Swahili History and Society to 1900: A Classified Bibliography

Abstract

Several years ago, Derek Nurse and I began to consider the increasing need to make revisions to our book,The Swahili: Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 800-1500. We knew there had been significant archeological finds subsequent to its publication in 1985, but we were surprised to discover that hundreds of new books and articles had appeared. It therefore seemed expedient, not simply to revise the earlier work, but to compile a comprehensive new bibliography on early Swahili history and society that would facilitate thorough reconsideration of the issues in the future. This now includes 700 items, 428 published before 1985 and 272 published after. This is a massive literature, and it will make extensive demands on those working in the field (Spear 1999). The focus here is on the history and development of coastal societies over the past two millennia, but I have included recent ethnography, linguistics, and history for comparative purposes. What is missing, however, are sources covering literature and the arts, for which one may consult Kelly Askew's excellent online bibliography (Askew 1999). I have included mainly published work, but unpublished theses and papers are also included where available. I have not, however, included archival materials in government (e.g., Tanzanian, Zanzibari, British, German, Indian, French, U.S.), mission (CMS, UMCA, LMS), or local (Salem, Hamburg, Rhodes House) collections, nor have I included material in mission publications. The bibliography is subdivided by discipline—archaeology, linguistics and language, ethnography, and history. Most items have been confirmed in OCLC WorldCat or other authoritative sources, correcting numerous errors in previous citations. Arabic names are alphabetized as they appear, inconsistently, in databases for ease of finding.

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