Swahilis

The Swahili people, also known as Waswahili, are an East African coastal and island population who share the Swahili language, Kiswahili. They are concentrated along the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya and Tanzania, including Zanzibar and Pemba, and extend into parts of Mozambique, with communities beyond the coast through trade and migration.

Swahili culture arose from centuries of interaction between Bantu-speaking communities and Arab, Persian, Indian, and other traders in the Indian Ocean littoral. From roughly the 1st millennium CE, urban city-states such as Kilwa, Mombasa, Malindi, Pate, and Zanzibar developed as commercial hubs linking Africa with Asia. This coastal civilization blended African traditions with Arab-Islamic influence, giving rise to distinctive architecture, social practices, and a cosmopolitan urban lifestyle.

The Swahili language, Kiswahili, is a Bantu language with extensive Arabic loanwords and contributions from other languages. It uses a Latin-based script today and functions as a lingua franca across much of East Africa and the Great Lakes region. Kiswahili is an official or national language in Tanzania and is widely used in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and parts of Mozambique.

Islam is the predominant religion among Swahili communities, shaping rituals, music, and daily life. Swahili culture is also known for its maritime heritage, coral rag architecture such as in Stone Town, and musical genres like taarab. In the modern era, Swahili identity is often understood through language and coastal heritage, with a broad, cosmopolitan influence across East Africa.