Life in the Swahili Town House Reveals the Symbolic Meaning of Spaces and Artefact Assemblages Author(S): Linda W

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Life in the Swahili Town House Reveals the Symbolic Meaning of Spaces and Artefact Assemblages Author(s): Linda W. Donley Source: The African Archaeological Review, Vol. 5, Papers in Honour of J. Desmond Clark (1987), pp. 181-192 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25130491 . Accessed: 17/11/2013 15:58

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This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sun, 17 Nov 2013 15:58:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The African Archaeological Review, 5 (1987), pp. 181-192

Life in the Swahili town house reveals the symbolic meaning of spaces and artefact assemblages LINDA W. DONLEY

Abstract

was to Swahili ethnographic information used interpret eighteenth-century coral house excavations in Lamu, Kenya. The author was especially interested in learning the symbolic or social meaning of durable objects that were found in archaeological assemblages. It was learned that many of the artefacts found in the excavations are related to rituals performed in are to Swahili houses. The spaces within the house ranked and used teach social position. can Features of coral houses, animal remains, infant burials, shells, ceramics, and beads be shown to have symbolic meaning within the Swahili context.

Resume

L'auteur a utilis? des informations ethnographiques souah?lies afin d'interpr?ter les fouilles de maisons en corail du 18e si?cle ? Lamu, Kenya. Elle s'int?ressait surtout ? conna?tre la signification symbolique ou sociale des objets non-p?rissables trouv?s dans les assemblages a arch?ologiques. Elle appris que beaucoup des artefacts trouv?s pendant les fouilles sont ? rattacher aux rituels c?l?br?s dans les maisons souah?lies. Les espaces ? l'int?rieur de la maison sont class?s et utilis?s afin de montrer la position sociale. On peut d?montrer que en certaines particularit?s des maisons corail, les restes de faune, les inhumations de tous petits enfants, la c?ramique et les grains de collier ont des significations symboliques dans leur contexte souah?li.

The Swahili house as a research problem within its past and present setting

The of man-made and artefact is a central in interpretation spaces assemblages problem were archaeology. The buildings selected here for study the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century domestic dwellings constructed for the wealthy Swahili (Afro-Arab) traders in the Lamu Archipelago, off the coast of Kenya near the Somali border (Fig. 1 ).This area is still relatively protected from Western influences; and many of the coral houses that were investigated are inhabited by descendants of the original owners. The community has

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Figure 1 The Lampu archipelago.

been Islamic for centuries; and many of the lasting and underlying principles of this society must be understood within this context. To determine the symbolic meaning of the spatial organization of the traditional Swahili house and the finds associated with my excavation of two of these houses in Lamu town and the back room of another coral house in Pate town, I adopted an ethno-archaeological and approach to elicit information about how the Swahili used thought of their material culture and spatial organization (cf., for early American settlements, Deetz 1977). Ethnographic data were collected on 36 families living in Swahili houses, with special attention given to observations and reports on how the rooms and objects were used by various members of the household during ritual and mundane activities. Swahili chronicles

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(Hichens 1938; Werner 1914?15) and poetry (Hichens 1939; Knappen 1967, 1969, 1970, 1979), which are based on oral traditions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, as were reviewed in detail. Traveller's reports, from early as the second century AD Periplus of theErythrean Sea (Schoffl912) to Chinese and Arab reports in the thirteenth century (Ingrams 1967:91; Ibn Battuta 1325-54) and a sixteenth-century Portuguese account (Barbosa 1514), were examined for comments concerning the social significance of house types, diets, dress was styles, manners and customs. A cultural pattern discovered that has changed little; therefore ethnographic research concerning general principles of social organization seemed an a relevant pursuit for archaeologist working within the later historic periods on the coast of eastern Africa.

Strandes (1961:86) wrote about the Swahili settlements in 1899:

same as was common Today one finds the architecture 400 years ago for the towns and houses, the same contrast between relatively cultured urban population and half-savage are 'white and wear the same neighbours. The town dwellers still black Moors': they still are few still clothing. There still many slaves, and free men; amongst them live the assiduous as cotton are Indian traders. Now, then, Indian goods the main article of trade, and the export conducted on the same lines. trade (ivory, grain, slaves) is still

Another question, whether there would be archaeological evidence of traditional practices, was answered through using ethnographic data to suggest what to look for in the excavations. Many activities were found to involve artefacts, features and domestic spaces which, once understoood in the present, could be given a time depth within the archaeological record. were to Relationships between spaces, persons and objects which used manipulate social boundaries and power left their mark on the ground.

Scope of the research on Archaeologists who have worked Swahili sites have been most interested in working out the chronological development of the settlements in light of dates obtained from imported ceramics and the architectural affinities of coral buildings (e.g. Kirkman 1954, 1963, 1966, 1974; Chittick 1967, 1969, 1984; Garlake 1966; Wilson 1978, 1979, 1980; Wilding 1971, 1977; Sassoon 1980; Horton 1981, 1984). I decided to explore only domestic architecture of later settlements, and to try to understand the symbolic meaning of spaces and artefact a a assemblages. As woman, I felt that exploring houses, women's domain within the Swahili context, might yield new insights. My ethno-archaeological research was concerned only with the houses on Lamu and Pate islands which were built after AD 1700. In addition to the ethnographic study of 36 houses located in and Pate towns two were on Lamu, Shela (Fig. 1) houses excavated Lamu plots 984 X and 341 (Ghaidan 1976: Fig. 3-14). The house (7 11m) on plot 984 had only the outer walls standing, and had recently been used as a garden; its lime floors had been broken, and it was therefore difficult to be certain about the original stratification of the artefact as assemblage. However, such features the ufuko (the trench used in the preparation of a corpse for burial) and infant burials were easily associated with the spatial organization of the are house and discussed in detail below. The larger coral house ( 10 X 22 m) on plot 341 is still on occupied the upper level, and the ground level lime floor was in perfect condition. The test

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area pits in both houses yielded ceramic evidence that this of Lamu had been inhabited since the fourteenth century. The test pit in the house on plot 341 showed a series of clay houses followed by two periods of coral house construction, the later being the present house (Donley 1984: Fig. 68). There were two floor levels associated with this house: the first was dated to were the late eighteenth century, and the later floor and plaster decoration added in the early nineteenth century. In this house not only were the ufuko and infant burials again present, but also within the ndani, the innermost room, two other important features were discovered: a the bones of a buried goat or sheep, and chicken (Fig. 2). A subterranean room was also found associated with the first coral house on this site; its size could not be determined without risking damage to the present standing house, A third excavation was undertaken in Pate town (Ghaidan 1976: Fig. 1-36, site no. 4 Msana with zidaka). The floor levels of this house had been disturbed when the thick coral roof had collapsed. Information from Pate provided important comparative data because Pate people have had fewer outside influences in the past 100 years than those living in Lamu and Shela.

The house as a physical metaphor of Swahili society a The typical Swahili house has 'deep plan', with long, narrow rooms, one behind the other, an off open courtyard (Fig. 2). The ceiling may be as much as 3.5 m high and the walls 60 cm thick. The house walls and flat roofs are constructed of coral rag and lime mortar, with plastered surfaces. Usam Ghaidan's (1976) and Francesco Siravo and Ann Pulver's (1986) studies of the conservation of Swahili houses allow me to state that the houses I recorded in detail were typical. are The coral houses traditionally built as wedding presents for daughters. Houses are usually first occupied as single-storey dwellings and later a second floor, with the same floor are plan, may be added. Houses linked by bridges across streets and abut one another, often with inter-connecting passage-ways, which make it difficult from the outside visually to one separate house from another. This perhaps led earlier archaeologists to call rooms or houses Until were never inter-connecting 'palaces'. recently the houses sold, but one to next. passed from generation the Boys inherited land and slaves, married daughters were or were given houses parts of houses. Daughters usually married to their father's sons which meant that the were to a brother's wards, mitaa, degree both matrilocal and

patrilocal. state a The binary opposites high/low and in/out in concise manner the relationship between the areas within the house and those between its occupants. The houses could be a said to be physical metaphor of Swahili society. People considered to be inferiors (slaves) master and lived downstairs, and the his family lived upstairs.1 Domestic slaves were on considered to be superior to those who worked the plantations and who did not live in the on master's house. Female domestic slaves (madada) lived the ground floor of the house. Any of these women could become a concubine, souriya, of the master, which would bring her and her offspring freedom. She would then live either upstairs or in a separate house provided by her husband/master. This would be a step in the direction of obtaining the status of the free-born Waungwana. Several Waungwana informants told me that no relative of theirs would ever live on the lower level of a two-storey house. No exception to this was found, although in some houses the

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AeoHABOOO^ICAU GfeOOND FUOOp Pt>AN

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the stone house on Lamu 341. Figure 2 Ground plan of plot

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upper level was considered by the inhabitants to be crowded. The ground floor was either used as a storage area, rented to mainland Africans, or occupied by descendants of the family's former slaves. Therefore, the artefact assemblages from excavated two-storey houses will be material associated with both social classes. Great care must be taken to try to separate the material culture related to each group when working on a Swahili two-storey house site. Within each storey of the house the level of each room is raised approximately 10 cm as one moves into the darker and innermost room, the ndani. This is the location of many women must retreat a rituals and is where the freeborn if male stranger enters the house, which is rare even today. The daka, a covered porch with stone benches, the lowest and outermost area of the house, is associated with public, male and secular business. Male slaves and Indian or Arab traders came only to the daka, the area outside the valued social space of the house.

Freeborn women had considerable control over domestic activities, ritual and mundane, which took place within the house. Most of the household goods were bought with money given to the freeborn girl's father and became her personal property but, as with the house, could not be given or sold to anyone outside the family. Not only was most of the material culture owned by freeborn women, but the ritual life of the society was also to a considerable degree directed by them. While these women were limited in their access to the mosque and a were not allowed to go with body to the place of burial, within the seclusion of the house they governed the social formation of the society. Most of the rituals relating to birth, death and weddings were organized by the Waungwana woman. These were the practices that could cause and resolve discord within the extended household. Men spent little of the day within the female-dominated house. One man, reported to be 96 years old, said that he went out every day because it is 'unmanly' to spend time at home. He had the company of many other men who felt the same and only went home to eat and sleep.

Secure the Swahili houses and women

Swahili houses must be symbolically closed, which is termed inKiswahili kufungaya nyumba. This ritual is performed whenever problems of discourse, thievery or infertility befall a household. I have seen coconuts inscribed with verses from the Koran installed in doorways to 'close' the house to evil spirits, and I have been told about animals being sacrificed and buried in the innermost room to rid the house of evil spirits. Did these practices take place in the past? We shall be unlikely to find archaeological the coconut: there a to this on coast evidence concerning however, is reference practice the 120 years ago (Krapf 1860:145). As a Swahili woman from Shela said: 'coconuts only work if people believe they do.' In fact, the coconut charms were ideal because both Africans and Indians shared this belief, and they were often the outsiders who were seen as threatening the Swahili household. The second type of kufungaya nyumba involved the sacrifice of an animal, usually a goat or sheep, and is called kafara. To perform this ritual, a pit is dug in the centre of the ndani. The animal's throat is slit and the blood directed onto the ground. The goat or sheep is then butchered; and the meat can be distributed to and eaten by people who do not know that it is a kafara. Animals are also buried alive if the spirit is being given the whole animal and not just its blood.

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I found evidence of this ritual under a sealed nineteenth-century floor in the excavation of the ndani of the house on Lamu plot 341 (Fig, 2), There was no doubt that a kafara had been performed to 'close' the house at an early stage of its history when it was a single-storey Waungwana dwelling. A goat may also be sacrificed and buried in the house as part of a ritual for a young child. This is called akiki. However, the goat/sheep remains found in the excavated house were broken and the bones are never to be broken when they are buried as part of an akiki ceremony (cf. Ingrams 1967:197; Kindy 1972; Prins 1961:127). The remains of a second animal were also discovered in the excavation of the ndani of this

house. Chicken bones and long straight coarse black hair were recovered from a pit on the inner side of the threshold of the ndani door. An informant believed that it had been placed there by a man who wanted to control his wife, hair and nail parings being often used with articles of personal clothing as love charms by Swahili people. Another indication that the buried chicken bones and the hair were related to sexual concerns is based on the Swahili attitude towards the effect of different types of meat. Iwas told that goat, mutton, and beef are considered to be 'cooling' but chicken makes one sexually 'hot'. A bridegroom, for example, is given chicken or dove meat to eat before going to his bride in the ndani to consummate his

marriage.

The back room, ndani

The ndani is the ritual area of the house, a sacred and polluted area, A still-born infant is not considered by the Swahili to be a person, but an angel, and is buried within the ndani. I discovered four such burials in the two houses excavated in Lamu. In two burials iron was associated with the infants. Some informants said that this was to protect the infants' souls from bad spirits who had claimed their lives. Others said that grave goods were against the tenets of Islam and iron was therefore never placed with burials. Iron bracelets are worn by some Swahili as protective charms against evil spirits. Each of the infants was otherwise buried in an Islamic manner, placed on the right side, facing north, towards Mecca, If a slave living in the lower level of the two-storey Waungwana house delivered a still-born child, she was not allowed to bury it in the house. Concubines were sometimes buried with the master's most were in a area from family, but slaves placed separate away the Waungwana cemetery. Kindy, a Swahili writer, relating local customs says: 'the placenta is buried in or near the house with some charcoal, iron and other ingredients' (Kindy 1972:5). There were five small pits within the ndani of Lamu plot 341 which contained large iron dhow nails, and two of them seen in context as a also contained charcoal. Iron is therefore another protective charm. Two other types of protective charms intended for infants found in the excavation of the as ndani of plots 984 and 341 would not have been identified such without ethnographic data. were were ca cm Many cowries, Moneta annulus, recorded. Most 2 long and unbroken. At first the only interpretation was that they were lost shells intended for the export market. 'Cowries could be obtained in larger quantities in the Lamu archipelago than at any other place on the Swahili coast. In the 1770s 2-3 tons a year were taken thence to India' (Nicholls 1971:71). However, it was observed that a few had broken backs and were worn as if they had been fastened by a string at one end. Ethnographic accounts gave an explanation. The Sultan of Zanzibar's daughter, Salama binti Said, wrote in 1886: 'For a child's protection against the supposed evil-eye it is given certain amulets, which with the lower classes consist of an

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a or a fastened to the left arm in a small leather onion, pieces of garlic, bone, shell, perhaps a bag' (Said 1907:68). 'A cowrie shell is fastened round the neck on string to keep evil away, and hirizh or charms, are used for the same purposes' (Ingrams 1967:197). a an An owl bone made into charm was also found in excavation on Lamu plot 984. Kindy (1972:4) and Ingrams (1967:454) both mention that owls represent bad spirits who harm young children. Lamu and Shela women reported that owl bone charms were used to protect infants. An octopus may also be hung on the roof of the house of a new born infant, to protect the child from the ill effects of the owl. These protective charms and the threat of the owl have common elements. They are all associated with the protection of infants and they may all be seen as anomalous. The shells are not clearly alive or dead and they lived in the sea but were not fishes. The octopus is likewise not fish-like but lives in the sea. The owl is a bird, but unlike other birds it flies at night. These recall Mary Douglas's ( 1975:15) Lele pangolin cult and the power of ambiguous elements for ritual use.

Blue bowls and beads

Porcelain sherds and glass beads are common items in archaeological assemblages from coastal Islamic sites. These too were found to have symbolic meanings, partially as protective charms. Most coastal archaeologists, while noting that porcelain was used to decorate tombs and niches within houses, seem to consider that most of the fine imported ceramics were associated with eating. However, it seems that both now and in the past the Swahili have eaten with their hands, off large communal wooden trays, women and children sometimes eating from the cooking pots or from coconut-shell bowls. The imported ceramics, most were commonly eighteenth-century Chinese blue and white porcelain, kept in the plaster niches, zidaka, in the ndani. (See Donley 1982 for a discussion of the symbolic meaning of the zidaka.) Local Swahili women said that if a plate broke itwas considered lucky because the an an plate had saved someone from attack by evil spirit. Drower (1938:106) provided additional support for this concept from another location within the Islamic world: 'Blue . . . even are beads, buttons and pieces of blue pottery powerful against the evil eye'. Some of the sherds I excavated in Lamu and Pate had holes in them. Holes were often made in pottery and to mend broken but some sherds have been used as for porcelain items, may pendants protection from the evil eye. (T. H. Wilson pers. comm.; see also Barth 1961:144). Barbosa wrote in the sixteenth century that Moors believed that beads worn next to the women skin protected the chastity of (Barbosa 1514:67). My Swahili informants said that were worn next to to a husband and to beads around the waist the skin give sensual pleasure

indicate a woman's sexual availability.

A symbolic grave, the ufuko

An archaeological feature, the ufuko trench mentioned above, was detected in all three houses excavated, but has not been commented upon in other archaeological site reports, perhaps because itwas not observed or because it does not exist in all settlements. The ufuko has only twice been noted in ethnographic reports (Ingrams 1967:240; Prins 1961:105). No description of it has yet been found outside the Swahili context, although the Swahili believe

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it to be an Islamic practice. However, the digging of the ufuko for the collection of water used towash a body before burial is part of matanga, a ritual not considered part oisheria, or Islamic are not sheria are called and are most related to requirements. Customs which mila, closely are associated with the death of a women's religious activities. The matanga practices only family member. It is interesting that the mainland Chagga in Tanzania also call the ceremony for the redistribution of a dead person's property, matanga (Moore and My erhoff 1975:120). There could be a link because many slaves were brought to Lamu from Tanzania. Swahili women are not allowed to accompany a body to the grave site. However, making a cm an ufuko may be considered a substitute. Soon after person dies, the ufuko trench (60 wide, 2 m long and about 50 cm deep) is dug, usually just outside the rear lavatory door within the ndani. An ulili (bed with coconut rope top) is placed on top of the ufuko where the are body will be washed for burial. All the orifices of the body plugged with white, scented a use an material and the corpse is wrapped in white cloth. Many Lamu families ulili only for a as a to a the preparation of body or inverted bier convey the corpse, although widow may be ten expected to sleep on this bed during her mourning period of four months and days. Some women in Lamu said that the ulili symbolized death to them and they would never want this are a type of bed in the house for daily use. The intestines of the deceased emptied through hole made in the woven surface of the ulili into the ufuko, as is the water used for washing the not to run body. This heavily polluted water must be allowed into the open drains of the a a street. An ufuko of this type is only made for washing person who dies after maturity: girl a or after her first menstrual period and boy from about the age of twelve thirteen. After the no water body of an immature person is washed there is concern about the used because the person is considered to have been without sin and therefore the water is not polluted. After the body is carried from the house, the ufuko is back-filled and the ulili is replaced on top of the fresh mound of soil. The women say that the ufuko is a symbolic grave: it is a means house on 341 had a for women of showing respect for the dead. The ufuko in the Lamu plot water to clay platform with a drain in the centre for the pass (Fig. 2). The original house owner's son said that he remembered his father reading the Koran there on special religious occasions. Women in Pate town say their daily prayers on top of the ufuko. In Pate the ufuko is to ancestors. are a sacred area of the house associated with respect one's Houses generally even was on an as built on a north-south axis, but where the house built east-west alignment, was the excavated house in Pate, the ufuko was found to be north-south, facing Mecca. The ufuko in Pate is also important within the context of the wedding. The bride, during the ceremony, which was traditionally performed in the house, sat on the bed placed on top of the ufuko. Here the marriage would be consummated; subsequently the bed would be moved to the other side of the ndani where it would remain.

Conclusion

Swahili society was in a minority position relative to both the African and Islamic worlds. It is therefore not surprising that its rituals expressed anxiety over the boundaries of the house and the sacred inner room, the ndani. The ritual 'closing' of the house, kufungaya nyumba, indicates a concern about the intrusion of outsiders. The fact that they were referred to as spirits only gave additional power to perceived threats. The smallest cultural unit seen as requiring protection might be the human body. 'Anxiety about bodily margins expresses

This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sun, 17 Nov 2013 15:58:18 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 190 Linda W. Donley danger to group survival' (Douglas 1966:124). This is expressed in the ritual closing of the bodily orifices before burial, and by the use of charms to protect infants' bodies. The master also attempted to 'close' his wife's sexual life by the ritual sacrifice of a chicken, which was then buried near the threshold of her room, the ndani. Anxiety concerning the social categories of persons was mediated by the use of objects and spaces within the context of ritual and mundane activities. Female slaves, concubines and freeborn Waungwana were defined by the physical space within the house. Infants, whose status required time to become established, were protected during their socially ambiguous period by charms which were themselves difficult to classify. The female domestic slaves, the modada, were located physically at the lowest level of the house and they were also socially the lowest within the house. Once a madada became the concubine, souriya, of a freeborn man she moved out of the lower level of the house and up in society. The sons ofsouriya could not accept that the Waungwana society did not always see them as equal to the children born of two free parents, and these children and their mother fought for the social position to which they felt entitled. Jealousy was therefore a central theme within the household. The ndani contained power derived from a combination of pure and impure activities. was Prayer, the purest of activities, took place in the ndani, but the ufuko the receptacle for the ritual impurities of the deceased. The ndani was also the area to which women were secluded during the polluted period after child-birth. Even sexual intercourse between the Waungwana was parents which produced pure lineage considered polluting and both were required to a ritual ablution before the to contact others or to perform leaving ndani, pray. The elite freeborn women were responsible for the education of both male and female children concerning the proper Waungwana customs and manners. They were in charge of the daily running of the household. In addition, most of the material markers of status?coral houses, grand furniture, imported porcelain, gold jewellery and silk cloth?were most closely associated with the Waungwana women and the ndani. Nevertheless, all were obtained from men, who also held the official religious positions and economic power. A woman's religious not men practices, mila, were unofficial, and she could compete in this sphere because had the whole institution of Islam on their side. Swahili women are a muted group whose view of life has adjusted to a dominant male system (cf. Ardener 1975, 1978, 1981). Within the coral women were their were contained the houses powerful, but they and power by Waungwana use men's of religious power. Many of the ideas explored in this paper were inspired by house studies by anthropologists such as Bourdieu (1962, 1977), Littlejohn (1967), Cunningham (1973) and Humphrey a (1974). However, I have attempted to add time dimension to the study of Swahili houses by considering historical and archaeological data. There has also been a desire to find the underlying basic concepts or structures within Swahili cultural history. An understanding of to the role played by material culture, past and present, seems essential archaeological research concerned with the symbolic meaning contained in remains of houses and artefacts. This case study has, I hope, contributed to that goal.

Endnote

1. Slavery was not abolished by the British until 1907. According to Sheriff (1971:306), there were 40,000 slaves in the Lamu area in the 1840s.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Drs I. Hodder, J. Kirkman, R. Lewcock, H. Wright, H. Moore and A. Welbourn for reading an earlier draft of this paper and giving me helpful comments. Field work was carried out under Permit OP. 13/001/8C22/5 granted by the Government of Kenya, Office of the President. The National Museums of Kenya have been supportive of my research and I would especially like to thank Dr T. Wrilson, Mr Athman Lali Omar, Mr Ali Abubakar, Ms Amina Said and all the Museum staff, for their years of patient advice and

guidance. The following provided financial assistance for my work: the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Sir Bartle Frere's Memorial Fund, the Smuts Memorial Fund, the Crowther-Beynon Fund and King's College. The human infant remains were analysed by Mr B. Denston, of the Department of Physical Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Dr D. Brothwell, Institute of Archaeolo gy, London, and Dr A. Walker, Department of Anatomy, Johns Hopkins University. The faunal material from the house excavations was identified by Mr J. Kimengich, Mr Samual Kahinju, Mr Elija Oduor and Mr P. Kyenze under the direction of Dr H. Merrick and Ms N. Mudida.

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