Exploring Swahili urbanism through survey of Songo Mnara Island, Tanzania

Abstract

This paper offers a mesoscale approach to the study of the urban landscape surrounding the fourteenth–sixteenth century Swahili site of Songo Mnara just off the southern Tanzanian coast. The study is based on a systematic, intensive survey of the town’s immediate island hinterland. Such an approach, we argue, exposes a set of activities that extend out from the urban core and situates the traditional objects of study (urban center, rural villages) in an integrated landscape. This scale of activity is particularly apparent in an island context where urban activities encompassed the island itself. This example demonstrates why urban societies in island contexts must be considered in their landscape setting, as a range of territorial relationships can be discerned in the past that were an integral part of the ways that urban lives were constructed.

Keywords:

• Swahili
• urbanism
• mesoscale
• Songo Mnara

Acknowledgements

The work was conducted in collaboration with the Antiquities Division, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania under the supervision of Revocatus Bugumba of the Kilwa District Office. Particular thanks to the students and other field crew who toiled on the survey, especially Ali Masudi, Mohammed Ali, Abdu Abdallah, Mohammed Juma, Jonathan Rivera, Alexandra Cameron, Anna Thomas, and Charlie Fleisher.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The Songo Mnara Urban Landscape Project was funded by the National Science Foundation (USA, BCS 1123091), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK, AH/J502716/1), and the Rice University archaeological field school.