11

RELIGION AND SOCIE1Y

David C. Sperling

ABSTRACTThe peoples oftheKenya Coastfollow a variety ofreligious traditions. Whereas Islam hasbeenpresent intheregion for centuries, thebeginning ofChristianity in modern times onlygoes backsome150years.African religious beliefs andpractices existed long before thecoming ofIslam orChristianity. This chap­ter examines thereligious traditions of theKenya Coast, looking first at theirhistorical origins anddevelopment. Rather thanattempt a detailed description ofthetenets andpractices ofeach ofthetradi­tions, thechapter seeks toexplain bowthey have influencedand interacted with each other. Atthesamelime it assesses theiroverall importance, theirrelation to thesocial lifeandpolitical economy of theregion, and what theirgeneral circumstances aretoday.

ETHNIC DIVERSIIT AND REUGIOUS AFFILIATION

Mostpeople of the Kenya Coast belong to one ofthethree main religious traditions present inthere­gion: Islam, Christianity, or African traditional reli­gion. By andlarge, onefinds all three religions inallparts of the coast, though invarying proportions.Among theSwahili andtheDigo peoples, for exam­ple, Islam predominates. The Swahili, resident main­ly intowns andvillages onor near thecoastal shore,have beenMuslim for solong thattheir very ethnicidentity has come to be Muslim. The Digo, whoinhabit the eastern panofKwale District, southofMombasa, arepredominantly Muslim; they aretheonly Bantu-speaking people of Kenya who haveadopted Islam ona large scale. Among othercoastalpeoples, such astheTaita, Giriama andPokomo, it is

notpossible to identify a Single dominant religioustradition. Rather, one finds some persons who areMuslim, others who areChristian, andotherswhofollow African traditional religion (thatis, religiousbeliefs and practices indigenous toAfrica).

Though thegeographical distribution ofreligionsisoften quite marked, as forexample among thePokomo, where the Pokomo of the upper TanaRiver tend to be Muslim and the Pokomo of thelower Tana River tend to be Christian, one shouldnot imagine religious identities to be rigidly exclu­sive. Religious change) which has taken place grad­ually andover long periods oftime, has not usuallyimplied thewholesale substitution ofonesystem ofbeliefs for another. Not only doa variety ofreligiousbeliefs exist among aparticular people or ina specific

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158 Sperling

1 "Report by Sir A. Hardinge on the condition andprogress of the East Africa Protectorate from itsestablishment to the 20thJuly 1897", Accounts andPapers (parliamentary Papers), LX, 1898.

place, butalso within a homestead or anindividualfamily, where some members may be Muslim,others Christian, andstill others continue to followtheirAfrican religious traditions. Such mixing can alsotake place at thelevel ofindividual persons, who maylive as Muslim or Christians while residing inanur­ban centre, andnevertheless continue to take part intraditional practices when staying at their rural homewith their non-Muslim and non-Christian relatives. In

suchinstances the practice ofa particular religionmay become as much a social as a religious phe­nomenon, anditisnotalways possible todistinguishbetween the two spheres oflife. Thus, adistinct fea­ture ofcoastal society is the intermingling of reli­gious traditions within a general atmosphere oftol­erance andrespect.

East Africa Protectorate, carried out his survey ofMombasa District in 1895-97, he found that thepopulation ofMombasa town was 99% Muslim.'

With the exception of the Swahili, whohave al­ways lived in urban orsemi-urban settlements, mostindigenous coastal peoples originally lived in ruralareas. Only in modem times have they migrated inlarge numbers to urban centres, where there isageneral mixing ofpeoples andofreligions. The tra­ditional resource base of the rural peoples of theCoast was either agriculture, animal husbandry or,insome remote areas, hunting. This classification isimprecise because many peoples straddled morethan onecategory butithelps to understand thepo­tential influence ofIslam andChristianity on indige­nous African societies. Hunting societies by theirvery nature have notcome understrong Muslim or

MIGRATION, URBANISATION Christian influence, some pastoral societies areAND REliGIOUS DEMOGRAPHY strongly islamised (the Somali being the best ex-Ofthetotal population ofthecoast some 25% live in ample inEast Africa), while agricultural peoples havethecity ofMombasa, another 7% live inurban cen- been influenced byboth Islam and Christianity.tresof more than 2,000 inhabitants, while the re- The proportion of persons affiliated toeach reli-

-- - - maining68%-1iveih "[ural areas. These statisticsindi- --- - giori.as wellasthegeographical distributi6ri ofthecare thattheproportion ofurbanised people on the religions themselves, has been affected by thecoast isconsiderably higher than thenational average movement ofpeoples, particularly bythemigrationwith 18% (Kenya 1996a; 1996b). The relatively high ofup-country Africans (from the interior ofKenya)

--....--- -levelofurbanisatien--at-theEoast-is--not--a-newphe- .----. -- to thecoast-Thisprocessofrnigration.whichgoes---------nomenon. Theregion hasa history ofurban settle- back to pre-colonial times, intensified during thement, bytheSwahili people, going back many cen- colonial period (1895-1963), when large numbers ofturies. When looking aturban growth andchange in up-country Africans came to the coast to work, onmore modern times, we need to distinguish be- plantation farms, at Mombasa port, in the railwaystween thesmaller pre-colonial urban centres, such and invarious administrative posts, both governmentasLamu, Marnbrui andVanga, which have retained and private. And migration from up-country has con-their Muslim character andarestill populated almost tinued since Independence, oneofthemain stimu-entirely byMuslims, andthe larger towns ofMom- lants to this being thegrowth ofthe tourist industrybasa andMalindi which, because ofin-migration by at thecoast during thepast three decades.non-Muslims, have experienced a steady decline in Most up-country migrants to thecoast live inonethe proportion ofMuslim inhabitants since the be­ginning ofcolonial rule in1895. When SirArthur Har­dinge, thefirst Commissioner General oftheBritish

of the urban centres, butsomehave settled inruralareas, forexample, in the Shimba Hills settlementscheme ofKwale District, in the Bura andHola irri­gation schemes of Tana River District, and in theLake Kenyatta and Hindi/Mahogoni settlementschemes of Lamu District. Theinflux ofup-countrypeoplehasaddedto the ethnicdiversity of the re­gion, but more importantly forthe subject underre­view in this chapter, it has greatly increased theChristian population. Most up-countryAfricans work­ingat thecoast areChristian, andmuch - though bynomeans all- oftheChristian presence at thecoast,particularly in urbancentres, can be attributed tothem. Forexample, the census of1989 shows that34% of the population of Mombasa is madeup ofpersons ofup-country origin (Kenya 1994). Thoughthepopulation census doesnotshow religious affili­ation, wecanestimate thatover90% oftheseimmi­grants areChristian.

Estimating the totalMuslim population of theKenya Coast, however, letalone of thewhole coun­try, isa particularly vexing problem since religiousaffiliation hasnot been included asa question inanational census since 1962, whena 10% sample oftheAfrican population were asked to statetheirre­ligious affiliation. Theresults showed considerablevariation from one coastal district to anotherin theproportion of the three main religious traditions.Muslims werea majority in Kwale, Lamu andTanaRiver Districts, Christians a majority inMombasa andTaita Taveta Districts, while the followers ofAfricantraditional religions were a majority inKilifi District(Holway 1970). In theabsence ofmorerecent data,we can only assume that the present-day propor­tions of Muslims and Christians are not greatlychanged. Since both Islam and Christianity areknown tobegrowing steadily (notjust on theKenyaCoast but throughout Africa) at the expense ofAfrican traditional religious practices, theproportionofpersons practising African traditional religions has

Religion and society 159

no doubtdeclined since 1962, but it isnot possibleto know theextent of thisdecline. Estimates ofthecurrent Muslim population ofKenya (usually madeverbally and without reliable demographic data)range between 6% and30%. As. might be expected,Muslim sources tend to quote higher (and non..Muslin sources lower) figures. The great majority ofMuslims inKenya areSunni, with only a minority ofShira Muslims, mostofwhom areimmigrants, or thedescendants ofimmigrants, from India andPakistan.

Though Muslims constitute a minority populationin Kenya, a high proportion ofthemlive at thecoast,where several districts and towns (Iamu, MambruiandVanga) have a majority Muslim population. Thepresence of the Swahili (mainly in urbancentres)andtheDigo (inKwale District), together with manysmaller Muslim communities scattered throughoutthecoast, gives theregion a marked, though not ex­clusively, Muslim character quite distinct from otherparts of Kenya." In spite of the large number ofChristian immigrants to thecoast, the dominant re­ligion ofthecoastal strip continues to be Islam. Themoreinland areas suchasTaita Taveta District andthe uplands and hinterland of Kwale and KiliflDistricts have only experienced Muslim influence inthetwentieth century andtoa lesser extent thanthemore immediate hinterland ofthecoastal towns.

Finally, we should note the presenceof a rela­tively small number of non-African immigrants(mainly Indians and Arabs), who live mostly in urbancentres. The peoples of Indian origin area mixtureof Hindus, Muslims (both Shi'a and Sunni) andChristians, depending on theirplace oforigin, whiletheArabs arealmost all Muslim. Whereas the lattergenerally intermarry with local Muslim families, andovertime become at least partially integrated, theformer tendtomarrywithin their owncommunities.\Xfhatever theirorigin or religious affiliation, immi-

2 Together with North-East Province which is also pre­dominantly Muslim.

160 Sperling

The notions (of the Ribe people) about a SupremeBeing are so exceedingly vague ... in speaking tothem about God, you have to use a term Mulungu,which conveys to them ideas which are altogetheropposed to the Divine Being; indeedit is a questionwhethertheydo not often mean, by this term, noth­ing more than the material heavens or thunder.'

3 Missionary Notices, Eastern Africa, Letter of C. New, 23dApril 1864, VII, 612.

coast indetail. Still, itispossible todistinguish sharedcharacteristics of these traditions, justas one canidentify features ofChristianity or Islam common totheirmany schools andsects. Ifwecontrast, forex­ample, Christian and Muslim ideas ofa SupremeGod with African beliefs about divinity, indeed somesocieties hadquite aclear concept ofa supreme all­powerful God. OtherAfrican societies seem to havehadonly avague notion or no notion at all about asingle God. In 1864, one ofthe early Christian mis­sionaries at the Ribe Methodist Mission in the hin­terland ofMombasa, wrote:

AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION

Theterm'African traditional religion', usedto referto indigenous religious observances, is not alto­getherappropriate. It connotes a static unchangingreality, when in fact there is ample evidence thatAfrican religious practices andbeliefs have changedandadapted to new circumstances over time. More­over, the termimplies a certain uniformity, belyingtheenormous diversity ofAfrican religions. Indeed,their variety isasvast asthe number ofAfrican peo­ples, foreachethnic group tends to have its ownarray ofreligious practices andbeliefs. Thus, lookingat theKenya Coast, onecanspeak of 'Taita religion" Even where the idea ofdivinity didexist, theAfrican'Pokomo religion', and 'Giriama religion'. And the concept was usually quite distinct from that ofstudy ofthereligions ofthesepeoples reveals cults, Christianity OJ;Islam, _The_~upJ:em~being ofAfricanrituals, arid-ceremonies specific toeachofthem, arid --religion was often- Perceived as being distant arid fartherefore generally restricted to thearea where that away, not overly concerned with human affairs.particulargroup lives. There is generally no tradition of contemplative

Oneof the difficulties in studying African reli- prayer asisfound insome Christian communities orgions'isthar'African-societies--have--been-exposed·to' -,-, '---the-sufimysticism'-found'-in-the-MusHm'world';--'NoChristian andIslamic influence andideas forsuch a regular communication takes place between Mu-long time thatit isextremely difficult to separate out lungu and human beings; peopledo not relate towhat isoriginally African. Another related problem Mulungu personally, nordoesMulungu take a par-arises from the fact thatAfrican religious practices ticular interest inpeople. A study ofthereligious be-before the twentieth centuryare not well docu- liefs oftheTaita people, for example, concluded thatmented, andfew known sources written byAfricans Mulungu, for the Taita, was somekind ofa supra-during this period survive. The early accounts of personal being (Harris 1978).European missionaries, travellers andcolonial offi- IfGod was distant andremote formany Africancials give ussomeinsights, butat the same time we peoples, the same was not true of spirits and theneedto keep inmind theirlack ofunderstanding of spirit world. African societies had, andcontinue tomany ofthe local traits andcustoms. have, a strongbelief in the pervasive presence and

It isbeyond thescope of this chapter todescribethereligious traditions ofeach ofthe peoples ofthe

grant peoples who have beenat thecoast more thanone generation often cometo adopt the mannersand ways of coastal society and to identify them­selves as 'people ofthe coast' (though notnecessar­ily perceived in this way by the coastal peoplesthemselves).

power ofall kinds ofspirits, bothhuman andnon­human. Foremost among theseare the ancestralspirits of departed relatives. But the term 'ancestorworship' isquite incorrect. The relationship toone'sancestors (whether living or dead) isratheroneofrespect, deference (ina positive sense) and, whenappropriate, obedience. The Ribe viewed thespiritsofdeceased persons tobeequally important, if notmore important than Mulungu: "(...) they do notthink Mulungu more than equal, ifnotinferior to, thespirits of the departed." (New 1873: 612). UnlikeMulungu, theancestral spirits aredeeply interestedin what goes on among the living members ofthesociety to which theybelonged when theywerealive. Krapf, thefirst Christian missionary towork ontheEast African Coast in modem times, lived amongthe Rabai people and noted that ancestral spirits(koma) were deemed to have avery real power. Asa result theRabai people were constantly turning tothem for help:

This morning wewerecalled upon bya woman whocarried a small vessel in which there was a mixtureof com, riceand water to make a dedication to thekoma (the ancestral spirit) on the grave of a deadrelative. On pouring out the mixture, she imploredthekama, "0 koma, I offeryou this that you maymake rain, and cause the seed I have sown in myplantation to grow, for it will not grow without you..." The people believe that the kama stays in thegrave, or in the clouds and elsewhere, and that ithas the power of causing rain and other temporalblessings. They believe that having left the body, ithas a somewhat supernatural power and must beimplored and appeased by an offering before it willgive rain. Some say that the kama does not eat ordrink what is placed before it, but is satisfied withmerely seeing it, and with the readiness of the offer­ingrelatives.4

Not only doancestral spirits have thepower togrant'temporal blessings', asKrapf putsit, but more im­portantly they are the guardians of the moral and

4 Krapf Journal, entry for 4th August 1847, ChurchMissionary Society Archives, CA5/016/172.

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social orders. In the African world-view these twoorders areso intimately associated with oneanotherthat it is not possible to separate them. Apersonwho behaves immorally thereby commits anoffenceagainst thesocial order, thatis, against thecommu­nity(including theancestors). When theliving mem­bersof a society commit 'social evil' by failing tofollow traditional customs andnorms, it istheances­tral spirits, theso-called 'living dead', who act toen­force social morality. They usually do this bybringingabout some kind ofnatural disaster orhardship, beitsickness, drought, famine, oracombination oftheseor othermisfortunes. It thenbecomes necessary toappease theancestors, which isusually donebyof­fering anappropriate sacrifice. Such traditional ritualsof sacrifice are normally organised along kinshiplines. For example, among the Digo of the south­eastern coast, sacrifices were always offered bythemwanatsi, thatis, thesenior elder, adescendant oftheoriginal founder ofavillage orclan. In exercisingsocial control, theancestors donotactvindictively;rather, byadministering corrective punishment, theyensure therestoration ofsocial harmony andpropri­ety.

In addition toa belief inancestral spirits, Africanpeoples also have astrong belief innon-human spir­its, called pepo inSwahili. Interestingly, this Africanbelief corresponds to the Islamic belief in the exis­tence ofagenre ofintelligent spiritual beings (calledinArabicjinn andshaitan) distinctfrom men andangels. Pepo areinvisible, though able to appear, ifthey want, in a variety of forms. They live in theworld, with apropensity for cool places such ascavesor theshade oflarge trees. Though nothuman, theyhave human characteristics andexhibit a range ofhuman-like behaviour. Among theGiriama, who livenorth ofMombasa, spirits may have anethnic or re­ligious identity, which must be taken intoaccountwhen dealing with them. Anon-Muslim Giriamawho ispossessed bya 'Muslim' spirit will often be-

162 Sperling

have ordress like aMuslim, oreven convert to Islam,in order to appease the spirit. Spirits have powerover all facets of life, andareable tocause sickness,evensuch things as a headache, and all kinds ofother problems. They are not necessarily evil, butmay be somewhat capricious, and one mustkeepthemhappy byrecognising theirpresence and pla­cating themwith offerings. Indeed, one frequentlyfinds such offerings left in the caves that dot thecoastal shore north ofMombasa.

Oneimportant attribute ofAfrican societies, andoftheir religions, is theiropenness tonew ideas andpractices. Islam andChristianity, revealed scripturalreligions, tendto bedogmatic andunwilling to toler­atepractices contrary torevelation. African religioustraditions, more reliant on theobservation andinter­pretation of the natural world, are generally non­dogmatic and ready to accommodate aspects ofotherreligions thatareperceived asuseful andeffi­cacious. In this regard wecan speak ofthevitality ofAfrican traditional religions, in thatthey are readilyable to assimilate.otherreligious traditions andprac­tites-.Astfiking example oftheinclusive characterof­African religious practice on the Kenya Coast istherequest made in 1880 by the elders of the Ribe

people (in the hinterland of Mombasa) to the.....-.-",·Methodist.mlsslonarleswho-had-settled-among

them, tobuild a church inside kaya Ribe, thecentrewhere all the important sacrifices andreligious cer­emonies of theRibe people tookplace. The churchdidnot replace traditional Ribe shrines, but simplybecame one more ritual edifice within the kaya(Sperling 1988). Even the person ofJesus Christ isliable tobe incorporated into traditional African cer­emonies and prayers. The author was present in1995 when theseniorelder ofkaya Kauma , the rit­

ual centre of the Kauma people, who live in thecoastal hinterland west ofKilifi, included thename ofJesus Christ among the Kauma ancestors whoseblessing he was invoking. Insuchcircumstances, a

kind ofindigenization ofChristianity (orIslam) takesplace, what Sanneh (1980) calls 'domestication',whereby Mrican societies incorporate alien religiouspractices selectively andon their ownterms, invest­ing these practices with their own identity .

African traditional religions areeminently prag­matic, concerned more with this world than thenext.They seekto resolve the problems ofeveryday life,andtobring solutions. Theperceived moral orderisoneinwhich thegood arerewarded and thebad arepunished here and now in this life, not in somenebulous afterlife. Thus, African religion is con­cerned more with happiness andwell-being onearththan with an undefined future state ofeternal bliss.In fact, in mostAfrican religions there is no clearconcept ofa reward in a life afterdeath. Thedeadcontinue to exist asancestral spirits, living out theirimmortality in thevicinity of theiroriginal home onearth. Departed spirits are tied to thisworld, andtheirhappiness, like thatof theirliving relatives, isconnected to thevillage or place where they enjoyedlife beforedeath.~ Krapf wrote about the Rabai-people:

They have a faint idea of man's immortality sincetheybelieve that the departed father or motherorrelative lives somewhere in the sky, or in the grave,or-in-agrove-or-in their-former-plantations-and-thathe mustbe appeased with food.>

PATIERNS OFREliGIOUS CHANGE

One way ofunderstanding the threemain religioustraditions ofthe coast is to describe how Islam andChristianity have come to be present, or absent,where they are today. From this perspective there­ligious history of the region canbe viewed as thegradual penetration ofIslam andChristianity into ar­easand among peoples where there had previouslybeennoMuslim or Christian presence. Thus, we can

5 Krapf Journal, entry for 17thJanuary 1847, ChurchMissionary Society Archives, CA5/016/172.

speakof a 'chronology' of Christianity and Islam,looking at theirprogressive spread throughout thecoastal region, andofa 1geography' ofChristianityandIslam, based on their present-day distribution.Tounderstand this religious chronology andgeogra­phy, weneedtoconsider the factors (geographical,economic andpolitical) thathave contributed, andcontinue to contribute, to the process of religiouschange.

Though mostof the interiorof Africa was iso­lated from theoutside world for many centuries, thecoastal regions ofAfrica, approachable as they werefrom overseas, experienced numerous external con­tacts. More specifically, thecoast was thefirst panofEast Africa toexperience outside influences comingacross theIndian Ocean. These influences have notaffected all parts of thecoast, however; their impacthasalways beenstronger in the low-lying plains ofthe littoral thanin thecoastal hills and the interiorfurther inland. Indeed, during the period beforemodemoverland road and transport communica­tions, there existed a clear inverse relation betweenthe extent ofoverseas influence anddistance fromtheocean shore. Forcenturies, forexample, the in­fluence ofIslam, coming asitdidfrom overseas, wasconfined to settlements on the coastal islands orclose to theocean shore, anddidnotpenetrate intothecoastal hinterland orinterior.

Similarly, the earliest European (andChristian)influence on thecoast, that ofthePortuguese, whicharrived from across the seasat the end of the fif­teenth century andlasted until the beginning oftheeighteenth century, was confined to the littoral.There isnoevidence thatthePortuguese everwentinto thecoastal hinterland, unless perhaps on thebriefest ofreconnaissance expeditions. Rather, theyremained resident in thecoastal towns, which bythetime oftheir arrival were strongly Muslim. Tounder­stand this morefully, wenow tum to look at thear­rival andgrowth ofIslam ontheEast African Coast.

Religion andsociety 163

THE RISE AND csowrn OFSWAHILI ISLAM

Thepresence ofMuslims on the East African Coastdates back to thefirst centuries ofIslam, possibly asearly asthemiddle of theseventh century soon afterthe death ofMuhammad (632 AD). Most likely bythis time Muslims from Arabia or the Persian Gulfregion hadalready reached what isnow theKenyaCoast Whether the first Muslims to arrive' wereArabs or Persians, and exactly where they camefrom, may never be known. Present evidence indi­cates thatthey were probably from thePersian Gulfregion. Some came as traders for seasonal visits, or atemporary stay, following themonsoon winds of thewestern Indian Ocean. Others came asrefugees orimmigrants andsettled inisland and mainland towns,always near, though notnecessarily on, thecoast. Incontrast with the rapid militant expansion ofIslamthroughout NorthAfrica, the spread of Islam in thecoastal region ofEast Africa was gradual andpeace­ful. Thefirst Muslim settlers were followed byoth­ers, andas time passed, the number ofMuslim set­tlements along thecoast increased.

In some instances the towns where Muslimssettledwere already in existence. Shanga in theLamu archipelago was a pre-Islamic settlementwhich later became Muslim. In other instancesMuslims would have founded their own settle­ments. Archaeological evidence shows thatAfricaninhabitants often made up thebulk ofthepopulationof these towns, andearly Arab geographers refertotowns where Muslims and non-Muslims live to­gether. Thus, Muslim tradersand refugees livedalong the present-day Kenya Coast many centuriesbefore thePortuguese, thefirst Christian visitors, ar­rived at the end of the fifteenth century. After thethirteenth century, immigration from the Arabianpeninsula seems to have increased. By that timeMuslim towns hadcomeinto existence along theentireEast African Coast, from Somalia to Mozam­bique, and theyformed a cultural unit, generally

164 Sperling

termed by historians the 'Swahili Coast'. In this con­text the coast of Kenya is considered part of thenorthern Swahili Coast. A few of theearly andmedi­aeval Swahili towns have continued to be inhabiteduntil thepresentday, but numerous ruins tell us ofthe towns which didnotsurvive.

Gradually andinvarying degrees, towns becamecentres of Islamic influence. With the passing ofgenerations, immigrant Muslim settlers and theirdescendants intermarried with Africans andcame toadopttheSwahili language andmany local customs.Thus, over time, they became more or less indi­genised andindependent of- though often incon­tact with - their original overseas homeland.Hadhrami sharifs, who settledon thecoastin thefourteenth and fifteenth centuries, played animpor­tantrole inshaping local Muslim culture. Thus, Islamon theSwahili Coast continued to be strongly influ­encedfrom Arabia. In theearly fourteenth centuryIbn Battuta observed that the inhabitants ofMom­basawere Sunni Muslims: "They are Shafi'ites inrite, pious, honourable and upright." (Gibb 1962:379}.The'Shafi'i school oflaw, oneofthefour tradi­tions ofjurisprudence inSunni Islam, still prevails onthe East African coast.

Swahili Islam remained anessentially urban phe-,... ,--,nomenon-;--...and-theislarnisationofnon-Muslim

Africans during these early centuries came aboutthrough a process of urban assimilation. Swahilitowns, like Lamu, Pate, Malindi and Mombasa, at­tracted non-Muslim Africans, some of whom be­cameurbanised and adopted Islam. Quitea bit ofassimilation to Islam tookplace through marriagebetween non-Muslim women and Muslim men. It isthis intermixing that isconsidered tohave given riseto the Swahili people of today, all of whom areBantu-speaking Muslims. Incontrast to the towns,muchofthe interior remained largely unaffected byIslam until modern times. Indeed, there is no evi­dence of a Muslim presence among the African

peoples of the coastal interior or even in the imme­diate rural hinterland of the towns untilwell intonineteenth century.

THE GROWlli OFHINTERLAND TRADE ANDAGRICULTURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTIJRY

By theearly nineteenth century, most peoples ofthecoastal region hadexperienced no foreign religiousinfluence, and theycontinued to follow theirtradi­tional African religious practices. Astring of urbanMuslim settlements, inhabited mainly bythe Swahilipeople, dotted theshoreandoffshore islands. Thetopography of the region, combined with the gen­eral insecurity further inland, hadkept all butthenar­rowest pan of thecoastal plain quite secluded fromthe outsideworld. As the nineteenth century pro­gressed, the isolation of the coastal hinterland andinterior gradually lessened. Acombination ofeco­nomic and political factors broughtan end to theisolation, but in so doing increased the presence,first ofIslam, andlater ofChristianity, inareas wherethere hadbeenlittle or noMuslim or Christian influ­encebefore.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century,Muslims weresettled mainly on offshore islands inthreeareas: the Lamu archipelago, which included

--the-Bajun-islands-tothe---nonh;,with-the-main-towns-·---,,-ofLamu on Lamu island, andPate, Siyu andFaza onPate island; Mombasa island, which was governed atthis time bytheMazrui Arabs, with some dependentagricultural settlements on themainland; theShirazi­Vumba (modem Shimoni-Vanga) areaofthesouth­erncoast nearthepresent-day border with Tanzania,which included settlements on Wasini andFunzi is­lands. Most oftheMuslims living in these areas wereSwahili, though someOmani Arab traders wereal­ready resident inLamu, aswas a small Bohora IndianMuslim community.

Quite close relations did exist between theMuslims of the coastal towns andsome of the non-

Muslim peoples oftherural hinterland; relations thathad developed along lines ofgeographical proximity.Forexample, thePokomo and aroma people of thehinterland oftheLamu archipelago hadclose con­tacts with the Swahili of Pate and Lamu. Tradedominated these relations andwas the main occa­sion for contacts between Muslims and non-Mus­lims, However, the nature of that trade, mainly acarrying trade bywhich rural peoples brought theirgoods into thetowns andthen returned totheir ruralhomesteads, hadnotcreated conditions conducivetothespread ofIslamic influence.

In the 1830s and18405, thepattern oftrade be­ganto change under the influence of two relatedphenomena. East Africa, including what istoday theKenya Coast, was being incorporated, invarying de­grees andways, into thegrowing commercial andpolitical empire oftheBusaidi Arabs centred atZan­zibar. At the same time the East African economywas expanding, asinternational economic forces cre­ated anunprecedented demand for such 1()Ql}. goodsasivory, slaves, gum copal, andgrain (Sheriff 1987).The quantity ofgoods reaching the coastal townsfrom thehinterland, andinterior, was insufficient tomeet regional andinternational demand. As a result,there occurred avirtual 'economic invasion' byMus­lim traders, nolongercontent towait for trade goodsbrought to them byrural peoples, asinthepast, butwhosought to increase their supply, andprofit, byventuring inland insearch ofgoods attheir source.

Economic growth was accompanied byBusaidipolitical expansion. The concerted effort by theOmani Arabs to dominate thenorthern Swahili coast,more specifically, the Busaidi take-over of Lamu(1813), Pemba island (1822), Pate (1824) andMombasa (1837) displaced many Muslims andcaused themto emigrate from island towns to therural mainland, where they started new settlements.From Pate, those displaced were Nabhany Swahiliandtheir supporters, who settled atOzi intheTana

Religion andsociety 165

River delta area (Ylvisaker 1979). In the case ofPemba andMombasa, those emigrating were for themost partMazrui andtheirSwahili andslave follow­ers. The Mazrui formed new settlements, atTakaungu, north of Mombasa, and at Gasi to thesouth (Koffsky 1971), andtheTangana from Pembasettled on thecoastal plain south ofMombasa inthearea ofMtongwe (Sperling 1988). Asa result ofthiswidespread redistribution of population, Muslimsfound themselves living far closer to non-Muslimrural peoples (the Pokomo southandwest of theI.amu archipelago, theMijikenda north andsouth ofMombasa, andtheSegeju intheVanga region). Thepotential forcontacts between Muslims and non­Muslim Africans was substantially increased.

Expansion oftrade was accompanied byacorre­sponding increase inagricultural production in re­sponse to the increased demand for grain fromArabia, Pemba andZanzibar. Muslims expanded ex­isting farms andalso established commercial agricul­tural plantations, particularly intheVanga region, ontheShimoni peninsula, around Gasi, on themainlandnorth and southof Mornbasa, and in the Mazrui­dominated areas between Takaungu andMsabaha.Further north, Malindi prospered as a plantationtown, asvast tracts of land in the rural hinterlandwere brought under cultivation (Cooper 1977).There was also a general increase in agricultural pro­duction on the mainland coast of the Iamu-TanaRiver area.

Thus thepresence ofMuslims in rural areas grewin several ways: greater initiative on the part ofMuslim traders, thegeneral expansion ofagriculture,including thedevelopment ofplantations, andtheemigration of Muslims from established towns tofound new settlements. Increased economic activityaffected different parts of thecoastal hinterland invarying ways, butthenetoverall effect was tobringMuslims and non-Muslims into closer, more fre­quentcontact with each otherand to increase the

number andkinds of transactions between them.More subtle, and less easy toevaluate, isthe evi­

dence thatthenatureofcontacts between Muslimsand non-Muslims was beginning to change. AsMuslim entrepreneurs sought out reliable tradingpartners among rural African peoples, relations thathad previously been group-oriented came to bemore personal andindividual (Sperling 1988).

166 Sperling

tookSegeju wives, and became permanent main­landresidents. Eventually the whole Shimoni areacame to be regarded as jointVumba-Segeju land(McKay 1975). The children of mixed marriageswere brought upasMuslims, andother Segeju, notrelated to theVumba bymarriage, wereattracted toIslam. Thus, the Segeju were among the first in­digenous people of thecoastal hinterland toadoptIslam on a large scale, notsomuch because oftrad-

THE SPREAD OFISIAM INTO THE RURAL HINTERLAND ingcontacts, but as a result of interspersed settle-Bythethird quarter ofthe nineteenth century, some ment andinter-marriage. They were alsothefirst tonon-Muslim Africans whohadadopted Islam contin- build theirownmosques, insuchvillages asKibigaued to reside in theirrural villages, whatwemight Kirau (Kidimu) andHormuz (Ormuz), in the thirdcall the beginnings of 'rural islamisation'. This quarter ofthenineteenth century (Sperling 1988).marked a turning-point in the spread of Islam. Relationsdeveloped ina similar way between thePreviously, the emigration of islarnised Africans to Digo and the Tangana Swahili who settled atMuslim towns had removed elements that might Mtongwe, southof Mombasa. TheTangana beganotherwise have proved innovative, ifnot disruptive, to cultivate landnearthe Digo, and to marry Digoto theirown societies. Now, thepresence ofindige- women. By 1860, the Tangana and Digowere col-nousAfrican Muslims in rural villages creatednew laborating inmany ways. Some Digo had taken upconditions andthepotential for change. Rural islami- residence among theTangana forpurposes oftradesation first began in those places wherenon-Mus- or to vv~r~,and the Tanganaeidersknew and ll1etlims haddeveloped particularly close relations with regularly with their Digo counterparts. Bythe1870sMuslims, as a result either of Muslim agricultural some of the Digo ofMtongwe hadbegun toadoptexpansion or ofprolonged andintense trade. Rural Islam, and from thenon the numberof Digo Mus-islamisation also occurred byre-migration, thatis, by lims increased, gradually but steadily. Muslim con-the"retum"of"Musllm--Afrieansfroitr"the-lowiis'"Wnere ."---"vettS"continuecllO"liVe-in"ilieirVillages~-andw6uld"go"""-----they had beenresiding to their original rural homes. topray intheTangana mosques in thearea(Sperling

Some of the earliest evidence of rural islamisa- 1988).tion comes from the Vanga-Shimoni area, where Further north, in the Tana River area, re-migra-Islamic influence was already spreading among the tionwas responsible forthe beginning of islamisa-Segeju people indigenous to thearea, before 1850. tion, In the 1880s, a numberof young men fromTheSegeju had especially close contacts with the upperPokomo migrated to settle at Chara inlowerVumba Swahili of Wasini island who established Pokomo country, where they began trading withfarms onthemainland peninsula opposite theisland. Muslim traders atKau. Under the influence oftheseLand was plentiful on the peninsula, andtheSegeju traders, some ofthemenbecame Muslim. Had theyaresaid to have allowed theVumba to settle there. continued to reside at Chara, theymighthave re-Most Vumba continued to reside on Wasini island mained nothing more than acommunity ofislamised(andinVanga town), and farmed on the mainland immigrants. However, in1910 theybegan to returnseasonally. Some settlednearor in Segeju villages, to their homeland. There they began to spread Islam

together with Muslim traders whowere thenenter­ingupperPokomo country for thefirst time (Bunger1973).

By the end of the nineteenth century, mostAfricans intheimmediate coastal hinterland hadex­perienced theimpact ofIslam inone way or other.They may nothave formally adoptedIslam, in par..ticular far fewer women than men had becomeMuslim, but theywould have hadkinsfolk whohaddoneso.Ahigh proportion ofthe first African con­verts werevillage elders and chiefs, and byallac­counts many of them were men of forceful characterand prestige. Abdallah Mwapodzo, the mwanatsi(senior elder) ofDiani (south ofMombasa), issaidto have beenthe first Muslim Digo in thearea, andto have been instrumental in bringing other Digoelders intoIslam. By this time, too, otherforces hadbegun tostrengthen Islam in thecoastal region. TheQadiriyya order(Arabic tariqa) was active, andsev­eral Qur'an schools hadbeenstarted in rural villages,mainly for the children of the first generation ofAfrican Muslims. Inthehinterland ofMombasa, theQadiriyya spread among African Muslims where it at­tracted some new converts. Its greatest impactseems to have been to encourage African Muslims,including second-generation Muslims, to live theirfaith moreenthusiastically andwith greater convic­tion (Sperling 1988).

Thus, bythe time the British assumed colonialpower in 1895, theextentofMuslim influence hadincreased greatly and Muslim communities hadcome intoexistence in many villages. They lived in­terspersed and surrounded by their non-Muslimneighbours, with whom theymixed freely andhadconstant friendly relations, andwhose language theyshared. Already bythistime the influence of Islamwas farstrongerin the southernrural hinterlandamong the Digo people. They were resident inmuch larger numbers in the coastal plain and hadmorefrequent contact with Muslim urban centres,

Religion andsociety 167

than the other Mijikenda people to the north ofMombasa, whocontinued to live on higher land intherange ofhills further inland. These rural Muslimcommunities inherited the dominant attributes ofSwahili Islam, andovertime came to adoptaspectsof Swahili culture, including Swahili cuisine anddress. They also came touseSwahili asthe languageofcommunication with otherMuslim people. At thesame time they continued tospeak theirvernacularindaily village life, andindealings with non-MuslimAfricans, withwhom they usually hadmore frequentrelations than with otherMuslims.

THECOMING OFCHRISTIANI1Y: rna PORTIJGUESEPERIOD AND 1HENINETEENTII CENTURY MISSIONS

Thearrival ofPortuguese ships in 1498 marks thefirst known European, andChristian, presence intheregion. The Portuguese visited Mombasa andMalindi in thatyear. Christians from Ethiopia, aregionwith a tradition of Christianity dating back to thefourth century, may have visited the East AfricanCoast before the fifteenth century, but there is noevidence to confirm this. During the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries, Augustinian friars from Por­tugal established mission stations in several places,including Faza in the Lamu archipelago and Mom­basa, which became theirmain residence. Few de­tails areknown aboutthesemissions, whose workwas primarily directed, not towards theSwahili Mus­lim people, but towards non-Muslim Africans resi­dent in the coastal towns. In 1729, the Portuguesewithdrew from Mombasa to Mozambique southoftheRuvuma river, andtheir missionary work on theEast African Coast was discontinued, leaving no per­manent Christian presence during theremainder oftheeighteenth andtheearly nineteenth century.

Thesecond coming of Christianity to the EastAfrican Coast, beginning in the middle of the nine­teenth century, isbestunderstood aspart ofa grow­ingEuropean (especially British) presence in the

168 Sperling

region, which ultimately culminated in the imposi- industrial training centre on themainland, just northtion of colonial rule at the end of the century (in ofMombasa island. TheFreretown mission marked1895 the British established the British East Africa the first significant Christian presence inwhat hadProtectorate overan areawhich included much of been up until then a predominantly Muslim area.thepresent-day coastal region ofKenya). Unlike the Thework of the missionaries was not directed to-Portuguese, whose intentions were mainly political wards the Muslim peopleof Mombasa and its sur-andcommercial in nature andfor whom missionary roundings, however, but to the communities ofwork was a complementary andsubsidiary activity, freed slaves whocame to be settledthere. Oneofthe European Christian missionaries of the nine- the features ofthe CMS mission stations beginningteenth century camewith the specific purposeof in the 1870s was their reliance on 'BombayAfricans',evangelisation. Thus, most of the early missions freed slaves whoweretaken to Bombay, India, forwere established amongnon-Muslim African peo- training, and laterreturnedto help in the work ofples in thecoastal hinterland or interior, away from teaching and evangelisation (Strayer 1978).theSwahili towns and otherpredominantly Muslim During thelast quarter ofthenineteenth century,areas. mission societies also moved toestablish stations in

Thebeginning of Christian missionary workis the far interior of the coast. In 1883, the Churchsynonymous with the name ofJohann Ludwig Krapf, Missionary Society started work among the Taira ata German pastorwho had been trained and em- Sagalla, more than 150 kilometres inland fromplayed bythe Church Missionary Society (theevan- Mombasa. Initial missionary work at Sagalla was no-gelical wing of theAnglican Church) inEngland. In tably unsuccessful. TheTaita people attributed the1846, Krapf founded a mission at Rabai, some ensuing drought to thepresence ofthemissionariestwenty kilometres inland from the town of Mom- and the station had to beabandoned in 1885.,The

--- basa.Krapf'had eariiervisitediheSultan ofZanzibar, -CMSals6--began .mission stations at jilore on thewho held nominal sovereignty over much oftheEast Sabaki River, forty kilometres west of Malindi, inAfrican Coast, inordertogetpermission tobegin his 1890, and at Mahoo in Tavera in 1892. The firstmissionary work. Though a scholar who had an Christian mission in the Tana River region was es..

""intenseaeademic--interest-in-languages,--Kr"apfwas' ,--", -tablished-bytheUnited--Methodist-Free-Church-at---·--- ---- .. -largely motivated by religious considerations. For Golbanti in 1884, but came to a ratherabrupt endhim, knowledge ofSwahili, andotherAfrican vema- with the murder ofHoughton, the first missionary,culars, was an essential toolforevangelisation. He and his wife when Maasai attacked the mission sta-was the first person to transcribe the Swahili lan- tion. Subsequently the Neukirchen Mission Societyguage inRoman script andto describe itssyntax and (ofGermany) started a mission station among thegrammar systematically. His Swahili-English dictio- Pokomo people at Ngao in 1887 (with further mis-nary, first published in 1882 after his death, isa pio- sianstations opened atMakere in 1898, at Kulesa inneering work. Interestingly, hewas helped byMus- 1901, andat Hola in 1912). Thefirst Christian con-lims in Mombasa to translate theBible intoSwahili. verts at Ngao, seven in number, werebaptised in

In 1862, a second Christian mission was founded 1894, andbythe early 1920s there existed a smallbythe United Methodist Free Church atRibe, some Christian community ofsome 350-400 Pokomo. Anten kilometres north ofRabai. In 1875, the Church attempt by the French Catholic community ofMissionary Society (eMS) established a mission and Spiritains (Holy Ghost Fathers) to stan a mission

among the Pokomo in 1890 was unsuccessful andhadtobeabandoned. Themission station started bythe Spiritains at Burn among theTaita at theend of

1892 met with more success, and within a yearsome fifty boys were said tobeschooling.

In general the nineteenth century pre-eolonialChristian missions hadrathermeagre success. Onemust not imagine large numbers of missionarieswell endowed with material resources. There wereusually no more than two missionaries, and oftenonly one,ata mission station at any given time, andforlengthy periods missions might be abandonedaltogether, forreasons ofexpediency, lack ofsecu­rityor ill health. Forexample, inordertobegin themission atGolbanti theMethodists hadtemporarilyto leave theirRibe mission without anymissionary.Otherfactors may have played animportant role inthelack ofmissionary success. Krapfconcluded thatMijikenda resistance to Islam and Christianitystemmed from the integrity andcohesive nature oftheir traditional society, and it is evident that thestrength of theirownreligious beliefs andpracticesdidmuch to contribute to theirresistance. Such re­sistance onlybegan tobreak down with theincreas­ingEuropean andmissionary presence, andin par­ticularwith anincrease inthenumber ofMricans ex­posed to formal Western education at mission andsecular government schools as the twentieth cen­tury progressed.

THE PATTERN AND IMPACT OFCI-IRISTIANIIT

By theearly twentieth century, Christian missionaryactivity hadstarted inmany parts ofthecoast. UnlikeIslam, which spread through theactivities ofMuslimtraders andsettlers, the beginnings ofChristianitywere the result ofconscious evangelical planning ­albeit not fully informed - andassuchdisplayed amarked geographical bias. Most missionary activitywas confined to the region corresponding to thepresent-day districts ofTana River, Kilifi and Taita

Religion andsociety 169

Tavera, with little or noactivity in thesouthern- andnorthernmost districts of Kwale and Lamu. Thereareplausible reasons to explain this imbalance. Thecoastal plain south of Mombasa (correspondingroughly to the eastern part of present-day KwaleDistrict) was already understrong Muslim influenceandfor this reason hadlittle appeal tomost mission­ary groups. Indeed, when in the 1920s the colonialgovernment requested the Holy Ghost Fathers tomanage a technical school at Waa (south ofMom­basa), theFathers discovered that parents intheareawere reluctant to sendtheirchildren to theschoolforfear they would come underChristian influence.Eventually theschool hadto be transferred to KilifiDistrict, north of Mombasa. Most missionary groupshadlimited capacity, and were looking for places andpeoples where theyhadthe highest chance ofsuc­cess. Thewestern partofKwale District, inhabitedmainly bytheDuruma people, hadyet to experiencea strongMuslim presence, but the region was re­mote andinaccessible, andso less inviting andviableformissionary work. TheC!vIS tried to starta mis­sion station near present-day Kwale town in the1880s but aftera short time had to abandon themission forlack ofpersonnel. As forlamu District,the coastal towns were largely Muslim, and thecoastal hinterland was inhabited mainly byhunting :andpastoral peoples, among whom missionary workwas known tobe especially difficult.

As the twentieth century progressed, Christianchurches experienced continuing difficulties in theirmissionary efforts at thecoast, particularly in theruralareas. With the building of the railway fromMombasa to Lake Victoria, completed in 1901, andthe transfer of the capital of the Protectorate toNairobi in1907, missionary societies extended theirwork intothe far interior. Thepositive response ofotherpeoples intheinterior encouraged missions totransfer their priorities away from the coast. Mis­sionary work at thecoast continued, butdidnot ex-

gations made up largely ofup-country Africans resi­dentat the coast. Otherindependent churches areofcoastal origin andareattended mainly byindige­nous coastal people. A few of the independentchurches, like theRedeemed Gospel Church, attractmixed congregations ofup-country andcoastal peo­ple together. Such evangelical and independentchurches exist in most of the main towns of thecoast. Thus, forexample, one can find more thanthirtydifferent Christian churches (counting main­stream, evangelical andindependent churches) inatown like MalindL

170 Sperling

pandsignificantly. Theindustrial training scheme atFreretown, forexample, was greatly hampered byfinancial problems and didnot realise itsinitial pro­mise. In general, itwas notuntil the 1920s when themissions began to receive large educational grantsfrom the colonial government that they foundthemselves on a relatively stable financial footing(Strayer 1978). By the time of Independence in1963, the coast remained one of the regions ofKenya least influenced byChristianity with the ex­ception ofa few areas like Taita Taveta andtheeast­em parts ofKilif District, wheremissionaries hadconcentrated their efforts. Since Independence,however, there has been a steady growth of REUGIOUS PLURALISM AND COASTAL IDENTI1Y

Christianity among coastal Africans andtheabsolute The balance anddistribution ofreligious affiliation onnumberof Christians in the coastal region has in- the Kenya Coast has undergone distinctive changecreased even more rapidly dueto theimmigration of during the past fifty years or more. Oneofthemainup-country Christians. reasons for this, as explained above, hasbeen the

Perhaps themost striking development in recent migration of up-country peoples to the coast. An-times has beenthe growing number ofevangelical other major reason has been the large-scale con-and Pentecostal churches, such as the Baptist version ofAfrican peoples toIslam andChristianity, a

Church, thePentecostal Assemblies ofGod andthe __J?he~omenon occurringnotjust on theKenyancoastNew Apostolic Church. They canbe found even in but throughout East Africa and the rest of sub-suchareas aseastern Kwale District whose popula- Saharan Africa aswell.tion ispredominantly Muslim, beit in small numbers. Oneofthemain factors fostering conversion, ac-Some of thesechurches receive extensive funding cording to the model proposed byHorton (1971),

,-.- andmissionary-perstinnelJrorti"'Oversels-and-areable'-'-'-'- hasbeenurbanisatlon. Ttaditioifa}"belie'fsaria-prac::'toconstruct modem church buildings. The revivalist tices, well suitedto the 'microcosm' ofvillage life,charismatic approach of these churches isgenerally are inadequate in coping with the stresses andmore informal and lessstructured than the main- problems ofa multi-ethnic urban 'macrocosm', orstream churches, which tendsto make themquite even inrural circumstances where thewider modemappealing. At thesame time, it leaves themsuscep- world isencroaching. Insuch conditions, theuniver-tible to fragmentation into smaller breakaway sal nature ofChristianity andIslam isextremely ap-'independent' churches, many ofwhich now exist at pealing, andthese religions offer a new focus for life.thecoast andwhose numbers appear tobegrowing. Nevertheless the characteristics of traditional reli-Theindependent churches, with suchnames asthe gion still retain a stronginfluence on fundamentalRedeemed Gospel Church, theLightofGod andthe beliefs and values. Following Horton's model,Victory Power Tabernacle, represent anassortment African religious beliefs andpractices aregraduallyof trends. Some are branches ofchurches based in being incorporated into appropriated forms ofNairobi orelsewhere up-country, andattract congre- Christianity andIslam.

Though divided byothersources oftension andconflict, the indigenous coastal peoples have toler­ated religious diversity for centuries. In moderntimes, too, there are some quite remarkable in­stances of inter-religious co-operation andrecogni­tion. Examples are the home run by the CatholicUttle Sisters inMombasa for all destitute persons ­without discrimination, including Muslims - andtherecent initiative of Muslim imams to form a jointMuslim-Christian alliance to monitor human rightsabuses.

REFERENCES

BUNGER R.L. (1973). Islamization among theUpperPokomo. Syracuse: Syracuse University, Foreign andComparative Studies, African Series no. 33.

COOPER F. (1977). Plantation slavery on theEast Coast ofAfrica. New Haven: Yale.

GIBB HA.R. transl. (1%2). The travels ofIbnBattuta, AD.1325·1354. London: Hakluyt Society Series.

HARRIS G.G. (1978). Casting outanger: Religion amongtheTaita ofKenya. London: Cambridge University Press.

HOLWAYj.D. (1970). Thereligious composition of thepopulation of the Coast Province of Kenya.JournalofReligion inAfrica, 3(3), 228·239.

HORTON R. (1971). African conversion. Afrim,41(2), 85·lOS.

KENYA, REPUBLIC OF(1994). Kenya population census1989, Volume 11. Nairobi: Government Printer.

KENYA, REPUBLIC OF(1996a). Kenya Population Census1989, Analytical report Vol. IIl- PopulationDynamics. Nairobi: Central Bureau of Statistics.

KENYA, REPUBilC OF(1996b). Kenya population census1989, Analytical report Vol. Vl-l't1igration andurbanisation. Nairobi: Central Bureau of Statistics.

KOFFSKYP.L. (1971). History ofTakaungu, East Africa,183()'1896. Madison: University ofWisconsin, Ph.D.thesis.

Religion and society 171

'What isparticularly striking about religious tradi­tions on the coastishowtheycontinue to be sub­sumed within what wemight call a 'common coastalidentity', Theindigenous coastal peoples share cer­tain historical and cultural origins irrespective oftheirreligious affiliation. Whether Muslim, Christian orMrican traditionalist, theyfeel thecommon bond ofbeing 'coastal', an identity thatarises outoftheper­ception thattheyaredifferent from theup-countrypeople of Kenya, as indeed they are in many re­spects.

MCKAYW.F. (1975). A pre-colonial history ofthesouthernKenya Coast. Boston: Boston University, Ph.D. thesis.

NEW C.(1873). Life, wanderings, and labours in EasternAfrica. With an account ofthefirstsuccessful ascent oftheequatorial snowmountain, Kilima Njaro, andremarks upon EastAfrican slavery. London: Hodder& Stoughton (reprintbyFrank Cass, London, 1971).

SANNEH 1. (1980). Thedomestication of Islam andChristianity in African societies.JournalofReligion inAfrica, 11(1), 1-12.

SHERIFF A (1987). Slaves} spices andivoryinZanzibar.London: JamesCurrey.

SPERUNG D.C. (1988). The growth oflslam among theMijikenda oftheKenya Coast, 182().1933. London:University of London, School of Oriental and AfricanStudies, Ph.D. thesis.

STRAYER RW. (1978). The making ofmission communitiesin EastAfrica. London: Heinemann.

TIVISAKER M. (1979). Lamu in thenineteenth century:Land} trade andpolitics. Boston: Boston University,African Studies Center.

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Photo 5 Slope cultivation intheKilifi Uplands. Amixture ofcrops is cultivated.(see also Figure 12.2, p. 184).(pietLeegwater)