Kenya coast history is one of African kings, Omani sultans, Indonesian cannibals, Chinese emperors, Portuguese explorers, American whalers and British missionaries.For 2,000 years men from the Arabian Peninsula, Persia, China and India have sailed down the African coast to trade at the tropical islands of Lamu, Mombasa, Zanzibar and the hundreds of miles of African shoreline, homeland of Swahili.

The yearly pattern of monsoon winds resulted in some ships' crews having to spend October to April in East Africa. Having sailed from Arabia with the northeast monsoon they had to wait to return with the southeast wind, which blows only from April to October.

If an Arab sailor missed the southeast winds he would be stranded for over half a year. The land is fertile and coastal life is attractive. A few months here would not be a hardship, especially if he were able to settle down with a local Bantu-speaking girl.

In this way, the Swahili language came about, the name itself coming from the Arabic ‘’Sawahil’’ meaning shoreline. Swahili is 80% Bantu, the language of the mothers, the children and the home, and 20% Arabic, the language of the fathers and of trade, filling the gaps where Bantu words were inadequate or lacking.

Swahili formed as a language by 1000 A.D. or perhaps even earlier during the period Islam was launched in Arabia during the seventh century. The new faith will have been known in East Africa by 700 A.D. but the earliest firm evidence is much later, 1107 A.D,  the date for the foundation of a mosque in Zanzibar.

During Europe’s Middle Ages, often punctuated by plunder and war, the Swahili soared into a peaceful golden age that was affluent, literate and cosmopolitan. Wealthy Swahili lived in three storied houses with bathrooms, plumbing, balconies and glazed windows. Cool shaded interiors had wall niches filled with Chinese porcelain and the floors were covered with Persian rugs.

The Swahili built tiered stone towns on hilly promontories to catch cooling breezes, using coral blocks and mangrove poles. The town houses were close together for shade, forming narrow lanes. They still stand today.

The stone houses would not have blossomed but for rural Bantu communities that built farms or ‘’shambas’’ close by. They lived in rustic simple constructed thatch and tree trunk homes and grew fruit and vegetables and caught the fish to feed the towns. This symbiotic relationship preserved Islamic heritage as well as Bantu traditions that combine as a key value of integrity in the Swahili persona called ‘’Ungwana.’’

This code of Swahili ethics requires honor, hospitality, and decorum and the  African spirit inheritance includes…..’’unganga’ (magic) ’’mizimu’’ (ancestor worship) and ‘’dawa’’ (herbal medicine.)