Mombasa & the Coast

The coast was the northern arm of the Swahili world. From around the 8th century African farming and fishing towns traded ivory, mangrove poles and gold with merchants from Arabia, Persia and India, adopted Islam and built in coral stone. Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu, Pate and the town now ruined at Gedi grew into rival city-states, and the Kiswahili language grew with them.

In 1498 Vasco da Gama found a friendly welcome in Malindi, which became Portugal's ally against Mombasa. The Portuguese built Fort Jesus in Mombasa from 1593, but the Omani Arabs besieged it for nearly three years and took it in 1698. Omani governors and local dynasties such as the Mazrui of Mombasa ruled the coast, and in the 19th century it was run from Zanzibar. Britain leased a ten-mile coastal strip from the sultan, began the Uganda Railway at Mombasa in 1896, and made the town the gateway to the new colony; the strip formally joined Kenya only at independence in 1963.

Since then the coast has lived on its port and on tourism, while some residents have argued that it was sidelined by governments in Nairobi, a feeling behind the separatist Mombasa Republican Council. The Tana Delta saw deadly clashes between farming and herding communities in 2012, and attacks in Lamu County from 2014, claimed by al-Shabaab, hit tourism hard. The Lamu Port project, part of a corridor planned towards South Sudan and Ethiopia, is changing the archipelago.

This is Kenya's Swahili heartland. The towns are largely Muslim, and life follows the call to prayer, Friday gatherings and the calendar of Ramadan and Eid. Kiswahili here is spoken in its coastal forms — the Kiamu of Lamu is prized for its poetry — and older families trace ancestry across the Indian Ocean. Men wear the white kanzu and embroidered kofia cap, women the black buibui, and the printed kanga cloth carries proverbs along its border.

Inland, the nine Mijikenda peoples, among them the Giriama and Digo, keep the kaya: fortified villages in forest clearings, eleven of which are now listed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Taita of the hills and the Pokomo and Orma of the Tana are distinct again.

Lamu's Maulidi festival, marking the Prophet's birthday, brings pilgrims from across East Africa, and the Lamu Cultural Festival features traditional dancing, crafts and dhow races. Taarab music, with its Arab and Indian roots, is played at weddings. Modest dress away from the beach, especially in Lamu and old Mombasa, is expected.

Mombasa, an island city joined to the mainland by bridges, causeway and ferry, has about 1.2 million people and is Kenya's main port, handling cargo for Uganda and other landlocked neighbours. Malindi, Kilifi, Ukunda near Diani, Voi and Lamu are the other main towns. Work comes from shipping and logistics, tourism, fishing, cashew and coconut farming, and salt and cement; inland Taita-Taveta mines gemstones and grows fruit and vegetables in the hills.

Days start early before the heat, stall in the afternoon and revive in the cool of the evening, when families walk the Mombasa waterfront. Many young coastal people struggle to find work, and a sense of marginalisation is a long-running grievance. Tourism, heavily seasonal, has recovered since the downturn of the mid-2010s.

Coastal cooking is Kenya's richest, built on coconut, rice, seafood and spices from the Indian Ocean trade. Pilau and biryani are the feast dishes, and grilled fish and coconut-based curries are everyday fare. Breakfast is often mahamri, lightly sweet fried buns made with coconut milk. Street stalls sell viazi karai, potatoes fried in spiced batter, and mishkaki meat skewers.

Sweets reflect the Swahili and Indian heritage: kaimati, small fried dumplings eaten at breakfast, halwa, and coconut kashata. Coconut water is drunk straight from the husk, and palm wine, known on the coast as mnazi, is the traditional brew. Mangoes, cashews and passion fruit fill the markets.

Mombasa's old town grew around Fort Jesus, a Portuguese fortress begun in 1593 and now a museum and UNESCO World Heritage Site; its narrow lanes, carved doors, mosques and Old Port are best explored on foot. South of the city, Diani Beach runs for kilometres behind a coral reef, with Shimba Hills National Reserve inland and, near the Tanzanian border, Wasini island and the Kisite-Mpunguti marine park.

North of Mombasa, Kilifi sits on its creek, and Watamu and Malindi each have a marine national park with coral gardens and turtles. Near Watamu lie the mangroves of Mida Creek, the Arabuko-Sokoke forest and the ruined Swahili town of Gedi; Malindi keeps the Vasco da Gama Pillar on its seafront.

Lamu Old Town, the best-preserved Swahili town in East Africa and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has no cars; its Lamu Museum, fort and waterfront lead on to the dunes of Shela and the Takwa ruins on Manda island. Inland, the Taita-Taveta parts of Tsavo East and Tsavo West, famous for their elephants and the man-eating lions of 1898, give way to the Taita Hills around Wundanyi, the Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary and Lake Chala on the Tanzanian border.