SWAHILI (Wa-Swahili, i.e. coast people, from the Arabic sail, coast)

This article appears in Volume V26, Page 178 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SUS-TAV

SWAHILI (Wa-Swahili, i.e. coast people, from the Arabic sail, coast) , a term commonly applied to the inhabitants of

Zanzibar

ZANZIBAR

and of the opposite mainland between the parallels of 2 and 9 S., who speak the Ki-Swahili language. The Swahili are essentially a mixed people, the result of long crossing between the negroes of the

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

and the Arabs, with an ad-mixture of slave blood from nearly all the

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

African tribes. Among Swahili are found every shade of colour and every type of physique from the full-blooded negro to the pure Semite. Usually they are a powerfully built, handsome people, inclined to stoutness and with Semitic features. They number about a million. They figured largely in the history of African enter-prise during the 19th century. The energy and intelligence derived from their Semitic blood have enabled theln to take a leading part in the development of trade and the

industries

INDUSTRIES

, as shown in the wide diffusion of their language, which, like the Hindustani in India and the Guarani in

South

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

America, has become the principal medium of intercommunication in a large area of Africa

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

of the

equator

EQUATOR (
Late
- LATE
Lat. aequator, from aequare, to make equal)

. During his journey from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic (18731874)

Commander

COMMANDER

. V. Lovett Cameron found that a knowledge of this language enabled him everywhere to dispense with the aid of an interpreter, as it was understood by one or more persons in all the tribes along the route. Owing to this circumstance the Swahili have been found invaluable assistants in every expedition from the eastern seaboard to the interior after they began to be
employed by J. H. Speke and Richard Burton as porters and escorts in 1857. The language is somewhat archaic Bantu, much mixed with Arabic, while Indian, Persian and even English, Portuguese and German words have contributed to the vocabulary. Grammatical treatises on it have been published, and into it portions of the Bible have been translated by Bishop Steere .l The Swahili are Mahommedans, but in disposition are genuine negroes. Christian missions among them have met with little success.
See Johann Ludwig Krapf, Dictionary of Swahili Language (London, 1882) ; Bishop Steere, Handbook of the Swahili Language (London, 1894) ; Collection of Swahili Folk-Tales (1869) ; A. C. Madan, English-Swahili Dictionary (

Oxford

, 1894) ; Delaunay, Grammaire Kiswahili (Paris, 1898). See also BANTU LANGUAGES.

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