, the first people of Lamu were Arabs who came from Damascus, Syria, in the 7th Century. 124 These Arabs from Syria were sent by Abdul-Malik ibn Marwan who was the 5th Caliph of the Omaiyyads.125 Stigand (1966) notes that Abdul-Malik was in such dire need of forming his own kingdom that he sent people to the eastern coast of Africa who then founded the cities of Patte, Malindi, Zanzibar, Mombasa, Lamu and Kilwa, as documented by the various Chroniclers of these

1 ")f\ former Swahili city-states. This does not mean that there were no people already living in these city-states, as visitors' accounts already indicated earlier have informed us about centuries preceding the reign of Abdul-Malik and of the presence of people in the land of Zanj. This presence of local inhabitants, even before the arrival of the Arabs, is further chronicled in the Khabar-al-Lamu: "then at that time Arabs continued to come until they were many and they gained power; and they, at the site of Lamu, made a town at a place called Hedabu and they had no information that at Weyuni there was a town and that those people were very strong.127 They amounted to upwards of 12,000 men bearing

C. H. Stigand, The Land of Zinj: Being an Account of British East Africa, Its Ancient History and Present Inhabitants, 1st ed., new impression ed. (London, UK: Cass, 1966), 151. 124 The Chronicler of Khabar-al-Lamu was a Mr.Shaibu Faraji Bin Hamed Al-Bakariy Al-Lamuy 125 Hichens, "Khabar Al-Lamu; a Chronicle of Lamu by Shaibu Faraji Bin Hamed Al-Bakariy Al-Lamuy," 8. 126 Stigand, The Land of Zinj: Being an Account of British East Africa, Its Ancient History and Present Inhabitants, 29. 127 Weyuni is probably an archaic name of what is now known as Wiyoni, which means 'on the farthest edge'. The present-day Wiyoni has been founded as result of the dredging of the Mkanda channel 58 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity weapons of war." Today, the site of Hedabu is situated on a sand-dune to the south of Lamu town. Weyuni or Wiyoni, as it is now known, is situated to the north of Lamu. It is probably here at Wiyoni that the historic town of Lamu was founded. The Arabs, having settled at Hedabu in the south, wanted the people of Weyuni in the north to be their subjects.

It is widely believed, narrated by the elders, that the site of Hedabu, which is now part of the northern cemetery, was once a thriving town. Food was in abundance. The people of Hedabu then committed Kufuru or blasphemy by being prodigal with milk which they used to wash their private parts. It is noted in the Holy Koran that "O children of Adam, attend to your adornment at every time of prayer, and eat and drink and be not prodigal; surely He loves not the prodigal."129 In an even more stringent manner, the Koran says that "without doubt that which you call me has no title to be called to in this world, or in the Hereafter, and our return is to Allah, and the prodigals are companions of the Fire."130 It is believed that due to their prodigality, the people of Hedabu were punished by Allah. The whole town of Hedabu was turned upside down and all the residents of Hedabu were buried alive. To this date, the mere presence of the Hedabu hill has convinced everyone that there is a lot of truth in this narrative, even though no one has ever dared to undertake excavations, lest he or she have the same punishment meted out on him or her.

Hostility between the northern and the southern parts of Lamu has been in existence from that day to the present. This hostility between the different sections of a town is not only seen at Lamu, but is also prevalent in other Swahili towns such as Patte and Mombasa. Hostilities have arisen due to the claim by the inhabitants of the different sections to pure lineage. Patte town is itself divided into two distinct areas: the upper part (Mitaayuu) and

connecting Lamu island to the other islands within the archipelago. The dredging of the Mkanda channel carried out withing the last ten years resulted in the dug-out sand being disposed of at the northern part of Lamu town, reclaiming land from the sea and thus, the setting up of what is now known as Wiyoni. 128 Translation taken from Hichens, "Khabar Al-Lamu; a Chronicle of Lamu by Shaibu Faraji Bin Hamed Al-Bakariy Al-Lamuy," 8. 129 Koran, English, trans. Abdullah Yusuf Ali (Washington, D.C: American International Print. Co., 1946), Chapter 7: Verse 31. 130 Ibid., Chapter 40: Verse 43. 59 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity the lower part (Kichokwa). The patricians or the more civilized inhabit the Mitaayuu, while the commoners132 reside in Kichokwa. These hostilities are due to the definition of who a Mswahili is, by using familial lineages, descent and connection to Arabian culture. This ambiguous nature of the Waswahili is not only evident in their origin or identity, but is also manifest in the built environment of Swahili towns.

131 Descendants of the rulers of Parte known as Waungwana, claiming Arab ancestry consider themselves as civilized. 132 Descendants of former slaves, claiming African ancestry are considered as un-civilised. 60 Chapter Two -The Waswahili: Language and Identity CHAPTER THREE - THE SWAHILI TOWN OF LAMU

In trying to understand the aspects of town planning of Swahili towns, I have chosen the historic town of Lamu. This town is probably the oldest living Swahili town which has retained its original character and whose inhabitants have preserved their culture to-date. Lamu town had been a flourishing Swahili city-state during the Omani Arab rule from the 1690s to the 1870s. It was during this time that most of the extant traditional houses were built. The arrival of the British imperialists marked the decline of Lamu. The British built a railroad from Mombasa to the hinterland all the way to what is now Kampala in Uganda. This railroad was completed in 1901, at which point the British moved their administrative headquarters from Mombasa to Nairobi. All development attention shifted from Lamu to Mombasa, the new seaport. It is this shift of attention and the decline of the importance of Lamu that were the main factors that saved the built environment from the process of modernisation. Today, over two hundred years since the buildings in Lamu were first constructed; the built environment still stands as a reminder of an outstanding history and a perfect example of a Swahili town.

The Lamu archipelago

The group of islands on the northern coast of Kenya, known as the Lamu archipelago is perhaps the most interesting part of the land of Zinj or the Swahili coast, as it is now known. The archipelago comprises of three main islands: Lamu, Manda and Patte islands. The island of Lamu or 'Amu' as the inhabitants call it, is the most populated and it is where Lamu town is situated. Lamu town is the administrative headquarters of Lamu District in the Coast Province. The other major towns on Lamu Island are Shela, Matondoni and Kipungani. To the east of Lamu Island is Manda Island which hosts a number of ruined towns like Takwa and Manda town, from which the island derives its name. Manda Island hosts no major towns, but has farmland and the main airstrip within the Lamu archipelago. These two islands are separated from the mainland by a channel called Mkanda that navigates to Patte Island, situated to the north of Manda Island. Patte 61 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu Island has towns like Siyu (a former Swahih city-state), Faza and Tchundwa. Other smaller islands to the north of Patte Island are Ndau, Kiwayuu and Kizingitini.

The history of the Lamu archipelago is intriguing and intimately connected to much of the history of the Swahili coast of East Africa. The well-known former Swahili city states in the Lamu archipelago are Lamu, Sheila, Patte, Manda and Siyu. Although closely connected historically, these towns have different rivalries and alliances. The inhabitants of these former Swahili city-states share much in common, but also have different dialects and customs. Today, Swahili towns like Lamu, Patte, Siyu, Zanzibar, Kilwa, amongst others, were formerly city-states. This is to say that each town was under a different political leadership. Each town was under its own Mfalme or king and none of these leaders actually reported to the other Wafalme of kings.

Several archaeological excavations have unearthed material artifacts to reconstruct past Swahili culture. Probably the earliest site to be excavated is Shanga on Patte Island which has been inhabited by humans as far back as c.760. However, the history of these former Swahili city-states may also be explained using sources other than archaeological excavations. Being a mainly oral society, the Waswahili had their own chronicles to describe the founding of their city-states and to extol the chroniclers' family lineages. Former Swahili city-states like Mombasa, Kilwa, Patte and Lamu have their own chronicles which Western researchers have collected and compiled directly from the chroniclers themselves.

It is important to understand the historical chronology of discovery and colonisation of the Swahili coast presented by different researchers; historians, archaeologists and anthropologists. The first Europeans to reach the East African coast were the Portuguese who travelled around the southern tip of Africa and reached the Swahili coast around 1497. Prior to the arrival of the Portuguese, the land of Zinj had been thriving on trade with Arabia, Persia, India and further east to China. Apart from the construction of Fort Jesus, the First Chapel in Kenya, the Vasco da Gama Pillar and adding a few words to

62 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu Swahili vocabulary, Portuguese rule was very destructive. The town of Mombasa, being a strong opposed to Portuguese rule, was burnt down twice around 1505 and 1528. Besides establishing the country of Mozambique in the south-east coast of Africa. Portuguese rule had very little or no impact in Swahili culture, religion, language and architecture. Resistance to Portuguese rule on the Swahili coast mounted and help was sought from Oman, a rising maritime power at that time, to overthrow the Portuguese. Omani Arabs, with the help of Baluchi soldiers from Persia, managed to expel the Portuguese in 1698 after capturing Fort Jesus, where the last remnants of the Portuguese army were hiding. Under Omani rule, Swahili city-states regained their momentum and commerce thrived. It was during Omani rule that most of the existing stone houses in Lamu, Mombasa, Parte, Kilwa, Zanzibar and other Swahili city-states were constructed. In the Great Scramble for Africa, the British set foot on the Swahili coast in mid- nineteenth century. The British mission was purely economic and to spread Christianity. The British, facing revolt and resistance from the people on the colonised lands, were faced with no alternative but to give back the land to their rightful owners. In the 1960s, many East African countries gained independence and the right to self-rule.

Introducing Lamu

In 1992, when pursuing my Master's degree in Infrastructure Planning at the University of Stuttgart in Germany, I undertook an ecological study of the town planning of Lamu. I looked at different aspects of ecological and environmental planning, including looking at, among others, water sources, farming opportunities and ground morphology. As computer models like Geographical Information System (GIS) were not available at that time, I had to undertake the exercise manually. I analysed each relevant ecological and environmental factor, and in the process, evaluating the planning issues of the historic town of Lamu. My understanding of the ecological and environmental issues was

33 Mombasa was a sworn opponent of Portuguese rule, while Malindi did embrace this European power as there were rivalries between Mombasa and Malindi. Hence the Portuguese built Fort Jesus in Mombasa to protect themselves against invasion by the people of Mombasa. The First (Portuguese) Chapel and the Vasco da Gama Pillar were erected in Malindi as signs of friendship between Malindi and the Portuguese. 63 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu enhanced by that hands-on experience. My conclusion was that Lamu town, though built on a sand dune, was not ecologically or environmentally well-planned. Since that time, several questions have lingered on my mind, especially the location of Lamu and the reasons for choosing such a site to construct this historic town.

The site of Lamu was not chosen by its founders only due to its setting or location. Other facets must have played major roles in the founding of Lamu town. This reiterates Rapoport's (1969) argument that the need to consider many factors when evaluating the built environment of a group of people is the main argument against any determinist 134 view.

When I first set foot in Lamu in 1987,1 had a tour guide who took me around the town and showed me various places. I asked him how I would find my way were I to get lost in the labyrinth of the narrow streets of Lamu. We were in the middle of the and he pointed to the open drains that drain water from the kitchen to the bay of the Indian Ocean and told me to follow the direction that the water drained from the stone houses and I would find my way back to the main street or main part of Lamu town. The site of Lamu town was set up on a sand dune, which the original founders used to their advantage, using the natural setting as a protection against neighbouring enemies.

As my exercises in the ecological and environmental setting of Lamu had concluded, the setting and location of Lamu is not merely a choice of a physical site due to its convenience, but a symbolic preference for the original inhabitants of Lamu. The fact that Lamu town was symbolically situated where it is presently located, outweighs the argument that the setting of Lamu town was determined by the physical aspects of the available site.

Today, Lamu town, which has a population of over 20,000, is the administrative headquarters of Lamu District - one of the seven districts in the Coast Province of Kenya.

Rapoport, House Form and Culture, 45.

64 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu Gazetted and protected by the National Museums of Kenya as a national monument and a historic town and listed by UNESCO on the World Heritage List, Lamu is facing a lot of difficulties. Protected by national and internal edicts, Lamu is under intense development pressure by developers, especially 'Western' investors, who are buying plots and rehabilitating dilapidated historical buildings, adding 'Western' installations like wash­ room facilities and 'Western' architectural elements and other aspects to the main structures, additions that tend to change the architectural meaning of the historic houses. Just over the last five to seven years, plot prices have skyrocketed by over 1000 percent. Pressure for development, the faint idea of Lamu losing its historical identity, and the need to understand and even define a Swahili town have prompted me to undertake this important study and, as noted before, to reconsider the heritage of Swahili culture and its impact on architecture.

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Figure 9. Aerial sketch of Lamu town

65 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu Figure 10. Lamu seafront showing verandah houses

Previous studies on Lamu have relied mainly on archaeological findings that have argued that Swahili building forms were determined by the physical settings of sites on which Swahili city-states were founded. The physical setting and the climatic conditions may have provided possibilities for the founding of Swahili towns, but were not, in themselves, the determining factors. Rapoport (1969) questions the physical determinist view of building forms and notes that "man was a symbol-making animal before he was a tool-making animal, that he reached specialization in myth, religion and ritual before he did in material aspects of culture and that ritual exactitude came before exactitude in work; man put his energy into symbolic rather than utilitarian forms even when he was barely starting."135

According to the Khabar-al-Lamu, the first people of Lamu, who were Arabs, set up a site at Hedabu, which is to the south of Lamu as it stands now. However, the Arabs also heard that there was already a town at Weyuni, which is now known as Wiyoni to the north of Lamu. It is probably here at Wiyoni that the town of Lamu or Mui wa Amu136

135 Ibid., 42. Mui wa Amu means the town of Lamu in the Lamu Swahili dialect. In standard Kiswahili language, the town of Lamu would be known as Mji wa Lamu. Waswahili are urban dwellers and call their towns miji or 66 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu actually started and continued to grow towards the south and west, bordered by the Indian Ocean on its east. The Swahili settlement or miji (sing, mji), as Allen (1993) notes, "began as sacred enclosures, usually rectangular or palisaded or (after c.950) walled, each with its own central well. Impermanent houses were built around the outside of the enclosure but not within it."137 The preference of the Swahili peoples concerning their habitation is communicated in this poem from Siyu in the archipelago of Lamu on the eastern coast of Kenya:

Maana kwa mwenye kuyuwa Yuwa simwambiye nchu Nchu huwa maridhawa Dhawa ni kuwa na kichu Kichu si cha kuhadawd Dawa si sharti ya mwichu Mwichu hauveki nchu Nchu huketi nyini

Any meaningful information is intended for those who understand And when you get to know, keep the knowledge to yourself A man has to be humble, obedient Once born, a human being ought to have something Something that is not deceitful Medicines (herbal treatment) are not obtained in the forest The forest (or savannah) does not keep a human being (the forest is not a dwelling place) A human being stays (lives) in a town (or a city)

The last stanza indicates the bias and preference of the Swahili peoples to live in towns, cities or any urban dwelling or surrounding, which is why in the Swahili settlements, there are miji or towns and not vijiji or villages. No Mswahili would say that he or she mui, rather than kijiji meaning a village. Personally, I have yet to come across a Swahili town whose inhabitants don't call it mji (in what is known as 'standard Swahili language') or mui (in Swahili dialect used in the Lamu archipelago). Even Matondoni, Kipungani and Shela, described as fishing villages are know as mui (town) wa Matondoni, mui wa Kipungani and mui wa Shela, respectively. As independent Swahili 'city-states', Lamu, Parte, Shela, Siyu, Mombasa, and other Swahili towns, identified their settings as mji or mui due to the prestige of being independent on another mji or mui. J. de Vere Allen, Swahili Origins: Swahili Culture and the Shungwaya Phenomenon (London: James Currey; Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers; Athens (Ohio): Ohio University Press, 1993), 13. Allen notes "that the word mji also contains a hint of political or at least social autonomy, which can only be conveyed, in English, by calling it a 'city state' or, in rare contexts, a 'tribe'." 137 Ibid., 220. 67 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu stays in a kijiji or village, but rather that he stays or lives in a mj'i or town. In fact, Waswahili identify themselves with the towns they come from vis-a-vis Wa-Amu (from Amu or Lamu), Wa-Siyu (from Siyu), Wa-Patte (from Parte). The identification of the Waswahili with the towns that they come from was a way to distinguish themselves as Waungwana (elites) and not Watwana (slaves). The Waswahili believe that a person who has no origin is a slave and thus they prided themselves with their towns, from where they originated. According to the Swahili proverb Asokuwa na mila ni mtwana or one who has no cultural origin is a slave, the Waswahili had to identify themselves with their towns to avoid being branded as slaves. While undertaking my research, I entered into an argumentative discussion with an elderly friend who asked me my tribe, even though he knew me very well. I identified myself as a Mswahili, to which he commented that, even though a Mswahili himself, that there was no tribe as a Mswahili. As a famous Swahili writer himself, he did not anticipate my intentions. So I asked him about his tribe, to which he replied that he is an Msiyu (coming from Siyu). A younger friend of mine interjected by calling the Msiyu a tribe-less person, wondering how one could name his tribe from a Swahili town and yet not identifying himself as a Mswahili by tribe. Little did my young friend understand the sentiments of the Msiyu, who by identifying himself with the town of Siyu where he came from was trying to avoid being branded as a slave. As eloquent Swahili speakers, the Wasiyu mostly speak in parables. To my Msiyu friend, I had already branded myself as a slave by naming Mswahili as my tribe, whereby he had branded himself as an elite by identifying himself with the town of Siyu. At that time, little did I realise that I should have probably called myself a Mvita, or a person from Mvita, the earliest known name of Mombasa town.

Founding rituals

When a Swahili town like Parte, Lamu, Mombasa or others is founded, certain and different rituals are carried out. Allen (1993) explains that the founding of a settlement was perceived as a special act, no doubt accompanied by appropriate rituals and

68 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu sacrifices." Allen explains these rituals as the presentation of gifts to the local elders or chiefs in exchange of a piece of land, whereby, later, a Swahili town would be founded. According to the Kilwa Chronicles, the town of Kilwa was founded by Persians, who bought the island with coloured clothing that encircled the island:

They (the Persians) asked the Muslim (who the Persians had met) about the country and he replied: The island is ruled by an infidel from Muli, who is king of it; he has gone to Muli to hunt, but will soon return. After a few days the infidel returned from Muli and crossed to the island at low tide. The newcomer and he met together, and Muriri (the Muslim guide of the Persians) acted as interpreter. The newcomer to Kilwa said: I should like to settle on the island: pray sell it to me that I may do so. The infidel answered: I will sell it on condition that you encircle the island with coloured clothing. The newcomer agreed with the infidel and bought on the condition stipulated. He encircled the island with clothing, some white, some black, and every other colour beside. So the infidel agreed and took away all the clothing, handing over the island and departing to Muli.139

Similarly, according to the Parte Chronicles, Syrians who came to settle in Parte, were able to do so after presenting gifts to the chief and all the people of Parte. It was then that the goodness of the newcomers was recognized. For example, the chief of Parte offered his daughter in marriage. The Parte Chronicle details the founding rituals of Parte and states: so he remained in Parte with his people for he had arrived with many men and ships and much wealth. Presently they sent gifts to the chief of Pate and to every big man in Pate they made a present, and even to the small men of the town they gave goods. Then the people, both great and small, perceived the goodness of the Sultan who had come from Maskat. After this he went to Is- hak, the chief of Pate, and asked for his daughter in marriage, and Is-hak gave him his daughter and he married her, and he rested with her the seven days of honeymoon. On the seventh day he came forth and went to see his father-in-law. When he came Is-hak said to him, 'your marriage portion is the kingdom ofPate'.140

138 Ibid. 13 9 Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Select Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century, 36-37. 140 Tolmacheva, ed., The Pate Chronicle. 69 Chapter Three — The Swahili town ofLamu As is common with Swahili tradition, after seven days of the marriage, the son-in-law of the chief of Patte was given the kingdom of Patte to rule.141

The founding of the town of Lamu at Wiyoni to the north is also attributed to symbolic meaning rather than physical determinism of the site or climatic conditions. The act of founding a Swahili settlement or mji was an important act, naturally included special rituals and symbolic actions.

When the Arabs from Syria came to Lamu, they probably did not undertake the rituals and sacrifices pertaining to the founding of Swahili towns, as they did not know that a local town already existed at Wiyoni to the north. The people of Weyuni engaged the newcomers in fighting for many days for their existence and the right to settle at Hedabu to the south. War trickery was used by the Arab newcomers to defeat the original inhabitants into settling for peace. According to Lamu Chronicles, after this defeat, the original inhabitants at Weyuni were not allowed to build defences or to put on footwear.

Allen's (1993) argument that Swahili towns began as sacred enclosures holds more weight than suggestions by archaeologists that Swahili towns were determined by the physical aspects of the site and climatic conditions.142 Only the 'permanent' stone houses of the patricians were incorporated into these sacred enclosures. The impermanent houses of 'outsiders' were not built within these enclosures and were not part of these 'sacred enclosures' containing the patricians' houses. The position of the first setting of Lamu town, the rectangular walled quality of the town, the forcing of the defeated to walk barefooted within Lamu town and the sacred ritual of Zinguo la mui or town-cleansing are further pointers to support the argument that Swahili towns like Lamu began as sacred enclosures.

141 Ibid., 243. 142 Allen, Swahili Origins: Swahili Culture and the Shungwaya Phenomenon, 220.

70 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu Orientation

Lamu town started to grow at Wiyoni to the north. This is evident from the Khabar-al- Lamu. The inhabitants and founders of the Swahili town of Lamu were Muslims, after having converted from ancestral worship. The town of Lamu and the houses are orientated to the north, where the or the holy black stone in Mecca is positioned. The Kaaba in Mecca is considered by Muslims all over the world as the axis mundi or the centre of the universe and is where Muslims face or turn to when performing their prayers. The north as a direction point is considered by the Waswahili as sacred. The Swahili town, the Swahili house and even Swahili furniture are oriented having the North direction in mind. By orienting the town to the North, the sacredness of Lamu is further enhanced. Mombasa town, which was originally called Kongowea, was located on the north mainland. It is widely believed, and the Mombasa Chronicles and oral history have testified to this, that Mombasa town began in the north and not in the present Old Town located at the eastern centre of the town. The Old Town of Mombasa actually grew and took the shape it has today, after the Portuguese constructed the Fort Jesus to protect their interests.

Recently, during the course of my research, I sat in a mosque, in Mombasa Old Town, reading the Koran. I stretched my legs towards the Kiblah (the direction of Mecca vis-a­ vis the north). I did this purposely, even though when I was young, I was always forbidden by my grandparents and parents to stretch my legs facing Mecca. So, while reading the Koran with my legs stretched towards Mecca, a man in his thirties interrupted my reading and asked me to fold my legs or turn to another direction so that my stretched legs would not be facing the north or towards Mecca. I asked him why would I want to do that and he told me that I was committing a sin and abusing the holy black stone of Kaaba by stretching my legs to that direction. A staunch Muslim myself, I reminded the person that the prophet Mohamed talked to the Kaaba and told it that it was just a black stone, even though I knew what the man would tell me. True to my thoughts, the man told me that the prophet Mohamed also told the Kaaba that had it not been sanctified by God, it would have remained what it is - a big black stone. It is this sanctification that

71 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu makes the Kaaba a sacred stone and it is where Muslims all over the world turn their directions to and offer their prayers. After this small discussion, I had to fold my legs and continue reading the Koran with my legs folded. Never in my mind had I thought that in this second millennium, the action of stretching my legs towards the direction of Mecca would be considered heresy or makruh.m This personal experience shows just how sacred the North direction is to the Waswahili, as it is this North direction that they turn to when facing Mecca and performing their prayers. Only what is sacred is oriented towards the North. Anything non-sacred or profane, if turned towards the North is considered blasphemous. This explains the first setting of Lamu town at Wiyoni and reflects the sacredness of Lamu town, as argued by Allen (1993).144

City walls

Lamu town, like other Swahili towns, was a walled city. Mombasa, for example, had a walled area that the Portuguese built (16th/17th century) for their own protection as their rule over the Waswahili was met with hostilities. The walled area covered much of what is now known as the Old Town or Kibokoni, which is the name of the Mtaa or ward of Old Town. The last remnant of the wall was recently demolished when a chain of local supermarkets constructed a new supermarket near Likoni area, to the south of Mombasa island.

Horton and Middleton (2000) note that the walls in Swahili towns like Patte and Gede expressed social relationships while dividing the towns into moieties.145 The moieties, according to Horton and Middleton (2000) signified the patricians' settlement or the Mtaa wa Waungwana and the commoners' settlement or the Mtaa wa Washenzi.

The separation of the 'Arab' section from the 'African' section of a Swahili town is evident in Gede where the existence of an inner wall signifies the more elite 'Arab' town

143 Makruh is a Swahili word taken from the Arabic language and stands for an act shunned by Islam. 144 Allen, Swahili Origins: Swahili Culture and the Shungwaya Phenomenon, 220. 145 Horton and Middleton, The Swahili: The Social Landscape of a Mercantile Society, 121-22. 72 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu and the outer wall marked the 'African' section of the town. The 'Africans' were thought to be impure, because they could not speak Arabic and did not know Islam well and, therefore, had to be kept out of the inner part of the town.

Linda Donley-Reid (1988)146 provides a social meaning rather than a defensive mechanism for the city walls in Swahili towns, noting that "Swahili city walls were certainly a major device for the marking of social boundaries, perhaps more so than they were effective for defence purposes," and that "the clear division of Swahili towns into distinct divisions of living quarters was purely intentional and symbolic in nature."

Figure 11. Remains of Parte town wall

146 Donley-Reid, "The Social Uses of Swahili Space and Objects".

73 Chapter Three - The Swahili town ofLamu Linda Donley-Reid (1988) noted this as the walls that surrounded Swahih towns like Lamu, Mombasa and Gede were not strong enough or even high enough to withstand mortar shelling or even bullets form European colonialists, who had superior ammunition than the Waswahili. The Waswahili, especially of Lamu, have two distinct cultural backgrounds: African and Arab backgrounds. There are those who consider themselves more Arab than African and those who are considered more African than Arab. Those who consider themselves more Arabs are the ruling class who, in turn, consider the ruled as more African than Arab. 'Arab-ness' was and still is considered more 'pure' and 'pious' than 'African-ness'. The walls constructed in Swahili towns like Lamu were boundaries that separated the 'Arab' section of the town from the 'African' section of the town. The 'Arab' section was considered 'pure' and had to be separated from the 'impure' section of the 'African' town. This dichotomous separation is not only marked by the construction of the town walls, but also by the character and construction of the buildings within these two different sections of Lamu town.

The Waswahili have two important sayings on Ukuta or wall. One of the saying Usipoziba ufa utajenga ukuta which means that 'if you do not repair the crack, you will be forced to re-construct the wall' implies that the wall is used more for privacy reasons than anything else. The other saying, Mpiga ngumi ukuta huumiza mkonowe which means that 'one who boxes or fights a wall, just ends up hurting one's hand' implies that the wall is a solid artifact that is used for protection. However, in a comtemporary song from Zanzibar know as Umejuaje ikiwa si umbeya which means 'how did you know if you were not curious' has a verse that says Milango uliyofunga gonga misumari fanya ukuta ujenge piya weka mtu wa kuchunga utaniona kusonga sasa Mungu kanifunguliya which means 'the doors that you have closed, you should also nail them, construct a wall and a column and even keep a watch-guard, but you will see me advance because God has opened everything.' This song and another contemporary song by Bhalo that says Nyumba imengiya moto makuti imesaliya which means that 'the house has caught fire, but the palm thatch is safe from the fire and is the only house element remaining,' while

74 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu having intended meaning, derive this meaning form proverbs or poetry that mention architectural elements 147

The apparent meaning attached to the above poetry may help us understand the intrinsic meaning of walls and whether they were intended for defensive purposes or for social segregation and divisions. Swahili town walls, even though not strong enough to withhold attack form enemies, may have, to some extent, served to protect the inhabitants living within the interior of the walled towns. The city walls could also have served as a separating element between the inner walled Waungwana and the outer walled Washenzi. I argue that the walls were 'sacred' enclosures that 'spiritually' protected the Waswahili walled in the interior of the Swahili towns. Talismans containing Koranic verses were

147 The full song, whose poem was written by Ahmad Nassir Juma Bhalo says:

Nakipiga kigogoto, ajabu imetokeya I am informing you of the amazing wonder Nimeiona kwa mato, si kwamba nimesikiya I saw it with my eyes, not something that I heard Nyumba imengiya moto, makuti yakasaliya 1 The house has caught fire, what remains is the palm thatch roof. 1

Ajabu hini ni mwanzo, mjini kutokezeya This is the first time that this wonder has occurred in town Kutoka karne hizo, bado haijatokeya Since those past centuries, this has never happened Moto kushika viguzo, makautiyakasaliya....2 That the columns caught fire, but the palm thatch roof remains....2

Musidhani ni uwongo, haya nnayowambiya Do not think I am lying by saying this Laliporomoka dongo, moto ulipoingiya The whole walls fell down when it caught fire Ikaunguwa milango, makuti yakasaliya.... 3 The doors caught fire, but the palm thatch roof remains 3

Moto umenitekesha, nilipoutokezeya The fire amused me when it occurred Ukanistaajabisha, kimako kayamakiya The fire also amazed and bewildered me Yaliwaka madirisha, makuti yakasaliya ....4 The windows caught fire, but the palm thatch roof remains 4

Musidhani ni dhihaka, haya nnayowaambiya Do not think I am joking by telling you this Wallahi nimegutuka, nilipoutokezeya I swear upon God I was shocked when this happened Pau zote yaliwaka, makuti yakasaliya 5 The rafters caught fire, but the palm thatch roof remains....5

Nimepiga kibafute, mkono nimewafumbiya I have give you a riddle which I shall not give you an answer Fumbuwani pia nyote, malenga mwalotimiya The riddle is for all ye distinguished poets to solve Nyumba iliwakyote, makuti yakasaliya 6 The whole house caught fire, but not the palm thatch roof.....6

75 Chapter Three - The Swahili town ofLamu buried under the city walls to protect the inhabitants from attackers that included attackers form other Swahili city-states or other African tribes like the Wa-Galla and the Wa-Zimba who were believed to be cannibals. Zein (1992) explains how at one time Patte town was under imminent attack from the Wa-Galla:

The people of Patta went to Hadramut (Yemen), to ask Sheikh Abu Bakr ibn Salim, the Sharif ancestor of the Husein family, for help. The sheikh agreed to assist them, and sent his son's son Shikhan ibn Hussein to Patta. When Shikhan arrived, he wrote verses of the Quran on a aslip of paper, took some pieces of his father's flag, and asked the Patta people to bury both these two things near a shallow place. When this was done, the sea grew deeper and the island moved farther from the mainland. The people of Patta were safe and the Galla were unable to attack.148

The Koran notes the metaphoric function of the wall:

On the day when the hypocrites, men and women, will say to those who believe: Wait for us, that we may borrow from your light. It will be said: Turn back and seek a light. Then a wall, with a door in it, will be raised between them. Within it shall be mercy, and outside of it chastisement.149

Waswahili, as a group of people, are not known for being great builders of defensive city walls. Patte, to this very day, has no experienced masons. This is true also for many former Swahili city-states. It is only from Lamu that great builders originated. Even today, when there is any construction or renovation works that need to be undertaken in Patte, Siyu, Mombasa or even Zanzibar, the Mafundi or masons of Lamu would be the ones to be called to undertake such works. Even the house walls built by the Mafundi, even though thick in width, are not strong enough to withstand ammunition attack.

1 8 Zein, The Sacred Meadows: A Structural Analysis of Religious Symbolism in an East African Town, 36- 37. 149 Koran, English, Chapter 57: Verse 13. 76 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu Social divisions

An important feature of the Swahili town is its division into two distinct features: the 'patricians,' or the civilized, known as Waungwana town and the commoners,' or the less civilized Washenzi town. Mark Horton and John Middleton (2000) talk of this distinct feature of Swahili towns:

Patricians' towns are compact settlements of densely built-up streets and alleys. The houses (of one or two storeys) are constructed in coral rag, bonded in lime mortar (although sometimes with mud added), with poles supporting flat stone ceilings and roofs. If properly whitewashed and kept in repair (including the replacement of the ceiling beams every thirty years or so) such a house can last for many generations. There are some houses still occupied in Lamu which date to the eighteenth century. These houses are far from being mere shelters; they are symbolically complex structures, centers of urban living and moral purity set apart from the dirt and impurity of the town outside. 15°

Even though it defies easy categorisation, Lamu town has two distinguishable areas; Mkomani and Langoni. Mkomani is what is now known as the Stone town of Lamu. This area is located towards the north of Lamu, bounded by the Indian Ocean to the East and the farmlands to the West. It is here at Mkomani where the historic buildings constructed of stone still exist. The inhabitants of Mkomani consider themselves as the elite and the ruling class and associate themselves with more 'Arab-ness' than 'African-ness' and are the original inhabitants of Lamu town.

The dichotomous identity of the Waswahili - Arab and African - is also evident in the planning of their towns. This dichotomous nature of the Waswahili is also evident in their language, Kiswahili. In an unwritten poem, Ahmad Nassir Juma Bhalo highlights this dichotomony in his poem:151

50 Horton and Middleton, The Swahili: The Social Landscape of a Mercantile Society, 123-24. 151 This is an unpublished poem by Ahmad Nassir Juma Bhalo. However, this poem was sung by his younger brother Mohamed Khamis Juma Bhalo, a famous Swahili singer. 77 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu Usilaumu duniya, lilaumu kosa lako Mambo si namna moya, tumiya ubongo wako Kama mangi ni mabaya, na mazuri piya yako Hakuna lisokuwako wala ambalo ni geni 1

Ukilaumu maovu, sifu mema yaliyoko Kama kuna matukivu, na mapenzi piya yako Na kama kuna watovu, na wenye kupata wako Hakuna lisokuwako wala ambalo ni geni 2

'Sione moja na mbili, na tatu na n 'ne iko Kama kuna ya batili, na ya haki piya yako Na kama kuna ya ghali, na vilo rahisi viko Hakuna lisokuwako wala ambalo ni geni 3

Pimato utafakuri, ujuze nafusi yako Kama kuna ovu zuri, zuri ovupiya liko Kama wako wasokiri, na wenye kukiri wako Hakuna lisokuwako wala ambalo ni geni 4

Yafumbuwe mafumbifu, uone kwa mato yako Kama kuna dogo refu, kubwa fupi piya liko Na kama kuna vipofu, na wenye kuona wako Hakuna lisokuwako wala ambalo ni geni 5

Natondowa kwa utungo, tuliza sikiyo lako Kama wako wenye tongo, na walo na vyamba wako Na kama kuna u 'ongo, na ukweli piya uko Hakuna lisokuwako wala ambalo ni geni 6

Uliza wakujuzeto, wajuwao yaliyoko Kama kuna ufuketo, na ukwasi piya uko Na kama kuna mazito, na mepesi piya yako Hakuna lisokuwako wala ambalo ni geni 7

Sione juzi najana, na leyo na kesho iko Kama kuna kutendana, kulipana piya kuko Na kama kuna kununa, na uteshi piya uko Hakuna lisokuwako wala ambalo ni geni 8

Sione mbele na nyuma, najuu na tini iko Kama kuna wasosema, na waneni piya wako Na kama kuna uzima, na uwele piya uko Hakuna lisokuwako wala ambalo ni geni 9

Chapter Three - The Swahili town ofLamu Kama mangijuu na ti, yaliyoumbwa kuwako Kamayalo (yako) tafauti, na yalofanana yako Nawe pima utafiti, utokako na wendako Hakuna lisokuwako wala ambalo ni geni 10

Hapa tafunga shairi, yangabaki yaliyoko Jina langu mashuhuri, utandu hadi ukoko Ni Ahmadi Nassiri, wajulishe na wenzako, Hakuna lisokuwako wala ambalo ni geni 11

Do not blame the world, just blame your own mistakes Things are not straightforward, use your brains If there are many evil things, there are also good things around There is nothing new in this world 1

If you blame evil, you should also praise the good If there is hatred, love is also present If there are people who lack things, there are also people who possess things There is nothing new in this world 2

Do not see one and two, but also know there is three and four If there is injustice, there also exists justice If there are expensive things, cheap things also exist There is nothing new in this world 3

Think hard and inform your soul If there is an evil good, a good evil also exists If there are deniers, in this world there also exist acceptors There is nothing new in this world 4

Open your eyes and see for yourself If there is a small length, there is also big width If there exist blind people, there are those who can see There is nothing new in this world 5

I pick my words so lend me your ears If there are those whose eyes are covered, there are also those with sharp eyes If lies exist, so does truth There is nothing new in this world 6

Ask and be informed by those who know If there is hardship, there is also luxury If there are heavy things, there also exist light things There is nothing new in this world 7

Chapter Three — The Swahili town ofLamu Do not just see yesterday and day before, there also exists today and tomorrow If there is revenge, there is also forgiveness If there is anger, laughter also exists There is nothing new in this world 8

Do not see forward and the rear, there is also up and down If there people who do not speak, there are also chatterboxes If health exists, so does illness There is nothing new in this world 9

There are many things in the world that are created If there are differences, there are also similarities You should think and weigh your thoughts about where you were and where you are now There is nothing new in this world 10

I will end my poem here even though I have a lot more to say My name is famous, I am know inside and outside My name is Ahmad Nassir, inform your friends too There is nothing new in this world 11

Dichotomy exists in the Swahili language which also shows up in the identity of the Waswahili and further reflected in their spatial planning as will be seen in the next section the the architecture of the Mitaa or wards.

Figure 12. Daka (entry porch) and Kitoto (winding alley) 80 Chapter Three - The Swahili town ofLamu Figure 13. Kitoto (winding alley) and Wikio (bridge room)

Langoni is the section towards the south of Lamu that grew form Hedabu hill as mentioned in Khabar-al-Lamu. This is the area where 'newcomers' or 'strangers' or Wageni constructed their homes. The 'newcomers' came from the other islands within the Lamu archipelago. These people also came from the mainland where they used to practise agriculture until the time when they were displaced around 1960s by Somali bandits who terrorised areas bordering Kenya and Somalia. Langoni grew considerably around this time and, occupied by these immigrants, the area grew informally and un­ planned. The houses are mainly constructed of mud and thatch, although after the great fire in 1982 in which many houses in Langoni were burnt down, the houses were re­ constructed with coral stone blocks and corrugated iron sheets.

There are two other distinct areas in Lamu worth mentioning. Gardeni is the area towards the west of Lamu town on the other side of the sand dune on which Lamu stands. This area is on farmlands that have been sub-divided and mud-and-thatch houses constructed on un-planned plots. These mud-and-thatch houses, unlike the stone houses of Mkomani are treated as 'temporary' structures. Sprawling towards the southern end of Lamu towards the town of Shela and the giant sand dunes are even newer towns like Kashmiri and Bombay. These two towns, like Gardeni, are constructed of mud-and-thatch houses

81 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu constructed on plots that have been sub-divided from farmlands. However, unlike o Gardeni which has been in existence for over three decades, Kashmiri and Bombay, grew just over the last decade.

Figure 14. New Mtaa of Kashmiri

*Cr-£Bgt3a *m»tmmi

Figure 15. Mud and thatch houses of Kashmiri u 82 Chapter Three - The Swahili town ofLamu The architecture of the 'Mitaa'

Mkomani, Langoni, Gardeni, Kashmiri and Bombay are called Mitaa (sing. Mtaa). Mitaa are imaginary territories or districts or wards within Swahili towns which local inhabitants associate themselves to. These Mitaa had two interesting and notable features. Firstly, even though Mitaa are in specific geographic settings, they are socially defined, rather than contained in geographic boundaries. No specific boundaries exist between different Mitaa, but are rather defined by clan lineages. Clans constructed their houses closely knit together around a nucleus; the nucleus of the Mtaa belonging to the headman of that particular Mtaa. These Mitaa grew in size and created smaller Mitaa or sub-Mitaa. Secondly, the naming of these Mitaa is an important aspect of Swahili towns. Mitaa are named after events or specific landmarks.

Mkomani, which is the Mtaa where the patricians or the ruling elites of Lamu have set up their homes, derived its name from an Mkoma or a palm tree whose fruits, even though sometimes eaten, are mostly fermented into a local alcoholic brew; forbidden for consumption in Islam. It is possible that this Mkoma or palm tree existed near Wiyoni, where Lamu originated. Within Mkomani itself, several Mitaa have sprung up. Mtaa muini or the 'downtown' area of Lamu, is where most of the historic buildings are found, including the oldest mosques recorded in Lamu, constructed in seventeenth century and known as Msikiti wa Pwani, or the mosque at the seashore. El-Zein (1974) noted that Mtaa muini in archaic Swahili meant the 'possessors of the town', meaning that the original inhabitants of Lamu live at Mtaa muini.l52

Archaeological and photographic evidence has shown that the littoral of the Indian Ocean actually reached the walls of Msikiti wa Pwani, before land was reclaimed in the early nineteenth century. Mkomani has over a dozen different sub-Mitaa which have also derived their names from certain events that have happened or are associated with certain landmarks peculiar to that particular sub-Mtaa. Just naming a few and looking at the meanings and how the names were derived is a further indication that Swahili Mitaa are

152 Zein, The Sacred Meadows: A Structural Analysis of Religious Symbolism in an East African Town, 13. 83 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu not just named in a haphazard manner, but are rather named after events or landmarks. Utukuni (market area), Kitendetini (the little dates tree), Kinooni (knife-sharpening stone or whetstone), Tundani (secret-revealing area), Mlimani (on the hill) need no further explanation on how they derived their names. Even the Mitaa located outside the original stone town of Lamu have similar qualities in their names. Langoni (entry point from the ocean), Gardeni (the garden area or the farmlands), Kashmiri (controversial ownership of the farm and derived from Kashmir, a city along the Pakistan and Indian borders) and Bombay (derived from the Indian city of Bombay, otherwise now known as Mumbai). Langoni. Kashmiri, Gardeni and Bombay are not the main subjects of research as the built environment of mud-and thatch houses were constructed less than three decades ago, but it is worth noting that these Mitaa also had sub-Mitaa, in much the same way as Mkomani.

Allen (1993) categorised Swahili Mitaa into three; firstly, patrician Mitaa belonging to inhabitants with Arab descent whose houses were constructed of stone, secondly, commoners' Mitaa where households are bound by cultural, linguistic or other reasons and whose houses were constructed according to the customs of peoples of different origins and, thirdly, Mitaa occupied by Swahili refugees whose houses would be either constructed of stone or of mud-and-thatch.153 Allen (1993) goes on further to describe the political set-up of Swahili Mitaa, which I shall not develop. However, I will look at the architectural and townplanning aspects of these Mitaa systems, especially pertaining to Mkomani area or the original and historic stone town of Lamu.

The Mitaa are a complex spatial web of houses, streets, communal spaces and religious buildings and is not easily understood, even by professionals in the field of architecture and urban planning. A Mtaa would be conceived of by one member of a clan or household constructing a house and other members of the clan later constructing their houses around this first house. These houses would form a nucleus around the first house to be built and the owner of the first house to be constructed would be the headman of that particular Mtaa. This headman would be consulted on many cultural, religious, social

153 Allen, Swahili Origins: Swahili Culture and the Shungwaya Phenomenon, 222-23. 84 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu or economic issues, arising within that particular Mtaa. Similarly, another clan would have its headman construct a house and other members of the other clan constructing their house around the headman's.

The boundaries of these Mitaa are impossible to delineate by any 'outsider' not living in these Mitaa. Only a resident of that Mtaa or a neighbouring Mtaa is able to manoeuvre his or her way through the different Mitaa. The streets and the spaces between the houses are arranged in such a way that only a local inhabitant is able to find his or her way around. Architects have explained the functionality aspect of the narrow and winding streets of Lamu, noting that "the streets had to be wide enough to allow passage for a loaded donkey and have sufficient slope to keep the open drain system functioning."15 Other researchers have noted that the narrow Lamu streets were planned as a protection against harsh sunlight and the winding alleys were created to obtain vistas to the Indian Ocean. While these arguments may be valid, the reasons forwarded by these 'Western' researchers are geared towards the amplification of 'physical determinism' as coined by Rapoport (1993).155 To understand an 'emic' explanation, I will give a narrative of an incident that happened more than twenty years back; long before I had even thought of undertaking this research. Back in the late 1970s, there used to be a lot of swoops or arbitrary arrests by police to flush out suspected criminals. Once the suspected criminals were arrested, they would be paraded from wherever they were arrested and taken to the Central Police Station, which is located in the heart of Mombasa Old Town. As an inhabitant of Mombasa Old Town, and due to the heat and humidity, I would sit outside with my friends, talking and watching the ongoing activities. We would see scores of suspected criminals being taken to the Central Police Station. On reaching the boundary of Mombasa old Town, many of these suspected criminals looked for ways to escape from police custody. Anybody who was an inhabitant of Mombasa Old Town and had been arrested would escape by running into the heart of Mombasa Old Town. This they did because they knew the Old Town very well and were sure of not being caught by the policemen chasing after them. Even the police would not join in chasing the runaways, as

Siravo and Pulver, Planning Lamu: Conservation of an East African Seaport, 39. Rapoport, House Form and Culture. 85 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu they knew that it was a futile attempt. On the contrary, anybody who was not an Old Town resident and who tried to emulate the Old Town escapees would run himself into problems and would be caught as the policemen would definitely give chase, knowing that it would be easy to re-arrest these non-Old-Town residents. My friends and I used to see this happening on an almost daily basis. We were still at high school and we never asked ourselves why the Old Town escapees would never be caught while the others would be re-arrested in just a matter of a few minutes. One day, we entered into a serious discussion about these 'escapes' and an old man commented that the police would never be able to re-arrest any Old Town residents, because the streets and alleys of the Old Town were designed by the ancestors as 'escape routes' form hostile Western forces. This old man was probably my first informant for this particular study that I am now undertaking. Ever since then, I have been interested in the structure, the architecture and the planning of Swahili old towns. Several planning issues can be learned from these police arrests and the 'great escapes,' by suspected Old Town residents.

The above narrative provides several insights into the way the Mitaa in Swahili towns were planned by the original inhabitants. The streets and alleyways of the Mitaa are spatially arranged in such a way that strangers are easily noticeable whenever they enter the Mitaa, in that they would never be able to weave their way around. Inhabitants of the different Mitaa knew each other. Even inhabitants from the other Mitaa are easily recognizable whenever they pass through the different Mitaa as they easily meander their way through. However, this is not easy for strangers who would either lose their way or hesitate or even ask for direction from the inhabitants of the Mitaa. The understanding of the plan of the Swahili Mitaa is imperative for one to find one's way and explains why the non-Old-Town residents as mentioned in the above narrative could never escape police custody and would easily be caught after trying to escape because they just could not find their way through the intricate web of streets and alleys. Whenever the escapees from the police arrests were re-captured, it was always due to not being able to find their way from one alley to the other and would finally end up in police capture. The understanding of the nature of alleys in Swahili Mitaa has an added dimension: security. Inhabitants of the different Mitaa become extra vigilant whenever they notice strangers

86 Chapter Three - The Swahili town ofLamu passing within their neighbourhoods and this vigilance helps to maintain what is known as 'neighbourhood watch' in Western cities.

Streets in the Swahili Mitaa never had and still do not have dead-ends or, in other words, cul-de-sacs. One alley leads to another and then to the next, forming an intricate labyrinth. The non-existence of cul-de-sacs is more pronounced in Lamu. To date, a few alleys have been closed in Lamu, but the number does not surpass four or five. The closure of these alleys, or zitoto (sing, kitoto), as they are known in Lamu, has been mainly done by institutions like churches and mosques. No individual has had the audacity to close the free-flowing zitoto in Lamu; otherwise they would incur the Laana or curse of the community. Even the streets that have been closed by the churches and mosques have caused controversy, several years after their closure. Lamu inhabitants are not comfortable with cul-de-sacs and dead ends and resist any attempt by individuals to seal off the zitoto. Touching again on the narrative of the police arrests and the dramatic escapes of the suspected criminals, I wish to highlight the discussion that we had with the old man who explained to me that the alleys or zitoto were planned as escape routes. This is the most logical explanation of the nature and quality of the zitoto, unlike what Western architects and archaeologists have made us believe that the alleys were for protection against the harsh climatic conditions prevailing in Swahili towns. As the Swahili saying goes usimpe mzuka kitoto or 'do not give a stupid person a street to run away' or, in other words, implying that the streets are for escape routes and nothing else. These explanations bring to mind what Martin Packer (1985) said;

The professional mapmaker must regard a city as merely a juxtaposition of physical objects. For its inhabitants, it is a system of possibilities and resources, frustrations and obstacles, and two people will find both commonalities and differences in their accounts of it.156

Packer, "Hermeneutics Inquiry in the Study of Human Conduct," 1091-92. 87 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu Public rituals: Zinsuo and Maulidi

Swahili Mitaa are also interconnected with, and given meaning by, public rituals that happen within the boundaries of the Mitaa. The ritual life in the Mitaa is what gives architectural meaning to, and helps us understand, the way Swahili city-states were originally designed. Two public rituals are most important to the people of Lamu; the Zinguo and the Maulidi. The Zinguo, also sometimes called Hitima ya Mui or funeral rites of the city, occurs once a year to celebrate the beginning of the Swahili New Year, although it also takes place during certain periods of crisis within the community, for example, during times of disease outbreaks or un-explained deaths or droughts. The Maulidi also occurs once a year to celebrate the birthday of Prophet Mohamed and is probably the most well-attended public ritual in Lamu. Today, it is what has given Lamu prominence not only in East Africa, but also in Arabia, India and Persia.

Zinguo

The Zinguo or 'the circulation of the bull around the town,' occurs in different contexts - the major one being the celebration of the Swahili New Year, also known as Nairouz.157 The Nairouz, or the Siku ya Mwaka, as it is known in Mombasa, celebrates the Solar New Year. The Zinguo also takes place during catastrophes or calamities affecting the Swahili town. The Zinguo is practised mainly in Lamu, although, recently, there have been efforts to revive the ritual in Mombasa. Allen (1993) and El-Zein (1974) explain the Zinguo in two different ways.158 Allen (1993) notes that the Zinguo occurs to purify the Swahili settlement and "to keep evil (bad spirits) out of it, and to retain purity or goodness (friendly spirits) within it."159 On the other hand, El-Zein (1974) notes that the Zinguo is a ritual of "defining the town and of classifying its inhabitants...the definition of town

157 Nairouz is a Persian word that refers to the New Year celebrations which still stakes place in Persia or Iran, as it is know today. 158 Zein, The Sacred Meadows: A Structural Analysis of Religious Symbolism in an East African Town, 281. 159 Allen, Swahili Origins: Swahili Culture and the Shungwaya Phenomenon, 230. 88 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu centres around basic ideas of purity and impurity... " Both of these explanations help to understand the intrinsic meaning of the Swahili settlement. Before delving further into understanding the connection between the Zinguo ritual and the Swahili settlement, it is important to provide a short description of the ritual itself.

Zinguo is the ritual circumambulating of the Swahili town. The Swahili word Zinguo means to go round and round a stationary thing. This ritual takes place within the original boundaries of the Swahili town. In Lamu, the Zinguo occurs around the Mkomani Mtaa or the original stone town Mtaa. Even though the Zinguo ritual is done under the pretext of purifying the town by reciting Koranic verses, the action of tying a bull and leading it around the town is paganistic in nature, as this has no place in Islamic teachings. The procession follows the original boundary of the settlement and is led by a local partician leader holding and pulling a tied bull. Patricians dress themselves in various colourful Swahili regalia to emphasise the importance of this ritual. Allen (1993) traces this ritual to pre-Islamic days, when it was undertaken by ex-pastoralist patricians and which focused on the perimeter of the sacred central enclosure.161 The Zinguo encompasses the tying of the bull and the procession around the original boundary of the Swahili Mtaa and the ritual ends at the cemetery where the bull is slaughtered and a feast takes place. The bull itself is bought by communal contribution whereby each family makes a small payment towards the successful accomplishment of this communal ritual. The procession around the Mtaa follows a particular direction, generally, counter-clockwise. The procession itself, the direction that it takes, and the culmination of the Zinguo provide inner meaning to the Swahili settlement and the Mitaa.

Allen (1993) conjectures that "Zinguo rituals may have been among the earliest organised by the founders of Swahili settlements and designed to emphasise that in the new order, kinship units were subordinate to the /^//-community as a whole, and to impress one and all with the magical qualities of the new settlement."162 Connections can be made between the Zinguo and the Swahili settlement or, in particular, to the original Mtaa. In

160 Zein, The Sacred Meadows: A Structural Analysis of Religious Symbolism in an East African Town. 161 Allen, Swahili Origins: Swahili Culture and the Shungwaya Phenomenon, 231. 162 Ibid. 89 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu the case of Lamu, as noted above, the Zinguo takes place in Mkomani and is led by the Imam or religious leader of the Jumaa mosque or the Friday mosque. The Zinguo provides not only magical qualities to the original Mtaa as insinuated by Allen (1993), but also sanctifies and purifies it by reciting Koranic verses and invoking God's name in the ritual itself. Even though the Zinguo has African roots deeply inscribed, it is made purer by the recitation of Koranic verses during the procession. The magical quality and the sanctification of the original Mtaa, Mkomani, in turn, create awe and respect in the inhabitants living in other Mitaa of the Swahili settlement.

The Zinguo procession is a ritual that was used, and is still used, to cleanse the Mtaa of any calamities and hazards. It creates awe in the people participating or even watching it and creates in them more respect for the original boundaries of the Mtaa. The Zinguo, thus, is a ritual that creates and enhances the ruling power in the original inhabitants of a Swahili settlement. At the same time, while cleansing the town through recital of Koranic verses and the slaughtering of the bull, the Zinguo ritual provides sanctity to the earliest Mtaa of the Swahili town. The different Swahili city-states have historically been at war with each other as far back as in the 14th century. Whenever Lamu won the battles and took prisoners of war and even when refugees came to Lamu from other islands, they were not allowed to walk in the town with any foot-gear. Refugees, prisoners of war and slaves were supposed to walk barefoot whenever they entered the boundaries of Lamu. They were also supposed to perform ablution before entering the town, in much the same way as a Muslim does before entering the mosque or before performing prayers. This is because the original Lamu inhabitants considered themselves more Waungwana or civilised while the others were Washenzi or un-civilised. The Waungwana considered their original Mtaa of Mkomani as a sacred or sanctified Mtaa, not to be polluted by others who had low lineages or more connected to African-ness. This issue of the Washenzi, or the uncivilised walking barefoot in Lamu town and having to perform ablution before entering the boundaries of Lamu town, reminds us of Muslims having to enter a mosque barefooted and performing ablution or cleansing themselves before the performance of prayers. The Lamu inhabitants equated their original Mtaa to the mosque. As shall be seen with the Maulidi ritual or the celebration of Prophet Mohamed's

90 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu birthday, Lamu acquired the name Makka Toto or the 'small Mecca', in a way, equating Lamu to the sacred city of Mecca, although to a smaller extent. Even the direction that the Zinguo ritual takes is an indication of the sanctification of Lamu town to a high level, a rung or two below the Islamic Holy city of Mecca. The Zinguo procession proceeds in a counter-clockwise direction in much the same way as the Tawafox the circumambulation of the holy stone of Kaaba in Mecca. It has been found and widely believed by Muslims that the entire universe, atoms, the moon, the earth, the stars, the galaxies etc. are actually moving in the direction that the Tawaf takes, i.e. counter-clockwise. Since the Swahili New Year celebrates the Solar New Year, unlike the Islamic New Year that is linked to the lunar system, it may be said that the Zinguo has cosmic connections that, in turn, provide the orientation and design of the Swahili town. It may not be far-reaching to say the Swahili towns like Lamu and Mombasa have cosmic settings and the Zinguo is a reflection of such cosmic connections.

The culmination of the Zinguo is worth mentioning here as it can provide some understanding of the colours used in Swahili construction. After the bull is circulated within the Mtaa, the Zinguo procession leads to the cemetery where respects are paid to the dead by praying to God. The bull is then slaughtered after reciting some Koranic inscriptions and the meat is then communally eaten. However certain parts are not eaten. Allen (1993) notes that "in Mombasa the relevant organs are wrapped in red, white and black cloth and thrown into the sea; in Lamu the liver is thrown into trees and bushes outside the settlement, allegedly 'for the spirits.'"163 This action taken in the culmination of the Zinguo not only confirms the paganistic nature of the ritual, but also provides an insight into the colouring code used by the Waswahili in their daily life. This colouring code, red, white and black is commonly used in the construction of Swahili houses and even mosques. The significance of this colouring code will be dealt with further in Chapter 5 when I look at the Swahili house.

91 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu o

Figure 16. Celebrating the Arabic New Year

Figure 17. Use of camels to symbolise Islam

(J 92 Chapter Three - The Swahili town ofLamu Mauhdi

The Maulidi, or the celebration of the birthday of Prophet Mohamed, has totally different and even contrasting qualities as compared to the Zinguo. The Maulidi ritual takes place in Mfungo Sita, or the sixth month of the Islamic Calendar Year which, unlike the Zinguo, is based on the lunar system. Unlike the Zinguo ritual that takes place in Mkomani or the original stone town of Lamu, the Maulidi takes place at Langoni, or the area where Wageni or 'newcomers' reside. The Maulidi is carried out by the Masharifu who consider themselves as the descendants of Prophet Mohamed. El-Zein (1974)164 has undertaken an analysis of the structure of the religious system of the Masharifu and determined that the Masharifu originally came from the Comoro islands situated on the Indian Ocean. They are not the original inhabitants of Lamu town, which is why they settled in Langoni, the Mtaa where Wageni or 'newcomers' reside. The biggest Maulidi in Lamu takes place at Riyadha mosque in Langoni on the top of the sand dune on which Lamu was originally founded. Maulidi are also held in several other mosques in Lamu and even in other Swahili towns spread over the East African littoral. The Maulidi ritual is a solemn one and consists of three different aspects; the Zafa or the procession, the Maulidi recitation at Riyadha mosque, and the Ziyara or the 'visit' to the cemetery.

The Zafa or procession takes place before the Maulidi. The people of Lamu from both, Mkomani and Langoni, put on their best Swahili regalia and join the procession while reciting verses from the Koran and singing praises for Prophet Mohamed. Red, white and green flags with verses of the Koran are carried by those who join in the Zafa. While red and white colours are commonly use in Swahili attire and architecture (as will be explained later), the use of green is to depict Islam. It is commonly known that green as a colour is Islamic in nature. However, in the most recent Zafa that took place when I was in Lamu undertaking my fieldwork, the use of flags coloured in blue or orange was rampantly used. I could not find any explanation as to why the blue- and orange- coloured flags were used. Probably, there was a shortage of time and material and so the

164 Zein, The Sacred Meadows: A Structural Analysis of Religious Symbolism in an East African Town. 93 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu blue coloured flag replaced the green coloured ones and the orange-coloured flags replaced the red-coloured ones.

What is important for us in this procession is the area covered and direction that it takes. The Zafa procession happens in the evening and takes a clockwise direction passing along the main street or Usita wa Mui, and proceeding along the seafront promenade or the Usita wa Pwani.

The Maulidi recitation itself takes place inside the Riyadha mosque. Other mosques within Lamu also hold Maulidi on different days within the Mfungo Sita or the sixth month of the Islamic Lunar Calendar and known in Arabic as the month of Rabu-ul- Awal. The Maulidi recitation, which takes place in the evening, after the sunset, and lasts until midnight, involves the singing and praising of Prophet Mohamed and the recitation of verses from the Koran. The Maulidi ritual itself is Islamic in nature as nothing anti- Islamic seems to happen in the process. Within different sects of Muslims, the subject of whether Maulidi is Islamic or not is a controversial issue which I do not want to enter into as it does not impact on my research. Suffice to say, the Maulidi is a ritual in Lamu that is the most attended in the eastern coast of Africa.

The Ziyara of the visit to the cemetery takes place the day after the Maulidi. The members of the Masharifu community, who consider themselves as direct descendants of Prophet Mohamed, visit the cemetery to pay respects to the founder of the Maulidi and their ancestors. Other members of the Lamu society also join in this Ziyara. At the cemetery, some people ask for favours or for 'divine' intervention from the 'pious' ancestors of the Masharifu. This act is considered by the majority of Muslims as shirk in Islam or heresy, as it equates the dead with the Almighty God and puts them on the same level of hierarchy. Again, this is a controversial issue that I will not develop. What I intend to point out is the anomaly within the Swahili community, their culture and their religious practices. Even though the Maulidi is supposed to be a solemn and religious act, other activities that do not pertain to this take place. Cultural dances take place in the

94 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu open area outside the Riyadha mosque. To the Waswahili, especially to those living in o Lamu, very little differences separate culture and religion.

Figure 18. Maulidi Ziyara or procession

Figure 19. Maulidi Ziyara or procession at the cemetery \^f

95 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu How do these two rituals, i.e. Zinguo or the bull procession and the Maulidi of the celebration of the birth of Prophet Mohamed, tell us about the Waswahili and their culture and architecture? Swahili rituals have certain anomalies which make Swahili culture and architecture not easily comprehensible. Comparing the Zinguo and Maulidi rituals will shed more light towards understanding Swahili architecture because these are two very important activities undertaken by different groups of people in separate sections of Lamu town.

The recitation of Koranic verses during the Zinguo is an attempt to 'Islamise' the ritual and to brand it Halali. All other actions like the procession of the bull around the Mtaa or the throwing of various organs of the slaughtered bull are Haramu or forbidden within Islamic teachings. However, the direction of the 'bull procession,' which is counter­ clockwise in nature, has all the resemblances of the Islamic Tawaf or the circumambulation of the Kaaba or the 'black stone' of Mecca. The anomalous nature of the Zinguo is further amplified by the fact that this ritual takes place in Mkomani or the original Mtaa of Lamu whose inhabitants are patricians who claim Arab ancestry and are the Waungwana or the civilised members of the community. In the case of Lamu and even other Swahili communities, civility is equated to Arab-ness or a claim to better understanding of the Islamic religion and teachings.

On the other hand, the Maulidi is Islamic in nature as it celebrates the birthday of Prophet Mohamed. All aspects of the ritual like the location of the recitation, vis-a-vis the Riyadha mosque and the seating arrangement are undertaken in an Islamic way. Sacrilegious aspects of the Maulidi are the Ziyara or the paying of tributes to the dead, the playing of musical instruments like the flutes and the tambourines in the mosque during the Maulidi and the cultural dances that take place on the open ground outside the Riyadha mosque. These are rituals where the women and men congregate together; a taboo in Islamic teachings. The Ziyara procession takes the clockwise direction contrary to the direction of the Tawaf'o r the circumambulation of the Kaaba in Mecca. Probably, the choice of the direction is a result of the deep rivalry that the Masharifu have against

96 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu the Zijoho. In the process of this rivalry, the Masharifu have profaned the sacred ritual of the Maulidi. The Tawafox the circumambulation of the Kaaba in Mecca takes a counter­ clockwise direction. In other words, the circumambulation starts from the right hand. In Islam, The right hand is more important than the left hand which is why Muslims do righteous things with their right hand. The left hand is reserved for inferior activities. The Koran says:

That Day shall ye be brought to Judgment: not an act of yours that ye hide will be hidden. Then he that will be given his Record in his right hand will say: "Ah here! Read ye my Record! "I did really understand that my Account would (One Day) reach me!" And he will be in a life of Bliss, In a Garden on high, The Fruits whereof (will hang in bunches) low and near. "Eat ye and drink ye, with full satisfaction; because of the (good) that ye sent before you, in the days that are gone!" And he that will be given his Record in his left hand, will say: "Ah! Would that my Record had not been given to me! "And that I had never realised how my account (stood)! "Ah! Would that (Death) had made an end of me! "Of no profit to me has been my wealth! "My power has perished from me!"(The stern command will say): "Seize ye him, and bind ye him, "And burn ye him in the Blazing Fire.165

What is even more interesting is that the Maulidi ritual, which is Islamic in nature, is carried out in Langoni or the Mtaa of foreigners who are considered Washenzi or un­ civilised as they are considered more African than Arab and as having very little knowledge of Islamic teachings.

The anomalies and the oddities in the social behaviour of the Waswahili as exemplified in the Zinguo and Maulidi rituals have rendered it difficult to understand their culture and architecture. It is these anomalies and oddities in their behaviour that are factors contributing towards difficulty in studying the identity of the Waswahili, as explained earlier.

165 Koran, English, Chapter 69: Verses 18-31 97 Chapter Three - The Swahili town ofLamu The Zinguo ritual is an attempt by the Waungwana or the original inhabitants of Mkomani, the stone town Mtaa of Lamu, to sanctify the environment where they live and to protect it from 'evil' spirits who are known to haunt Swahili settlements. Without this 'sanctification' ritual, the Swahili settlement may be regarded as 'ordinary,' or purely 'profane'. The Zinguo ritual is probably a way to awe any visitors to Swahili settlements and to earn respect from outsiders. Even the strength of the coral houses built (to be discussed in later chapters) was meant to earn respect from foreign merchants from Arabia, India, China and other places of the world. Ibn Battuta, one of the greatest Muslim travellers, visited the African eastern coast littoral and commented that "Kilwa is one of the most beautiful and well-constructed towns of the world. The whole of it is elegantly built."166 The Swahili towns defied all explanations of spatial organization in terms of form and function. Donley-Reid (1988) noted that the Waungwana built for generations as they see their lineage as long-lasting and she writes that the Waungwana built with 'durable' materials to impress and dominate.167 According to Donley-Reid;

Swahili men are associated with things long-lasting: Islam, coral houses, 'deep lineage,' but all 'others' in varying degree are seen as not playing an active role in either the past or the future. Islam adds a great deal of unquestioned (godly) power to Swahili men because its practices are seen as having a long history and these practices are related to all daily and ritual activities. Time, space, object and practices are used for social purposes, primarily, if not solely, to create power, both over other individuals and resources.168

This strategy to impress was used by the Waswahili when trading with outsiders so that they could dominate the trade deals that took place. On the same note, the Zinguo is a ritual, not only for cleansing and sanctifying the Swahili settlement, but also for impressing visitors to the Swahili towns. The ritual is also used for domination purposes, in that all inhabitants participate in the procession and contribute towards the festivities. Inhabitants of all other Mitaa congregate in Lamu at the Friday mosque and take part in

166 Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Select Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century, 31. 167 Donley-Reid, "The Social Uses of Swahili Space and Objects". 168 Ibid. 98 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu the 'bull procession,' signifying the dominance of the Waungwana of Mkomani over the Washenzi of Langoni and other areas like Gardeni, Kashmiri and Bombay.

To counteract the dominance by the Waungwana, the Masharifu introduced the Maulidi and turned it into a religious ceremony. While the Zinguo is a ritual for sanctifying the original Mtaa, the Maulidi is a ritual for sanctifying the Masharifu sect of Lamu, who live around the Riyadha mosque in Langoni. There is great enmity between the inhabitants of these two Mitaa, with each Mtaa trying to gain dominance over the other. These differences are not only reflected in public rituals, but also in various competitions such as soccer matches and dhow races, where each Mtaa goes to great lengths to try and win the competitions and, thus, garner dominance over the other Mtaa. Each Mtaa would work hard and even engage in witchcraft and bribery in order to win the competitions.

Bruce Chatwin (1987), in his novel 'Songlines,' narrates the story of the Aborigines of Australia and their ritual of 'singing the world into existence' in the original sense of poiesis or 'creation'. The Aborigines sang the Ancestor's stanza without changing a word or note - and so recreated the Creation. Chatwin narrates:169

Aboriginals could not believe the country existed until they could see and sing it -just as, in the Dreamtime, the country had not existed until the ancestors sang it. "So the land", I said, "must first exist as a concept in the mind? Then it must be sung? Only then can it be said to exist?" "True." "In other words, 'to exist' is 'to be perceived'?" "Yes."

With respect to the Maulidi ritual in Lamu, as explained earlier, some cultural dances are held on the open ground outside the Riyadha mosque. For the Waswahili, religion and culture are compatible as Islam is not only a religion, but also a way of life. The open ground where this ritual takes place once year or, to be more specific, on the sixth month of the Arabic calendar or Mfungo Sita, belongs to private individuals of the Masharifu sect. Even with the growing pressure for development and the escalating price of land in

Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines (London, UK: Jonathan Cape, Ltd., 1987), 14. 99 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu Lamu, this open ground has neither been sold nor developed. Furthermore, this open area is swept on a daily basis and is probably the cleanest open area that can be found in Lamu. As this open area is where the Maulidi ritual takes place, it is seen as a sacred place that should neither be built on nor polluted at any moment in time. Selling this open area or building on it would not only invoke the wrath of the people of Lamu, but also of the Masharifu who claim ancestry to Prophet Mohamed. To build on this open area would be seen as blasphemy and no Mswahili would want to be associated with any blasphemous act or invoke the wrath of the Masharifu who were seen as the most pious members of the Lamu society. Angering the Masharifu is tantamount to the annoyance of the Prophet Mohamed due to the claim by the Masharifu of being the direct descendants of Prophet Mohamed.

Figure 20. Sacred open ground outside Riyadha mosque

100 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu Other new rituals

Aside from the two major Mitaa in Lamu, Mkomani and Langoni, and the new offshoot Mitaa of Kashmiri and Bombay, there is a section of Lamu worth mentioning as it forms a cohesive part of Lamu town. The Seafront Promenade or the Usita wa Pwani, cannot be categorised as an Mtaa as it is a strip of land running all the way from Mkomani to Langoni and even further south towards Sheila on the southern tip of Lamu island. The Usita wa Pwani is about 30 metres in width, but runs over 2 kilometres in length and is bordered by the Usita wa Mui or the main street on the western side and the Indian Ocean on the eastern side. This strip of land was reclaimed from the sea in the early 20th century and it is where merchants from India, Persia and Arabia built their mansions with veranda. The non-conformity of these verandah houses to the original houses in Lamu will be dealt with in Chapter Five. Photos dating back to the early 20th century are evidence that the Usita wa Pwani was part of the Indian Ocean. What is even more evident is that the Msikiti wa Pwani or the Mosque near the sea, was so named as the Indian Ocean touched the walls of this oldest mosque in Lamu. The Usita wa Pwani, due to its proximity to the Ocean, has mainly been and is still used for maritime activities. Boating and fishing activities take place on Usita wa Pwani on an almost 24-hour basis. Aside from the verandah buildings, the godowns and the bustle of activities at the Usita wa Pwani, there are some open areas that are of special interest. Most strips of plots belong to individuals while some are government-owned and others Wakf-ovmed or under mosque trust. What is interesting about these plots, especially the un-developed ones is the ritual activity taking place. The open plots on Usita wa Pwani, even though having ownership, have not been developed due to the rituals taking place at these open spots. These rituals are maritime-oriented rather than religious. Repairs of fishing nets, stitching of dhow sails, cutting of mangrove timber poles for construction purposes, storage of fish and dhow-building are but some of the maritime rituals taking place at Usita wa Pwani. These rituals can be seen taking place on a daily basis on open plots belonging to individuals, the government or to the Wakf trust. This is not to say that the owners of these open plots have no financial resources to develop them. Rather, the owners are reluctant to develop their own plots where such rituals take place as these

101 Chapter Three — The Swahili town of Lamu rituals are considered as communal ones and for the economic well-being of the Lamu o society. This has prompted the National Museums of Kenya to designate such open plots as protected areas where no development is allowed to take place. This is not to say that absolutely no development has taken place. There have been a couple of places where the owners have managed to construct buildings on such open plots where maritime rituals take place. Up to the present day, these owners are still incurring the wrath and curse of the community as they have deprived people of their livelihood and have contributed towards the demise of such important maritime rituals.

o 102 Chapter Three - The Swahili town of Lamu CHAPTER FOUR - COMMUNAL AREAS

Traditionally, over centuries, the Waswahili have been a 'conservative' society and difficult to infiltrate. The status of the Waswahili as middlemen between the African tribes in the hinterland of Eastern Africa and the traders from the outside world put them in a precarious position, which the Waswahili had to safeguard at all costs. In the fourteenth century, Ibn Battuta, while giving an account of his vast travels around the world, noted the people of eastern Africa would board the ships that docked in their ports and would then present some dish to the merchants on board before calling out aloud that the merchant was his guest. This merchant would then disembark the ship and would stay in his host's house, after which the host and the guest would embark on trade negotiations. "When a merchant has settled in his host's house, the latter sells for him what he has bought and makes his purchases for him. Buying anything from a merchant below its market price or selling anything except in his hosts presence, is disapproved of by the people of Mogadishu. They find it of advantage to keep to this rule."170

The house in a Swahili town was, and still is, a private place dedicated only to family use and other use that would enhance the standing of the owner of the house within the community. The Swahili house will be discussed in detail in the next chapter.

Communal meeting places or outdoor meeting areas of the Waswahili are the mosque - a religious institution - and the baraza. The Waswahili, especially the more traditional ones living in Lamu do not meet in cafes or any eating places. Being Muslims, the Waswahili also do not enter into bars or any places selling alcoholic beverages. Any negotiations or meetings or any leisure talks are either carried out inside or outside the mosque or on the baraza or the stone bench. It is a cultural taboo for the traditional Waswahili to be seen inside eating places; eating, drinking or even meeting someone. For a Mswahili, especially in Lamu, for a male to be seen inside an eating place would be a direct insult to his wife who would be seen as not feeding his beloved husband. Even more strange and

Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Select Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century, 28. 103 Chapter Four -Communal areas unacceptable would be to see a woman inside an eating place, as this would be a direct insult to the husband who would be seen as not looking properly after his wife. The social domain for the Mswahili woman is the house and this will be discussed in the next chapter. To the Mswahili man, the social domain is the mosque and the baraza.

The Mosque

Apart from the house, the mosque and the baraza are where the Mswahili man spends most of his free time. The mosque is where the Waswahili perform prayers five times a day; before sunrise, midday, late afternoon, just at sunset and early night. The Holy Koran says "And establish regular prayers at the two ends of the day and at the approaches of the night: for those things that are good remove those that are evil: be that 1 71 the word of remembrance to those who remember their Lord." The mosque is the central ritual space for the Waswahili. Hasan-Uddin Khan (1990) notes that the mosque "has become the organising nucleus for the planning and layout of new neighbourhoods in the rapidly growing cities of the Islamic world, often in an idealised re-creation of a traditional neighbourhood."172 In the Swahili cities, the mosque forms the nucleus of the Mtaa.

As Muslims, the Waswahili perform these sacred rituals on a daily basis and at set times. While in Islam, the prayer, or Salah, is a private undertaking of an individual Muslim to his God or Allah, it is better if undertaken communally in a mosque. Prayer is the Second Pillar of Islam, after the belief in the Oneness of God. Hasan-Uddin Khan (1990) goes on to note that "in the act of ritual prayer, the Muslim affirms individual belief in God. In the act of group player, the Muslim affirms his membership in the community of believers and recalls the first community (Ummah) of the Prophet Muhammad."173

Koran, English, Chapter 11: Verse 114. 172 Hasan-Uddin Khan, "The Architecture of the Mosque; an Overview and Design Direction," (paper presented at the Expressions of Islam in Buildings, Jakarta and Yogyakarta, Indonesia 15-19 October 1990). 173 "Expressions of Islam in Buildings: Proceedings of an International Seminar Sponsored by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and the Indonesian Institute of Architects", (paper presented at the 104 Chapter Four -Communal areas Before the performance of the prayers, Muslims have to abide by certain rituals such as ablution, appropriate dressing and the removal of footwear before entering the mosque. The Holy Koran continues to note:

O ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged, until ye can understand all that ye say - nor in a state of ceremonial impurity (except when travelling on the road), until after washing your whole body. If ye are ill, or on a journey, or one of you cometh from offices of nature, or ye have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for your selves clean sand or earth and rub therewith your faces and hands for God doth blot out sins and forgive again and again.174

The rituals undertaken before the performance of prayers are for the purification of the physical body, while the prayers are for the purification of the soul. It is, therefore, pertinent that a mosque should have an ablution place.

The mosques in Lamu look very much like houses, as they have no distinguishable features like or . The mosques in Lamu did not need to have minarets or domes for identification purposes as each Mtaa in Lamu has its own mosque, named after the Mtaa or the builder of the mosque. Everyone within the Mtaa or even residents of other Mitaa in Lamu knew where the mosques were located. Sometimes, each Mtaa would have more than one mosque. Since the earliest prayers are before sunrise and the last prayers are at night, easy access form the house to the mosque is the main reason why each Mtaa has its own mosque.

International Seminar sponsored by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and the Indonesian Institute of Architects held on 15-19 October 1990, Jakarta and Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 1990), 110. 174 Koran, English, Chapter 4: Verse 43. 105 Chapter Four —Communal areas The architectural composition of a mosque in Lamu would include a or a prayer hall, the Mihrab or the prayer niche for the Imam or leader of the prayers, the Mimbar or the pulpit and the ablution area.

The Musalla in the interior of the Lamu mosque is a space with square proportions divided into a number of bays by heavy stone piers, supporting stone or timber lintels. With the exception of the Msikiti wa Pwani or the Coastline Mosque that dates back to the seventeenth century, most of the mosques in Lamu were built in the nineteenth century. Ghaidan (1975) notes that "the size of the Musalla was determined by the function of the mosque (Friday mosques being larger than others) and the wealth of the town at the time of the construction of the mosque."

The Mihrab is set into the wall or the wall facing the direction of Mecca. The Holy Koran says "from whencesoever thou startest forth, turn thy face in the direction of the Sacred Mosque; that is indeed the truth from thy Lord, and God is not unmindful of what u 175 Ghaidan, Lamu: A Study of the Swahili Town, 25. 106 Chapter Four -Communal areas ye do. Siravo (1986) describes the composition of the Mihrab in Lamu mosque, noting that "most in Lamu were built in the nineteenth century in the so-called neo-classic style which evolved from simpler designs after the seventeenth century and was used widely in the Lamu archipelago. While the classic Mihrab of the previous centuries consisted of a very simple pointed opening, the neo-classic Mihrab is made of a 177 series of receding pointed arches, with an inner trefoil arch."

Figure 22. Tretaliated mosque mihrab

The symbolism of the Mihrab is that they are to be kept empty and austere. James Dickie (Yaqub Zaki) (1978) notes that Mihrabs have a concave niche and "it is not the niche that is sacred, but the direction it expresses; and precisely for this reason the Mihrab is accorded extraordinary respect."178 The Mihrabs in Lamu mosques are unique in three

176 Koran, English, Chapter 2: Verse 149. 177 Siravo and Pulver, Planning Lamu: Conservation of an East African Seaport, 56-57. 178 James (Yaqub Zaki) Dickie, "Allah and Eternity; Mosques, and Tomb," in Architecture of the Islamic World: Its History and Social Meaning with a Complete Survey of Key Monuments, ed. George Michell (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978), 34. 107 Chapter Four -Communal areas aspects: the presence of trefoil arches as opposed to the single pointed arches in conventional mosques in other Swahili towns, their subdued colour scheme as opposed to the shiny and colourful decorations of mosques in other Swahili towns and the use of ceramic ware inserted into the walls of the Mihrab.

The trefoil arches were first used on the Mihrabs of mosques in Lamu and on other houses, especially the veranda houses as seen along the seafront promenade. This replication of the trefoil arch by the Arab, Indian and Persian merchants on the verandah houses was done on a purely aesthetic purpose. Even some of my informants told me that the trefoil arch as used in the Mihrabs were purely for aesthetic purposes in that beauty to the eyes made one feel relaxed to perform prayers as solemnly as required in Islamic laws. However, some of my informants had a different view and claimed that the trefoil arch is an expression of Imaan or faith in God, which is why it was constructed on the Qiblah wall for all the faithfuls to look at while performing their daily rituals of prayers. On further enquiry as to the usage of a three arch system rather than a single arch system, my informants told me that, in Islam, faith in God has to be emphasised thrice. When one converts to Islam, one is asked to profess one's faith and belief in the Unity of Allah and to pronounce loudly that faith three times. Even when performing ablution before prayers, a Muslim has to wash various parts of the body three times and not just once to make sure that one is thoroughly purified prior to standing in prayers before Allah. Even for divorce in Islam to be accepted, one has to pronounce "I have divorced thee" thrice. As the Swahili saying goes "Shahada ni mara tatu" meaning that bearing witness that there is only one God (Allah) must be pronounced thrice to take effect. The number three is symbolic in Islam and also to the Waswahili. The trefoil arch or the three-arched Mihrabs as used in Lamu mosques is a symbolic representation of the Lamu faithfuls of their deep-rooted faith in Allah.

108 Chapter Four -Communal areas Colour symbolism

Three different colours are prominently used in Lamu mosques: red, black and white. These colours are used on the timber joists, on the walls - exterior and interior - and also on the Mihrab. Siravo (1986) talks of the change in colours used on the Mihrabs in Lamu mosques, hinting that "traditionally, the Mihrab was highlighted with natural red and black pigments, but these muted tones have now given way to bright colours which contrast with the otherwise serene interior."179 However, even with the change from the muted colours to the brighter colours, the decoration is still subdued when compared to mosques in other Swahili towns like Mombasa and Zanzibar. Hasan-Uddin Khan (1990) argues that "unlike Christianity and Buddhism, the notion of sacred space did not exist in Islam" and that "what is prescribed is the ritual; the need for a clean surface and the acknowledgement of a physical direction."180

The idea of the mosque in Lamu as a 'sanctified' place can hardly be disputed. As noted earlier, the dichotomy of the culture of the Waswahili - African and Arab origins- which has led to an identity crisis, is also on display in their most 'sacred' building: the mosque. While Arab-ness may be related to Islam and African-ness to ancestral worship, the Waswahili are caught up between these two beliefs - Islamic religion and African cultural background. The Islamic and the African aspects of the Waswahili are displayed in the choice of colours used on the timber joists and the Mihrab walls in the mosque. Colours used inside the mosque are white, red and black while the exterior is austere and painted white. As mentioned earlier, these are the colours of the cloth used in the Zinguo or the bull procession for wrapping the organs of the slaughtered bull and then thrown to the sea 'for the spirits'. While the connection between the colours used in the mosque and protection from the spirits may not be conspicuous, it, nevertheless, does exist in a subtle manner. According to Islamic teachings, evil spirits cannot enter the most sacred building in Islam. Mosques are whitewashed in the interior and exterior to dispel away the spirits and to bring Nuru or God's Light to the mosque. The whitewashing of the mosque is

179 Siravo and Pulver, Planning Lamu: Conservation of an East African Seaport, 57. 180 Khan, "The Architecture of the Mosque; an Overview and Design Direction," 125. 109 Chapter Four -Communal areas specifically undertaken just before the Maulidi celebrations during Mfungo Sit a or the sixth month of the Arabic calendar, the Rabi-ul Awwal. All mosques in Lamu carry out the Maulidi celebration and the Waswahili believe that the spirit of Prophet Mohamed always visits the Maulidi recital. This is a controversial issue among the different sects of Islam, but what is important for us to know is that mosques in Lamu are whitewashed to purify them just before Maulidi in readiness and for the appeasement of the spirit of Prophet Mohamed. Islam teaches cleanliness. According to the Hadith or the sayings of Prophet Mohamed, which says that "Islam is cleanliness, so clean yourselves for no one will enter Heaven except those who are clean," a Muslim has to be clean in the physical and spiritual sense, too. Mosques, of all the buildings in Lamu, have to be kept the cleanest.

The Mimbar forms part of the mosque furniture in Lamu. The Mimbar is the timber platform on which the Imam or Islamic religious leader stands and gives his Khutba or sermons on Fridays or Eid (Islamic holy days). James Dickie (Yaqub Zaki) (1978) claims that the Mimbar is a "symbol of authority as much as an acoustic elevation, and in the case of the Imam, of delegated authority."181 In Lamu, this is especially conspicuous at the Msikiti wa Jumaa or the Friday mosque, located on the northern part of the town. Msikiti wa Jumaa was probably the first mosque in Lamu where the congregational Friday prayers were held and it has probably the most intricately designed timber Mimbar and the oldest in Lamu.

Purification

To purify oneself before entering the mosque and prior to performing prayers, a Muslim has to perform ablution and to wash parts of the body. The Koran commands Muslims "O ye who believe! When ye prepare for prayer, wash your faces, and your hands (and arms) to the elbows; rub your heads (with water); and (wash) your feet to the ankles. If ye are in a state of ceremonial impurity, bathe your whole body. God doth not wish to place you in

1 Dickie, "Allah and Eternity; Mosques, Madrasas and Tomb," 34. 110 Chapter Four -Communal areas a difficulty, but to make you clean and to complete His favour to you that ye may be grateful."182

In nearly most of the mosques in other Swahili towns along the eastern coast of Africa, piped water is used for ablution purposes. In Lamu, even with the presence of piped water, a separate cleansing area consisting of a water cistern is used for ablution. The positioning of this ablution space is such that one cannot enter the mosque without first passing through it, thus prompting and reminding one who enters the mosque to perform the requirements of the ablution before continuing on one's intention of standing and praying before God. The ablution cistern itself holds enough water to make it clean or Kulatein. Thus, even when the water is used up, some more water is pumped in to make it clean enough for purposes of ablution.

When I first entered a mosque in Lamu many years ago, I came across this ablution cistern. While performing ablution, I noticed some fish swimming in the cistern. This aroused my curiousity and I asked an old man who was besides me and who was also performing his ablution about the presence of this fish. The answer he gave me has always remained deep in my memory. As the prayers are performed five times a day, so is the ablution cistern used at these five times of the day. At other times, in between the prayers, the cistern is not used and the water in the cistern stagnates. Stagnant water is a favourite breeding ground for mosquitoes, hence the introduction of the fish which eat the mosquito larvae, thus leaving the mosquitoes with no breeding ground on the stagnant water of the ablution cisterns. I also noticed a ceramic bowl at the bottom of the cistern and I asked the same man about the presence of this bowl. The old man provided a very intriguing answer; an answer that I had never expected. The ceramic bowl at the bottom of the ablution cistern was used when cleaning the cistern. Water from the cistern would be drained and the cistern cleaned. The dirt would collect at the bottom where the bowl was placed. The dirt in the bowl would then be disposed. However, a dual purpose of the bowl would be to collect some water on which the fish would swim and continue to

Koran, English, Chapter 5: Verse 7. Ill Chapter Four -Communal areas breathe until after the cleaning is done and the cistern re-filled with water for re-use for ablution purposes.

Even as the mosque is the most sacred building of the Waswahili, its use is not restricted to prayers. In Lamu, women do not enter the mosque. This is not to say that women are forbidden to pray in the mosque. In other Swahili towns like Mombasa, women are even encouraged to attend congregational prayers at the mosque.183 The restriction of entry to the mosques for women is more of a cultural issue than a religious one. The mosque in Lamu is not only a religious institution, but is also a cultural one. It is at the mosque that the men in Lamu not only congregate for prayers, but also socialise. While the interior hall or Musalla of the mosque is purely for praying purposes, it is not rare to see the older generation seated, leaning against the walls and talking to each other in a casual manner. In between the conversations, a joke or two may be made and it is in the Musalla that all the happenings in Lamu are discussed. However, these conversations take place mainly in between the prayer times, especially after the early morning prayers and the late afternoon prayers. I have personally participated in many of these 'mosque' conversations as it is in these conversations that an 'outsider' is easily accepted and integrated into Lamu society. Some of my most enjoyable moments in Lamu occurred during these conversations and it is at such places that I learned the most about Lamu, its people, the environs and Swahili architecture. Topics in these conversations varied from daily town activities to World Cup Soccer Matches. Swearing or uttering foul words are not accepted in these conversations. What is even more interesting is that these conversations will also entail the drinking ofKahawa Utungu or bitter Arabic coffee and dates or Haluwa,I84 although some Muslims believe that it is blasphemous to talk, eat or drink inside a mosque.

183 In Islam, the men must pray in the mosque, whereas the women are supposed to pray at home, since they are the caretakers of the house and also look after the children. However, for congregational prayers like Friday prayers, prayers during the fasting month of Ramadhan and Eid (celebration) prayers, women are encouraged to attend the mosque. 184 Haluwa is a sweet dish made from sesame seeds and is served during wedding or burial ceremonies. Among the Waswahili, haluwa is a delicacy served only on important occasions. 112 Chapter Four -Communal areas Mosques in Lamu are mostly under the care of Wakf or Trusts. These Wakf are Trust Funds bestowed by wealthy individuals who devote a certain amount of their wealth for the upkeep of mosques in order to win God's or Allah's rewards. The Wakf money is used for restoring the mosques, whitewashing them, buying new carpets and paying off bills or any other expenses related to the upkeep of the buildings. In Lamu, mosques cannot be demolished to be replaced by another building. When a mosque is demolished, it must be for the purpose of building a new and bigger mosque. Even when a mosque falls into ruins, as is the case in Patte, the ground on which the mosque stands cannot be used for constructing any other building apart from a mosque. If for any reason whatsoever a mosque falls into ruin and cannot be re-constructed, then the plot will be left empty. This is due to the sanctity of the land on which the mosque stands. The Holy Koran notes that "the places of worship are for Allah (alone): So invoke not any one along with Allah."185

The Baraza

As some Waswahili believe that it is a sin to talk, eat or drink inside mosques, a special provision is made for them to socialise outside the mosque. All the mosques in Lamu have a Baraza built on the outside. The Baraza is a stone bench that is built on the outside walls of a mosque and is used for socialising purposes, before or after prayers. The Baraza is fully occupied in between late afternoon prayers and before early evening prayers, and it is where the daily activities of Lamu and many other issues are discussed. Waamu or the people of Lamu occupy different Baraza and it is quite rare to see a Muamu from one Baraza going over and occupying another Baraza, unless he is invited by the occupants of that other Baraza. What is even rarer is to see Lamu women occupying any Baraza, since the Baraza is a social place for men. During the early months after my marriage, my wife got pregnant and found it too hot to stay indoors. At night, just after the late night prayers, she would ask me to take her out to go and sit on a Baraza. We would then go to the seafront promenade, which has a few mosques looking

185 Koran, English, Chapter 72: Verse 18. 113 Chapter Four -Communal areas outwards towards the Indian Ocean and sit on the Baraza. As my wife knew that it was a cultural taboo to sit on such Baraza, she would never ask me to take her out during daylight. Even when we were seated on these Baraza in the dark of the night, some curious eyes would be looking at us as they passed by or as they sat beside us, probably wondering what a woman was doing sitting on the mosque Baraza.

As shall be seen in Chapter 5, the Swahili houses also have Baraza for different purposes. Today, the word 'Baraza' has gained importance as the Muslims celebrate their holiest day known as Eid. In several coastal towns, an Eid Baraza is held where several issues affecting the Muslim community are discussed. To adhere to the concept of the Baraza, these Eid Baraza are normally held outside and even some Government officials are invited. Sometimes, during the Eid Baraza, cultural dances may be performed in keeping with the main concept of the tradition of socialising, getting to know one another and having a better understanding of what goes on within the Swahili Community.

The Madrasa

The Madrasa or sometimes called chuo, is a school that teaches principles and the understanding of the Holy Koran.186 These Madrasa started at the time of one of the greatest Sufi in Islam, Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali.187 Ever since then, the Madrasa have

Chuo is more commonly used by the Waswahili to denote a Madrassa or Koranic school. The word Chuo in Kiamu dialect (Lamu dialect) also denotes to sacred writings. Thus, the Madrassa or Chuo is a place where the young boys and girls are taught sacred scriptures. 187 Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) was one of the greatest Muslim Sufis. Sufism was more a way of life than schools of thought. Sufism had been active since the early Islamic period. Sufist mysticism was individualistic and charaterised by a desire to attain direct knowledge from the Creator which would enable Sufis to live a pious life. During the period of Al-Ghazzali's life (1058-1111), Islam was in political, religious and intellectual turmoil. In-fighting between the different dynasties that wanted to take power had erupted. Four centuries after the death of Prophet Mohamed, different Shiite and Sunnite dynasties tried to claim legitimacy to lead Islam. Even at this time, Islam, as a religion, was still being elaborated and different trends were being established on how to interpret the Koran and the Shariah (Divine Law). It was during Al-Ghazzali's time that the Seljuk dynasty (1038-1157) dominated the Islamic scene. This Seljuk dynasty was a Sunnite one which was fighting against the dominance of the powerful Shiite dynasty. Al- Ghazzali played a pivotal role in championing the Sunnite cause. To champion this cause, the Seljuk rulers set up Islamic institutions known as madrassa or Koranic schools, which were the "main centers for advanced formal instruction in the theory and practice of Islamic law." These Koranic schools or madrassa, which were opened and led by Sufis, propagated the teachings of Islam. Islamic teaching was 114 Chapter Four -Communal areas become institutions of excellence in Islamic teachings all over the world. In Lamu, the Madrasa is an important institution where young boys and girls at an early age of 5 or 6 years old are sent to acquire Islamic knowledge. As will be seen in Chapter 6, all masons had to enrol in the Madrasa to acquire the esoteric teachings of Islamic art and, later, with some modifications, to use these in their profession. The Riyadha mosque in Lamu, has a Madrasa that, today, has acclaimed international reputation. Most Madrasa in Lamu are conducted or held inside the mosques. However, some Madrasa are conducted in private homes where a room is converted to accommodate the teaching of Islamic principles to the young novices. There are no significant buildings for the Madrasa worth mentioning as the Madrasa is part of the mosque and is usually located at the back of a mosque - either in the Musalla - or in a separate room attached to the mosque. While the Madrasa may have little significance in terms of architecture, they do play an important role in the training of masons who undertake the construction of Lamu's architecture. This will be further discussed in Chapter 6.

not the only subject taught in these schools. Crafts were also introduced in these schools. The Sufi masters, heading the guilds, established an educational system for spiritual training which "is directly interwoven with the entire Islamic tradition, especially the esoteric dimension contained within Sufism." Arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, algebra, music and optics would be amongst the disciplines taught in these schools which would later shape the studies of the traditional craftsman who "after an initiatory ceremony of an esoteric nature, begins to learn the method as well as the spirit of the craft, both of which share an alchemical base. Symbols of esotericism are wedded to the arts and crafts so that the artisan is able to achieve 'spiritual perfection' by integrating the inner and outer aspects of his being through his work. He participates in the creative process of nature, 'nature in her mode of operation,' and by so doing participates in the Divine Art."

Quotations are taken from Abu Hamid Al-Ghazzali, The Alchemy of Happiness, trans. Claud Field (New York: M.E.Sharpe, 1991).

115 Chapter Four —Communal areas #

Figure 23. A Swahili child dressed for the Madrasa, Chuoni or Koranic school. While the Waamu are religiously-conservative and culturally-traditional, the influence of popular culture cannot be discarded. In this photo, the child is dressed for the Madrassa and carries a 'Spiderman' juice container.

Cemeteries

Cemeteries are important communal areas for the Waswahili. As was discussed earlier, cemeteries or Maziyara in Lamu are places where, apart from burying the dead, the living also visit at least once yearly to pay respects to the dead. It is also a widely held belief that cemeteries are breeding places for the 'spirits.' As was seen with the Zinguo or the bull procession, the cemeteries are where the bull is slaughtered and the remains thrown on trees for the 'spirits'. According to Swahili beliefs, two places that are the biggest breeding grounds for 'bad spirits' are the cemetery and the ocean. Othesr places where the 'spirits' can be found are in ruins, places un-inhabited by human beings, on certain trees (such as the baobab tree) and in the 'mizimu' or abandoned homes of the spirits. The only place that the 'bad spirits' cannot enter is the mosque.

The belief that cemeteries are the habitation or playing grounds of bad spirits has a great impact on their location in the Swahili towns. In Lamu, there are two cemeteries; one to 116 Chapter Four -Communal areas the extreme north and the other to the south. In the late 19 century and early 20f century, these two cemeteries marked the extreme north-south limits of Lamu town, while the east was bordered by the Indian Ocean and the west by farmlands. Today, these farmlands have been subdivided and mud and thatch houses constructed for the Wageni' or the newcomers. As such, Lamu society was and still is a closed society that only allows foreigners to engage in business with Lamu residents, but little else.

The cemetery to the north was for the local inhabitants who had founded Lamu town at Wiyoni, while the cemetery located to the south was used for the burial of the Masharifu, who claim ancestry to Prophet Mohamed. Today, the northern cemetery is basically used for the burial of inhabitants of Mkomani, while the southern cemetery is used for the burial of inhabitants from Langoni. This, however, is not to say that the dead from Mkomani are never buried in the southern cemetery or vice versa, as burial is now largely an issue of the economic capability of a family to bury their dead, rather than one of tradition or lineage.

Very little is known about Swahili cemeteries or tombs. Thomas Wilson (1979) notes that the monumental tombs of the Waswahili that date back to the 9 century "stand as a silent testimony to the creativity and ability of the ancestors of some of the north-east Bantu, and are worthy of study not only to (sic) their contribution to the art and archaeology of the African continent, but also for what they may tell us about the history and culture of Swahili civilisation."188

According to Islamic principles, the graves are not supposed to be built up. After the burial of the dead has been undertaken, water is poured over the grave and branches of trees are implanted on the mound of sand. According to Islam, the dead body takes about forty years to decompose, after which, due to a shortage of burial grounds, the burial places can be used to inter-bury another person. Due to the re-use or re-cycling of burial place, construction on graves has been forbidden in Islam, as once a grave has been

188 Thomas Wilson, "Swahili Funerary Architecture of the North Kenya Coast," Art and Archaeology Research Papers (AARP) (Dec, 1979): 33-46.

117 Chapter Four -Communal areas constructed, the place cannot host another dead, even if it takes forty years or more. Even the use of gravestones is strictly forbidden in Islam as the beautification of graves is perceived negatively. In Islam, death is a reminder that one's time on earth has ended, while, a gravestone denotes permanency on this earth. There is even a Hadith or a saying of Prophet Mohamed that he ordered his companions to go out and flatten gravestones that had been laid on graves of the dead.

For the Waswahili, especially up to the 18th century, the cemetery had a different purpose and the gravestone, forbidden in Islam, portrayed a different meaning. Even tombs were built over the graves for the prominent members of the Waswahili community. The purposes served by these tombs were threefold: to provide a comfortable resting place for the dead, to provide a place for ancestral worship and to pronounce the prominence of the lineage of the dead. Wilson (1979) goes on further to suggest that the tombs "functioned as symbols of hereditary succession and supernatural authority."189 This is especially evident in the case of the Masharifu of Langoni and Zijoho190 of Mkomani who have built grandiosely over the graves of their ancestors within the last century.

While graves are the final burial grounds of the dead, tombs built by the Waswahili serve as shelters and comfortable resting places for the dead, especially the prominent and the wealthy, as it is only these two classes of people whose next of kin could afford to have tombs constructed over the graves.

In the case of the death of a 'perceived' pious Muamu, the tomb built over the grave would be used as place of ancestral worship or even spirit worship. The Masharifu are considered as Wageni or outsiders, even though they try hard to integrate into the original Amu society of the Zijoho. The Masharifu have tried to claim ancestry to the Prophet Mohamed and to excel in Islamic teachings to the extent that they built the Riyadha

Zijoho (sing. Kijoho) is the name given to the people of Lamu who claim to be the original inhabitants and, therefore, the owners of Lamu town and island. Zijoho comes from the Swahili word joho' meaning robe. The Zijoho are known to wear colourful robes during ceremonies like weddings, Friday prayers or any social or religious function. The function of the robe was to imitate the Arab regalia while also impressing the commoners by displaying their 'Arab-ness.' 118 Chapter Four -Communal areas mosque and organising the Maulidi. These are seen as ways to uplift their status in society. To the Zijoho though, the Masharifu have always been and always will remain Wageni. In order to further integrate into society, the Masharifu have also built up tombs for their ancestors buried in the southern cemeteries. These tombs have been sanctified by the Masharifu who have cleverly convinced the Lamu people to undertake the Ziyara ritual by noting that the ancestors of the Masharifu sect were pious and nearer (in the spiritual sense) to the Prophet Mohamed. The Masharifu have convinced the Lamu people that their dead ancestors are able to intercede for them and ask for God's forgiveness, on their behalf, on the Day of Judgment. This conviction has, in turn, sanctified the tombs and given them a sacred meaning.

The Lamu populace would visit the graves of these 'prominent' Masharifu in times of need or to ask for favours from the dead or for intercession on their behalf. This ancestral worship may be accompanied by people offering feasts or animal sacrifices and these would be mixed with the recitation of the Koran. Wilson (1979) notes that "upon approaching a tomb for this or other reasons one might call out 'Hodi', a Swahili pronouncement of approach which is here used as a tone of respect."191 In Islamic traditions, when one enters a cemetery, one is supposed to greet the dead by pronouncing 'Assalam aleikum' or 'Peace be upon you' as sign of respect for the dead whose home is the cemetery where one is entering. The Waswahili greet the dead by pronouncing 'Hodi' which is used when entering a house. Further elaboration on this Swahili tradition will be discussed in the next chapter when I discuss with the Swahili house.

The Masharifu have built up tombs for their ancestors as a way to sanctify their lineage and this has resulted in ancestral worship, which is forbidden in Islam. Ancestral worship or building up tombs with the sole purpose of sanctifying them are considered in Islam as shirk or heresy. As recently as five or six years ago, a group of young Muslims was formed in Mombasa with the objective of destroying all built-up tombs. This group visited several mosques at night and destroyed all built-up tombs. When the Muslim faithfuls turned up for the early morning prayers, they found that the tombs had been

191 Wilson, "Swahili Funerary Architecture of the North Kenya Coast," 33. 119 Chapter Four -Communal areas desecrated. This movement even spread to Lamu and other Swahili towns whereby the Masharifu in Lamu had to employ people to guard the graves of their ancestors against desecration. The police were reluctant to intervene as they did not want to be seen to side with any particular group and meddling in religious affairs. However, after quite some devastating results, the movement to destroy built-up tombs stopped as suddenly as it had begun.

The Zijoho, who consider themselves as the original inhabitants of Amu and, therefore, the original owners of the town and island, have a different way of treating their cemeteries and tombs of the dead and giving them meaning for the Lamu populace to comprehend. For the Zijoho, the built-up tombs were designed to awe the populace and to reinforce their prestige in terms of social, political or economic power. The Zijoho wanted to validate their social status while building tombs for their ancestors, while for the Masharifu, it was more a show of religious superiority. The Zijoho constructed large and lavish tombs for their dead as a show of financial muscle. The tombs were built of the same 'permanent' construction materials such as coral stones, as those used for constructing houses. The permanence of the materials used by the Zijoho to construct tombs was probably a way to show their financial superiority and permanent social status - not only in life, but also in death. Wilson (1979) notes that even the founder of the Riyadha mosque, the revered Habib Saleh of the Masharifu sect, was not entitled to a funerary monument of permanent materials and his tomb was of "carved wood and thatch structure." He contrived "if such a man as he was denied a stone tomb, we may suppose that those who received stone monuments were persons of high status in the Waungwana sense, or wealthy person who might be aspiring for such status for their descendants."192

Wilson (1979) categorises Swahili tombs into eight types - taking into consideration the central elements constructed on the tombs. The eight different types of the tombs are pillar tombs, minor pillar tombs, tombstone tombs, composite tombs, step-ended tombs, buttress tombs, roofed tombs and decorated tombs.193 Most of these tombs were

Ibid.: 34. Ibid.: 35-40. 120 Chapter Four -Communal areas constructed between the 14 and 16 centuries. Without going further into these typologies, it suffices to say that the tombs, regardless of the types, portrayed meanings as elaborated earlier: tombs served as comfortable resting places for the dead, as place for ancestral worship and to pronounce the prominence of the lineage of the dead.

Figure 24. Domed tomb

Figure 25. Ziyara ya Langoni or Langoni cemetery on the north

121 Chapter Four -Communal areas CHAPTER FIVE - THE SWAHILI HOUSE

Most of the old standing 'Swahili' houses today in Lamu today date back to the 18 century. These houses that were built of coral stones stand majestically in the Mtaa of Mkomani to which the Zijoho or the Waungwana lay original claim. The term 'Swahili' house has often been misused either by ignorance or by arrogance. Some have referred to the houses in Lamu as purely , noting that Lamu is one of the best preserved 'Islamic' towns in eastern Africa.194 Yet others like the United Nations Development Programme have, in their reports, assigned the term 'Swahili' house to the mud and thatch houses in areas of Majengo, Pumwani and California in Nairobi. These are largely considered to be informal settlements. It is in these areas that people in Nairobi speak Kiswahili language more fluently than people from other areas in Nairobi and these people also have certain ties or relation to the coastal area of Kenya. Even researchers like Francesco Siravo (1996), who has worked for many years in Lamu and Mombasa in Kenya and Zanzibar in Tanzania and who has prepared Conservation Plans for these Swahili towns, wrongly and unfortunately categorises Swahili houses as "simple, one-storey structures constructed of mud and wattle and roofed with palm leaf thatch.."195 Ghaidan (1975) even noted that "the structure of the Swahili town is a product of its function."196 This statement is unfortunate, especially coming from a distinguished researcher who spent years in Lamu and was probably the first architect to have written on the architecture of Lamu. The houses standing today in Lamu as a nostalgic reminder to the years of the flourishing prosperity and might of the Swahili city-states around 18th century can neither just be categorized as 'simple, one-storey structures" nor just constructed of "mud and wattle and roofed with palm thatch." Swahili houses cannot be easily categorised into typologies. Moreover, the Swahili town is also not just a "product of its function." The Swahili town is a product of many aspects - physical, cultural, scial and economic. My 'fresh look' at the houses in Lamu will, hopefully, not only help

194 Ronald Lewcock, "East Africa," in Architecture of the Islamic World: Its History and Social Meaning with a Complete Survey of Key Monuments, ed. George Michell (New York: Morrow, 1978), 278-79. 195 Francesco Siravo, Zanzibar: A Plan for the Historic Stone Town (Geneva: The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 1996), 37-38. 196 Ghaidan, Lamu: A Study of the Swahili Town, 85.

122 Chapter Five -The Swahili house understand better the quality, value and meaning of Swahili architecture, but will also help provide more information on the identity and origin of the Waswahili themselves.

For my re-interpretation the Swahili house in Lamu, I will first look at how the house and its interior and exterior space were used. I will also look at rituals that take place within the Swahili house in Lamu and how these give meaning to space. The aspect of construction and building materials will be discussed in the following Chapter.

The Swahili stone house

A typical stone house in Lamu can be found in the Mtaa of Mkomani, which, as explained earlier, is where Lamu originated. In Langoni, houses are constructed in coral stone blocks while in Gardeni, Kashmiri and Bombay, the informal settlements borne out of the subdivision of farmlands into smaller construction plots are comprised of houses constructed of mud and thatch, with roofs of dried palm tree leaves or Makuti.

What is important to me, at this point, is the stone house of Mkomani, which is only typical in Lamu and other parts of the archipelago like Patte and Siyu. These stone houses of Lamu date back to the 18th century, at a time when Lamu was prospering under the Omani rule. Prior to the Omani rule, it is likely that the houses in Lamu were made of mud and thatch, which were upgraded to stone houses when the Swahili city-states were thriving in trade enhanced by the Omani rule.

Ghaidan (1975), claims that "the stone-built house of Lamu is a self-contained building housing all living, sleeping and service accommodation and its domestic staff require...Most existing houses in Lamu are double-storeyed, often with an additional pent-house. The ground floor is, according to tradition, the slaves' quarters; the first floor

| Q"7 contains the rooms of the free-owners."

Ibid., 42.

123 Chapter Five -The Swahili house A typical stone house of Lamu would have no enclosed room. Even the toilet or the choo would just have a curtain and not a door as a partition. Before re-interpreting this, let me, first of all, provide a description of the separate spaces and their uses within the house. In the course of doing so, I will also mention the main architectural elements that amplify Uswahili or the quality of the Swahili culture in the stone houses of Lamu. Later on, I will attempt to provide meaning to the different spaces as provided by the everyday use and by the four main rituals that take place within the house; birth, circumcision, wedding and funeral.

Ground Floor First Floor

Figure 26. Plans of Lamu Swahili house

124 Chapter Five -The Swahili house o Life in the Swahili town house

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Figure 27. Lamu Swahili house plan u

125 Chapter Five —The Swahili house A typical stone house in Lamu would contain certain features. The entrance to the house is through an entrance porch known as the Daka (pi. Madaka).m This Daka, which is always rectangular or square in shape (never round) forms part of the street and part of the house and acts as an important transition from the street and into the entry point of the house. The Daka is usually raised a couple of steps or more above the street level, thus making the Daka more a part of the house than of the street. Even so, the Daka itself is never an integral part of the house. The Daka is lined up with a Baraza or stone bench, similar in construction and quality as the one encountered at the mosque. The Baraza in the Daka is where the male owner entertains his guests. Most guests never get beyond this Daka. Guests are entertained with Kahawa Utungu or bitter Arabic coffee and Haluwa (a sweet dish made from sesame seeds), which are Swahili delicacies, mostly served on special occasions like weddings or funerals. All transactions or business between the male owner of the stone house and his guests is undertaken at the Daka.

The Baraza, as an architectural element of Swahili towns is mentioned by an eye-witness account of 1505:

Mombasa is a very large town and lies on an island from one and a half to two leagues round. The town is built on rocks on the higher part of the island and has no walls on the side of the sea; but on the land side it is protected by a wall as high as the fortress. The houses are the same as those of Kilwa; some of them are three storeyed and all are plastered with lime. The streets are very narrow, so that two people cannot walk abreast in them: all houses have stone seats in front of them, which makes the streets even narrower. The Grand-Captain met with the other captains and decided to burn the town that evening and to enter it the following morning. But when they went to burn the town they were received by the Moors with a shower of arrows and 199 stones.

Apart from confirming the existence of the Baraza, this eye-witness reiterates what has been written earlier about the narrow streets being escape routes rather than responses to the climatic conditions of Swahili towns.

The Daka is a Swahili word that actually means the 'niche'. 199 Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Select Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century, 108-09. The eye-witness was probably a German by the name of Hans Mayr who had travelled in his ship to Mombasa.

126 Chapter Five —The Swahili house Any male guest invited into the interior of the house would either be a very close friend or a relative of the household or what is known as Maharimu.200 This is due to two factors. Firstly, the issue of privacy, especially of women, is very important and deeply enshrined in the Swahili community, as much as it is emphasized in Islam. The aspect of or privacy is firmly inculcated in the Swahili house. A Swahili proverb "Nyumba njema si mlangofungua uingie ndani, " which means a house is not a beautiful door, one has to go inside and see it, similar to the English saying, "you cannot judge a book by its cover," pronounces the importance of understanding a Swahili house by actually entering it and experiencing the interior spaces.

Secondly, the Waswahili are very superstitious of the 'evil eye', or Husda. The owner of the house would, therefore, not allow guests into his house in order to protect his worldly possessions vis-a-vis his spouse, daughters and non-human possessions like furniture and decorative elements. The issue of Husda or the evil eye is further emphasized in the Holy Koran:

"Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of the Dawn. From the mischief of created things; From the mischief of Darkness as it overspreads; From the mischief of those who practise secret arts; And from the mischief of the envious one as he practises envy."202

To further emphasise the issue of non-entry to a Lamu stone house, I would like to note that, on a personal level, even after having worked for over seven years in Lamu, I never had the opportunity to enter into a Lamu stone house. Even when on official work, it was not easy to gain entry into a Swahili stone house. However, I was fortunate to be staying

A Maharimu is a person closely related to the female members of the household, a person who cannot, by Islamic laws, marry the female members of the household. Only if a male who is a Maharimu will be allowed into the interior of the Swahili house, especially in Lamu. The issue of a Maharimu is important in Islam and is applicable also in the daily prayers, where a male Maharimu who touches a female Maharimu does not make her impure or does not invalidate her ablution or prayers. Also during the Islamic pilgrimage, a Muslim woman cannot travel to Mecca to perform the fifth pillar of Islam without having a Maharimu in her entourage. 201 Husda or Hasadi, meaning the 'evil eye' are derivatives of the Arabic word 'hasad'. 202 Koran, English, Chapter 113: Verse 1-5.

127 Chapter Five -The Swahili house in a typical old stone house that had all the features pertaining to Swahili architecture. To assist visitors who have no access to the stone houses in Lamu to understand the intricacies of the traditional Swahili stone house in Lamu, the National Museums of Kenya purchased an old dilapidated house and re-constructed it into a Swahili House Museum and made this into quite an authentic experience. During my working time in Lamu, I wondered why I had never been invited into a Lamu stone house, even though I had made many friends, some of them very close. Yet, I only gained entry into a Lamu stone house when I married a Lamu woman and that particular house belonged to my spouse's parents.

Entering the Swahili house

Even before obtaining access to the interior of a Swahili stone house or before being entertained by the owner of such a house, a visitor must first knock at the typical timber doors which are carved with various motifs. Mostly, the motifs are organic, floral or geometric. The motifs, which are carved on the door frames, may have meaning or are just for aesthetic purposes, depending on who the carver is and what he or the owner of the house intends to depict. Barton (1924) notes that there are three major carving designs: lotus derivatives, the rosette and a frankincense or date palm derivative. Barton continues to note that:

It seems probable that these Zanzibar lotus and rosette patterns were borrowed direct from Egypt or Assyria, and if this is so, it is more than likely that the 'frankincense tree' pattern and the fish-like object have been derived from the same source. But whereas the two former patterns present no diffculty, being unmistakeably lotus and rosette, the derivations of the two latter - the tree and the fish designs - are not easy to trace.204

203 F.R. Barton, "Zanzibar Doors," Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'24 (June 1924): 81. 204 Ibid.: 82.

128 Chapter Five -The Swahili house According to Barton (1924), the lotus and the rosette designs are associated with the ancient Egyptians and symbolised reproductive power, while the fish design was associated with Syrians as a protecting deity and symbolised fertility.205

Figure 28. Swahili external door

129 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Figure 29. Carved Swahili doors

There are six important aspects related to the door. Firstly, while the the carved timber door may be for security purposes, it is also symbolic. This main door is the only door that can be seen in a stone house as the rooms in the interior are separated by curtains.

Secondly, the door is a sign of the wealth of the owner. The more intricately carved the door, the richer the owner. However, while displaying his wealth, the owner attracts the 'evil eye' of visitors, the passers-by or even his own relatives. Sir Richard Burton (1872), while describing Zanzibar, noted that "the higher the tenement, the bigger the gateway, the heavier the padlock, and the huger the iron studs which nail the door of heavy timber, the greater is the owner's dignity."206

Richard Francis Burton, Sir, Zanzibar; City, Island, and Coast, 2 vols. (New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1967), Vol.1, 86.

130 Chapter Five —The Swahili home Thirdly, to combat this 'evil eye' the owner instucts his craftsman to carve Koranic inscriptions or even Swahili proverbs on the carved doors. Some examples of the Koranic inscriptions, when translated from the Arabic language include "Enter this house in peace' or 'God is my Protector' or T seek refuge in the Lord of the dawn from the evil of the envious' or 'To God belongs the utmost excellence'. Swahili proverbs inscribed into the timber doors include 'Bure yenu mahasidi (Go to Hell, you the envious ones)' or 'Musilolijuwa litawasumbuwa (what you do not know will always beleaguer you)' or 'Mutasema mtana usiku mutalala (You will talk during the day, but at night you will go to sleep). The Koranic verses and the Swahili proverbs inscribed on the doors act as talismans to drive away the 'evil eye' of the envious or jealous guest or visitor. Even though the Waswahili take pleasure in announcing their wealth, they also take precautions to guard themselves against the 'evil eye' which is more of a threat to them than intruders or burglars. Again, Sir Richard Burton (1872) noted that "Koranic sentences on slips of paper, fastened to the entrances, and an inscription cut in the wooden lintel, secure the house from witchcraft, like the crocodile in Egypt; whilst a yard of ship's cable drives away thieves."207

Kindy (1972) mentions about the 'owl' or the 'air spirit' as the bird is viewed by the Waswahili. The 'owl' is regarded as an evil bird or 'air spirit' and when the bird lands on the Sakafu or the roof of a house, then, death of a child of that house would occur. To make sure that no 'owl' lands on the rooftop, the Waswahili would erect, on the Sakafu or rooftop, a 'scarecrow' that "looked aggressive and held a bow and arrow, or perhaps even seemed to be holding a rifle, ready to shoot at anything that passed its way. This appearance was usually accomplished by making a cross with two poles the size of a man. On top of the pole, a pot would be placed to make it look like a man's head, roughly painted with a face, eyes, nose and mouth. Then the figure would be dressed in a rotten and shabby Kanzu (white robe) or shirt."208

Hyder Kindy, Life and Politics in Mombasa (Nairobi: East African Pub. House, 1972), 4-5.

131 Chapter Five —The Swahili house Fourthly, especially in the stone town area of Mkomani, the entrances and the doors are designed in such a way that they are orientated towards the North and, symbolically, where the black stone of Kaaba in Mecca, where Muslims face when praying. The stone house, while replicating the mosque, seeks to be sanctified and, hence, the orientation of the house to Mecca.

Fifthly, there is a threshold known in Swahili as Kizingiti (pi. vizingiti) built at the door between the Daka and the interior of the house. Once a person is allowed to cross the Kizingiti, one has to remove his or her shoes, as it is this Kizingiti that delineates the interior from the exterior. Removing the shoes after crossing the Kizingiti symbolizes that one is entering a 'sacred space' in much the same way as one removes shoes when entering the mosque. The Kizingiti, made of coral lime, has a very symbolic meaning to the Waswahili. Whereas a door threshold in the Western houses serves to prevent rain water or air draught from entering the interior of the house or has other functional objective, the Kizingiti for the Waswahili serves to keep visitors away from the house and to protect the owner from any intrusion in a symbolic manner rather than in a functional way. A famous living Swahili poet, while trying to seduce a lovely lady said;209

Nitengee ya vizingiti, unipe ndia nipite Siniuwe kwa laiti, na kwingi kumiza mate.

Clear the threshold (obstacle) for me and give me a way to pass through Do not kill me with spite and a lot of salivation (desires)

As a young boy, I used sit on a Kizingiti while my friends were playing on the Baraza. One day, my mother noticed me sitting on the Kizingiti and she rebuked and scolded me with a lot of fervour, that as a child, I could not understand. She told me that I should never sit on a Kizingiti, and that if she ever saw me do repeat that act, she would teach me a lesson that I would never forget. To this day, I have never forgotten that incident. I did

209 The poet's name is Ahmad Nassir, still living in Mombasa.

132 Chapter Five —The Swahili house learn a lesson, but of a different kind. For the Mswahili, sitting on a Kizingiti is totally prohibited. The Kizingiti is barrier between the strangers on the outside and the owners in the inside of house. Sitting on a Kizingiti symbolises that one is neither inside the house nor outside. What this further symbolises is that one is inviting death for himself or herself when one seats on a Kizingiti, because he or she is neither inside nor outside the house, but lingering between death and the world hereafter.

One of my informants gave me a brief history of the Kizingiti and its symbolic meaning to the Waswahili. In the 19 century, the Waswahili used to seduce other people's wives. When a husband had gone out to farm or fish or even gone to pray at the mosque, the seducer would enter his house and seduce his wife. This was a common occurrence, among the Waswahili, and still is up to this present moment. News of this intrusion would spread and, eventually, the husband would receive information that his wife was being seduced by another man. To protect his dignity and his wife, the husband would seek the help of a traditional medicine man known as Mganga who would then bury protective charms at the Kizingiti. The next time that the seducer crossed the Kizingiti, he would be asked by the husband and a few elders who acted as witnesses and judges to lick a portion of sand prepared by the Mganga. The seducer, when licking this portion of sand, would find himself unable to swallow the sand and would find his mouth full of sand, and this would kill him on the spot. Stemming from this tradition, the Waswahili developed a proverb iSili Kizingiti cha Mwenzangu' which, when literally translated, means T do not eat my fellow man's threshold' or in symbolic terms, means that T do not cross over my fellow man's threshold and enter into his house without his permission.'

The last and sixth aspect of the door is the hodi or the knock. According to the Hadith or sayings of Prophet Mohamed, when someone makes a visit to another person's house, he must knock once, twice and a third (which should be the last time). If the door is not answered, the visitor must leave. This is apparent with the Waswahili. When a visitor goes to another person's house, he has to knock thrice Hodi, Hodi, Hodi (Knock, Knock, Knock). If the visitor does not hear the response Karibu or Welcome, he has to leave immediately. This ritual ensures that unwanted visitors do not enter houses where they

133 Chapter Five -The Swahili house are not welcome and ensures the safety and privacy of the house owner. It is customary of the Waswahili not to open their doors at night, especially past midnight. Anyone who knocks Hodi at night will not gain entry, as it is widely believed that the Ma-Jinni or evil spirits meander the Vitotoro or alleys. They knock at people's homes, calling the owners by name. If one answers the door one dies or is overpowered by the Jinni. This being the case, anyone knocking at people's homes after midnight will not be admitted.

What is even more interesting is the knocking ritual carried out among the Wachangamwe (sing. Mchangamwe) clan of the Waswahili living in the west of Mombasa. Most house owners possess a big leather drum that is kept outside their houses. Whenever a visitor comes, instead of knocking Hodi at the door, he has to beat the drum in a particular way that will identify him. Each Mchangamwe has his own particular drum beat which he uses every time he makes a visit to other peoples' homes. When someone receives a visitor, he hears a particular drum beat and immediately knows who the visitor is. An unknown drum beat is more excusable than no drum beat at all. An unknown drum beat can be taken as an unknown visitor making a first entry, but if a visitor enters a person's house without beating the drum at all, he is considered to be an intruder with malicious intent and may be chased away, whoever he is or whatever his purpose for entering the house is.

After passing through the obstacle of the Daka, the timber door and the Kizingiti, a visitor encounters the Tekani, an inner foyer. The Tekani is also a place where the woman of the house entertains female visitors. The Tekani has a blank wall facing the door and is carefully 'designed' so that even when the male guests are being entertained at the Daka, they cannot see the happenings of the house. Privacy of women and protection from the 'evil eye' are the two main reasons for having the Tekani in the stone house of Lamu. The aspect of the privacy of women is not only practised within the Swahili house, but also extends to the exterior. The inner privacy of the house is extended to the streets with the house-like or tent-like Shiraa. While these days, the women in Lamu wear Buibui of a black gown to cover their bodies and face, the use of the Shiraa about half a century back was not uncommon. The Shiraa is a tent-like robe for the women made up of Leso or

134 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Khanga which are the traditional dress for the Swahih women. Stigand (1966) describes the Shiraa in these words:

one of the first features that will strike the stranger in the streets of Lamu is the shiraa, or tent, carried over free women, a custom of which I omitted to ascertain the origin. This is usually a couple of leso as the kanga or women's robe is called at Lamu, with a couple of sticks tied in front and a couple behind. A slave walks in front holding up one end of the shiraa with a stick in each hand, another walks behind supporting the other, while the lady herself walks in the middle. The whole procession then looks like nothing more than a party of children playing at elephants under the table-cloth. If the lady has no slaves she carries the sticks herself, two in each hand spread out fanwise. If she has one slave the slave walks in front while the mistress holds the two sticks behind.210

Figure 30. Two-person Shiraa or woman tent used for privacy

Stigand, The Land ofZinj: Being an Account of British East Africa, Its Ancient History and Present Inhabitants, 153.

135 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Figure 31. One-person Shiraa

Furthermore, the blank wall of the Tekani serves a third major purpose. One of the female informants demonstrated the purpose of this wall at the Tekani. When there is a male visitor to the house and the male owner is not at home, the door is opened by the servants, slaves or even the woman of the house or her daughters. When the woman of the house opens the door and hears a male voice from the outside knocking or saying Hodi, she opens the door and quickly runs behind the wall where there is a corridor-like space large enough for one or two people to stand. She then talks to the male visitor from behind the door. The wall acts like a Purdah or cloth partition as used by Muslims in Asia to separate the women from the men in order to safeguard the privacy of the women. The wall of the Tekani not only ensures that a male visitor cannot see the woman of the house, but also serves to deceive the male visitor in that, when the woman speaks from behind the wall, her real voice is distorted due to echo and reverberation and sounds like a male voice. My female informant and I staged a small drama as I knocked at the door, she

136 Chapter Five -The Swahili house opened it and ran behind the wall of the Tekani and started talking to me. I could not o recognize her voice, even though I had known this woman for over 16 years, as she is my sister-in-law.

Figure 32. Space Used by Women When Opening the Exterior Door

u Figure 33. Behind the Tekani

137 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Inside the Swahili house

Once a visitor has gone past the rituals of the Daka, the door, the Kizingiti and the Tekani, he or she comes to the Kawanda or internal courtyard. Of all the stone houses that I have visited, I have yet to encounter one that has no Kawanda. Ghaidan (1975) notes that the internal courtyard provided for the stone house the environmental requirements of daylight and ventilation. The Kawanda serves another important function. It is where all the household activities, such as cooking and washing clothes occur. Women of the household stay indoors the whole day undertaking the house chores. The Kawanda serves as the only 'outdoor' space for the women. To provide water to the house, a well is present in courtyard of the majority of houses in Lamu. Even with piped water being introduced, the wells are still in use to this day. Apart from these house wells which provide water to the houses and, sometimes to neighbouring houses, there are also street wells which are for public use. According to Islamic principles, a person cannot refuse to give water to another person. Refusing to provide water to another human being or even animal is a great sin in Islam. People perceived to be enemies are not able to use the water well to draw water. According to Stigand (1966), "there are special sorts of charms to prevent strangers using wells which make the water poisonous to others, but innocuous to the owners."214

The Kawanda is important as it provides the space required within the house for hosting private rituals like circumcisions, weddings and funerals. Most of the rooms - not enclosed - open to the Kawanda. Once inside the stone house and having walked past the Kawanda, a visitor or even an inhabitant has to remove shoes and walk inside the house

211 In standard Kiswahili language, the internal courtyard is known as kiwanda, which can also stand for a playing field. In Kiamu or the Lamu dialect, the internal courtyard is known as Kawanda, while kiwanda stands for a playing field. In Lamu, the Kawanda serves a domestic purpose while the kiwanda is a communal open space. 2121 gained access to these many houses only when I was working in Lamu between 1988 andl 1995. When on official duties such as undertaking inspection, I managed to enter many historic houses and even prepared plans, sections and elevations. 213 Ghaidan, Lamu: A Study oftheSwahili Town, 75. 214 Stigand, The Land ofZinj: Being an Account of British East Africa, Its Ancient History and Present Inhabitants, 129.

138 Chapter Five -The Swahili house barefoot. As mentioned earlier, when one enters the mosque, one has to remove their shoes as the dirt carried by the shoes contaminates the pure space of prayers. The stone house is an image of the mosque and when one enters, one has to remove one's shoes to maintain the purity of domestic space.

i Figure 34. Typical Lamu Swahili house plan and section

139 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Figure 35. Interior courtyard of the Swahili house

The room most closely connected to the Kawanda or the Msana (pi. Misana) wa Tini (lower open gallery,) is the most furnished space in the stone house. The Msana wa Tini is used as a living space, an eating area and for sleeping and it is a long, but narrow space, its size determined by the construction material used by the Waswahili. The long and narrow spatial quality of the Misana is determined by the Mkoko (pi. Mikoko) or mangrove poles used as structural beams on the Sakafu or ceiling. The Mikoko span about three meters and so the Misana never go beyond the three metre width. For the wealthier owners, a special timber beam known as Banaa would be used to carry the Sakafu.

140 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Figure 36. Swahili house ceiling decoration

The Mkoko and Banaa belong to the same mangrove species; the main differences being that the Mikoko are rounded beams while the Banaa are cut and shaped into rectangular sections. The Banaa greater longevity than the Mkoko as they are not easily infested with termites. The Sakafu or ceiling in the Swahili stone house is always flat. There is even a Swahili proverb that says 'Mbio za sakafuni huishiya ukingoni' or 'Running on the roof only ends up at the edge'. This proverb, even though insinuating that one cannot run away forever or do something indefinitely, has been possibly obtained from the nature and construction of the Swahili flat-roofed stone houses. The Msana wa Tini has beds on both ends, separated only by curtains hung on a pole known as Muandi, which when translated means something long and straight. In other words, the Msana wa Tini is used as a living space during the day and turned into a sleeping area at night for the sons of the household. Privacy within the house between the household members is not as strongly emphasized as between the household and the outside world.

141 Chapter Five -The Swahili house o

Figure 37. Miliya or galleries inside the Swahili house. In this photo, one can see the different gradations of light emanating from the courtyard and diffusing through the galleries in this order - Kawanda, Msana wa Tini, Msana wa Yuu, Msanaya Ndani and Nyumbaya Rati. The view from the courtyard to the Nyumbaya Kati is obscured in that when one sits in the courtyard, one cannot see the inner parts of the Swahili house.

Figure 38. Msana wa tini with its bare furniture

Just next to the Msana wa Tini as one enters deeper into the stone house, one encounters a similar gallery known as the Msana wa Yuu or the upper gallery. A curtain hung between one or two pillars or Zipiya (sing. Kipiya) separates the Msana wa Tini and the u Msana wa Yuu. Allen (1979) writes that the "large, perpendicular apertures are invariably

142 Chapter Five -The Swahili house exactly opposite one another, so as to permit the maximum amount of light from the o courtyard to reach the inner living room; and so large are these openings that they would almost have the effect of making the two rooms seem like one large room, broken only by pillars, and opening directly into the courtyard.."215 The Msana wa Yuu, which is an extension of the Msana wa Tini, is more private as it is used more often by the women of the household, especially the daughters.

Figure 39. 'Master Bedroom'

Allen, "The Swahili House: Cultural and Ritual Concepts Underlying Its Plan and Structure," 9.

143 Chapter Five -The Swahili house o

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Figure 40. Entry to the Nyumba ya Kati

Figure 41. Kikoi and Leso - Male and Female night-gowns. The Kikoi is the man's sleeping attire while the Lesos used by the woman as a night-robe. Swahili Leso have proverbs written on them. This particular Leso was written 'Mflcha uchi hazai'which means he/ she who hides his/her private parts wil never have children.

Going deeper into the stone house, away from the Msana wa Yuu, is the Msana wa Ndani or the inner gallery, which is the most private space, hosting the owner's bedroom. u Younger children may also sleep in the Msana wa Ndani, again separated from the

144 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Msana wa Yuu only by curtains, hung on the Muandi. Ghaidan (1971) concludes that there is an 'intimacy gradient' within the stone house; the deeper you enter into the house, the more private it becomes.216 This is a clever conclusion, especially taking into consideration the positioning of the Nyumba ya Kati or the middle house. As will be described in the next paragraph, the Nyumba ya Kati is where the Waamu wash their dead. In terms of natural lighting, the Nyumba ya Kati is the darkest space in the stone house. Not only is the Nyumba ya Kati the darkest space without any windows to allow in natural sunlight, but it is also the least decorated and furnished space. Its blank walls, its minimal furnishing and, especially, its dark quality signify 'death' to the Waswahili. The non-existence of light in the Nyumba ya Kati is a bitter reminder of the grave and the darkness engulfed inside the grave.

The stone house has more than one toilet. The Msana wa Ndani has its own toilet and was for use by the head of the household, his spouse and daughters. Another toilet is on the outside facing the Kawanda or the courtyard for use by the sons and close relatives who have been allowed access into the house, while a third separate toilet is for use only by the guests of the household. The toilet in the stone house has a curtain, rather than a door for privacy. The bath area and the pit latrine form the two major sections of the toilet. The bath area has a Birika or water reservoir that can store water for a week or two, depending on the usage. When the Birika runs out of water, more water is filled through a water spout constructed on the outside wall of the toilet. The filling of water in the Birika from the external water spout ensures that even when someone is having a bath inside the toilet and runs out of water, there would be water that could be refilled from the outside, thus ensuring a steady supply of water. Like the ablution space of the mosque, the toilet of the Swahili stone house also has fish in the Birika to eat the mosquito larvae that would form over stagnant water and also has a bowl at the bottom that helps keep fish alive while the Birika is being cleaned.

216 Usam Ghaidan, "African Heritage: The Stone House of Lamu," Plan East Africa (May/June, 1971). Quoted by Allen, "The Swahili House: Cultural and Ritual Concepts Underlying Its Plan and Structure."

145 Chapter Five —The Swahili house o

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Figure 42. Interior of the Choo or wash-room

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Figure 43. Birika la Choo or water-reservoir inside the wash-room

The innermost space in the stone house is the Nyumba ya Kati. This space has been associated with two functions. Although it has been thought to be the daughters' bedroom, the Nyumba ya Kati is also used to wash the dead. (J

146 Chapter Five —The Swahili house o

Figure 44. Entry from Nyumba ya Kati to the Choo or wash-room

Figure 45. 'Peephole' entry from nyumba ya kati to the internal choo or toilet

Where and when a guest - a close relative or friend - is invited into the stone house, a guest room is provided on the ground floor or on the first floor, when an upper floor u exists. The guest room or Sebule has its own entrance and toilet so that even in the house,

147 Chapter Five —The Swahili house the guest is separated from the main house and there is little interaction between the guest and the household members.

A staircase from the Kawanda or internal courtyard leads to the Sebule on one side and the upper kitchen or Kidari cha Meko. The Meko has a palm leaf roof or Makuti. Apart from the flat roofed stone house, the Meko is the only section with a Makuti roof. Due to its porosity, the Makuti allows smoke to permeate from the Meko to the outside, without entering the main house. The smoke from the cooking in the Meko also drives away mosquitoes and keeps malaria at bay. The Meko is restricted to women and it is a cultural taboo among the Waswahili for men to be seen in the Meko. The stone houses within the same Mtaa are interconnected with each other in two ways; interconnected ceilings and the Wikio or the bridge room. Women on the upper floor cooking in the Meko easily interact with their neighbours by walking over the interconnected ceilings from one house to another. At some places, over twenty houses may be interconnected by the ceilings where women from the neighbouring area can gossip while preparing and cooking food. The Kidari cha Meko is purely a woman's space which explains why this space is out of bounds for men.

Figure 46. Entry to the Meko or upper kitchen

148 Chapter Five —The Swahili house Figure 47. Inside a Swahili Meko or kitchen

The Wikio or the bridge room is unique to Lamu. I have yet to come across a Wikio in other Swahili towns like Mombasa or Zanzibar. The Wikio is part of the house and part of the street as it connects one house to another on an upper level above the street. The Wikio enables women to visit each other from one house to a neighbour without necessarily having to go outside the house. As the Wikio is part of the two connecting houses and also part of the street, it has windows that are shuttered. These timber shuttered windows are used by the women to view the activities of the street below, without themselves being seen. The shuttered windows are not only used for privacy purposes by the women, but also for curiousity to know of the happenings of the town without having to walk the streets. The people passing below the Wikio can be heard by the women above as they walk, talk and discuss the events of the day. Curious women have been compared to the eye which 'sees without seeing its own self. The Waswahili have a saying, 'Jito laona lakini halijioni,' whose apparent meaning is the eye sees without seeing its own self. The intended meaning is that the curious women above, that is, those living in Swahili stone houses, have more secrets than the people passing on the streets below. This confirms what the Waswahili say about their houses: Majumba makubwa hufita siri which means that grandiose houses keep a lot of secrets.

149 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Furniture

Allen (1979) notes that the msana has a connotation of 'work room', and it is where most of the life of the household goes on.217 All visitors or close relatives who have been allowed access into the house never get beyond the Msana wa Tini which is furnished with an eclectic style of furniture. All stone houses have a common set of furniture which includes Kiti cha Mpingo or the ebony and ivory chair, Kiti cha Jeuri or the arrogant chair and the Kitanda cha Pilipili or timber-legged high beds.218

The Kiti cha Mpingo is a high level chair made of ebony and ivory infill. This chair is also sometimes called Kiti cha Bwana Harusi or the bridegroom's chair as it is used for wedding purposes and is where the bridegroom, adorned with majestic regalia, sits during his wedding ceremony. Kiti cha Jeuri or the arrogant chair is used more for relaxation by the owner of the household. As the name (arrogant chair or Kiti cha Jeuri) suggests, the armrests of the chair are extendable and used for stretching one's legs. The most interesting piece of Swahili furniture is the Kitanda cha Pilipili which is a high level bed whose four legs or Matendeu as they are known in Kiswahili language, are made of paws or legs of animals; the most popular ones being of elephant's legs or lion's claws. Even though the use of animals or figurines is forbidden in Islam, to which the Waswahili ascribe their faith, there are certain decorative works on the furniture as well as the walls that do contain animal figures. The use of these 'anomalous' animals as coined by Margaret Douglas (1999) will be discussed when I look at the decorative wall plasterworks.

217 Allen, "The Swahili House: Cultural and Ritual Concepts Underlying Its Plan and Structure," 9. 218 Kiti cha Mpingo (ebony-and-ivory chair) is also know as Kiti cha Enzi (the throne chair). 219 Douglas, Implicit Meanings: Selected Essays in Anthropology.

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Figure 48. Kiti cha Enzi

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Figure 49. Swahili traditional furniture ^Ht0r

151 Chapter Five -The Swahili house o

Figure 50. Lion-clawed bedstand know as Matendeu

There is no room or gallery specifically assigned for storage purposes. However, space under the high-level beds is used for storing valuable items. This space is not accessible to anyone except the house owner or his spouse. The Swahili saying 'Mtaka cha mvunguni sharti ainame' (if you want anything under the bed, you have to bend down) shows that the space under the bed is an important storage area for the Waswahili. However, jewellery and imported porcelain plates, the most important possessions of the Waswahili, are stored in wooden chests known as 'Kasha'. These chests or Kasha are normally inaccessible as they are locked.220 A famous Swahili singer once sang in praise of the Kasha, metaphorically referring to his sweetheart:

Kasha langu la zamani Kasha lisilo tumbuu Kitasa ndani kwa ndani Na ufunguwo ni huu Alofungua n'nani Amelivunda maguu...

Kasha muundo wa kale Si muundo wa kisasa Ni kazi ya watu wale Sidhaniya ni Mombasa Usifanye makelele Melipa mengi mapesa... u 2201 am indebted to Derek Nurse who informed me that 'Kasha' is a loan word into Swahili fromth e Portuguese word lcaixa'.

152 Chapter Five —The Swahili house Mafundi wote wa kale Kwa hivi sasa hakuna o Nawalobaki wafile Kabisa hutawaona Ilobaki mvulele Na kazi sijaiona 3

Kasha la mkaafu Madhubuti sawasawa Lenye harufu yafuu Kula ukilifunguwa Lanukiya karafuu Na waridi isotiwa 221 4

My old antique chest The chest without a bolt It has an internal lock And I have the key Who has opened it up And broken its legs .1

The chest has an antique style It is not a modern one It is the work of those people Not of the people of Mombasa Make not too much noise As I have paid a lot of money for the chest.. .2

All the experienced and old experts Are non-existent today And those who have died Have long since died What is left is foolishness And I have not seen any better art today 3

The rock-solid chest Very firm indeed It smells of scented Whenever you open it up And smells of cloves And of roses that are not there.

Figure 51. Kasha or wooden chest for storing valuables

153 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Rather than having a dining table and a set of chairs, the stone houses of Lamu have a large mat or Mkeka that is placed at the Msana wa Tini or the lower gallery. Before the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15th century, the Waswahili, having no dining tables as part of their home furniture, probably also had no Swahili word for a table. The Swahili word for a table, Meza, has probably been derived from Mesa, the Portuguese word for a table. Adhering to Islamic traditions, the Waswahili eat their meals while sitting on the Mkeka. This eating ritual explains the lack of chairs and a dining table within the stone house. However, with modernisation, most stone houses today do have a dining table whose chairs are made of mahogany and known as Karasi chairs. The Swahili house is known to contain furniture that is authentic, natural and organic made from mahogany timber that is known to last for a long time. Natural materials like mangrove, mahogany and coral stones and shells are used for various purposes in the stone house. Donley-Reid notes that these materials denote permanency for the Waswahili to display their authority and control over other groups of people.222

It is not surprising to find in the Swahili stone house furniture imported from different parts of the world. In fact, the presence of imported furniture signifies the wealth of the owner and is meant to impress any guest who has been granted access into the house. Probably the most prestigious possession of imported furniture is the American-made 'Regulator' wall clock and it is not surprising to see some of these still in existence in some stone houses of Lamu. Indian-imported baby cots are placed in the Msana wa Ndani, where the head of the household and his spouse have their sleeping place. Also to be found in the Msana wa Ndani is the ceramic ware storage chest and the jewellery storage chest. Ceramic ware and jewellery are the most prized possessions of the Waswahili. The Maasais of Kenya measure their wealth with the number of cattle they possess while the Kikuyus of Kenya gauge their wealth with the acreage of land that they possess. For the Waswahili, jewellery and imported ceramic ware are their most important possessions. The presence of imported ceramic ware and their meaning to the Waswahili will be discussed in the section on decoration.

222 Donley-Reid, "The Social Uses of Swahili Space and Objects".

154 Chapter Five -The Swahili house The Kidari cha Meko or the upper kitchen is the most intricately equipped section of the stone house. The staple food of the Waswahili is rice cooked with coconut sauce. It is, therefore, logical to see in the Meko, the Kifumbu (coconut sauce squeezer), the Mbuzi (coconut grater), the Tanu (kiln for baking millet bread), Jiwe la Kusaga (the grinding stone) and the Chungu (clay pots used for cooking). The Mtungi wa Mqji (clay water pot) keeps the drinking water cool even during hot humid days. Perhaps the most interesting equipment in the Meko is the 'Kata' which is used to store meat and other foods and to keep these away from cats, mice or other rodents, who might find their way into the Meko. However, the most prized possession seen in the Kidari cha Meko is the Kibao cha Tambi (the noodle maker). It is believed that the Kibao cha Tambi originated from China, although my informants were sure that it was a locally-made design that the Chinese who visited Lamu in the 17th century actually borrowed from Lamu and exported to China.

The Swahili concept of space in oral tradition

The concept of space, especially within the Swahili house, has been an interesting subject for Swahili poets and authors - past and contemporary. The poem of Mwana Kupona, composed around 1858, was an advice from a lady by the name of Mwana Kupona to her daughter who was getting married. Mwana Kupona advised her daughter how to behave towards her future husband. An excerpt of some of the verses goes as follows:

Na kowa na kusinga, na nyee zako kufunga Na asimini kutunga, nafirashani kutiya. Nawe ipambe libasi, ukae kama arusi Maguu tia kugesi, na mikononi makoa. Na kidani na kifungo, sitowe katika shingo Muili siwate mwingo, kwa marashi na daliya. Pete sikose za ndani, hina sikome nyaani Wanda sitowe matoni, na nshini kuitiya. Nyumba yako i-nadhifu, mumeo umsharifu Wak 'utanapo sufufu, msifu ukimweteya.

155 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Take bath normally and scent yourself, and plait your hair Make strings of jasmine flowers, wear them and sprinkle them over. And put on cosmetics, adorn yourself like a real bride And wear anklets and bracelets on your hands. On your neck do not unclasp the necklace Do not stop to perfume your body with powder and rose water. Do not remove the rings from your fingers and always have henna121 on your feet Do not remove kohl from your eyes or stop putting it on your eyebrows. Let your house always be kept clean in order to honour your husband So that when people gather at home, you will bring praise on your husband.

For a Swahili woman, cleanliness inside the house is of utmost importance as it reflects how the husband is perceived by others within the society. A clean house is an honour to the husband, while an unclean house spells disgrace, not only to the wife, but also to the husband. The Swahili house is swept throughout the day, but not at night. Also, sweeping is done in a particular manner. Sweeping at night chases away Barka or Allah's blessings. Sweeping also has to be started from the interior of the house or room and ends at the door. This action of sweeping from inside to the outside symbolises the chasing away of Nuksi or bad luck from the house. Dirt in the house is not only a disgrace for the husband, but also brings bad luck to the household.

Noorjehan, a Pakistani woman singer and poet, sang an Urdu song in 1967 known as 'Mera Ghar Meri Jannat' or 'My House is my Heaven' and this is what Mwana Kupona was trying to teach her daughter.224 She advised her to look after the house, to keep it

Henna is derived from a plant and is used by women to adorn their legs and feet for special occasions like marriages or when they intend to entice their husbands. 224 The full translation of 'Mera Ghar Mera Jannat' is:

My home is not just a residence or a nest, it is my heaven. (While thinking of my life in this new house) It is a new world full of LOVE Everyday there is a new morning and a new evening The path (of my life) turned into a romantic (experience) And my journey became more colorful (joyful)!

(While thinking of my beloved) Influenced by my emotions, the heart started smiling A musical sound of Jaltarang (rain drop sound) Started playing in my heart And my day-and-night became all musical!

156 Chapter Five -The Swahili house clean and to keep it fragrantly in order, thus making the house like Heaven for her husband. Waswahili have been known to love aromatic fragrances of flowers like Yasmini jasmine, Mlangilangi (sweet smelling flowers of the ylang ylang tree), Viluwa (a flower of species of sweet-smelling liana - a kind of climbing tropical vine) and Udi (aromatic aloe wood) which are synonymous with love. Swahili women wear braids of Yasmini, Mlangilangi, Viluwa dotted with Udi to entice their husbands. In certain houses, these aromatic flowers were planted and provided a steady supply for the women of the household. A contemporary Swahili poet, Ahmad Nassir, compares his old love to the fragrance of sweet-smelling flowers used by Waswahili, insinuating that his old love had a fragrance unmatched by any known fragrances used in the Swahili house.

Yo imi nduza nifiye My brethren, I am dying Kwa manukato ya huba Because of the fragrance of love Sijui nitendeiye I do not know what to do Yatimiye matilaba To reach my objective.

Nalihipenda zamani I fell in love long before Kisha Mungu Kaniafu And God saved me Kaketi katamakani I sat and thought Kavuta pumzi ofu And released the bad breath Leo ghafula moyoni Suddenly today in my heart Nyonda metowa harufu Love has blossomed a fragrance.

Harufu yake wendani My colleagues, the fragrance of love Hushinda nyingi harufu Surpasses all fragrances Si udi si asimini Not even the fragrance of aromatic aloe wood or jasmine Wala si mtunda ufu Not even the fragrance of a bouquet of flowers Harufu hini nda shani This fragrance of love is amazing Uzuriwe kiwaarifu If I have to inform you.

Harufuye si mkadi Its fragrance is not that of the screw pine Si kikuba ashirafu It is not the fragrance of the cherished Si kiluwa si waridi Not even a string of aromatic flowers (worn on the neck) nor that ofrose

(While looking at my child) Why this flower (my child) in the garden (home) Cannot keep smiling all the time? I would take the dust fromthos e feet To replace the vermillion (an Indian married woman practices a tradition of putting vermillion in the hair near the forehead) Often I cherish just looking at my home, sweet home!

157 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Si ya mrehani harufu Not even the fragrance of basil Hino ya nyonda mezidi This fragrance of love surpasses all fragrances Uzuriwe kiwaarifu If I have to inform you.

Haliudi na ambari Aromatic aloe wood and ambergris Ambazo ni maarufu Whose fragrances are familiar Zinganukiya uzuri Though they smell nice Na kuwa na sifa ndefu And have lots of praises Ya nyonda imekithiri The fragrance of love persists Kunukiato harufu When it gives out its smell.

Hakika nda miujiza Indeed this is a miracle Harufu ilosadifu The fragrance that is in the air Moyoni hunishangaza Amazes me deep in my heart Nikawa mduwalifu And I become stunned Na kila kinipingiza And every time it touches me Hukosa umakinifu Makes me lose my cool.

Katika harufu nyingi Of many fragrances Nilonusa hazisifu That I have smelled and praised Na ya nyonda siipingi The fragrance of love, I will not dismiss Mema ya yoke harufu Its excellent smell Hushinda mlangilangi Surpasses that of the ylang ylang fragrance Na kina mitunda ufu And the fragrance of a bouquet of sweet-smelling flowers.

From the above poem, it can be seen that the Waswahili are obsessed with sweet- smelling fragrances. Within the Swahili house, utensils or furniture may be missing, but no Swahili house will miss having an incense-burner which is used to freshen the air. Probably, because of humidity within the Swahili house, the use of incense-burners is more of a necessity than just for pleasure.

However, an important addition today to the collection of Swahili furniture is the use of synthetic decorative works, the most common one being the use of synthetic flowers in the stone houses. The majority of the stone houses today have synthetic flowers which are un-Swahili. Swahili stone houses have been known to smell of various fragrances and the use of synthetic flowers can only be explained as the 'Western' addition to the Swahili house. Even though the aspect of 'permanence' is apparent with the use of synthetic flowers, the importance of the aroma of sweet floral fragrances for the Waswahili overrides the concept of permanence.

158 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Figure 52. New 'Western' furniture and synthetic flowers. As entioned earlier, in Fig. 23, the influence of popular culture is also evident in the use of modern furniture like sofa sets and synthetic flowers.

The subject of cleanliness within the Swahili house is important and taken seriously as it is an issue of family honour. The stone houses do not only smell fragrant; they are also kept clean, as a dirty house brings only scorn to the family. The Waswahili, being proud of their culture and tradition, associate themselves with cleanliness. As mentioned earlier, the Waswahili strive to be devout Muslims with the object of entering Heaven upon their death and must keep their houses clean, according to the Hadith or the sayings of Prophet Mohamed, which say that "Islam is cleanliness, so clean yourselves for no one will enter Heaven except those who are clean."

Another poem, Al-Inkishafi (Catechism of a soul), written by Sayyid Abdallah bin Ali bin Nasir who lived from c A.D. 1750-1850 and who came from noble ancestry, bemoaning the downfall of Patte, paints a nice imagery of a Swahili house in Patte around the 19 century:

Nyumba zao mbake zikinawiri Their lighted mansions glowed with lamps of brass Kwa taa za kowa na za sufuri And crystal, till night seemed like very day; Masiku yakele kama nahari And in their halls dwelt beauty everywhere

159 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Haiba najaha iwazingiye And veneration stalked them all their days.

Wapambiye siniya kuteuwa Their homes were set with Chinese porcelain Na kula kikombe kinakishiwa And every cup and goblet was engraved Kati wazitiye kuzi na kowa While, placed amidst the glittering ornaments, Katika mapambo yanawiriye Great crystal pitchers gleamed all luminous.

Zango za mapambo kwa taanusi The rails from which they hung the rich brocade Naapa kwa mungu mola mkwasi Were made—I swear by god, source of all wealth— Zali za msaji na abunusi Of teak and ebony, row upon row of them, Zi tele sufufu zisitawiye Rank upon rank with fabrics hung displayed.

Kumbi za msana Hi kuvuma The men's halls hummed with chatter, while within Na za masturi zikiterema The women's quarters laughter echoed loud Kwa kele za waja na za khudama The noise of talk and merriment of slaves Furaha na nyemi zishitadiye Rang out, and cheerful shouts of workmen rose.

Pindi walalapo kwa masindizi And when they went to rest, they had massage Wali na wakandi na wapepezi And fans and gay-robed women for their ease Na wake wapambe watumbuizi And music-makers, playing and singing songs Wakitumbuiza wasinyamaye Ceaselessly till they slept.

Kwa maao mema ya kukhitari And when they slept, it was on exquisite beds of Yuu la zitanda na majodori Finest timber carefully chosen, with soft mattresses Na mi to kuwiliya akhadari With pillows of green cloth at head and foot Kwa kazi ya pote wanakishiye Embroidered with silver thread and fine-spun gold.

Misutu mipinde wakapindiwa Fabric draped on canopies above to shelter them Yuu lafirasha kufunikiwa Their limbs were sprinkled over Majiya marashi wakikutiwa With rosewater, and their bodies anointed Itiri na qawa waipashiye 225 With attar and sandalwood and incense-smoke.

The Waswahili of the pre-19th century lived an extravagant life - in large mansions, clean, embroidered with jewellery and most importantly, delicately-scented. This, the Waswahili scrupulously undertook to awe their friends and enemies alike. For the Waswahili, living in dilapidated, untidy and smelling houses was not only embarrassing, but also brought shame and scorn to the whole family, and being proud people, the Waswahili would not allow any shame to befall their name.

225 Sayyid Abdalla bin Ali Bin Nassir, Al-Inkishafi: Catechism of a Soul, trans. James de Vere Allen (Nairobi; Kampala; Dar-es-salaam: East African Literature Bureau, 1977), 18.

160 Chapter Five -The Swahili house A contemporary author of short novels, Muhammad Said Abdalla (1976), looked at the concept and vastness of space within the Swahili house and wrote :226

Chumba, au hasa - kama kilivyojulikana - chumba cha faragha ya Bibie Shali ambako ndiko walikokaribishwa Bwana Msa na Najum, kilikuwa ni bahari ya chumba chenye ukubwa, labda ya nyumba tatu za Ng 'ambo, ball hicho kilizidi kwa kimo. Kimo ndicho hasa cha kuflkiriwa; kwani, ikiwa kipimo kilichohusika kwa nyumba zetu za desturi nifuti kumi kwa kwenda juu, kimo cha chumba kile, au kimo cha ghorofa nzima He, kilifika futi thelathini kutoka kunako sakafu mpaka kugusa dari. Mtu anaweza kusikia kuwa, kama atakuwa mbali na mwenziwe hata kwa kiasi cha dhiraa tano tu, sauti yoke ni lazima ainyanyue iwe kubwa zaidi, ndio mwenziwe asikie. Kisio kama hilo litakuja kwa sababu ya nafasi na kimo cha chumba kile ambacho, labda, kama utakaa peke yako ukasema kwa sauti, basi huenda ukasikia unajibiwa na mwangwi unaotokana na nafasi kubwa kama vile. Juu ya hayo, nadhani, pambo la nyumba, vifaa, zana za samani mbalimbali ziliweza kuumeza au kuupoteza utupu wa nafasi kubwa He — mede; makochi; viti, viti; meza, meza; makabati, na mataa ya thureya yenye vigae vinavyotoa mwanga wa rangi namna kwa namna mithili ya almasi — vyote hivyo vilienea katika chumba kile.

The room of Madame Shali (or the secret bed-room, as it is known), where Mr. Msa and Najum were invited to enter, was a 'sea of a room', perhaps maybe equivalent to, or even bigger, than the size of three Western houses. The height of the room was three times more than the height of the normal Swahili house (which have heights often feet). You can hear your own echo when talking to another person five feet away. You have to speak at the top of your voice to communicate better with the other person. When you speak alone, you hear your own voice as if the spirits were talking back to you. This feeling is probably due to the vastness and the big expanse of the rooms within the Swahili house. Moreover, I think, the various ornamentation of the house that was spread around that room - antiques, the seats, the table, the ward-robes and the glass chandelier which produced glittering light like diamonds - all these managed to hide the vastness and fill the emptiness of the room.

The concept of space to the Waswahili includes vastness and extravagance within the house to create awe in visitors. The vastness or emptiness of the Swahili house is downscaled by ornamentation and the echo is absorbed by the presence of Swahili furniture made of teak, ebony or mahogany. The Swahili house is not perceived as a

226 M. Said Abdulla, Mwana Wa Yungi Hulewa (Dar-es-salaam: East African Publishing House, 1976), 61. This novel is about a police detective who helps a woman to look for her long-lost children.

Chapter Five —The Swahili house composition of rooms. Rather, the Swahili house is intuited as a conglomeration of spaces where different activities take place. Activities like cooking, sleeping, entertaining guests, among others are held in spaces like Mekoni (kitchen), Msana wa tini (the lower gallery), Daka (the entrance porch), respectively. These spaces are not enclosed rooms separated by doors. Rather, these are spaces separated just by curtains.

Stepping on Swahililand, Sir Richard Burton (1872) noted and compared Swahili architecture to the architecture of Europe in the 19th century:

Arabs here, as elsewhere, prefer long narrow rooms (40 feet x 15 to 20), generally much higher than their breadth, open to the sea-breeze, which is the health-giver; and they close the eastern side-walls against the 'fever wind', the cool, damp, spicy land-draught. The Sala or reception-hall is mostly on the ground-floor. It contrasts strongly with our English apartments, where the comfortless profusion and confusion of furniture, and where the undue crowding of ornamental ornaments, spoil the proportions and 'put out' the eye. The protracted lines of walls and rows of arched and shallow niches, which take the place of tables and consoles are unbroken save by a few weapons. Picture and engravings are almost unknown; chandeliers and mirrors are confined to the wealthy; and the result, which in England would be bald and barn-like, here suggests the coolness and pleasing simplicity of an Italian villa - in Italy. A bright tinted carpet, a gorgeous but tasteful Persian rug for the dais, matting on the lower floor, which is of the usual chunam; a divan in old-fashioned houses; and, in the best of the modern style, half a dozen stiff chairs of East Indian blackwood or China-work, compose the upholstery of and Arab 'palazzio'. In the rooms of the few who can or will afford such trifles, ornaments of porcelain or glass­ ware, and French or Yankee knickknacks fill the niches. Of course the inner apartments are more shadowily dressed, but these we may not explore."

Burton, Zanzibar; City, Island, and Coast, Vol.1, 89.

Chapter Five —The Swahili house Genesta Hamilton (1957) discusses the royal homes of the rulers of Zanzibar:

The palace stood on the very edge of the sea; it was huge, rambling and several storeys high. The staircases were steep and their steps were tall: made, apparently for a race of giants. There were hundreds of rooms and several great bath-houses, where members of the family could spend the whole day, if they so wished; bathing, resting, praying and sleeping.

The bath-houses were lofty apartments, with domed roofs, stone benches running round the walls, and niches for lamps. Each bath was fifteen feet long and twelve feet wide, and each house belonged to one group or people. In the living-rooms almost every inch of space was decorated. A bare wall would have been considered a disgrace, a sign or poverty or bad taste. There were shelves everywhere, holding china and glass ornaments. Mirrors stretched from floor to ceiling, their frames ornate with gilded wood, or ebony studded with ivory and mother-or-pearl. In each room were several clocks, most of which chimed at different moments, while from the ceilings hung massive chandeliers. The floors were covered with Persian rugs and finely woven grass mats.

In the large rooms groups of sarari, or concubines, slept with their children beside them. They, unlike Arab wives in smaller households, lived in friendliness and at peace with each other. Their rosewood beds were ornamented with fretwork, and were so high that they had to climb onto chairs to get into them.228

The concept of eaxtravagance in Swahili houses is further reiterated in the above. Bare walls, without any decorative elements were despised of in Swahili houses, as decorative elements served a multitude of functions like displaying the wealth of the owner, breaking the monotony of the extravagant space in the Swahili houses and also for protection against the evil and the envious eye. The issue of the Swahili furniture i.e. the high beds were prevalent in Swahili houses. As was noted earlier, the spaces elow the high beds were used as storage space.

228 Genesta Hamilton, Princes ofZinj: The Rulers of Zanzibar (London, UK: Hutchinson and Company Ltd., 1957), 67.

163 Chapter Five —The Swahili house Decorative plasterwork and ornamentation

Glassie (2000) writes that "architecture divides space for differential experience. It provides an exterior to see and an interior to use."229 Further, Glassie (2000) also writes that "ornament creates an exciting tension within architectural experience when the inside and the outside are treated differently."230 For the Swahili stone house of Lamu, the exterior is austere and is for use, while the interior is ornamented for people to see. This interesting tension caused by the ornamentation is what makes the stone house unique among all other buildings in Swahili towns.

The most unique aspect of the stone house of Lamu is the decorative plasterwork on the Zidaka (sing. Kidaka) or the wall niches. The Zidaka can only be seen in houses in Lamu archipelago and do not exist in houses in other Swahili towns on the eastern coast of Africa. Allen (1973) surmises that "before 1700 plaster was very seldom used on its own for decorative purposes, although it was sometimes used to provide a smooth surface for decorations carved from coral."231 This may be explained by the apparent lack of stone houses before 1700 as most of the stone houses were built during the Omani rule just after the 1700s. Within the stone house itself, there is an increasing gradation from the Kawanda (courtyard) to the Msana wa Ndani (the master bedroom) of Zidaka and Nakshi or wall niches and plasterwork decoration, respectively. Ghaidan elucidates that "as one traverses the house away from the court, niches increase; the last wall of the inner room is almost entirely covered by them." However, the last wall of the stone house forms part of the Nyumba ya Kati (middle house) which is probably the wall emptiest of ornamentation with neither niches nor wall openings.

The Zidaka are wall niches that are carved into the thick walls of Lamu stone houses. The wall thickness, as shall be seen in the next chapter, is a result of the construction techniques used by Swahili masons or Mafundi (sing. Fundi). The Zidaka take the form

229 Henry Glassie, Vernacular Architecture (Philadelphia; Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 52. 230 Ibid., 61. 231 Allen, Swahili Origins: Swahili Culture and the Shungwaya Phenomenon, 6. 232 Ghaidan, Lamu: A Study of the Swahili Town, 47.

164 Chapter Five —The Swahili house of arched and rectangular niches covering the wall of the Msana wa Ndani, which is the most decorated wall in the stone house. Ghaidan (1975), having concluded that there is an intimacy gradient as one enters deeper into the stone house, also intimates that niches increase as one enters deeper into the house, doubts that the niches were used as storage alcoves and suggest that the Zidaka were used for breaking the monotony of the wall.233 The understanding that the Zidaka were for decorative purposes or for breaking the wall monotony are the most widely held by researchers. Some Western archaeologists believe that what was displayed on the Zidaka portrayed the house owner's wealth and his status symbol in society.

Abdulla (1976), portrays the imagery of the Zidaka also known as Mashubaka in Zanzibar and what they displayed:234

Katika mashubaka saba yaliyopangana katika chumba kile cha faragha, ambayoyote, isipokuwa moja tu, vimepangwajuuyake vibweta viwili viwili kila shubaka, Bibie Shall alikwenda akakichukuwa kimoja. Vibweta vile vilikuwa vyote vya mpingo iliopangiliwa kwa kurusiwa vipande vya kashata zilizochongwa katika pembe za tembo.

Inside, but one of all the seven niches inside the 'secret room', were arranged two jewellery boxes. Madame Shali went and picked up one of the jewellery boxes. Those jewellery boxes were made of ebony with diamond-shaped infill of ivory.

233 Ibid., 47-48. Abdulla, Mwana Wa Yungi Hulewa, 63.

165 Chapter Five —The Swahili house James de Vere Alii o ^ [ramiffl^miKFjacMJDODQ^^

Diagram 2b.

i 1 ••ifl1'-...-M..-:.i-::-*L

Diagram 2c.

Diagram 2. Smal! 18th century Lamu house wrth walls of coral rag decorated with carved piaster supporting timber joists. 2a, From the plan can be seen the sequences of spaces demon­ strating the progression in privacy — from the bent entrance Idaka and tekani) and open courtyard ikrwanda), to the quarters {ndantl at the rear, 2b. Facade of the msana wa tint executed in carved plaster. Relief bands of decoration frame the doorway and the upper part of the walls. 2c. Facade of die ndani showing the carved niches. 2d. Section through the niches showing the increased angle of the openings. These angles produce an optical effect distorting the scale of the niches. The focal point governing the angle of these niches is indicated on the plan — 2a. 2e. Detail of a wall niche in the msana wa tini showing the designs of the carved borders. (drawings by Ross Feller) Diagram 2d.

Figure 53. Swahili Zidaka u

166 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Figure 54. Zidaka or walled decoration with artefacts displayed

Figure 55. Trefoliated Zidaka

The niches are used for displaying ceramic plates imported from China and the Netherlands and also for displaying and verses from the Holy Koran. Mahgoub (1990) wrote a dissertation on the architecture of the Nubian peoples, whose origins are also in question as to whether they reside in southern Egypt or northern Sudan. The identity of the Nubians is questionable and they may be compared to the

167 Chapter Five —The Swahili house Waswahili as the Nubians are considered African in nature by some and Arab by others. 235The similarities of the Nubians and the Waswahili are also reflected in their architecture. Mahgoub (1990) writes that China plates were placed at the entrance to symbolize that the man of the house was still alive and "also protected the residents of the house from the harm of the evil eye of strangers. By distracting the attention of the strangers to these decorations and objects, the plates and decorations protected the inhabitants of the house from the evil eye."236 On the subject of ceramic ware, I would like to provide a short narrative of my own personal experience. When I was between the ages of 10 and 15 -1 do not remember when exactly -1 was asked by my mother to bring her a bowl which she wanted to use for serving food. While carrying this bowl, I dropped it and it broke into pieces. I started crying as I knew I would be scolded or even punished for dropping this prized bowl. To my surprise, my mother was glad that it broke and she told me that the breaking of the bowl meant 'good luck' and was due to the 'evil eye' which would have harmed me had the bowl not broken. In other words, this means that the bowl took the brunt of the 'evil eye'. I could not believe my ears and those words have stayed with me to this very day. Relating this to the subject of ceramic ware displayed on the Zidaka, the Waswahili display China plates to protect them from the 'evil eye' or Hasidi or anyone who enters their houses.237 In contrast to the Nubians, the Waswahili believe that the ceramic ware absorb rather than reflect the 'evil eye'. The imported ceramic ware on the Zidaka are thus a form of protection from the 'evil eye' as the Waswahili believe that the 'evil eye' is able to cause great harm and even death and hence the ceramic ware absorbs the malevolent spirits and protects the owner of the house from any harm. The Waamu have a saying - Husda huuwa au huumbuwa - which means that the 'evil eye' can kill or injure. This saying is particular to the Waamu as I have not heard other Waswahili (i.e. Wa-Mvita, people of Mombasa, Wa-Zanzibari, people of Zanzibar) saying this. The presence of the Koranic inscriptions are also used towards the same ends. Imagery of figurines is prohibited in Islam and, hence, the Zidaka

235 In Kenya, in 2007, the Government of Kenya recognized the Nubians as the 43rd tribe in Kenya, whereas the Waswahili have yet to be recognized as even existing. The recognition of the Nubians as one of the tribes living in Kenya, was a political move by the Government to garner Nubian support during the General Elections in December 2007. 236 Mahgoub, "The Nubian Experience: A Study of the Social and Cultural Meanings of Architecture". 237 Chinese ceramic ware is known as Vyombo vya Sini, which literally means Chinese utensils. To-date, Vyombo vya Sini is used to denote ceramic ware, whether they are made in China or elsewhere.

168 Chapter Five -The Swahili house are surrounded by flowery and geometrical motifs carefully inscribed using grounded coral shell as the plasterwork.

A different and special type of Zidaka or niche is the one normally carved on the side walls of the Msana wa Tini or the lower gallery next to the Kawanda or the courtyard. On opposite sides of the Msana wa Tini, one big Kidaka is carved and takes the form of a square niche, bigger in proportion than any Kidaka on the wall of the Msana wa Ndani, the inner gallery or the master bedroom. The most interesting aspect of this Kidaka is not its extraordinarily large size, but what the plasterwork decoration denotes and what is displayed on it. This large Kidaka or wall niche that is carved on the side walls of the Msana wa Tini or the lower gallery just next to the Kawanda or courtyard is known as the Kasa or the turtle niche. As the name suggests, the decorative plasterwork denotes a turtle. As explained earlier, figurative images are forbidden in Islam. It is understandable that, due to their maritime culture, the Waswahili would display maritime figures - if they were to display any figure in their decorative plasterwork. However, displaying the Kasa or the turtle is anomalous and has qualities of oddity. Mary Douglas (1999), studying the Lele peoples of Congo, looks at their animals in religious symbolism.238 Douglas (1999) specifically looks at the pangolin and its anomalous characteristics. According to the Waswahili, the turtle is an anomalous animal. It lives in the sea, but lays and hatches its eggs on land. Moreover, in Islam all sea creatures are Halal or allowed to be eaten. Yet, all animals that have claws are Haram or forbidden for eating. Due to this anomaly, some Muslims do eat turtles while others do not. Those who eat turtles have to slaughter the turtle while uttering and invoking God's name by saying "In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. Allah is Great." This slaughtering ritual is undertaken in much the same way as when one would slaughter any other animal. Most importantly, the Kasa to the Waswahili symbolises fertility as it is known that the turtle lays hundreds of eggs, even though most of the off-spring do not survive. The Kasa or turtle symbolises the bounty of fertility and was carved as a talisman or good charm meant to cast the luck of fertility to the woman of the household to enable her to bear many children.

Douglas, Implicit Meanings: Selected Essays in Anthropology, 51-52.

169 Chapter Five -The Swahili house Figure 56. Kasa or 'Turtle' wall decoration - trefoliated

A second and important attribute of the Kasa wall niche is the items displayed and what was symbolised by these displayed items. Before the advent of electricity, the Kasa wall niche displayed the Kibahlulu or a kerosene lamp. The Kibahlulu was not only used to provide light to the stone house, but was also symbolic in nature. Tracing the historical development of the niche and the oil lamp takes us back to the Verse of Light in the Holy Koran:

God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as if there was a niche and within it a lamp: and the lamp enclosed in glass: the glass as it were a brilliant star: lit from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! God doth guide whom he will to His Light: God set forth parables for men: and God doth know all things.239

One of the earliest Islamic treatises on Light was written by Abu Hamid Al-Ghazzali Al- Ghazali who explained and interpreted the above Verse of Light. Having done so in his

Koran, English, Chapter 24: Verses 35-57.

170 Chapter Five -The Swahili house treatise known as the 'Niche of Lights', Al-Ghazzali never symbolised the meaning of Light. However, Al-Ghazzali's treatise {Niche of Lights) was the catalyst in bringing forth the awareness in the meaning of Light in Islam. His explication of the Verse of Light was probably misunderstood by his followers who symbolised light in different ways; niche, lamp and glass, as a divine illumination and the gate to paradise in the next life. In many medieval mosques, several lamps started being hung: these lamps as metaphors for spiritual illumination, totally in contradiction with the more spiritual meaning of Light as explicated by Al-Ghazzali in the 'Niche of Lights'. The lamps were hung on long chains in the Mihrab or the prayer niche where the Imam or leader leads the faithful in prayers."241 Later, Koranic verses and lighting were also hung on these Mihrab. Muslims then started hanging lamps in their homes in niches that they carved into the walls to symbolise the presence of God in their homes, probably as a protection against evil forces. The display of the Kibahlulu or the oil lamp in the Kasa wall niche, while symbolising the presence of God in the stone house, also tries to elevate the status of the stone house to reach that unassailable level of purity of a mosque. The Nuru or Allah's illumination is an important quality within the Swahili house. The removal of footwear when entering the stone house is a further attestation of raising the level of purity of a home to the level of the mosque and trying to replicate the mosque at the stone house.

Swahili private rituals and their meaning in architecture

Allen (1979) elucidates that "not enough is known of the ritual associations of the 18th century Swahili stone houses. In part this is because many of them have distinctively non-Islamic overtones (indeed, rituals connected with stone houses are, in many respects, even less Islamic than those which are customary among mud and thatch dwellers)."242 The private rituals that I am most concerned with for their influence on the design of the

240 Abu Hamid Al-Ghazzali, The Niche of Lights, trans. W.H.T Gairdner (Lahore, Pakistan: Royal Asiatic Society, 1924). 241 Robert Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture: Form, Function, and Meaning (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 46. 242 Allen, "The Swahili House: Cultural and Ritual Concepts Underlying Its Plan and Structure," 14.

171 Chapter Five -The Swahili house stone house are the birth or Kuzaliwa, circumcision or Kutahiri, the wedding or Harusi and the funeral or Matanga.

Kuzaliwa or the birth rite of passage

The Kuzaliwa is perhaps the most celebrated ritual among the Waswahili as it involves the addition of a new member to the family. A child's birth, especially the first-born, is done at the family stone house. The local midwife or the Mpokezi delivers the baby. The child's umbilical cord is buried inside the house in the Kawanda or the internal courtyard. The Adhan or the call to prayer is recited on the right ear of the child immediately after he or she is born.243 The father or grandfather of the child would be the one to recite, although anyone near the new-born child may also recite the Adhan. Into the child's left ear, an elder whispers the child not to follow the Sheitwani or the evil spirit. It is believed that a child who has not had the Adhan recited on his or her right ear will go astray. Soon after the Adhan is recited to the child, some drops of honey (sweet taste) and aloe (bitter taste) are placed inside the mouth to signify that one is bound face sweet and bitter experiences. Some days after the child is born, his or her face is blackened with Wanda or kohl and he or she is taken around the house and introduced to the different parts of the house and is also introduced to the furniture and explained the different functions of the rooms and the furniture. The blackening of the face of the child is to hide the beautiful face of the child and to discourage the evil spirits from loving, admiring and later, taking the child with them to the spirit world. The Wanda is believed to have the power of absorbing the evil eye or the evil spirit. In contrast, the Nubians of Egypt and Sudan paint bright colours on the faces of their children, believing that the bright colours would deflect rather than absorb the evil eye. The action of taking the child around the stone house and introducing him or her to the various sections has the impact of educating the child to his or her inheritance and surroundings. According to Allen (1979), the "motive for introducing the child to the rooms of the main heirlooms is clear: these are parts of its

243 The Adhan is recited as: Allahu Akbar (x2) or God is Great, Ashhadu an la ilaha illalah (x2) or I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, Ashhadu anna Muhammad arasoolulah (x2) or I bear witness that Muhammad is Allah's prophet, Hayya ala salah (x2) or Come to prayers, Hayya alalfalah (x2) or Come to success, Allahu Akbar (x2) or God is Great, La illaha illalah, or There is God but Allah.

172 Chapter Five -The Swahili house cultural heritage." After a woman has given birth to a child, she is not allowed to leave the stone house for a period of forty days. When a woman gives birth to a daughter, the husband has to start thinking about building her a house. When the daughter is still young, her father starts preparing the building material; sand, lime and timber. Just after puberty and before marriage, the father starts building a house for his daughter as she will move to this house with her future husband.

Kutahiri or the circumcision rite of passage

Until the 1960s, the Kutahiri was a ritual that was carried out with pomp and celebration and signified a change of status for the male members of the Swahili society as the boys were initiated into manhood. The circumcision would be performed by Daktari wa Kutahiri or the 'circumcision doctor', who would not be an actual doctor, but would have the knowledge and the experience to perform this rite. The skin that is removed after the circumcision is then buried in the Kawanda or the internal courtyard. The circumcised boy then wears the Kikoi (a garment imported from Yemen that is worn by men around the waist) until the healing is over, after which he can continue wearing the Kikoi for as long as he wishes. Uncircumcised boys are not allowed to wear the Kikoi until after the circumcision rites are done. Trimingham (1964) has traced the circumcision ritual of the Waswahili and noted that circumcised boys were kept in the Ukumbi or hall and were not allowed to see women and sometimes, a Muslim cleric will read the Koran into sand to guard against evil spirits that may haunt the circumcised boys.245

Harusi of the wedding rite of passage

The Harusi or the wedding ceremony is probably the most well-attended ritual of the Waswahili as this rite signifies an interconnection between two families and a strengthening of society. Allen (1979) notes that "if there is any ritual, above all others, of which it is obligatory for those who qualify for it to have the Siwa (ivory horn blown

244 Allen, "The Swahili House: Cultural and Ritual Concepts Underlying Its Plan and Structure," 16. 245 J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in East Africa (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964), 130.

173 Chapter Five -The Swahili house on special occasions like weddings) sounded, it is the wedding." The Siwa or the horn would be blown on any major occasion such as Kuzaliwa (birth), Kutahiri (circumcision), Harusi (wedding) and Matanga (funeral). The Waswahili say iMbiyu ya mgambo ikiliya inajambo' which means that 'when the horn of the blower is sounded, then there is some news.' This news could be good news in the form of birth, circumcision or a wedding, or it could be bad news in the form of funeral announcements.

Among the original inhabitants of the stone houses or the Waungwana, the proof of virginity of the bride is of utmost importance as it reflects on family honour. On the wedding day, the bridegroom sits on the Kiti cha Mpingo or the ebony and ivory chair, which is reserved only for this special occasion. The bride, on the other hand, sits on her mother's bed in the Msana wa Ndani which is the inner gallery and the master bedroom.

Figure 57. Bwana Harusi or the Bride-groom (Human-scale model) sitting on the Kiti cha Mpingo

After the wedding rites are undertaken at the mosque, the groom goes to the bride's house to pay his respects and to consummate the marriage. Before entering the bride's house, a fowl or goat is slaughtered at the Kizingiti or the threshold and blood is splattered over the entrance to drive away any evil spirits from the stone house. A coconut may also be broken and its juice splattered over the Kizingiti. The Waswahili, as earlier explained,

246 Allen, "The Swahili House: Cultural and Ritual Concepts Underlying Its Plan and Structure," 17.

174 Chapter Five -The Swahili house believe that the Kizingiti or threshold stops evil spirits from entering the house and causing havoc. However, certain rites like the splattering of animal blood or breaking a coconut have to be undertaken to stop such evil spirits from crossing over the threshold and entering the house. This practice is known as Kufunga Nyumba or 'to close or protect the house'. The bride, after the wedding, has to move to her husband's house, which is probably the reason of the wedding ritual known as Kutolewa Nde or 'the revelation of the bride'. The Kutolewa Nde ritual involves the bride sitting on her mother's bed in the Msana wa Ndani or the inner gallery (the master bedroom) and being seen by others. This is probably the last occasion that the bride has to enjoy the moment in her parents' stone house, before moving into her own house (built by her father) with her husband. Allen (1979) suggests that there is a connection between the wedding and the decorative plasterwork, adding the plasterwork undertaken in the bride's new house is given to her as a present from her father.247

Matansa or the funeral rite of passage

The Matanga funeral is the saddest ritual undertaken by the Waswahili as it involves the bidding of farewell to the dead, thus ending the life cycle of an inhabitant in the stone house. In Islam, the body of the dead is washed by close relatives and this washing of the body is carried out in the house. No outsider is allowed to wash the dead, unless he or she is invited by the dead's close relatives to do so. The Swahili saying, Mwosha hadhuru maiti, or the washer does not harm the dead, is a clear indication that no outsider can perform these last rites for the dead.

In Lamu, the washing of the corpse is done in the Nyumba ya Kati or the middle house which is in the innermost section of the house. In the Nyumba ya Kati, the walls are barren and there are no window openings, either. The setting of this gallery convinces me that no one lived here and that this Nyumba ya Kati was used to wash the dead. Connecting the Nyumba ya Kati to the inner toilet is a Kipengee or a hole in the wall joining the Nyumba ya Kati with the toilet; a hole just big enough to allow one person to

175 Chapter Five -The Swahili house pass through. The Kipengee allows easy access for obtaining water to wash the corpse. The corpse is laid out on a special bed of coconut fibre ropes known as the Kitanda cha Usutu; the middle part of which is cut to allow the bowels to fall on the aluminium basin placed below while washing the dead body. A hole known as the Mfuko or pocket is dug inside the Nyumba ya Kati and is used to bury the bowels. It is also important that the galleries inside the house have a lot of maneuvering space to allow the coffin or Jeneza to be taken out from the innermost part of the house to the outside and to be taken to the mosque for prayers and later, to the cemetery.

Having mentioned that some Swahili rituals have an influence on the built environment, it is imperative that the rituals be interpreted to obtain meaning in the architecture of the stone house. The four rites of passage briefly described above i.e. Kuzaliwa (birth), Kutahiri (circumcision), Harusi (wedding) and Matanga (funeral) take us through a full life cycle of a person; from birth to death. A Mswahili goes through this life cycle in his or her family home, with each rite (except the wedding), having a piece of his body buried inside the house. The Swahili proverb that says 'Kitovu Changu Kimezikwa Hapa' or 'My placenta has been buried here' meaning that 'My roots and my origins are here' identifies a person with his or her home. Apart from burying human parts within the house, the Waswahili also bury animal parts. This usually takes place during Akiki or forty days after the birth of a son or daughter. Forty days after a son is born in the house, two goats are slaughtered whereas one when a daughter is born, only one goat is slaughtered for the Akiki. Friends and close relatives are invited and meat is roasted for the guests. However, it is important that the goat bones are not broken and these are collected and buried in a pit within the house. This symbolises that the young boy or girl will grow up healthy and will have no broken bones within his or her lifetime. The burying of the goat bones in the courtyard of the house is to ensure is to bury the roots of the son or the daughter within the family house.

It is rare to find a person who has had his or her placenta buried inside the house who has left their house of origin and gone to live elsewhere. The house where a person's placenta has been buried is his or her heritage and inheritance. It is unheard of for a stone house to

176 Chapter Five -The Swahili house be sold or to exchange hands. Donley-Reid (1988) concluded that the Swahih stone house was constructed to denote permanence and power of the ruling class, the Waungwana. The heavily-constructed stone house of Lamu does denote permanence, but for more reasons than the display of power.

In his short story, Mui huwa mwema or 'the evil one becomes the good one', Ali Jamaadar (1978) mentions the permanent and temporal values of different constructions of houses in Swahili architecture:249

Baada ya kumaliza mafunzo yao, Fundi Bure aliwaambia wanafunzi wake, "Ujenzi uko wa aina nyingi na nyumba hali kadhalika. Kuna ujenzi wa mawe ya kuchonga, mawe ya saruji, na matofali. Kuna ujenzi wa mitomo ya mawe aina mbali mbali, mikubwa na midogo. Kuna ujenzi wa udongo mtupu, wa nyasi, mbao na mabamba. Majenzi kama hayo mengine ni madhubuti na huishi miaka mingi bila ya kubomoka. Mengine ni majenzi ya muda na hayakai miaka mingi, Hayo yote yategemea ujenzi wenyewe. "

After completing their training, Fundi Bure (the head mason in the prison) told his trainess (who were prisoners) "There are different types of construction and houses alike. There is construction out of cut-stones, concrete blocks and bricks. There is also construction out of un-cut stone infill of different types, big and small. There is construction of mud and thatch, of timber and iron sheet houses. Some of those construction materials are stable and permanent and last for many years without crumbling down. Other types of construction are temporal and have a short life span. It all depends on the construction type."

Permanence of the stone house is also a way for the Waswahili to preserve their roots and origins because of the burial of their body parts at the three different stages of initiation rites; Kuzaliwa (birth), Kutahiri (circumcision) and Matanga (funeral). My own experience of some of these rituals comes in the form of losing my teeth and growing wisdom teeth. When I was young and growing up, I lost a tooth and did not know what to do with it. I asked my parents and showed them the tooth that had just fallen out. I remember my parents telling me not to throw the tooth in the garbage bin, but rather to throw the tooth on the roof of the house. This, I was told to do, so that my lost tooth could grow again in my mouth. Probably, the throwing of my tooth on the roof of my

248 Donley-Reid, "The Social Uses of Swahili Space and Objects". 249 Ali Jamadaar, Mui Huwa Mwema (Nairobi: Longman Kenya, 1978), 53.

177 Chapter Five -The Swahili house family house was a symbolic act to herald my roots and origins in the family house, since the house has a part of my body.

Mud-and-thatch houses

Having discussed at length 18th century Lamu stone houses, it is important to mention a few points on mud-and-thatch houses, predominant in the Gardeni, Kashmiri and Bombay. Mud-and-thatch houses are roofed with palm leaves and are occupied by Wageni or outsiders. Allen (1974) explains that "when refugees from Manda Island (opposite Lamu island) wished to settle in Lamu Town, probably in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries, they were authorized to do so only on condition that the houses in their quarter were built exclusively of mud-and-thatch."250 This was done by the Waungwana or the original inhabitants of Lamu to ensure that foreigners in Lamu never stayed there permanently as these foreigners were regarded as Washenzi or uncivilized and their culture would defile the town. These Mitaa are unplanned, probably intentionally so as to make it difficult for inhabitants to remain in these places on permanent basis and also to give the landlords greater authority to evict 'squatters.'

The Mtaa of Langoni was constructed mainly of mud-and-thatch houses until the great fire in 1981 razed most of the houses. The Government of Kenya contributed assistance such as building materials to help rebuild the houses, but using stone blocks and corrugated iron sheets. A by-law was then set up prohibiting new buildings made of mud and thatch from being erected in Langoni. As more Wageni or outsiders took up residence in Lamu, farmlands on the western side of Lamu began to be subdivided into smaller plots and mud-and-thatch houses were built on them in an unplanned manner.

Apart from the differences in architecture of Mkomani or the original stone town, and Langoni or the Mtaa where Wageni or outsiders reside, one can easily notice the difference in the intensity of activities that take place in these two distinct areas of Lamu.

250 J. de Vere Allen, "Swahili Culture Reconsidered: Some Historical Implications of the Material Culture of the Northern Coast in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," Azania IX (1974): 111.

178 Chapter Five —The Swahili house While Mkomani retains the serene and austere character of the Waungwana or the 'civilised original inhabitants,' the Mtaa of Langoni bustles with different activities even throughout the night, thus earning their inhabitants the reputation of Washenzi or 'uncivilised.' It is a rare occurrence to find the Zijoho leaving their Mkomani stone house and moving to live in Langoni as this would be seen as loss of the high status that the Zijoho enjoy in Lamu society. Conversely, the inhabitants of Langoni would never hesitate to move residences to Mkomani, falsely believing that, by doing so, they would be accepted into the Zijoho society and would be considered 'civilised.'

Regarding the architectural layout of the mud-and-thatch buildings of Gardeni, Kashmiri and Bombay, the plan is simple: a central corridor with rooms flanking both sides. The houses are accessible through the front door and, unlike the typical stone houses of Mkomani that have only one entrance, the mud-and-thatch houses have a back door that connects to the kitchen and the toilet areas and the internal courtyard. The typical layout of these mud-and-thatch houses has been replicated in other areas of Kenya, especially in slum areas like Majengo and Pumwani. It is these types of buildings that, institutions such as United Nations Development Programme and the University of Nairobi have unfortunately referred to as Swahili houses.

179 Chapter Five -The Swahili house AFRICAN DWELLING

Pumwani, Nairobi. ! : 200

1 Duka (small shop) 2 Duka 3 Dwelling 4 Latrine 5 Kitchen 6 Store

Dwelling area: 147, 25 m- Construction: Mud walls with corrugated iron root".

o 5 i i i i i i

Figure 58. Palm thatched houses 'mistakenly' called Swahili houses

Seafront Verandah Houses

The Usita wa Pwani or the Seafront Promenade contains buildings that were constructed around the late nineteenth century by merchants from Persia, Arabia, India and British settlers. The Usita wa Pwani or the Seafront Promenade is a strip of about fifty metres of land reclaimed from the sea. The Seafront Verandah houses are an important feature of Lamu as they provide the first visual impression to anyone visiting Lamu. Siravo (1986) notes that "the buildings are set close together, and viewed from a distance, they present an unbroken two dimensional face to the harbour."251 The typical architectural elements of the Seafront Verandah houses are their open verandahs, from which the buildings have derived their names, the intricately carved timber ballustrades, the internal courtyard and

251 Siravo and Pulver, Planning Lamu: Conservation of an East African Seaport, 41.

180 Chapter Five -The Swahili house the rounded columns. The Seafront Verandah houses are very spacious, which, as noted o earlier by the Abdulla (1976) is "a sea of a room, perhaps maybe equivalent to, or even bigger, than the size of three Western houses. The height of the room was three times more than the height of the normal Swahili house (which have heights often feet)."252

PIOUHE:J-» VERANDA BUIL01NG

puvinrvYvmvvYvYYVimYiri

!-#.; M Its

FRONT ELEVATION

Figure 59. Verandah building

Unlike the Swahili stone house of Mkomani which has only Misana or Miliya or open galleries, the internal plan of a typical Seafront Verandah house would contain enclosed rooms and heavy stone pillars around the internal courtyard. Moreover, while the Swahili stone house has an internal orientation with activities taking place within the internal courtyard, the Seafront Verandah house has an outward orientation with all the activities taking place on the verandah, even though an internal courtyard does exist.

O ! Abdulla, Mwana Wa Yungi Hulewa, 61.

181 Chapter Five -The Swahili house - ;*h't: >inj fl/.jfli <)f .1 ifn,lll t.vr/lm/.j Lmv .IH tthtt MJ l-L-i>,i*>»n .titj .M.f*t>j il^-.* -/... ,*"./,. ?.._...... 7, 1. ....*,. Figure 60. Typical plans and sections of Seafront Verandah houses

Usita wa Mui buildings

The Usita wa Mui is the commercial street of Lamu that runs north-south, just behind the Usita wa Pwani or the Seafront Promenade. The buildings on either side of the Usita wa Mui serve as shops on the ground floor and residential houses on the upper floors. These buildings were built by Indian merchants who engaged themselves in business. The plots where these building are erected are long and narrow, facilitating a series of Miliya or galleries; the front gallery occupied by the shop and the rear galleries used for storage purposes.

182 Chapter Five —The Swahili house On the upper floors where the living quarters are situated, a central courtyard, rarely o used, brings in the much-needed sunlight and ventilation. Entrance to the upper residential floors is via a staircase, situated either at the back or at the side. These buildings have very little decorative plasterwork. Siravo (1986) describes the similarity between the Usita wa Mui buildings and those found in India, stating that "this building type is derived from house and shop buildings in India, and there are a number of parallels between the Lamu and India versions."253

m I FIGURE 3-8 SHOPFRONT BUILDING

2 3 4 SMETRES

FRONT ELEVATION

GROUND FLOOR FIRST FLOOR

Figure 61. House and Shop buildings on Usita wa Mui (the town street) u 253 Siravo and Pulver, Planning Lamu: Conservation of an East African Seaport, 53.

183 Chapter Five -The Swahili house CHAPTER SIX - CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES AND RITUALS

While the origins, identity and culture of the Waswahili have been areas of interest for many researchers, the construction techniques and construction rituals have received little or no scholarly attention. This can be attributed to several reasons. Firstly, most of those who undertook research on the Waswahili were anthropologists, historians, sociologists or linguists. Architects or planners who have undertaken architectural research are two or three, notably Usam Ghaidan and Francesco Siravo.254 Secondly, these two researchers are 'foreigners' or 'outsiders', and would not likely have obtained inside information, however hard they may have tried to intermingle with the local inhabitants, particularly finding it even more difficult to extract information from the masons in Lamu. Saad Yahya is probably the only indigenous person to have looked at Swahili architecture and its imagery in Swahili literature.255 However, his professional background as a land economist and as a Zanzibari native, may have limited his capacity to obtain 'inside' information from Waamu or the Lamu inhabitants. Thirdly, the above-mentioned professionals researched the aspect of the architectural conservation of Lamu town, without going deeply into construction techniques and its rituals. In this chapter, I present construction techniques used by Swahili masons and the construction rituals carried out from the beginning of construction to the time the completed stone house is handed over to its owner.

The ritual among the Waswahili is to start collecting building materials when a daughter is born. Building materials used in the construction of stone houses are broken coral stones for the walls, mangrove poles for the roof joists, mahogany or Indian teak wood for the main door and windows, Tokaa or lime and Mtanga wa Bahari or sea sand for the mortar for binding the wall structure and coral shale for the Zidaka or the decorative wall construction. These building materials are carefully selected and the best used. As a

254 Usam Ghaidan and Francesco Siravo have been quoted in my research and what they have written on the architecture of Lamu have been cited and included in the Bibliography at the end of this document. 255 Saad Yahya has also been quoted elsewhere and his paper looked at Swahili architectural imagery in Swahili literature.

184 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals metaphor, and showing his prowess to a competitor, Nassir, in an un-pubhshed poem, likens the selection of good building materials to the choosing of appropriate words for reciting poetry. He praises the stone house as being structurally stable and permanent as opposed to the temporary nature of the mud and thatch house. The apparent meaning of this poem is on the difference between the stone house and the mud and thatch house while the intended meaning is to show off his poetic prowess to his opponent.

Msingi kiraa Utimbawo mno Sifanye tamaa Kukita kiuno Dongo ni tokaa Fundi ni mkono....

Makorogo hayo Ya dongo kwa tifu Ni yaomokayo Kwajenzi khafifu Kujipinda nayo Ni kujikalifu

Pau na kumbati Mikonge na kumbi Ni duniya miti Hukwezi mdimbi Ni kheri boriti Na daka kapambi..

Kuta lizasawa Guruma la bao Asiyoelewa Uwashi wa leo Humomonyokewa Pumba na dongo...

Hapa sambi mangi Kwa asoelewa Ingawa kigingi Mwakidhani kuwa Jueni mtungi Utawasumbuwa

Chorus

Kigingi sumuwa Usikakawane Kheri kuking 'owa Uzike pengine Hapa hutokuwa Jengo likafane

The three-feet (arm-length) deep foundation that you are seriously digging Don't have high hopes of stabilising the plinth The mud is the lime and the mason is my hand 1

Those mixtures you are doing of mud and sand Will flak off your unstable structure To continue doing so is all in vain 2

Sticks, sisal and coconut leaves (used for construction) Are the lowest quality of building materials It is better to have mangrove poles for constructing a beautiful entrance porch... .3 185 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals Walls of mud un-ahgned by wooden trowels Whosoever does not understand contemporary masonry techniques Will see his house fall off with mud and sand walls 4

For those who understand I won't say much more here If you think that the beacon has been laid Know that the positioning of the vase will always trouble you256 5

Chorus

Un-pluck the beacon and do not be obstinate Better to remove it and bury it elsewhere You cannot build here better look for another site for your building to prosper

To overcome the flaking of the wall plaster owing to the salt content in the lime that is obtained from the coral reef and sea sand, treatment procedures are required.257 The lime mortar for binding is obtained in a process that can take up to one month. A Tanu or kiln is made from broken poles of mangrove with broken coral stones placed on top. A cone- shaped kiln is prepared and the small mangrove poles are lit, eventually firing up the broken coral stones and further disintegrating them into powdery form. This kiln is always located next to the ocean because of the proximity of sea water to cool off the kiln whenever required. However, once the kiln is fired up, the cooling process is undertaken naturally. Close watch is required and, after the kiln has cooled down, it is left for about a month to naturally obtain normal temperature. Once this has been done, the nearby sea water is obtained in pails and used to wash away any impurities and to further cool down the powdery lime obtained. It is this washing of the lime with sea water that increases the salt content in the lime. The necessity of using sea water, even though salty, is because the kiln is not prepared on Lamu Island. This is due to the unavailability of coral stones on Lamu Island, which is basically a sand dune. Normally, the kiln is prepared on Manda Island, which has a severe scarcity of fresh water and an abundance of coral stones.

2 To strongly entrench a foundation in a Swahili house, a vase would be buried as protection against the evil eye and the spirits. None of my informants could verify this. 257 According to one of my informant, normal sand collected from the rivers in the mainland was used due to its little or no salt content. The practice now is to use sea sand as this is readily and cheaply available, even though the salt content is very high. 186 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals However, similar kilns are also prepared in Parte where fathers also begin collecting building materials for their daughters once they are born.

When a daughter is born, a father begins collecting building materials for her 'future' stone house. After the kiln is prepared, the collected powdery lime is buried underground until the daughter gets married, or once she is engaged. This burying of the lime has three aspects to it: for storage purposes, for silting away salt garnered from the washing by sea water and for strengthening the bonding character of the lime mortar. According to one of my informants, the lime may be buried for a period ranging from one to thirty years. The size of the lime pit is about twice body length.258 To avoid contamination with the sand while burying the lime, a Mkeka or a coconut fibre mat is used to cover the lime. Once a person is ready to construct a stone house, he digs up the lime whose bonding qualities have to be enhanced. Before using the lime, eggs and sugar are added to the lime to harden it further and increase its bonding strength. According to one of my informant, date nectar is also poured into the lime to harden it. However, the addition of date nectar is done more frequently in Arabian countries like Yemen and Oman, where date palms grow in abundance.

To better understand the architecture of the stone houses in Lamu, I will briefly describe the construction process and some of the rituals that are undertaken from the time an owner of a plot decides to construct a stone house to the time he begins to occupy it.

The 'Fundi' or mason

My mason informants described for me the construction process in detail. This description also included the development of their training. I shall explain this process and the rituals that are an inherent part of the whole process. Most, if not all, masons have

My informant, an experienced mason, mentioned to me that he had actually dug up lime that was buried for more than twenty years. The unit of measurement used by the masons is related to the human body and I will cite these measurements as provided by my informants.

187 Chapter Six — Construction techniques and rituals experience the same process of training. When a boy is young, his father takes him to a Madrassa, or a Koranic school, where children are taught the principles of Islam. The Mwalimu Mkuu or head-teacher of the Madrassa would also normally be a mason by profession. The Mwalimu Mkuu is a person of high skills and a respected member of the Swahili community. The Fundi or mason is also referred to as the Mganga or medicine­ man and is often thought of as working more directly with the spirits, perhaps owing to his construction skills. Zein (1992) adds a further dimension to the profession of Fundi, noting that the Mafundi had their own Maulidi to celebrate the birthday of prophet Mohamed. This Maulid also known as Maulidi ya Rama was and still is performed by masons and, according to Zein (1992), was meant to impress spectators and participants alike and to earn the praise of the congregation. The leaders of this Maulid:

were called Fundi, a word which means 'skillful persons,' that is, persons specialized in attracting the attention of others. However, calling them Fundi had a second, more important, meaning. It indicated that these Maulid were no longer rituals for the sake of acquiring God's blessings but performances which mainly sought to attract other people's attention. In other words, the most important achievement for the Fundi was making a good show and earning the praise of the people. Like a good carpenter who knows how to build a fine table or chair, the Fundi of the Maulidi ya Kiswahili knew how to stage a fine performance and earn the praise of everyone.259

While undertaking my research, I was able to visit Lamu during the Maulidi celebration and to witness the Maulid ya Rama, which is conducted by Mafundi or masons. Even though this was not my first time to witness this ritual, I was impressed by the way the Maulidi ya Rama was conducted and by the skills displayed by the Mafundi or masons. I also noticed that I wasn't the only one impressed because I walked around and casually talked to people who were watching the Maulidi ya Rama. Everyone I talked to expressed their praises at the skillfulness of the masons. One person even expressed surprise at the mason's understanding and knowledge of Islam and told me that he thought that Mafundi

259 Zein, The Sacred Meadows: A Structural Analysis of Religious Symbolism in an East African Town, 111. 188 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals could only build amazing houses, but not recite such scintillating praises of the Prophet Mohamed.

The fact that the Mwalimu Mkuu is both, teacher and mason, is nothing new and stems back to Al-Ghazzali's time when the Seljuk dynasty (Turkey, 1038-1157) was a powerful force in the history of Islamic civilisation. This Seljuk dynasty was a Sunnite one which was fighting against the dominance of the powerful Shiite dynasty. Al-Ghazzali played a pivotal role in championing the Sunnite cause. To champion this cause, the Seljuk rulers set up Islamic institutions known as Madrassa or Koranic schools, which were the "main centers for advanced formal instruction in the theory and practice of Islamic law."260 These Koranic schools or Madrassa were opened and, led by Sufis, propagated the teachings of Islam. Islamic teaching was not the only subject taught in these schools. Crafts were also introduced. The Sufi masters, heading the guilds, established an educational system for spiritual training which "is directly interwoven with the entire Islamic tradition, especially the esoteric dimension contained within Sufism."261 Arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, algebra, music and optics would be amongst the disciplines taught in these schools which would later shape the studies of the traditional craftsmen who:

after an initiatory ceremony of an esoteric nature, begins to learn the method as well as the spirit of the craft, both of which share an alchemical base. Symbols of esotericism are wedded to the arts and crafts so that the artisan is able to achieve 'spiritual perfection' by integrating the inner and outer aspects of his being through his work. He participates in the creative process of nature, 'nature in her mode of operation,' and by so doing participates in the Divine Art.262

One of my informants explained that when he was a child and was in the Madrassa, the head-teacher asked him to mix lime and sand and undertake some renovation works of the Madrassa. As he was quite young, my informant said that he did not know how to do the mixing, to which the head-teacher ridiculed him saying for being a son of a famous

Al-Ghazzali, The Alchemy of Happiness. 1 Ibid. 2 Nader Ardalan and Bakhtiar Laleh, The Sense of Unity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973), 6. 189 Chapter Six — Construction techniques and rituals and well-known mason, yet knowing nothing of his father's profession. It was then that the head-teacher started showing him how to do the mixing. After that ridicule and his first experience with masonry work, the young informant started taking a keen interest in learning the profession of his father. The informant told me that he was, nevertheless, divided in his thoughts as to whether he wanted to become a mason or a dhow-builder. His maternal grandfather was a famous dhow-builder who encouraged the informant to take dhow-building as a profession. The young boy took up masonry as a profession because many of his close friends were masons or masonry apprentices who influenced his decision to take up this trade. It was at sixteen years of age when the young informant decided he wanted to become a mason that he travelled to a small village where his father had married another wife. The first question that his father put to him was, "Have you come just to see me or have you come to learn my trade?" It was at that point the informant started learning from his father, the more intricate aspects and techniques of the masonry profession. His first task was to build a Birika or a water reservoir. According to my informant, it took him about six months to fully grasp the profession and learn about the measurements used - which were neither in SI units nor in feet and inches. Measurements were mainly derived anthropomorphically such as Shubiri (size of the stretch of the palm which is about eight inches) or Pima (size of the arm which is about two and a half feet) or Kimo (human height which is about five and a half feet).

When the boys were young (at the age of ten), they were taken to a Fundi Mwalimu or a teacher mason to be taught the masonry trade. The young boys would sleep and eat at the teacher mason's house and were taught masonry during the day and to recite the Koran in the evening. Most, if not all, the teacher masons were Hafidh-ul-Quran (a person who could memorise and recite the whole Koran by heart). According to one of my informants, even the dhow builders were Hafidh-ul-Quran. Depending on the size of the home of the teacher mason, the young boys would be taught to recite the Koran either inside the galleries or on the outside; under a roof shade known as the Mitilizi or the drain area. As the young boys grew up in the teacher mason's house, the teacher would also start looking for wives for his apprentices. It was unheard of for the boys' parents (or even the young apprentice) refusing permission for their children to marry, once the

190 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals teacher mason had approved the consummation of marriage. Once a young boy had graduated and acquired the necessary building skills as well as having learnt to memorise and recite the Koran by rote, the teacher mason would invite his fellow masons and offer a meal to them, after which a prayer for the young graduate would be undertaken by the older masons to shower Baraka or blessings on the young graduate mason. The older masons would offer supplications to God and the young apprentice would then be acknowledged as a Fundi or a mason and would be given a trowel (Mwiko), a crowbar (Mtaimbo) and an axe (Shoka) by his teacher mason. The qualification of a young apprentice was always determined by the teacher mason and approved by the older masons during the 'graduation' ceremony.

There was always a high respect for Fundi Mwalimu or the teacher mason. The archaic name of the mason was Mganga or medicine man. Probably, the mason being a Hafidhul- Quran or a knowing the Koran by rote has shaped social perceptions of him as possessing magical or mystical power, by being able to construct a stone house from just an empty plot. Ali Jamaadar (1978) in his short novel narrates how Kotini, who was an evil person, a thief as well as a murderer, took up masonry while in jail and, later, turned into a noble person after his release. Jamadaar (1978) illustrated the nobility of the masonry profession which changed an evil thief into a pious Muslim:263

Mwashi aliye fundi hasa ni yule aliye mwaminifu, mstahmilivu na mwenye kuonyesha bidii na ubingwa wa kazi yake.

A mason who is a qualified one is he who is honest, patient and who shows his skills and adroitness in his work.

The nobility of the masonry profession is further emphasised by the fact that, at their workplace, the masons do not put on any footwear. As we have seen, when entering the mosque and also the house, one is supposed to remove one's shoes, in order to preserve the sanctity of the place that one is entering. The mason's work-place is also another sanctified space where even the visitors have to remove their shoes. My informant told me that women were not allowed near the masons' workplace. This is because women

263 Jamadaar, Mui Huwa Mwema, 54. 191 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals and shoes bring 'Nuksi' or bad luck in the construction workplace. My informant went on to tell me that even the dhow-builders did not put on any footwear at their workplace to keep 'Nuksi' away from the workplace. Sometimes, as pranks, people visited the masons and dhow-builders, without removing their shoes. These visitors, who did not remove their footwear while approaching these 'sacred' workplaces, were then 'fined' by having knots 'tied' on their 'Kanzu' or the white robes that are normally worn by the Waswahili. These knots could only be untied after the person pays 'Ada' or a fine which would include providing 'refreshments' to the masons or the boat-builders. This Ada' is for re- purifying the work-place and removing the 'Nuksi'. A small ceremony would be held and poetry recited before the workers later engaged into the serious business of building - that of constructing the stone house or the timber dhow.

My informant also explained how on hot humid days between November and March, when he was a young apprentice, he saw his Fundi Mwalimu or teacher mason buying a whole watermelon, cut it into two and eat it. After eating the juicy part of the water­ melon, the teacher would put the skin of the water melon on his head and gave a piece of the skin to my informant. The watermelon helped to prevent dehydration and the skin worn on the head would act as a helmet to protect the Fundi from any falling coral stones, while also serving to keep the head cool at all times when they were working. Sadly, this practice has long been forgotten today.

The construction process

The construction process starts when an owner of a plot wants to put up a stone house. The owner will have collected building materials, especially Tokaa (lime), Mikoko (mangrove beams), Mtanga (sand) and Mapande ya Mawe (broken or uncut coral stones).

192 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals The preference of using uncut coral stones over mud is amplified in this contemporary song:264

Ingawa mwanzo wa nyumba Huanza msingi nti Kisha kukatiwa bamba He iwe madhubuti Maadamu niyapumba Kwajiwe ni tofauti 1

Twajuwa mwanzo wajengo Huanza kwenye ardhi Kukatiwa na mafungo Mafundi wakajiudhi Lakini kwenye mipango Jiwe inahadhi ..2

Yasiwatiye hasira Mulioko hadharani Kwa maana lilo imara Sina budi kubaini Hata kwa bei ni bora Nyumba yajiwejamani 3

Tukitafuta ukweli Nduzangu wenye busara Sitowapeleka mbali Tukapoteza majira Hata kwa kisirikali Nyumbaya jiwe ni bora....4

Na lau mvua yashuka Nduzangu wenye busara Nanyi mukamakinika Kutunza lililo bora Udongo huporomoka Jiwe hubaki imara 5

Chorus

Natamka nisikiwe Na waliyo hadharani Lakini musitukiwe Hisema ukweli wendani Dongo si sawa najiwe Twajuwa tangu zamani

Even though before the construction of a house you begin with a strong foundation And then the house is covered with iron sheets to stabilise it Because it is made of mud you cannot compare it to a stone house 1

We know that the beginning of construction you start with the foundation And then the building is stabilised by the masons who have to work overtime But where there is efficiency and a good project management a stone is the building material most respected 2

Do not be angry those who have gathered here today

264 The author of this poem is Rajab Pilau while the singer's name is Maulidi Juma. This poem was written (and sung) in response to a rival poet's bargging ofhis prowess. 193 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals Because that which is stable I have no choice but to mention it Even the house built of stone has a better property value 3 When we search for the truth O my brothers and sisters I won't take you round the bush to waste your valuable time Even to the government the stone house has a higher property value 4

Should the heavy rain fall o my brethren Even though you concentrate on saving your house That which is constructed of mud is washed away while that house built of stone will always remain standing 5

Chorus

I speak out in the open to be heard by all those who have gathered here today Do not be offended when I tell you the truth A mud house is not equivalent as a stone house And this we have known for ages.

It is common belief among the Waswahili that a mud house is less stable and appealing than a stone house. This fits into the thinking of the Zijoho, who believe in permanence of their dwellings, thus building with coral stones, while allowing the Wageni to build only mud houses, so that the Wageni would not make Lamu their permanent residence. A singer, Zuhura Swaleh, sang a song know as Jino la pembe si dawa a pengo or An ivory tooth is not a replacement for a tooth refill, in which she despised the use of temporary building materials noting that:

Jino ungalipamba kwamba una noti Ungataratamba la Mungu hufuti Haikuwa bamba itakuwa kuti?

However you decorate the tooth because you have the money Whatever you do, you cannot erase God's commands If the corrugated iron sheets could not withstand wear and tear, how can the palm thatch roof last?

The owner enters into a discussion with a Fundi of his choice and shows him the plot that he owns and the building materials he has acquired over the years. The owner would tell 194 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals the head mason that he wants Miliya Miwili au Mitatu (two or three galleries) for his house, depending on the plot size.265 The head mason would then use Ziraa or one arm- length to start measuring the plot and estimate the number of Miliya that could be constructed. The Ziraa is the unit of measurement and the ruler is a piece of sisal string, which a Fundi or mason always has in his possession. The masons have an embodied knowledge of the plan of a stone house which always comprises the Daka (entrance niche), the Tekani (entry foyer), the Kawanda (internal courtyard), the Msana wa Tini (lower gallery), Msana wa Yuu (upper gallery), Msana wa Ndani (inner gallery), Nyumba ya Kati (middle house), Vyoo (toilets) and Kidari cha Meko (upper kitchen). The functions, uses and meaning of these galleries have been explained in detail in Chapter Five.

The contract between the owner of the plot and his head mason is mostly verbal with two or three people as witnesses. The labour contract entails the owner providing the necessary building materials and paying the head mason and his team a daily sum as agreed between them. The head mason collects the money either on a daily basis or leaves it until the end of the week and collects a weekly sum, which he then divides proportionately amongst his workers (who could comprise one or more masons and Vibarua or labourers). The apprentices in the mason's team are not paid anything for their work as they are supposed to learn the trade. In fact, the apprentices are taught how to mix the lime mortar, how to apply it to the walls and how to construct the walls in a traditional manner. According to one of my informant, should the apprentice make a major mistake while working, he could receive a small beating from the head mason with the back of the trowel. This beating is a punitive lesson so that the apprentice will never repeat the same mistake at any other time in his life as a mason.

It is important to know that the construction is done in several stages and never all at once. This is owing to two main reasons: firstly, constructing a stone house from the foundation to completion is a very expensive venture and the owner may not have all the

265 All my informants mentioned the word iMliya (pi. MiliyaY instead of 'Msana' to denote the galleries inside the stone houses. The word Msana used elsewhere in my dissertation is hardly used nowadays, especially by the masons who prefer to use the word 'Mliya'. 195 Chapter Six — Construction techniques and rituals resources at hand; secondly, even if the owner has the necessary resources, the qualities of the building materials used require environmental factors like the sun and especially the rain to act upon them for completion. The Tokaa or lime, when used during construction, requires rain to harden it further and increase its bonding strength.

The first stage is the laying of the foundation or Msinji (pl.Misinji). The laying of the foundation is a special task for Swahili masons as not all of them can undertake the task. As the masons had no knowledge of imperial or metric measurements, they use measurements related to the human body like Ziraa or a Shubiri. Only uncut stones are used and they are laid in the foundation trench interlocked with each other. The foundation walls are built up and once they are above the ground and the three galleries have been outlined, the floor slab is compacted with large and small stones in lime mortar. The compacting of the stones on the floor level is probably the hardest task that a Swahili mason can come across in his profession. To make his work easier while compacting the floor, the Swahili masons sing:

Kumango siniatuwe moyo, Keikei usinitowe unga O compacter, burden not my heart, O timber saw, do not cut me to pieces.266

Once the compacting is done, the owner prepares a big meal for the masons and other guests of his choice. This is to celebrate the completion of the most difficult task, but most importantly, a ritual is conducted to secure the foundation. Two or three goats may be slaughtered by the owner, but one goat is slaughtered specifically for the masons. Once the mason's goat is slaughtered, the blood is sprinkled around the foundation walls. This is done to appease the spirits and to ask for protection so that no injuries or death may occur while constructing the walls. The Swahili saying "Msingi wangu uko hapa" (herein lies my foundation) is meant to show or emphasise a person's roots or foundation in his house or home. Mostly, amulets containing Koranic verses are buried in the foundation trenches to 'close' or 'protect' the house. The slaughtering of the goat and the sprinkling of the blood is especially important whenever a restoration or renovation work

266 The Kumango is a compacter made of a wooden pole and a timber piece for compacting. 196 Chapter Six — Construction techniques and rituals is done. No mason in Lamu will undertake any restoration work before a goat is slaughtered as they fear that by not slaughtering a goat, calamities may befall them as the spirits would be angered and would take revenge. The spirits of the house are jokingly called 'Wenye Nyumba' or 'the real house-owners'. During the goat-slaughtering ritual, the house owner may also offer presents like coconut, millet or rice to the head mason, who would, in turn, divide these amongst his team. As a gesture of appreciation, the head mason who would have invited the teacher who taught him how to build, would offer the biggest portion to him as an acknowledgement and appreciation of his teaching and training. After the laying of the foundation and the floor, the construction work stops until the rains come down to strengthen the lime mortar. Even if the owner of the house is financially capable, construction work will have to stop until the rains have come and gone.

It is important to note that to this day, even when constructing new houses and excavating new foundations, the ritual of slaughtering an animal, commonly a goat, and sprinkling the blood on the foundation wall, is still being undertaken and adhered to, even by those who profess to being very religious. During the course of my research, I designed a few new houses for close relatives. Before I departed for Montreal, the excavation works for the foundation of the new houses that I had designed had been undertaken. I was invited to the goat-slaughtering rituals of not less than four new houses in a space of less than six months when I was undertaking me research in Kenya.

Drawing similarities to and construction rituals undertaken by the Nubian peoples, as Mahgoub (1990) notes during the construction of Nubian houses, major ceremonies took place on two occasions:

The importance of the bawabah (entrance gate) was expressed during the construction of the house. During the construction of the house no major ceremonies took place except on two occasions. First, after laying out the rooms on the ground and excavating the soil for foundations, an animal was slaughtered to celebrate the actual starting of the construction. The second ceremony took place when the level of the entrance gate lintel was reached. While putting the lintel in place, an animal was 197 Chapter Six — Construction techniques and rituals slaughtered and the whole village gathered to celebrate this important occasion. The completion of the gate announced the beginning of a new family.

The second stage of construction starts with the erection of the wall and the pillars. As there are no plumb lines, the masons use the Timazi to obtain straightness on the walls. The Timazi is a natural fibre rope with a piece of stone tied at one end and hung to obtain a straight line. The walls are constructed of 'Mapande ya Jiwe' or uncut stones bonded together by lime mortar. The process of constructing walls and pillars is a slow and poignant one as walls can have a width of as much as three feet, although one and a half feet would be the average width. Once the wall construction reaches the ceiling level, the work is stopped and the exposed walls are left to endure environmental factors like the sun and, more importantly, the rain. The masons believe that once the walls have been rained on, the lime mortar in between the un-cut stones hardens up and strengthens the wall structure, by binding the stones closer together.

Mahgoub, "The Nubian Experience: A Study of the Social and Cultural Meanings of Architecture", 142. 198 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals o

Figure 63. Swahili arch under repair

11»* •

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;*;***s^^fe t«.^. Figure 64. Swahili traditional building style

Figure 65. Mafundi (masons) repairing Zidaka (wall decorations)

^^n^ 199 Chapter Six — Construction techniques and rituals The third stage of construction, which is the most intricate one, involves the construction of the ceiling and the laying of the timber joists. The timber joists that were used around a century ago were known as Mlilana and Mwiwa, types of the mangrove tree family that do not easily get infested and do not easily rot. Due to the unavailability of Mlilana and Mwiwa poles today, another type of mangrove tree is used and is known as Banaa. If properly constructed and there being no water leakages, it is known that the Banaa can last for over a hundred years. The Mlilana, the Mwiwa and the Banaa poles, being part of the mangrove species, grow to a length of 10 to 13 Ziraa or about 15 to 19 feet long. Once the walls have been constructed to the ceiling level, the poles are laid into the walls - one and a half ziraa or about two feet on each side - thus leaving a space of between 11 to 15 feet. This is the normal width of the Misana (or as masons today call it Miliyd) or the galleries of the stone houses.

To provide space openings for accessibility between one gallery and another, stone pillars are constructed. While the Banaa span from wall to wall, the Walisi (pLNyalisi) spans from wall to pillar or vice versa. The Walisi would also double up as the door or window lintel. A six- or seven-inch square piece of timber is then laid across the pillar and the wall and is known as the Muhimili. This timber is laid on a square piece of timber embedded into the pillar and the wall and is known as Mto (which is a Swahili word for 'pillow'). The Muhimili thus sleeps on the Mto or pillow and secures the ceiling in case of repairs, which involve regularly replacing one or two or even more poles at a time. The Banaa are then laid on top of the Muhimili at a spacing of about two Shubiri or one and a half feet. To avoid the monotony of the gallery, the ceiling is divided into smaller compartments with poles known as Jitwa (Swahili word for a 'big-head').

On the rooftop of the ceiling, the Sakafu is laid by spreading large slates of coral stones or Zigae on the Banaa. In-between these large slates of stone, smaller stones are laid and bonded by lime mortar. Pieces of timber known as Kowe are also mixed with the stones to increase the bonding strength and harden the flat roof to avoid leakage. One of my

200 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals mason informants compared the bonding of the Kowe with stones to form the hard roof to that of the bonding of flour with ghee to form dough.268

Water drains known as Makopo are then constructed along visibly large slopes for easy drainage due to the heavy rainfall, especially in the months of April and May; this rainy period is known as Kusi, or the south-west monsoons. Once the roof ceiling is constructed, another ritual takes place, whereby the owner prepares another meal and another goat is slaughtered. This is a smaller ritual which is meant to 'stabilise' the house by making offerings to the spirits or the 'real house-owners' (Wenye Nyumba). The head mason undertaking the construction work, invites his teacher and trainer as a sign of appreciation, possibly also as a sign of 'showing off his feat of having constructed a stone house. The masons believe that the ritual of slaughtering a goat helps to protect the ceiling from complete disintegration, should a disaster occur. It is believed that, once a goat is slaughtered, even if the ceiling were to fall due to structural problems, just a small part of the ceiling would fall, thus causing little to no injury and damage. After the roof is constructed, the work stops again to wait for the rains to pour to see if any leakages occur on the flat roof.

The Zidaka or wall niche decoration work and the laying in place of the main front door at the Daka or entrance foyer are works that are left until the end. The owner may move into the house even if the wall decoration is not fully complete. Naturally, the owner cannot occupy the house before the front door is put in place. While the placing of the front door may take half a day or a full day's work, the wall decoration is probably the most time-consuming work of the stone house. To obtain a good vertical alignment of the door, a Timazi is tied on both the two sides of the timber door jamb and also in the middle. One of the most interesting activities to watch in the stone house is the putting in place of this main timber door. The horizontal level or alignment is obtained by placing a

268 Waswahili make bread using water and ghee to bond the dough for bread-making. Waswahili have a saying that goes like 'Nacheleya unga usizidi maji" which means that 'I am afraid of water being in excess proportion in dough-making'. Basically, the intended meaning is 'to fear that things do not go as planned'. So when my mason informant mentioned analogized the bonding of the ceiling with the bonding of the dough, he meant that the proportions of the mixture for the ceilingshould be right in order that the ceiling will be constructed to plan and will have a longer life span. 201 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals full glass of water on the door threshold or Kizingiti, forming part of the door. Should o water spill from the glass, the door would be deemed 'un-horizontal'. The door is re­ aligned until no water spills from the glass and, when this has been achieved, the door is inserted into the opening and bonded to the wall. The glass of water thus serves the purpose of a plumb line.

Figure 66. Zidaka wall decoration being repaired by Mafundi (masons)

Figure 67. Zidaka or niche being repaired by a Fundi (mason)

The wall decoration is undertaken by the head mason who estimates the number of niches to be carved out of the thick masonry wall. How many niches will be carved, no one can say until the work is completed. The masons are not formally trained in carving out u niches, but rely on what they saw their teachers doing while working on the niches. 202 Chapter Six — Construction techniques and rituals Thinner round niches are constructed on the top and wider square niches at the bottom. The wall niches are likely constructed, so as to offset the claustrophobic feeling that the long and narrow galleries induce in the inhabitants of the stone house. According to my informants, the upper niches are used to display brass pitchers, silver perfume sprayers and other copper utensils. These shiny products bring 'Nuru' or God's Light of Knowledge. Vyetezo (sing. Chetezo) or thuribles are also displayed. These thuribles are not only for burning fragrances, but were also used to invite the 'benevolent spirits' and to drive away the 'malevolent spirits.' At the lower rungs of the wall niches, ceramic utensils imported from China and the Netherlands display the owner's wealth and acquisition of imported and rare products. The more decorated the niches, the more praises for the owner, especially when outsiders are allowed into the house during rituals such as weddings. My informant described that a stone house may be so heavily decorated that it 'would resemble the house of the Jinn'.269 This reminds me of the famous Arabian story of Aladdin and the wonderful lamp where Aladdin would rub the lamp with the ground and a Jinn would appear. Aladdin would ask for a castle to be built and very intricately decorated with everything that Aladdin could think of, including jewellery.

Before a stone house can be occupied, the two or three toilets have to be constructed. Normally, one toilet would be for guests, one for the owner and his spouse, one for the children and one for the slaves. It was important that one uses the toilet allocated, because using another toilet has severe consequences. For example, if a slave used the guest's toilet, he/she (the slave) would be severely punished or if a child used his parent's toilet, he or she could be punished too. The construction of the toilet, the interior plasterwork and the use of the pit latrine are intricately undertaken. Due to scarcity of water and the lack of piped water, the toilets are of the pit latrine type, and are still in use today.270 As explained earlier, only a curtain separates the toilet from the other rooms in the stone house. Privacy amongst the family members is not of utmost importance as

269 In Islamic mythology, the Jinn is a spirit that may take human form and possesses some supernatural powers. Aladdin and the Magic Lamp is one of the many stories in the Arabic mythology of One thousand and One Nights. 270 As explained earlier, the only water source was from the internal courtyard well. Water would then be stored in the Birika or the water reservoir constructed in the toilet. 203 Chapter Six — Construction techniques and rituals each family member within the house knows how to behave in different circumstances. The toilets contain two compartments - the shower area and the pit latrine - which are to be separated by a short wall ornately decorated with Zidaka, some niches even taking the shape of the Mihrab. Donley-Reid notes that, while the toilet is an 'impure space', the construction of the Mihrab niche is 'unexplainable.' One of my informants likened the toilet to the 'space of Ibilisi' or Lucifer's space, noting that the toilet is where Ibilisi resides and tries to lead human beings astray.271 The Waswahili still do spend a lot of time in the toilet to cleanse and purify themselves. The decorative plasterwork in the toilets and artifacts displayed therein tends to distract any evil thoughts and fends off the Ibilisi. My informant told me that one tends to think most while eating and while in the toilet and that these thoughts could range from everyday happenings to evil thoughts. While the Mihrab niches, the decorative plasterwork and the displayed artifacts on the short wall of the toilet distract one from evil thoughts, the greatest protection from Ibilisi is obtained from the Dua or supplication that one must recite before entering the toilet, as was taught by Prophet Mohamed. After leaving the toilet, another supplication has to be recited to thank God for His protection.272 As a ritual, when one enters the toilet, one has to enter with the left foot signifying that the toilet is impure and evil and, when leaving the toilet, one must leave with the right foot forward, signifying that one has been protected from evil by Allah or God by leaving the impure place (the toilet) and walking over to a purer place. When in the toilet, one is forbidden to face north (i.e. the direction to the Kiblah) and it is with this in mind, that the toilets are orientated so that may always have one's back facing the Kiblah. The pit latrine itself is constructed by using coral stones and digging a pit that is two human depths (or between 12 and 15 feet) until the bottom strikes the water level. The effluent is carried away by the water below the pit during low tides. Depending on the size of the pits, the toilet is filled up and has to be emptied after five to ten years. Emptying the pit entails digging another pit along the street and removing the stones from the pit latrine and, consequently, removing the effluent for the latrine and filling up the pit that has been dug along the street. Once all

271 According to Islamic teachings, the Ibilisi was a Jinn who disobeyed God's order and was, in turn, cursed. Ibilisi then swore to lead human beings astray for as long as lived in this universe. 272 When translated, the supplication before entering the toilet is "O Allah. I seek refuge in You from the male and female evil Jinns." The supplication when leaving the toilet is "O Allah, I seek forgiveness and pardon from You. All Praise be to Allah, who removed the difficulty from me and gave me ease (relief)." 204 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals the effluent for the latrine has been emptied to the newly-dug street pit, the stones are put into place and the pit latrine is now emptied and can then be used again. The street pit is covered with sand and coral lime, compacted with coral stones and ready to be used again for passers-by to walk on without posing any danger.

Once the stone house construction is complete and ready for occupation by the owner, a handing-over ritual is performed, whereby a 'Karamu ya Kufunguwa Nyumba' or a House-Opening-Ceremony takes place. The ceremony is comprised of a 'Maulidi ya Kiswahili' (known as 'Alanami') or the recitation of a Maulidi in Kiswahili rather than in Arabic. All the 'Mafundf or masons who undertook the construction of the house participate in this ceremony. Older and more experienced masons are also invited as 'a matter of honour and respect.' A mason recites some verses of a Maulidi and another mason replies with another verse - all sung in exalting poetic form - in praise of Prophet Mohamed. A goat, sheep or even a cow is slaughtered by the owner and a feast is prepared. The slaughtering of an animal for the feast is known as 'Kumwaya Damu' or 'to spill blood' - a way of appeasing the spirits or the 'real home dwellers.' The owner of the house then offers the head mason a Kanzu (white robe for prayers), a Kofia (a hand- sewn cap for prayers), , millet, rice and even cash as a reward and a thank-you gift. This is called 'Kupiga Kilemba' or to 'dress the mason with a turban' - a popular way among the Waswahili to show appreciation and to reward the mason. Should the owner of the house not reward the head mason with any gifts, a 'sabotage' may take place in which the owner will never be able to occupy the house until the 'Ada' or 'fine' is paid.

Rituals are especially prevalent with the boat builders on the 'dhow-launching day.' Marine superstitions are more plentiful than in the building industry. The boats are decorated with 'spirit' flags and talismans to counteract the evil spirits of the ocean, where, it is believed, most of the Ma-Jinni or evil spirits have their homes. It is widely

273 The influence of the ocean evil spirits is felt more during dhow competitions where marine crews of different dhows consult 'medicine-men' who provide talismans to 'help' win the race. A night before the competition, dances to appease the oceanic spririts are performed. To this day, dhow competitions not only 205 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals believed that 'boat-launching day', the head dhow builder may sabotage the ceremony if he has not been offered any gifts by the dhow owner, by placing a stick the size of a match-stick at the bottom of the boat. However hard the community tries to roll the dhow over the mangrove poles lined up from the dhow-construction site to the ocean, the dhow would stay put and would not budge. When this happens, the community understands that there may have been some misunderstanding between the dhow-owner and the dhow- builder. The teacher of the dhow-builder would be requested to persuade the dhow- builder to release the dhow. The dhow-owner would also be persuaded to pay the 'Ada' or fine due to the builder. Once the agreement has been brokered, the dhow-builder would arrive at the site and hit the dhow with his 'Nyundo' or wooden hammer so hard that the hammer would fall at the feet of his teacher, who would then take the hammer and hit the dhow, while the community pulls the dhow with ropes. The dhow would then slowly slide over the mangrove poles lined up underneath the dhow. The curse would be seen as having been lifted. It is probably because of these powers yielded by the builders that they were tagged as 'Waganga' or medicine-men.274

involve rivalry between the crews of the different dhows, but the rivalry is extended to family, friends and residents of the Mitaa. 274 In the Spanish tradition, master masons are tagged Arif 'from the Arabic word Al-Arif or the knower. The Spanish name Alarifes is derived from Al-Arif'or Master Mason

206 Chapter Six - Construction techniques and rituals CONCLUSIONS

Through many centuries, the identity of the Waswahili has been contested and debated. Are Waswahili Arabs or Africans? Better still, are Waswahili Africanised Arabs or are they Arabised Africans? To this day, their identity remains ambiguous as well as anomalous. Western researchers and previous colonialists like the Portuguese and the British termed the Waswahili as Arabs. People who call themselves Waswahili term themselves as Africans. During the British colonial time in the 19th century, certain Swahili families in Mombasa were branded as Arabs and some members of those families were given administrative posts by the British as Arabs were favoured by the British over the "native" Africans. Immediately after Independence in 1960s, these Swahili families who were earlier branded Arabs by the British changed their Arabic family names and "reverted" to their African family names. Kindy (1972) notes this debate on usage by the Waswahili of Arabic and African names:

One day, my colleagues, Mohamed Hamed Timamy came to me and asked me why I called myself 'Elkindy' as this was an Arab tribe and "you are a Mswahili". Before I could reply to him, he added, "Is there any Arab by the name of 'Matano'?" (Matano is a local African, rather than an Arab name). I said that I called myself 'Elkindy', not because I regarded myself as an Arab, but because it was an a abbreviation of 'Kilindini' which was my true clan and of which I was proud. I added that there were some 'Comorians' who call themselves, 'Elkumry', Indians who called themselves, 'El-Hindy' and these people did not consider themselves Arabs.

However, I admitted that it was due to Islamic and Arabic influence that they have adopted this system in the same way as some African Christians. Through European influence, they adopted full English and European names as we see in Willy Jones, Shadrack Harrison, Stanley Mathews, George Price, and so on. As soon as he heard my ready explanation he became silent, but never stopped complaining that we likened ourselves to Arabs, while we actually were not. Not only were the Arabs bitterly opposed to the Waswahili taking on Arab-sounding

207 Conclusions names, but to be truthful, many of them regard Waswahih as an inferior group.275

In pre-independence East Africa, it was prestigious for one to be branded an Arab as 'Arabness' was synonymous to being civilized. The Swahili word 'Ustaarabu' which means civilized, comes from the word 'Arab'. The real meaning of the word Ustaarabu means to 'become an Arab'. A prominent Swahili family like El-Kindy adopted that name to be closely linked to 'Arabness'. After Independence, The same family changed its name from El-Kindy to adopt a more African name of 'Matano'. Just after Independence, the Arabs were loathed by the Africans who took over the government. Many prominent Swahili families who had, before Independence, distinguished themselves as Arabs, adopted African descent and branded themselves Africans so as to integrate into the African society.

The latest group of people to be recognized as an official tribe in Kenya are the Nubians, who originated from Sudan and settled mainly in the Kibera slum area in Nairobi. Even with their questionable identity just like the Waswahili and a lower population than the Waswahili, the Nubians have been officially recognized as the 43 rd tribe in Kenya by the Government of Kenya. While the Waswahili are striving hard to be officially recognized as the 44th tribe in Kenya, the Government of Kenya has been reluctant due to, what they think, is the 'Arab-ness' in the Waswahili. As noted by Kindy (1972), the Arabs are bitterly opposed to the Waswahili adopting Arab-sounding names. The Waswahili are, therefore, 'un-wanted' by the Arabs and 'un-recognised' as Africans.

So who are the Waswahili - Arabs or Africans? The Waungwana or the elites of Lamu, who have always proclaimed themselves to be Arabs, have adopted Arabic traditions, know the Arabic language and are able to read and understand the Koran in Arabic. By virtue of these three things that brought them closer to the Arabs, the Waungwana declared themselves the elite and looked down at those who could not speak Arabic or

2 Kindy, Life and Politics in Mombasa, 21. The 'Wakilindini' is one of the Swahili clans. 'Elkumry' is a distorted Arabic name for 'originating from Comoro'. El-Hindy is another distorted Arabic word for 'originating from India'. __ 208 Conclusions read the Koran in Arabic or those who could not afford to wear Arabic attire. Those who were deemed as not having Arabic blood or Arabic links were termed as Washenzi or uncivilized. The anomaly in this concept is that while the Waungwana profess to be 'Arab' in nature, their private and communal rituals reflect otherwise. The ' African-ness' in their rituals reflect the African blood of the Waswahili. On the other hand, the Washenzi who are seen as African in nature, actually do practise rituals that have Islamic overtones, as well as being 'Arab', in cultural terms. If one were to closely study the genealogy of the Waungwana, probably one would find that the ancestors could have been African. However, these are pointers to the fact that Waswahili are more African than Arab in nature. It is this anomaly and ambuiguity that makes the Waswahili an interesting group of people to study. This is also true for their 'anomalous' architecture.

So, when studying such a group of people like the Waswahili, how does one try to connect their built environment with their ambiguous and anomalous culture? Is architecture to be read, synthesized or understood? In such a culture as the Waswahili, one cannot read or synthesise architecture, which, by virtue of an ambiguous and anomalous culture, is, in itself, also ambiguous and anomalous architecture. However hard one tries to read or to synthesise Swahili architecture, one is bound to fail if one does not try to understand the intrinsic meaning of space in Swahili architecture.

In Lamu, where Swahili culture and Swahili architecture has remained quite intact for many years, the qualities of what constitute a Swahili house may be obtained. Just as the anomalous character and identity of a Mswahili, the Swahili architecture of Lamu also defies easy categorization.

Looking at the typology of buildings in Lamu, one may 'safely' categorise them into four: the verandah house located at the Usita wa Pwani (the seafront), the Usita wa Mui building (otherwise also known as house-and-shop building) located on the main street, the stone house located in Mkomani, and the mud-and-thatch house located in Gardeni, Bombay and Kashmiri. This 'safe' categorization is determined by the location of the buildings, the structural materials used, the cultural background of the occupants of the

209 Conclusions buildings and, most importantly, the ritual and everyday use of the buildings and the intrinsic meaning attached to space.

The Verandah houses were built by Indian, Arab and Persian merchants. These houses were extroverted with large verandahs while the interior rooms were enclosed for internal privacy. The Usita wa Mui buildings housed the shops on the ground level and residence on the upper floors. These were mostly built by Indian traders who had settled in Lamu during the British colonial period. The stone house was built by the original people of Lamu, also known as Waamu. These houses were introverted with neither interior walls nor interior doors. The mud-and-thatch houses were built by 'outsiders' who had come to Lamu to settle. These people had either lived on the mainland and were chased by Somali bandits known as 'Shifta' or had lived on other islands in the Lamu archipelago and migrated to Lamu.

However, it is the everyday use of the stone house, the rituals undertaken and the concept and intrinsic meaning of space that distinguishes this type of building from the rest. Most of the rituals and rites of passage described in earlier chapters take place within the Swahili stone house. Compared to the mud and thatch houses, the rituals undertaken there are done outside the house. This is due to lack of space, among other reasons. The Swahili stone house has a vastness of space, broken down only by the ornamented niches known as Zidaka. This 'sea of a room' in the Swahili house as described by Abdalla (1976) had enough space to undertake rituals within the house.276

In trying to read or to synthesise Swahili architecture or any other vernacular architecture, one tends to fall into a trap of mis-understanding the meaning as implied by the owners, the masons who built the houses and the inhabitants themselves. In their bid to rationalize their arguments, institutions like the University of Nairobi and UNEP have mis­ understood and even mis-defined what Swahili architecture is all about by classifying the architecture of the slums in Majengo and Pumwani as 'Swahili architecture'.

Abdulla, Mwana Wa Yungi Hulewa, 61. 210 Conclusions To understand the architecture of a group of people such as the Waswahili, one must first understand language, culture and identity. The experience of reading and synthesizing architecture is bounded by the four walls of the house. Understanding of, and syndesising, or connecting to, architecture opens up limitless boundaries.

The study of vernacular architecture has encompassed different methods since the subject came into being in the 19th century. From 'technical analysis' studies to folklore and oral tradition, scholars have been trying to gain a better insight and understanding of vernacular architecture.

Creativity and imagination can be a useful tool to syndesise or connect with the past to understand the culture and the architecture of a group of people as ambiguous and anomalous as the Waswahili. Creativity and imagination has been used by poets who put words together and paint an imagery of events in history. In the poem Al-Inkishafi or the Awakening of the Soul written by Sayyid Abdallah bin Ali bin Nasir who lived from A.D. 1750-1850, an imagery of the rise and fall of Parte has been vividly painted through describing the rich Swahili architecture that fell into ruins when the citizenry strayed from the path of God. To understand those times, one would have had to be alive or one has to be able to use one's creativity and imagination to obtain a clearer picture of what Parte town once looked like, especially in terms of its architecture.

The Swahili concept of a house is extravagant space that is tamed by the wall decorative niches. The sparse furniture of the Swahili house does not cover the vastness of the interior as note by Sir Richard Burton:277

The Sala or reception-hall is mostly on the ground-floor. It contrasts strongly with our English apartments, where the comfortless profusion and confusion of furniture, and where the undue crowding of ornamental ornaments, spoil the proportions and 'put out' the eye. The protracted lines of walls and rows of arched and shallow niches, which take the place of tables and

277 Burton, Zanzibar; City, Island, and Coast, Vol 1, 89. 211 Conclusions consoles are unbroken save by a few weapons. Picture and engravings are almost unknown; chandeliers and mirrors are confined to the wealthy; and the result, which in England would be bald and barn-like, here suggests the coolness and pleasing simplicity of an Italian villa - in Italy.

The sweet-smelling fragrance of the interior of the Swahili house and the use of 'permanent' artifacts are probably pointers to equating the house to the imagery of Heaven as described in the Holy Koran:278

For them will be Gardens of Eternity; beneath them rivers will flow; they will be adorned therein with bracelets of gold, and they will wear green garments of fine silk and heavy brocade: They will recline therein on raised thrones. How good the recompense! How beautiful a couch to recline on!

The Pakistani poet/singer also compared her house to the Heaven:

My home is not just a residence or a nest, it is my heaven. (While thinking of my life in this new house) It is a new world full of love Everyday there is a new morning and a new evening The path (of my life) turned into a romantic (experience) And my journey became more colorful (joyful)!

While replicating the Heaven, the Swahili houses clustered together also form a 'sacred enclosure', protected by the inner wall housing the patricians and the outer wall enclosing the 'outsiders' or the 'commoners'. This 'sacredness' of the Swahili town is further amplified by the burying of talismans and Koranic verses in the walls, thus rendering the defensive use of the wall obsolete.

Marco Polo used imagination when describing to Kublai Khan the cities that he had not even visited, until it reached a point when Kublai Khan "noticed that Marco Polo's cities resembled one another, as if the passage from one to another involved not a journey but a change of elements. Now, from each city Marco described to him, the Great Khan's mind

Koran, English, Chapter 18: Verse 31. 212 Conclusions set out on its own, and after dismantling the city piece by piece, he reconstructed it in other ways, substituting components, shifting them, inverting them."279

Architects use creativity and imagination when designing buildings. From abstractness, architects imagine and use their creativity to put their imagination to paper (two- dimensionally) and later into models (three-dimensionally), even before buildings are actually constructed. Architects or planners throughout history have been known to imagine ideal cities. Some of these imagined ideal cities have been just put to paper while some have actually been experimented on and even built. An even crude example is Disneyland. For the African child or even adult who has never travelled, the existence of Disneyland does not cross his or her mind. Even for the 'Western child', the existence of Disneyland is, more or less, what he or she reads in 'Alice in Wonderland' and is an imagination in his or her mind until he or she actually travels to Disneyland to see the 'reality' of its existence. Yet, is Disneyland an imagination or a reality?

Yahya (1969) notes that "the significance of all this for the architectural scholar and commentator is its potential for enlarging the designer's tool-box, deepening our appreciation of East Africa's architectural heritage, and enhancing our capacity to merely enjoy and derive pleasure from the many beautiful cities and villages which comprise Swahililand."280 In expanding my 'tool-box' to deepen my appreciation and understanding of Swahili cultural heritage, I have, to put it in the words of Armstrong (1975), abandoned the use of the "science of man" as used by social anthropologists and adopted the "art of man" as used by humanistic anthropologists as "it is the aim of humanistic anthropology to turn our curiousity, our sense of insatiable wonder, our rich imagination away from the hows and the how-manys of culture to its qualities, for it is in culture's qualities and its textures that we find the rich, inextricable, and constitutive maze of experience, wherein solely lies all that is human in culture."

Calvino, Invisible Cities, 43. 0 Yahya, "Architectural Imagery and Symbolism in Swahili Literature." 1 Armstrong, Wellspring: On the Myth and Source of Culture, 16. 213 Conclusions Manguel (2007) notes that:

in biological terms, imagination is a survival mechanism developed to grant us experiences that, though not rooted in physical reality, serve nevertheless to educate and improve with the same power and efficacy as those that take place in the physical world. We imagine (or dream, invent and repeat) stories that allow us to act out and record processes of learning of which we may not be entirely aware, in a constant interweaving between what happens in the world and what we make-believe happens. In this sense, the story materially lived out and the story lived out in the imagination hold equal ranks. Except that, in Western societies, we grant the material stage a symbolic status of concrete, solid value, and therefore claim for its proprietary rights, while we relegate the imaginary constructs to unreality, however amusing, terrifying, or 282 illuminating we may feel them to be.

In much the same way as architects, Mafundi or masons imagine buildings and, even without putting their thoughts to paper, strive to work on the actual construction. It is no wonder that, in the Spanish tradition, a mason is known as Al-Arifov the knower. In the Swahili tradition, Mafundi or masons have acquired the name Waganga or medicine-men and are thought to possess magical powers, probably due to their imaginative prowess to create something out of nothing.

In my approach to understanding Swahili architecture, I have tried to find new sources and appropriate ways interpret the past. My approach stems from an inner desire to write about the experience of a Swahili town by someone who lives in it and who wishes to know it better and to live it more fully. As a Mswahili myself, the need to understand the Waswahili, their language, culture and architecture may be summed up by Topan in the following words:

The burden, or privilege, of steering the nation has led some thoughtful leaders to experiment with ideas with the aim of uplifting the lives of its people. Swahili authors have captured both the euphoria and the failures of such attempts.283

282 Alberto Manguel, The City of Words (Toronto: Anansi, 2007), 80. 283 Farouk Topan, "Why Does a Swahili Writer Write? Euphoria, Pain and Popular Aspirations in Swahili Literature," Research in African Literatures 37, no. 3 (2006). 214 Conclusions In my approach, I have tried to capture the euphoria and nostalgia of living in a Swahih town, and in due course, I hope my research may improve the lives of those inhabiting the Swahili towns dotted along the eastern coast of Africa. Capturing the euphoria and nostalgia of Swahili towns has been undertaken with new sources and appropriate methods, and, I hope, imaginatively. To put it in Marco Polo's words (when Kublai Khan interrupted him and started describing an imaginary city of stairs and marbles):

"It has neither name nor place. I shall repeat the reason why I was describing it to you: from the number of imaginable cities we must exclude those whose elements are assembled without a connecting thread, an inner rule, a perspective, a discourse. With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else."284

The poem of Al-Inishafi paints an excellent imagery of the Swahili town of Patte during its glorious days. While lamenting the downfall of Patte, the author Sayyid Nasir, paints a grim picture and an even grimmer future of the town:28 5

Nyumba zao mbake ziwele tame Their lighted mansions echo emptily Makinda ya popup yuu wangeme High in the painted rafters flutter bats Husikii hisi wala ukeme There are no murmurings, no happy shouts Zitanda matandu walitandiye And on carved bedsteads spiders spin their webs.

Madaka ya nyumba ya zisahani Where once in wall niches the porcelain stood Sasa walaliye wana wa nyuni Are now the ragged nests of wild birds Bumu hukoroma kati nyumbani Owls hoot in the solitude of the ruined halls Zisiji na kotwe waikaliye And quail and gamebirds scuttle and cry below.

Wana wa zipungu wapene zango On painted curtain rails now vultures perch Na wana wa ndiwa humia shingo And young doves pout and coo between themselves Na kupija mbawa matongotongo Or start, and flap their wings, and whirr away Ziku na zitati waliwashiye Swallows build their nests, and wood-pigeons.

284 Calvino, Invisible Cities, 43-44. Bin Nassir, Al-Inkishafl: Catechism of a Soul, 41-42. 215 Conclusions Nyumba kati zao huvuma mende Cockroaches rustle in the empty courts Kumbi za msana hulia ngende Where once men gathered, now the crickets shrill Yalifiye vumi makumbi ya nde The chatter in the ante-rooms has ceased Kuwa mazibala yalisiriye And there remains only dirt and fould decay. Ziwanda za nyumba ziwele mwitu The Courtyards now are choked with weeds and thorns Ungi wa matuka na kutukutu Bushes are caopied over with weeds and thorns Milango ya ndia taisha mtu Men fear today to pass their yawaning doors Kwa kete na kiza kulifundiye For inside Silence and Drakness reign supreme.

Sayyid Nassir's vision of decay of the Swahili town of Patte, is what is presently not only happening in Patte, but also in other Swahili tonws like Mombasa, Zanzibar and Lamu. Efforts to conserve and retain the architectural heritage of these Swahili towns have not been very successful and often lack authenticity.

I have lived and worked in historic towns of Kenya like Lamu and Mombasa and I have always had a desire to fully understand what made these towns so special that UNESCO would want to include them in their World Heritage designations. When I was directing the heritage conservation of these towns my concern was for well-informed decision making based on a deeper understanding of history, culture and the artefact system. My goal with this dissertation is to portray a Swahili town through a 'connecting thread, an inner rule, a perspective and a discourse' in the spirit of Marco Polo. As the Waswahili say 'Usione vyaelea vimeundwa' which, when translated, means 'do not just see the vessels afloat, but know that they have been craftily built'.

' Calvino, Invisible Cities, 43-44. 216 Conclusions APPENDICES

Swahili Coast Historical Chronology

60 A.D. - The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea makes the first mention of the Swahili coast. It was probably written a Greek living in Alexandria and was a guide to the route to China. This document does not specifically mention the Swahili coast or the city-states, but mentions some places like Azania, Opone, Pyralae Islands and Rhapta that could have referred to the Swahili islands and coast.

150 A.D. - The Geographia, composed by Ptolemy (an Alexandrine Greek) mentions the East Africa coast using the names of Azania, Rhapta and Zingis (the land of the dark peoples).

700 A.D. - Shanga town on the northern coast of Kenya was probably the earliest know Swahili settlement.

863 A.D. - The Yu-yuang-tsa-tsu, a compendium of different kinds of knowledge, was written by a Chinese, Tuan Ch'eng-shih, mentions the land of Po-pa-li, that is thought to be The Swahili coast

916 A.D. - Al-Masudi was probably the first Muslim writer to describe the Swahili coast. He mentions the Land of Zanj and the ivory trade that was going on during that time.

1100-66 - Al-Idrisi, an Arab Geographer, who did not travel himself, but relied heavily of other writers, mentions the island of Zanzibar and the towns of Malindi and Mombasa.

217 Appendices 1226 - Chao Ju-kua, who wrote the Chu-fan-chih or a Description of Barbarous peoples, mentions Zanzibar and describes the wildlife of the Land of Zanj.

1295 - Marco Polo, a Venetian, narrated his travels to Kublai Khan, the Mongolian Governor. It is believed that Marco Polo did not visit the East African coast, but he, nevertheless, described what he thought the Land of Zanj would look like.

1331 - Mohamed ibn Abdullah ibn Battuta, probably the greatest of the Muslim travellers, narrated his visit to the East African coast. He mentions the lifestyle of the peoples of Mogadishu, Kilwa and Mombasa.

1498 - Vasco da Gama, the first European to circum-navigate the southern tip of the African continent, was looking to reach India. He was accepted in Malindi and given a captain to take him to the Land of Spices. Vasco da Gama met with hostile Mombasa inhabitants.

1502 - Vasco da Gama's second voyage to the Swahili coast.

1593 - For their protection against the hostile Mombasa inhabitants, the Portuguese built the Fort Jesus in Mombasa.

1698 - Omani Arabs capture Fort Jesus, drove away the Portuguese and colonised the Swahili coast themselves.

1840 - Oman moved its capital from Muscat to Zanzibar to consolidate Omani power in the Swahili coast.

1895 - British Protectorate declared. 218 Appendices Railway line form Mombasa to Nairobi was completed. The British colonialists moved the capital of Kenya from Mombasa to Nairobi.

Legal emancipation of slaves on the East African coast.

Independence of East African countries.

219 o More photos

_Occupation of the Waswahili (Francesco Siravo and Ann Pulver, Planning Lamu: Conservation of an East African Seaport)

Maulidi ritual (Francesco Siravo and Ann Pulver, Planning Lamu: Conservation of an East African Seaport) TI^J

220 Appendices o

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Women celebrating Harusi (wedding) (Francesco Siravo and Ann Pulver, Planning Lamu: Conservation of an East African Seaport)

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Mkunguni (Town Square) in late 19th century Lamu seafront (with the Fort in the background in late 19m century) (Lamu Fort) (Lamu Fort)

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Swahili crafts - making the Kofia or the hand-sewn cap used for prayers (National Museums of Kenya Website www.museums.or.ke )

Swahili colours used in timber beams and lintels (red, white, black)

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Kizingiti or door threshold

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Kizingiti or door threshold with Baraza (stone bench)

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The Daka with the stone bench 'What you do not know will always beleaguer you'. Writings meant to drive away the 'evil eye'.

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223 Appendices o

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Zafa or the procession during the Maulidi ritual (notice the red-coloured flags) u 224 Appendices o

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Z«/« or the procession during the Maulidi ritual (notice the new-coloured flags - orange, green blue)

u 225 Appendices BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary

The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century. Translated by Wilfred H. Schoff. New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corp. Exclusively distributed by Munshiram Monoharlal Publishers), 1974. Allen, J. de Vere. "Swahili Architecture in the Later Middle Ages." African Arts 7, no. 2 (1974): 42-47, 66-68, 83-84. . "The Swahili House: Cultural and Ritual Concepts Underlying Its Plan and Structure." Art and Archaeology Research Papers (Dec, 1979). . Swahili Origins: Swahili Culture and the Shungwaya Phenomenon. London: James Currey; Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers; Athens (Ohio): Ohio University Press, 1993. . "Swahili Ornament: A Study of the Decoration of the 18th Century Plasterwork and Carved Doors in the Lamu Region." Art and Archaeology Research Papers 3 (1973): 1-14. Amerlinck, Mari-Jose. Architectural Anthropology. Westport, Conn.: Bergin and Garvey, 2001. Armstrong, Robert Plant. The Affecting Presence; an Essay in Humanistic Anthropology. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971. Bernard, H. Russell. Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994. Bhalo, Ahmad Nassir J. Malenga Wa Mvita. Diwani Ya Ustadh Bhalo. Edited by Shihabuddin Chiraghdin. Nairobi; Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press, 1971. Reprint, 1982. Bin Nassir, Sayyid Abdalla bin Ali. Al-Inkishafi. Nairobi: Longman, 1980. . Al-Inkishafi: Catechism of a Soul. Translated by James de Vere Allen. Nairobi; Kampala; Dar-es-salaam: East African Literature Bureau, 1977.

226 Bibliography . Al-Inkishafi; the Soul's Awakening. Translated by William Hichens. Edited by William Hichens. Nairobi; Dar es Salaam; Lusaka; Addis Ababa: Oxford University Press, 1939, 1972. Donley-Reid, Linda. "Life in the Swahili Town House Reveals the Symbolic Meaning of Spaces and Artefact Assemblages." African Archaeological Review 5 (1987): 181-92. . "The Social Uses of Swahili Space and Objects." Ph.D. Diss., University of Cambridge, 1988. Douglas, Mary. Implicit Meanings: Selected Essays in Anthropology. London; New York: Routledge, 1999. Farsi, S.S. Swahili Sayings from Zanzibar: Proverbs. Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1982. . Swahili Sayings from Zanzibar: Riddles and Superstitions. Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1979. Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P. The East African Coast: Select Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962. Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P., comp. The Swahili Coast, 2nd to 19th Centuries: Islam, Christianity and Commerce in Eastern Africa. London, UK: Variorum Reprints, 1988. Gennep, Arnold van. Rites of Passage. Translated by Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960. Ghaidan, Usam. "African Heritage: The Stone House of Lamu." Plan East Africa (May/June, 1971). . Lamu: A Study in Conservation. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1976. . Lamu: A Study of the Swahili Town. Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1975. Glassie, Henry. Vernacular Architecture. Philadelphia; Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000. Grimes, Ronald L. Beginnings in Ritual Studies. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1982. Harries, Lyndon. "Popular Verse of the Swahili Tradition." African Archaeological Review 22 (\952): 158-64.

227 Bibliography . Swahili Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962. Hichens, William. "Khabar Al-Lamu; a Chronicle of Lamu by Shaibu Faraji Bin Hamed Al-Bakariy Al-Lamuy." Bantu Studies XII (1938): 1-33. Horton, Mark, and John Middleton. The Swahili: The Social Landscape of a Mercantile Society. Oxford; Maiden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2000. Jahadhmy, A. Ali. Anthology of Swahili Poetry. London; Nairobi; Ibadan; Lusaka: Heinemann Educational Books Limited, 1975. Knappert, Jan. "The Chronicle of Mombasa: Asili Ya Mvita." Swahili 34, no. 2 (1964): 21-27. . Epic Poetry in Swahili. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1983. . Four Centuries of Swahili Verse. A Literary History and Anthology. London; Nairobi: Heinemann, 1979. Reprint, London: Darf, 1988. . Myths and Legends of the Swahili. Nairobi: Heinemann Educational Books, 1970. Mazrui, Alamin M., and Ibrahim N. Shariff. The Swahili: Idiom and Identity of an African People. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1994. Packer, Martin J. "Hermeneutics Inquiry in the Study of Human Conduct." American Psychologist 40, no. 10 (October 1985). Romero, Patricia W. Lamu: History, Society, and Family in an East African Port City. Princeton: M. Wiener, 1997. Salim, Ahmed Idha. The Swahili-Speaking Peoples of Kenya's Coast: 1895-1965. Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1973. Tolmacheva, Marina, ed. The Pate Chronicle. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1993. Vansina, Jan. Oral Tradition as History. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985. . Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology. London: Routledge and Paul, 1965. Werner, Alice. "A Swahili History of Pate." Journal of the Royal African Society 14, no. 54: 55: 56: (1915): 148-61, 278-97, 392-413. Yahya, Saad. "Architectural Imagery and Symbolism in Swahili Literature." In All-Africa

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