States long the East African coas some of these city states was Zanzibar Mombasa

,pate,malindi,modadishu and

Although their relationship with the shirazi rulers is not clear, it appears that during the 14th and
15th centuries some parts of the East African coast, including Zanzibar and Pemba were invaded by
people of arab origin from the west coast of India and Diba island in east ,known as Wadebuli and
wadiba occupied parts of the East African coast through conquest and they were known for the
construction of wells and mosques. The Wadiba were famus traders and they are believed to be the
ones who first imported coconuts to Pemba in the 14thcentury, thus , marking the introduction of
coconuts to East Africa. The influence of the wadebuli and wadiba came to an end due to Portuguese
intrusion. Before Portuguese invasions ,the three sultan of Zanzibar belongs to Debuli people.

The third stage in the development of trade during this phase constituted the Portuguese era
covering the 16th and 17th centuries. The Portuguese interest along the East African coast was to
capture and control the trade system dominated by the Arab traders. In an effort to do so they used the
method of warfare and raids ,as well as acts of piracy and robbery. These methods caused a lot of
destruction to the prosperity of the coastal city state. They left the towns to stagnate and decay in
isolation because their main concern was demanding payments of customs dues from all traders in the
Indian ocean. Thus, the Indian Ocean trade was to be conducted by license from the Portuguese
captains, mainly those stationed at Mozambique island , Malindi and Mombasa . No doubt the
Portuguese period was a period of great decline of the coastal city states.

The fourth stage constitutes the 18th century, characterized by the rise of the oman Empire on
the East Africa Coast. The Oman Arabs began to challenge the Portuguese predominance in East Africa
from the mid 17th century assisted or facilitates by ant Portuguese resistances by Africa from peoples
as well as the city state .The Portuguese finally got expelled out of the East African Coast north of cape
Delgado after the fall of Fort Jesus in Mombasa in 1698.

Thus, throughout the 18th century , oman Arabs strived to revive the East African trade and
reconstruct the city state and their magnificent buildings .First ,the expulsion of Portuguese from the
Tanzanian and Kenya n coast cased the coastal ports trade with Arabian Countries and north-western
india .During this
Period the main Export were ………….slave, guns and vegetable oil. During the second half of the 18 th
century trade in slave developed significantly as the oman Arab traders become agents of the Dutch
and french who head great demand of slave labour for the their sugar plantation in Mauritius and
reunion in the Indian ocean .

5.2 The Effect of coastal trade on the Development of social formations up to the 18th century.

It was worth examining the contribution made by the development of external trade along the East
Africa coast to the development of the East Africa societies During thye Two millennia . During the first
phase up to 8th century A.D there was hardly any significant contribution made . as we already observed
this phase did not constitute the development of a continues and castant system of trade be sides
periodic visits by varies merchants . it is appers as that even trading towns and centrals of considerable
size hade not developed .That is why “rhapta” does not seem to have been a well developed trading
contrary or town resulting to the problems of locating its position. But certainly trade contact during
this early period exposed the East Africa Coast to the outside world and thus its products recourses
were known to Asia and Europe

The second phase from the 8th to 18th centuries is the one deserving considerable discussion
because as well have seen the was a period when East Africa Coastal trade achieved the height of its
prosperity characterized by a growth of a number of city state and trading sentiment. The general
signicants devepment during this phase was rise of coastal “culture and civilization was a product of the
interruption between Africans society along the coastal an foreign trades mainly arabs as sherrif has
observed

The coast was a zone of interaction between two cultural streams one coming from the Africans
interior and across the Indian ocean from which emerged a synthesis the swahili civilization that at
every step betrays its dual parented. But the civilization was mercantile. It gave lies to city state that
were like beads in rosary each form district entity and yet threaded together by maritime
communication and common culture and language

Thus the Swahili civilisation and was characterized by four main

Aspects. One is the development for common coastal language at is Kiswahili. It seems , that
Kiswahili emerged and development but of a long period of development of the system of
coastal trade since it grew as an important means of communication in the process of trading
interactions. Though Kiswahili is basically a Bantu it was greatly enriched by vocabulary from
Arabic words126.
The second aspect was the spread of Islamic as a religion among coastal societies from the 9th
century, when some of the traders who came to east Africa were Islamised.according to
archaeological finding, most of the Muslim traders came from Baghdad, the caliphate the 10th
century Muslim traders, settlers and rulers and already established themselves in Zanzibar and
kilwa127.
The third aspect was the development of Arabic type of architecture comprising the construction
of flat-roofed buildings using stones and limes. Some of the city states were characterised by
magnificent constructions, like places, mosques and tombs. Husuni kubwa and the great mosque
in kilwa provide us with typical examples of such structures.
The fourth aspect, which deserves much discussion, is the nature and character of the mode of
production that evolved out of the city state societies. Our contention is that the mode of
production that evolved or developed was basically a slave of production. However, in order to
be able to clarify this contention it is necessary to exime the basic features and characteristics of
a slave mode of production.
…………….have clearly outlined the basic characteristics of the slave mode of production.128
one basic characteristics of the slave mode of production is the existence of two main cases. The
dominant class of slave masters and the subordinate class of slaves are legal or traditional private
property of the slave masters. The relationship between the slave masters and the slaves is
determined by political and legal superstructure that is the slaves are politically and legally
dominated by the slave masters.
The second basic characteristic is that the mode constitutes a specific form of division of labour.
Central to this form is that there are slaves who are the labourers and the slave masters who are
the non-labourers. Slave labour forms the basis of ………………………slave or slaves, or the
role of slave s as domestic servants does not constitute a mode of
production……………………production which determines the slave mode of production.
Third, \a slave mode of production is characterised by…………………of appropriation of
surplus product in which the producers, that is the slave are legally separated from the means of
production. The …..That the slaves is a legal property of the slave…..master, the letter owns
both the slave and the product of his abour. The save ….merely receives the means of
subsistence as determined by his master. Thus it has…………………………..................of the
surplus product product is a function of the slave being the property of the
owner……………………
These basic characteristics, therefore enable us to determine wether a slave mode of production
developed in the coastal city states. First it is obvious that in the coastal city states there existed
the classes of slaves and slave owners, particularly at the height of the coastal civilization. Sutton
has indicated that while saves comprised part of commodities for export, some of them were
acquired by the wealthy people of them were acquired by the wealthy people of the city states for
their own use.similary……………………….that shirazi records indicate that shirazi setters
along the coast prossessed slaves …………….we can also argue that since the transaction of
selling and buying slaves was being…………………..carried out., there was legal or customary
ownership of the slaves by their master particularly given the fact that the wealthy classes who
owned the saves were …………….the ones who had political power.
Perhaps, the central question is whether the slaves constituted the basis of…………system of
production of the city states. Basically, the city states were centre’s of …….and, thus, trade
transactions; that are imports and exports were the basis of……economy. However, available
records indicate that the trading economy was, to…………the magnificient and other stone
heavy constructions as were made through slave labour.
There are also indications that some of the settlers were engaged in plantation agriculture around
the city states, producing rice and coconuts. For instance …….zanzibar in 1504 some shiraz
from the mainland went to pemba with 42 slave…….some of the slaves were used for the
purchase of land which they used to establish …….plantations. the remaining slaves were used
as labourers in the plantations…..also seems that the wadebuli and the wadiba made use of soave
labour Since…..traditions along the coast, pemba and zanzibar associate these people with
….usse of forced labour.133it appears that in zanzibar and pemba the indigenous
……………………..taken from the \mainland and, possibility from the coastal hinterlands . thus
give …………………………………………………………that the city states were characterized
by the slave………………..mode of production.