The Curious History of Zanzibar and the Swahili Coast 

Kenyan here. Thanks for shedding light on our part of Africa.

Nice bill wurtz reference

Hello Masaman! I've been subscribed to the channel for awhile, wonderful content, I am from Dagestan myself, it would be great if you did some videos about the Caucasus: Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia and others, many interesting things still to uncover about the region, your viewers would like it, because the region mostly is shrouded in mystery for the whole world! The video would be excellent! And thanks for the content

Zanzibar is a name that I remember as a kid, probably because of the British Empire connection, but it's real history is so much more fascinating than anything you might imagine at first. As always, this has been Mason, and this has been awesome. 👏👏👏👏👏👏

please do a video on the island of Sakhalin.

Thanks Masaman for saying "Somali" instead of "Somalian". Greetings from Mogadishu.

I think it's very important to recognize that having other cultures influence another doesn't dilute the culture but rather it enriches the culture and create something unique and new Culture is only ever being snuffed out by introducing others when an active attempt is made to suppress one culture that is tied to introducing another such as with the native anericans Thank you for acknowledging that my friend 😁

I love how diverse your videos are, I’ve learnt soo much that I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for your channel. Keep up the good work

Freddie Mercury was born on Zanzibar.

I'm ZANZIBARIAN FROM PEMBA ❤️❤️❤️thank you 🇹🇿🇹🇿🇹🇿🇹🇿🇹🇿

This man is teaching people on what the Europeans won't teach their own about history

Merci beaucoup pour tes vidéos très instructifs. Je ne comprends bien anglais mais j'arrive avec effort à saisir l'essentiel. Thank i dont understhan english very good but your vidéos are very informations from Sénégal

At the time of the coup, Zanzibar was an independent sultanate with the sulatan being half zanzibarian himself. They were no longer under Omani rule. Many zanzibarian live in Oman, for example the minister of education and the dean of my university ( the sultan Qaboos university) . We as Omanians never really colonized the coast we basically dominated it by trade and assimilatition not by military forcess which we did not have. Many migrated from the coast to Oman and brought with them their food, tradition and language. After the separation the zanzibarian here in Oman became citizens of Oman and they are our friends coworkers and neighbors. What is unfortunate is the massacre that happened where Omanies, Indian and Muslim zanzibrian were killed, many of whom were mixed race, Rather than working together to build a new indipented Zanzibar. Many Zanzibarian fled to Oman at that time and many migrate to Oman till this day. They are proud of their culture and language and are great people.

I went to school with the Zanzibar royal family in England, whee they lived in exile after the Afro-Shirazi party took over in a coup.

You thought that no one would notice the Bill Wurtz joke? Well not anymore, there’s a blanket!

You should do a video on Zoroastrians and the Parsi community in India

This channel is a gift. 10/10

What's great about Masaman's channel is that he does it for the sheer love of his subject. He's not here to be a RU-vid star or make a lot of money. He just loves talking about ethnicity, and being a modern knows not what else to do but share his interest on RU-vid.

i love your videos Masa, one of the best channels on youtube!

I can tell you as a Swahili speaker that there is an incredible amount of words from Arabic in Swahili, many of which I and other Swahili speakers are unaware of.

Zanzibar is the Isle of Cloves. I haven't watched this yet. Freddy Mercury the singer for Queen was from Zanzibar though is family were Zoroastrians. Masaman should do a video on the Zoroastrians. I have met three Zoroastrians and I also met some Bahai who converted from Zoroastrianism. Very interesting topic, in my opinion.

thats why i love age of empire most....it helps me to know about history

Great videos Masaman! My Dad is a Swahili from Kenya and mom Malay from Malaysia. I took a DNA test and basically the whole world map was highlighted except Australia.. I inherited a little bit of everything from everywhere.. and your videos on Swahili and Austronesia explained it beautifully. Thanks!!

i think yours is the only channel i still get excited about seeing a new video pop up for in my suggestions. fascinating as always. great video.

Please make a Video about Siberia before the Russian Conquest

Africa is full surprise

Please do an episode on the UK and its ethnic and cultural transformations! From the settling of the Celts to what it is now. That would be crazy

Well, it is commonly understood that Kiswahili developed as a trading language. I have often heard that the bulk of the words come from Kisambara in the mountains of North East Tanzania, but words from many other tribes have been included as well. Around 20% is claimed to have a foreign origin, mostly Arabic, some from English, and a few words from German (such as shule-school), Portugise (mesa-table), Chinese (chai-tea), and Urdu (laki-hundred thousand). I think the main effect of Kiswahili is the communication between tribes, which made Tanzania so peaceful compared to other countries and regions. The biggest cultural and political difference in Tanzania today is possibly between Zanzibar (one million) and "the mainland" (Tanganyika-meaning the wilderness beyond the coast with triangular sails (tanga is triangular sails used on dhows and nyika means wilderness) with 52 million people. I think the origins and genetic relationship between mainland tribes in Tanzania are far more interesting than the origins of Kiswahili. This is a topic (the origin of different tribes) discussed almost as much when you meet people in Tanzania as the weather is among people in Europe. Oh and - did you claim that Tipu Tip went into Congo and had a land area there? I thought the Arabs mostly went to Tabora or Ujiji and bought slaves from Congo from Wanyamwezi slave traders, but maybe I'm wrong.

Mason, can you do a video on the Native American tribes of California? There's a huge variety of languages, physical types, and lifeways in Aboriginal California, I think you'd find the topic really interesting. I'm working on my doctorate on this topic, so if you need suggestions for resources just let me know. Love this channel!

My grandfather married a Swahili woman after my grandma’s death. My mom told me that in the old times the coasts of africa were like Dubai and Singapore of today. Arabs used to go their to get rich and many of them stayed there or brought wives or slaves back with them. That’s why there are many descendants of Zanzibari slaves in the Arabian peninsula. Especially in Yemen, Oman, and the coasts of the Persian gulf. Btw Swahil means Coasts in Arabic

Bantus are not “standard black Africans”. It’s a language family. Yes I know if the Bantu migration, but there’s lots of what you would consider “standard black Africans” who are not Bantu. It’s like calling Germanic speakers “Standard white Europeans” like linguistics defines your whole ethnicity

My mother was born in SA & use to speak SWAHILI fluently, I found your documentary really interesting because my parents lived in Zanzibar & 4 of my siblings were born in Tanzania, Zanzibar too, 2 were born in Malawi & after the bloody revolution & coup took place, my father had to send my mother & 7 of my siblings to India from Zanzibar, while he & my eldest brother stayed to take care of the business & property with my father, me & my sister were born in India & we came to this country UK in 1969 , while father came here before us after selling his business & house in Zanzibar before we came, we all lived in a 2 bedroom terraced house, I can’t imagine now how it must have been for my parents to have lived through that part of history, my youngest brother was born here on Christmas Day, needless to say they treated him like the special child that he is, I use to be a little jealous too, but now I just feel privileged.. lol I really enjoyed the documentary.

I noticed when I visited Zanzibar, how interesting it was to see all these different looking people.

There are swahili tribes/ native swahili people whom are referred as 12 Swahili tribes. 8 out of 12 are found in kenyan coast from Lamu, Malindi, Mombasa- Tanga, Bagamoyo, Zanzibar archipelago and Mafia island to southern Tanzania coast and as far as Comoros islands. The tribes are as follows amu, tangana, changamwe, wamvita, wakilindini, tumbatu, tangata, kunduchi etc

Basicly every tanzania born after the unification speaks swahili like a first language because it's the language you speak with people from other Tribes and in school. Most people under 55 don't even know their own tribal language, so I would say that swahili is a first language for around 70% of the people. This comes from a Tanzanian.🙌

I just recently discovered the history of this region and find it fascinating, so thank you for doing this!

such a damn shame the British burned the historical evidences of civilisations in the Swahili coast. Oh, and I love the thumbnail

I heard of Swahili when I was 6 , watching the *OLDE* Star Treks. Lieutenant Uhura . Fascinating history. Wish I woulda had access to all this when i was young. *~;)

Man... I don't know what you get out of this, but damn...this channel is so superb. Really great work dude. You're doing great work. It's so good. I just want to eat my computer!

Awesome MASAMAN!! You touched on some profound issues, although much more can be said on those, but that remains to be reviewed. The universally accepted specialist on the matter is Professor Felix A. Chami who has researched and written extensively on this subject (much of which is available online). I'd like to say that in my opinion the Comorians are the most interesting/remarkable Swahili group! Also if there was a "Swahili-country" I'd say completely unbiasedly that Tanzania (due to its early profound adoption of the swahili language nationally) would most closely fulfill the modern day criteria for it.. Thanks for the great video and keep it up (waiting for part 2😉)!

i'm a member of the diaspora, decended from fairly recent immigrants. i'm of nigerian paternity 🇳🇬 ghanaian maternity 🇬🇭 and some amazigh (berber) 🇲🇦 background, but...born and raised in america. 🇺🇸

زنجبار عاصمه سلطنه عٌمان🇴🇲❤️..

IsiZulu (and IsiXhosa) have clicks but are Bantu languages (influenced of course by their KhoiSan neighbors). Zulu is the second most widely spoken Bantu language and has three click consonants(c,x, and q). Keep up the Good work!

For some reason I found the Comorians the most interesting group in the video. They seem to be close to mainlanders, but I wonder if there's a Malagasy cultural and genetic substrate on the islands that was absorbed by the Bantu Comorians - that is, if a branch of the Malagasy colonized the islands before the Bantu Comorians, or vice versa. Thanks for another excellent video, Mason!

So interesting! Excellent research and presentation. Thanks, Mason!

The harbor at Carthage was amazing.

Please do a video on Moravian Wallachia!

According to my DNA results, I'm 1.2 % Kenyan. I have no idea how that is possible given the fact that my dad is Jamaican from the West Indies but it's fascinating nonetheless

A good Exemple of Persian Family in Zanzibar is Fred Mercury's family. Actually his real name was "Farouk Busara"

*Masaman!* You should look into the *Udmurts* of Udmurtia, they have the highest rates of red hair in the whole world.

you really need to do something about the Portuguese in Asia. I had understood that Swahili is a language of trade and incorporates Arabic and Portuguese among other languages. An example of an Arabic word in Swahili is Safari which comes from the Arabic verb sfr which means to travel. I think this a pretty good topic and I think you could do more with it. Since you are going to be doing videos about Tanzania would you consider a discussion of the Lemba tribe of Tanzania? They claim to be descendants of Jews and to have built great zimbabwe.

This is insanely fascinating!!

Hooray! Now I know how I got my Chinese, Viet, and Andaman Island admixture into the Swahili!

Thanks for a very informative video.

Bill Wurtz + Masaman= the greatest crossover event of the century

Have you heard of the Mascogos in Mexico? They're a group of people who are descended from a group of runaway slaves who fled to the desert in Mexico to escape slavery.

Aside from a very comprehensive research and excellent presentation, just one point got missed: Swahili people or language originates from the word, Sahel, meaning the people or language of the Sahel, or the coast. Thank you again for your good work

Nicely done! I do not know if any of my suggestions were a part of this, but if they were, thank you. As usual, here are some more suggestions: 1. I second the request for a video on Sakhalin and the islands in East Russia. I was actually going to suggest the Sakha Republic, so that might give you a broader idea. 2. Nagaland in South Asia, and the deep and mysterious regions of eastern India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. 3. Manchuria and Tocharians 4. Is there a modern Moorish ethnicity in NW Africa? Elaborating on that would be helpful. 5. Urartia and Eastern Anatolia 6. Japanese Mexicans (that has interesting history) 7. Hawaii 8. World War 0 and World War 1/2 (aka. "Seven Years War" and the "Napoleonic Wars" (you can include the Neutral Moresnet in that one). 9. Uigers and East Turkistan 10. I also found recently that the Chuuk Islands in Micronesia might also be holding an independence referendum soon. 11. Anishinaabe Civilization (Algonquin and other people's around the Great Lakes); Poverty Point, Louisiana-a CITY build by hunter gatherers, Cahokia, and Native American Civilization in the USA before Columbus. The ancient history of America that's often overlooked. 12. My usual suggestions that I've stated in other videos. I still would love to see a video on Zoroastrianism and modern ethnoreligious groups with them, even beyond the Parsi's and Gabar's.

If I was correct many names and words in the lion king movie were swahili

Please do a video on northern Italy,southern Italy,Sicily and Sardinia and all the different dialects, cultures,traditions and phenotypes/ethnicitys etc

This is great to know am from zanzibar nd my dad told me that my tribe is shiraz but originated from lamu which i think is from kenya and move to pemba(zanzibar) and lamu has bantu people whic

Another unique topic 🙂👍🏼

Beautiful video. How long until the Pepe the frog people ruin it?

Do you have videos about pre-columbian diasporas in the Americas?

Dude! Please look up Hueyatlaco, Mexico. The coolest untold mystery yet. Humans from a quarter million years ago.

Well it confirms what I've been noticin' lately...East Africa is highly mixed with: - Middle-East - South-Asia - Southwest Asia - Austronesia - China to a lesser extent... Sounds like it's been like that for awhile...interesting...

Very interesting and informative video. I have some Swahili (Kiswahili) speaking friends. They have taught me a little Swahili. It seems a relatively easy language to learn, and spoken Swahili can be a relatively beautiful language.

This is incredibly accurate and therefore interesting.

I love the bill wurtz reference in the thumbnail

Very interesting history!

The Swahilis are the most influential bantu group in eastern Africa that is why their language became the trade language instead of Arabic along the coast. Culturally they are homogeneous people however due to constant contact with foreigners make them genetically non homogeneous group. They have many dialects that are mutually intelligible. The written swahili text use kiunguja, a zanzibari dialect. In fact Official standardised kiswahili is Kiunguja though other dialects such as kiamu may be richer.

thanks for the video!

The Swahili city States along with the Mali and Kongo kingdoms are the reasons I respect Africa as much as I do

I love your videos. Keep up the good work!

im omani and my family speaks Swahili and Arabic well they speak Arabic with me because I cant speak Swahili

Do one about Nigeria please I want to learn about it but can never find any

I heard a special "grey fox" was killed in Zanizbar, from a snake perhaps?

i must attempt to correct you. Swahili has a culture, a sub-saharan african language that is shared among africans so they can communicate in a tongue not of their homeland or village. thats cultural.

I just found out Swahili is an Arabic word for coast! السواحل

A really good video. Thanks a lot. I met people in Kenya from Mombassa who said they were ethnic Swahili so is there a Swahili ethnicity? They seemed to identify as a separate group.

Thanks. Very interesting. It's all new to me.

Tenebrous - good word!

The Khoi-sans and the Hadza with their cousins Sandawe (long relatives of the Khoi-sans) along with the pygmies are the oldest then followed by Bantu, Afroasiatic, Barbers.

The polls are great! 👌

South African languages also have click consonants.

Can you do a video on the Navajo, Hopi and Apache?

I had drinks at Freddie Mercury's on Zanzibar. Zanzibar coffee is great.

Asante, bwana!

I love your work man and I hope you see this. My country Zimbabwe history is so tangled up when it was Rhodesia it's history became illegal to change or to read,like an example the Zimbabwe bird is acc a hybrid of a bird and man and Zimbabwe had made the own zodiac caladnder on a plate so much more, can you please get back at.I would say I know what im talking about but everyone can be easily misled

Hallo to everyone, I am from Kenya and I wish to correct a very wrong information you stated in the video about the Swahili language being derived from bantus,this is wrong my friend,,,very wrong information, the swahili language is derived from Arabic language,,untill now 60% to 80% of the Swahili words are Arabic words Wich got mixed up by many factors like other accents of and pronounces of words from other tribes..

3:20 As a native swahili speaker, I can confirm there is a heavy influence of Arabic, Hindu and English influence in the language... and maybe some portuguese too weirdly

Proud Hausa 💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿

I am a native origin of Zanzibar

Top-tier thumbnail right there.

I am still waiting on an updated ADOS people video.

Oman is the best Arab nation

Hi Masaman please make video about kingdom of Champa and its relationship of Acehneses

Eye opening video.

"I'm not gonna cook it but I'll order it from Zanzibar"

Jambo, habari sana bwana! Swahili was made a primary language for Kenya as a conscious choice soon after independence to encourage regional cohesion, a language easy for African speakers to learn and use. So yeah, it is an international lingua franca in a linguistically diverse area. And yeah, there is recent influence on Swahili. Like "super duka" instead of "super market" No mention of polynesians in Madagascar? Your trade arrows don't indicate the cyclic trade wind-driven nature of the connections