The Portuguese
The entire coast felt the destructive impact of the Portuguese arrival, partly because the city-states were unable to present a united front against the invaders and also because the Portuguese were sometimes aided by discontented mainland groups as well as by the possession of cannon. The first visit by Vasco da Gams to East Africa took place in 1498. Two years later Kilwa was made to pay tribute, and in 1505 Sofala, with its gold trade, was taken, and Kilwa and Mombasa were sacked. By 1506 Portugal had claimed control over the entire coast and over trade on the Indian Ocean.
The forces of the Portuguese were never sufficiently large to give their claim of control over the coast much validity north of Sofala, and they never attempted systematic administration. Hurt by local intrigues, disease, and their own failure to cooperate with Africans or Arabs, the Portuguese gained little from their presence in the area. They did not leave many enduring marks on the life of the coast, with the exception of some food crops, such as cassava, and certain utilitarian items, such as handkerchiefs and screws for which the Swahili names closely resemble the Portuguese.
Although the northern cities recovered somewhat both commercially and culturally after the initial Portuguese blows, the southern ones did not, partly because the trade ties that had been cut by the Portuguese were not reestablished.
In the 1580s several events occurred that lessened the already tenuous hold of the Portuguese. In 1585 a Turk, Amir Ali Bey, visited several ports along the northern coast, and at his urging the people united and rose up against the Portuguese. This revolt was suppressed in 1587, but the next year Amir Ali came again, and once more the northern coast rose up in rebellion. A fleet was dispatched from Goa to put it down, and with the help of some Africans loyal to the Portuguese, this force was able to drive the Turks and their Swahili and Arab allies into the walled town of Mombasa.
At the same time there arrived from the south a marauding band of some 5,000 Zimba warriors (whose origins lay in the political turmoil of the Mozambican area) who had destroyed Kilwa in 1587 and then proceeded northward along the coast, leaving a trail of destruction and depopulated villages. Accepting their offer of aid, the Portuguese permitted them to enter Mombasa, where they massacred the defenders and destroyed the city. They then moved northward, preparing to destroy Malindi as well. There, however, they were defeated and destroyed by a coalition of local rulers, the Portuguese, and the warlike Segeju people that had been moving downward along the coast.
In 1593 the Portuguese attempted to consolidate their hold over the northern coast by building Fort Jesus at Mombasa. For another 100 years they continued to claim the coast from Cape Guardafui to Cape Delgado, but little real authority was exerted. An uprising in Malindi and Mombasa that led to the temporary capture of Fort Jesus further undermined Portuguese control, and in 1652 Arabs from Oman began to assist the coastal towns. They had driven the Portuguese out of their own lands in 1650. After finally taking Fort Jesus in 1698 the Omani Arabs established garrisons on Zanzibar, Pemba, and Kilwa, and the Portu-guese were never again in control of the area north of the Ruvuma River.
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