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The Modern Iiistory
o/ Somaliland: From Nation to State. I. M. LEWIS. (Asia-Africa Series of Modern Histories.) London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965. xi, 234 pp., 30 illustrations, index, 2 maps, notes. 36s. Reviewed by FRANK J. MAHONY, Slanjord University
I n their continuing struggle for freedom and independence from colonial rule the Somali people have confronted a situation that is without parallel elsewhere in Africa. Occupying all of the Horn of Africa, Somalis are strongly united by possession of a common language, by sharing the same fundamental social and cultural heritage, and through the same deep commitment to Islam. Around the turn of the century, however, the Horn of Alrica was divided up amongst compet.ing colonial powers and the international boundaries that resulted have separated from one another, people who continue to have strong and pervading ties of unity. Thus, in contrast to the rest of Africa where states are struggling to become nations, the Somali people represent it nation struggling to become a state. For slightly varying reasons, France, Britain, and Italy each signed treaties with representatives of different Somali lineages enahling them to extend “protectorates” over given areas. Whatever these agreements may have meant to the Europeans involved, they certainly meant no more to Somalis than the t.reaties of mutual defense and agreement, h e r , they were already accustomed to arranging with one another. I n any event, after Christian Ethiopia had armed herself and soundly defeated the Italians a t the Battle of Adowa in 1896, her claims to areas of the Horn were given partial recognition by the Europeans in exchange for friendly relations. As a consequence Somalis eventually found themselves divided among these four powers. Though reunited briefly during and after World War 11, conflicting colonial interests soon reasserted themselves and the divisive boundaries were restored. Following a short period of trusteeship, Italian Sornaliland joined British Somaliland to form the Somali Republic. B u t this measure of independence still left large numbers of Somalis in portions of Kenya, Ethiopia, and French Somaliland where their presence contributes to a degree of lasting political instability. I. M. Lewis brings unique and outstanding qualifications to the detailed narrative of these events. An Oxford trained anthropologist, he has hccn intensively concerned with almost all phases of Somali studies for over a decade. Consequently he combines a wide knou~ledgeof basic documentary sourccs with not quitc three years of intensive field research in Somalia to yield at least two distinct advantages not always possessed hy the ordinary historian. I n the first place he can sift documentary data and evaluate them in the light of a scicntific understanding of contemporary Somali social and cultural life. And secondly, he is able to fill gaps in the data from his own knowledge of Somali oral traditions and thus makc contributions of his own to the permanent historical record. Thus Lewis is aldc to view events with balanced perspective and can choose his words and phrases as carefully as he has chosen the title of this fine book.
Zs1a.m in East Africa. J. SPENCER TRIMINCHAM. Oxford: Clarenrlon Press, 1964. xii, 108 pp., glossary, index, 3 maps. $4.50.
Reviewed by GOTTFRIED LANG,Thc Catholic Lrniversity o/ America This latest volume on Islam in Africa by ‘I’rimingham sets forth in great detail the introduction of Islam in East Africa by 10th century Arab traders and the subsequent development of what Trimingham calls the “Swahili sub-culture” along the coast. Trimingham defines three main periods of Islaniic cultural history in East Africa.
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First, the early settlement by . h b traders engaged in the “trans-oceiinic” trade from the Persian Gulf area. The second period is that of 1 . h ~formation of a series of petty statrs on the coast :tiid nearby Islands which reached from southern Somali and the Laniu coast south to Zanzibar, Pemba, and Mafia. This period was interrupted by tlie Portuguese dominittion of the coast from 1498 to 1652. The third period led to the transformation of the decayed second period and tlie development of the Hadrami Sliafi-i Jslain which dominates Swahili culture today. 7‘he coast settlements iound by the early Arab traders were under the rule o l the Zanj (Bant,uj. The Arabs came as individuals and settled along the coast. They married “Bantu women” and formed a new population called the “Sawahila,” the Arabic term for coastalists. Here the Swahili language developed and was used in inter-settlement communication. It provided an over;ill uniformity, but developed dialectic variations in the various trading centers. “‘I‘he result of the interaction was a Bantu-Islamic civi1kLtion, moulded by Arabo-Persian elements, but preserving Bantu features” (p. 10). Swahili culture torlay is dominated by the Arabs who came from Hadramaut in south Arabia and this form of Islam expanded into the interior in the 1at.e 19th century. Conversions before this time were incidental to the slave trade occurring among individuals who acted as agents and porters. During the German period Swahili was the official language of their administration and both the Germans and the British eniployed Muslims as of€icials, thereby introducing “Swahili Culture” inland a t administrative centers. But Trimingham points out that where Islam has gone inland it has been a question ol its dilution although it is of the same basic type. The author has Islamization proceeding in three stages: germination, crisis, and gradual reorientation. .\t the first stagc Islam does not seem incompatible with tribal religion and i t is characterized by the parallel existence of two religions. The tribes in the interior of East Africa are a t this stage. Some tribes on or near the coast are in the second stage characterized by outward ronformity to Islam and dependence upon traditional religion especially in times of personal stress. The third stage has been reached only by the detribalized people.; of the islands and coastal towns. “Only wliere we find a settled Muslim polity based on towns and a detribalized society are soci;il institutions changed drastically. ’’ The formation of this African-Islamic regional culture was a dynamic process ol interaction. The relationship bet\zeeii South :irat)ian Islamic and Bantu cultures was reciprocal. While Tsliim tlomin:ited the life of the settlements through Islamic law. Bantu social institutions rctaincil much of their traditional forms. Elements contrary to Islam which could not I x at)sorl)ed wcre allo\vetl to exist parallel when needed by the community. Jn Chapters 4, 5 , ; r n c l 0 the author goes into detailed descriptions of the fusion and parallel existence of Islamic :ind Bantu cultural elements such as Beliefs an(l Cults, Moral Standards, I,a\v, Iltlucation, Political Organization, Rites of Passage, Material Life, and Social Institutioris. The interaction between traditional ;lfrican m i l Islamic cultures resulted first i n acculturation in the direction oi Islam fi~llo\~etl by ii stabilized fusion of the cultures which Trimingham diltinguislies ironi it true synthesis in that elements of both culturcs are still discernible to create a Siwhili tlualism. Anthropologists may have sonie tlificulty with his use of linguistic tcrminoliigy, “Swahili” and “Bantu,” to represent cul; tural types. This tends to ol)scure some id the cultural diversity that exists among the Bantu speakers and among S\\ahili speakers as well. However, i i i his detailed descriptions of specific groups he shows he is well aware of this diversity. Although this book is a study of East Africnn Islam the author does not minimize
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the importance of the later immigration from the Indian sub-continent which introduced Islamic sectarianism, mainly Ismaili and .4hmadiyya. These sects have no religious effect upon East African Muslim life because of their esoteric beliefs and closed class structure resulting in no real cultural and social dialogue between them. The Asia Muslims have not adopted the Swahili language and culture and they do not marry African women. However, they have special demands in changing Africa, especially in education, and the Ismaili have tried to help the African Muslims in this special area. ’l’he final chapter points up the problems faced by the medieval Arab Muslim oriented groups in their effort to maintain their distinctiveness and yet face life in modern Africa. Trimingham says that Zanzibar and Lamu, the traditional centers of Swahili culture, are facing economic isolation and decline parallelled by religious isolationism and obscurantism. The more recently assimilated African Muslims are making the adjustment more successfully. “Western secular civilization challenges the very principles upon which Islamic civilization is built. It5 effect has been increasing secularization; the autonomy of the secular state, law, education and economic life” (p. 162). This is an important book for all students of East Africa and especially of culture change.
The Kilindi. ABDALLAH BIN HEMEDI ’LAJJEMY. Edited by J. W. T. Allen and William Kimweri bin Mbago bin Kibwana bin Maiwe Wa Kwekalo (Mlungui) bin Kimweri Zanyumbai. Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, and Kampala: East African Literature Bureau, in association with African Studies Program, Boston University, 1963. xxxvi, 238 pp., appendices, foldout map, 6 illustrations, indexes, notes. 20s. (paper). Rcvicwcd by J. S. KIRKMAN, Mombusu This is the story of the emergence and collapsc of the small African state of the Kilindi, centred on Vuja in the mountains behind Pangani in Tanzania. I n the middle of the 19th century this area under its fourth ruler, Kimweri the Lion, enjoyed a n unusual stability and order. After his death, as he had foreseen, it collapsed in civil war. Dr. Krapf visited the great man in 1848, and greatly admired the “heroic autocrat,” who imposed a discipline over his people which was a pleasant contrast to the democratic disorder which the missionary endured in Nyikaland. The order he created, in spite of its promising beginnings in the careers of his forbears, had no basis in institutions or a semi-divine kingship like the Uganda Kabaka, which enable a state to survive the misfortunes and inadequacies of its rulers. The most interesting part is when the scene moved to Zanzibar and we are given an eyewitness account, probably authentic, of a policy discussion in which consent was given by the Sultan Seyyid Majid to the liquidation of the Kilindi. This is not what one finds in Coupland or the Oxford History! The details, at least to the reviewer, are not very interesting. The constant repetitions and pronominal ambiguities, which the translator has retained i n order to keep the favor of the original, make reading hard going. However, it does give a picture of an African community in contact with the Arab coast but almost unaffected by it. I t s life was simple enough and innocuous, except on the death of the chief. When this happened there was a complete breakdown of humanity and sanity, and the whole community indulged in a senseless orgy of murder and destruction. The editorial work is well done. The family tree, the maps, and the division of the index into two, one for places and the other for persons, are a great help to the reader.