LOCATION
I'm glad you asked! Swahili is not a country, it's a people.
For at least a thousand years, Swahili people, who call themselves Waswahili, and have occupied a narrow strip of coastal land extending from the north coast of Kenya to Dar es Salaam (the capital of Tanzania.) They also occupy several nearby Indian Ocean islands, including Zanzibar, Lamu, and Pate. Over the past few hundred years, the coastal area has been conquered and colonized several times—by Portuguese in the sixteenth century, by Middle Eastern Arabs who ran a slave trade in the nineteenth century, and by the British in the twentieth century. Thus, Swahili people are accustomed to living with strangers in their midst, and they have frequently acted as middlemen in trade relations. In addition, they have incorporated many people and practices into their vibrant social world.
Today, Swahili people live primarily in the urban areas of Lamu, Malindi, Tanga (mainland Tanzania), the island of Zanzibar, and Dar es Salaam.
I'm glad you asked! Swahili is not a country, it's a people.
For at least a thousand years, Swahili people, who call themselves Waswahili, and have occupied a narrow strip of coastal land extending from the north coast of Kenya to Dar es Salaam (the capital of Tanzania.) They also occupy several nearby Indian Ocean islands, including Zanzibar, Lamu, and Pate. Over the past few hundred years, the coastal area has been conquered and colonized several times—by Portuguese in the sixteenth century, by Middle Eastern Arabs who ran a slave trade in the nineteenth century, and by the British in the twentieth century. Thus, Swahili people are accustomed to living with strangers in their midst, and they have frequently acted as middlemen in trade relations. In addition, they have incorporated many people and practices into their vibrant social world.
Today, Swahili people live primarily in the urban areas of Lamu, Malindi, Tanga (mainland Tanzania), the island of Zanzibar, and Dar es Salaam.