Lamu: A case study of the swahili town

Abstract

The Swahili coast between Kismayu in the north and the Zambezi river in the south, and many of the islands facing it have been the locations of important settlements. Artime trade brought these settlements into contact with various regions of the Indian Ocean, and exposed them to their culture. Gradually new styles of expression began to emerge. These are evident in all aspects of Swahili material culture: the art, the architecture and, not least, the towns which are the subject of this thesis. The thesis analyses the structure and discusses the types and function of these towns. It does this by focusing on the in-shore island town of Lamu on the northern coast of Kenya. This town is a convenient milieu for such a study because it preserves more of its original character than any of the other Swahili settlements. It is one of the few existing Swahili towns that managed to survive physical destruction by war-like tribes, commercialization by tourism and the urban surgery of progress. The Introduction is a brief historical background. Against this background the three chapters of Part One focus on Lamu town and its immediate environment. Chapter 1-1 describes the Lamu archipelago and the coastal stretch of Kenya north of the Tana 1- river. It discusses the function, economy and patterns of architecture of the towns of the area. Chapter 1-2 focuses on the town of Lamu. It discusses its form and traces its historical development until the beginning of the present century. In Chapter 1-3 the plan of the Lamu house is analysed in relation to patterns of behaviour and compared to Swahili house plans of earlier dates. Part Two draws conclusions about the Swahili town generally. Chapter 2-1 discusses the factors that appear to have dictated Swahili planning ideals; Swahili concepts of space are discussed under three 7headings: Pedigree, Involvement and Privacy. The final chapter, 2-2, deals with the various types of the Swahili town. It discusses the influences that appear to have affected the form of these towns, and includes an assessment of the impact of Islam on the acceleration of-Swahili urban growth. The thesis is the result of research work carried out in the north Kenya co~st, on and off, since July 1969. Most of the field work was completed by August 1971. On two occasions the author was accompanied by students from the department of architecture in the University of Nairobi when he was lecturer there; the measurements for the buildings shown on Figures 8, 24, 25 and 26 were taken by them. The time since August 1971 was spent in recording and assessing the information collected, supplementing it with library research, and writing up. This part of the research was supervised by Professor Flemming Jorgensen and Mr. Neville Chittick. Mr. Chittick is a primary source on the history of the East African coast; grateful acknowledgements are due to him for his invaluable help and guidance. The author also wishes to record his gratitude to his father, Mr. Isa Ramzi Ghaidan of Baghdad, Iraq, for the time he spent in copying out and sending long extracts from some of the sources quoted in the Introduction.