Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Sabaki River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi was 119,859 as of the 2019 census.[1] It is the largest urban centre in Kilifi County.
Malindi is served with a domestic airport and a highway between Mombasa and Lamu. The nearby Watamu town and Gedi Ruins (also known as Gede) are south of Malindi. The mouth of the Sabaki River lies in northern Malindi.[2]
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama meeting the King of Malindi in 1498. The Portuguese Empire ruled Malindi from 1500 to 1630.
Malindi developed as part of the emerging Swahili civilisation in the 5th–10th centuries. Bantu-speaking farmers moved into the area, where they smelted iron, built timber and wattle houses thatched with palm leaves, spoke a local dialect of kiSwahili, and engaged in regional and sometimes long-distance trade. The resurgence of the Indian Ocean trade networks at the end of the first millennium led to larger settlements, increased long-distance trade, and greater social complexity. Beginning in the 11th century, the Swahili along the coast were acting as middlemen for Somali, Egyptian, Nubian, Arab, Persian, and Indian traders. They began building walled towns, coral houses, and elites converted to Islam, often speaking Arabic.[4]
The Malindi Kingdom appears to have been formed around the 9th century AD and to have grown powerful in the two centuries before Vasco da Gama ushered in the Portuguese colonisation of the region, the latter leading to the decline of the civilisation. The city of Malindi, founded around 850 AD, was in a somewhat more northerly location than the modern city, and appears to have been destroyed around 1000 AD. There are sparse signs of habitation for the next two centuries, then recovery and prosperity in the 1200s.
The first written reference to the present-day Malindi likely comes from Abu al-Fida (1273–1331), a Kurdish geographer and historian. He wrote that Malindi was situated to the south of the mouth of a river which began in a mountain hundreds of miles away. This mountain may be Mount Kenya, where the Galana River rises. Thus, Malindi has existed as a Swahili settlement since at least the 13th century.[5]
Once rivalled only by Mombasa for dominance in this part of East Africa, Malindi has traditionally been a port city. In 1414, the town was visited by the fleet of the Chinese explorer Zheng He. Malindi's ruler sent a personal envoy with a giraffe as a present to China on that fleet.[5]
The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama met Malindi authorities in 1498 to sign a trade agreement and hire a guide for the voyage to India, when he erected a padrão known today as the Vasco da Gama Pillar. Vasco da Gama was given a warm reception from the Sultan of Malindi, which contrasted with the hostile reception he encountered in Mombasa.[5] It is a popular tourist attraction for both local and international tourists.
In 1498 Malindi was a prosperous town with a population between 5,000 and 10,000. The majority of the population was Muslim by this period, having converted largely between the 13th and 14th centuries. Like other Mediaeval Swahili towns, the ruling class or wazee was made up of the heads of the wealthiest patrician families. Similar to other Bantu-speaking peoples, these clan leaders elected a mwenye mui or chief who spoke on behalf of the patricians. The Portuguese mistakenly titled these individuals "Kings," misunderstanding the nature of Swahili political organisation. The wazee spoke both Swahili and Arabic, and claimed mythological origins from the East, most often Persia.[6]
Malindi's main source of prosperity was the export of ivory and rhino horns as well as exporting agricultural products such as coconuts, oranges, millet and rice.[5] In the years before the arrival of the Portuguese, Malindi was a regional power but lagged significantly behind the two greatest states, Mombasa and Kilwa. When, in 1499, the Portuguese established a trading post in Malindi that served as a rest stop on the way to and from India, they were eagerly welcomed by the wazee who sought to use the Portuguese military might to establish themselves over their rivals in Mombasa. In 1500, King Dom Manuel I offered vassal status to Malindi. Malindi supported Portugal's successful efforts to conquer Kilwa and Mombasa in 1505. In 1502, the Portuguese established a factory in Malindi, which lasted till 1593.[7] The decline of Kilwa and Mombasa led to Malindi's flourishing. Malindi grew as other Swahili, as well as Arab, Persian, and Indian, merchants, craftsmen, sailors, and labourers flocked to newly powerful city.[8]
Malindi remained the centre of Portuguese activity in eastern Africa until 1593, when the Portuguese moved their main base to Mombasa.[9] This was through the help of the Segejus and the Sheikh of Malindi. As the major East African ally of Portugal along the Swahili Coast, Malindi supported Portugal's successful efforts to conquer Kilwa and Mombasa. The two Swahili city states often had feuds with each other as they fought for dominance over the trade. In his military struggles against Mombasa, the Sheikh of Malindi allied with the Portuguese and Segeju to take over the city.[10] In 1592, the Segeju occupied Mombasa, eventually surrendering it to the Sheikh of Malindi. The Sheikh then moved his court from Malindi to Mombasa and ruled from 1593 to 1630.[11] During this time, he invited his allies, the Portuguese, to build a Garrison and they dominated the city.
Admiralty Chart No 667 Port Melinda (Malindi) detail
After the Portuguese departed the town gradually declined until it almost disappeared by the end of 17th century. An 1823 United Kingdom Admiralty chart of 'Melinda' declared that at that time there were 'no vestiges of the once splendid city of Melinda' apart from Vasco da Gama's Pillar.[12] In 1845, Ludwig Krapf visited the town and found it overgrown by vegetation and uninhabited.[5] A Portuguese chapel with a graveyard was built before 1542 when Francis Xavier visited the town.[5] Many buildings of Swahili architecture survive, including the Juma Mosque.
Plan of Malindi, April 1873
Malindi was refounded by Sultan Majid of Zanzibar in 1861 and until the end of 19th century served as a centre of the slave trade. A plan of the town in 1873 indicates the area of occupation by that time.[13] In 1890, Malindi came under British administration and slave trade and slavery were abolished. This act led to a significant decline in agricultural production. Outside agriculture there were few industries in Malindi at the beginning of the 20th century; among them were making mats and bags, crushing sesame seeds for oil and producing a Swahili drink called tembo. Malindi was officially made a town in 1903. Ten years later its population stood at around 1148 and included 843 Africans, 230 Arabs, 67 Asians and 8 Europeans.[5][14]
A view of the old town of Malindi
Malindi experienced a trade boom between the end of the World War I and 1925, when a famine occurred. Exports to foreign ports grew to £26,000 by 1924. Europeans started to return to Malindi in the 1930s, buying land from Arabs. Some of them like Commander Lawford opened the first hotels, which became the foundation of the future tourist industry. During World War II, Malindi was one of only two towns in East Africa bombed by the Italians. This happened on 24 October 1940, and after this event allied troops were stationed in the town until the end of the war. After World War II Malindi began developing into a resort.[5]
Source 2: Meteo Climat (record highs and lows)[16]
Local governance
Malindi now falls under Kilifi County as per the administrative changes in the new constitution passed in August 2010. Malindi forms a municipal council with the following thirteen wards: Barani, Ganda/Mkaumoto, Gede, Gede North, Gede South, Kijiwetanga, Madunguni, Malimo, Malindi Central, Malindi North, Maweni, Shella, and Watamu Town. All of them are located within Malindi Constituency.[17]
Gallery
The front of the "House of Columns"
Near Robinson Island north of Malindi
Sunrise over the Indian Ocean at Malindi
Beach close to Malindi
Boats at sunset in Malindi
In popular culture
The novel “MALI D’AFRICA” (by Sara Cardelli) describes an impossible love in Malindi.[18]
Most of the events in Andrei Gusev’s novels Once in Malindi (2021)[19] and Our Wild Sex in Malindi (2020)[20] take place in Malindi, Watamu, or Lamu. The novels describe the protagonists' (Russian writer Andy and his wife Jennifer, who was born in Kenya) lives in these towns in the 2010s.[21][22]
The song “Yasoi Malindi” was written by Yasoy Kala Kana about the town.[23]
Mombasa is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is known as "the white and blue city" in Kenya. It is the country's oldest and second-largest city after Nairobi, with a population of about 1,208,333 people according to the 2019 census.
The Coast Province was one of Kenya's eight provinces. It covered the entire country's coastline on the Indian Ocean. Its capital city was Mombasa. It was inhabited by the Mijikenda and Swahili peoples, among others. The province covered an area of 79,686.1 km2.
The Swahili people comprise mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab, and Comorian ethnic groups inhabiting the Swahili coast, an area encompassing the Zanzibar archipelago and mainland Tanzania's seaboard, littoral Kenya, northern Mozambique, the Comoros Islands, and northwest Madagascar.
Lamu or Lamu Town is a small town on Lamu Island, which in turn is a part of the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya. Situated 341 kilometres (212 mi) by road northeast of Mombasa that ends at Mokowe Jetty, from where the sea channel has to be crossed to reach Lamu Island, it is the headquarter of Lamu County and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Kilifi is a town on the coast of Kenya, 56 kilometres (35 mi) northeast of Mombasa by road. The town lies on the Kilifi Creek and sits on the estuary of the Goshi River. Kilifi is the capital of Kilifi County and had a population of 122,899 during the 2009 census.
Watamu is a small town located approximately 105 km north of Mombasa and about 15 km south of Malindi on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It lies on a small headland, between the Blue Lagoon and Watamu Bay. Its main economic activities are tourism and fishing. The town had a population of around 30,000 in 2020 and it is part of Kilifi County.
Takaungu is a historic Swahili town located on the Kenyan Coast between Mombasa and Malindi, in Kilifi County.
Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique. The first recorded use of this port town was by Mogadishan merchants. One possible etymology for Sofala is "go and cultivate" in the Somali language, showing the city as a hub for gold.
Kilifi County is a County Located in the Kenyan coast .It was formed in 2010 as a result of a merger of Kilifi District and Malindi District, Kenya. Its capital is Kilifi and its largest town is Malindi. The county had a population of 1,453,787 people following the 2019 census and covers an area of 12,245.90 km2 (4,728.17 sq mi).
The Segeju are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group mostly based in Tanzania's Tanga Region and Kenya's Kwale County. Most Segeju reside in the small coastal strip between the Tanzanian city of Tanga and the Kenyan-Tanzanian border. However, some Segeju have migrated to urban areas in other parts of Tanzania or Kenya, in hopes of better employment opportunities and quality of life. Segeju migration to urban areas often results in severance of community ties, leading to a lack of transmission of important cultural traditions and language.
Swahili architecture is a term used to designate a whole range of diverse building traditions practiced or once practiced along the eastern and southeastern coasts of Africa. Rather than simple derivatives of Islamic architecture from the Arabic world, Swahili stone architecture is a distinct local product as a result of evolving social and religious traditions, environmental changes, and urban development.
The Kilwa Sultanate was a sultanate, centered at Kilwa, whose authority, at its height, stretched over the entire length of the Swahili Coast. According to the legend, it was founded in the 10th century by Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi, a Persian prince of Shiraz.
The Swahili coast is a coastal area of East Africa, bordered by the Indian Ocean and inhabited by the Swahili people. It includes Sofala ; Mombasa, Gede, Pate Island, Lamu, and Malindi ; and Dar es Salaam and Kilwa. In addition, several coastal islands are included in the Swahili coast, such as Zanzibar and Comoros.
The Sabaki languages are the Bantu languages of the Swahili Coast, named for the Sabaki River. In addition to Swahili, Sabaki languages include Ilwana (Malakote) and Pokomo on the Tana River in Kenya, Mijikenda, spoken on the Kenyan coast; Comorian, in the Comoro Islands; and Mwani, spoken in northern Mozambique. In Guthrie's geographic classification, Swahili is in Bantu zone G, whereas the other Sabaki languages are in zone E70, commonly under the name Nyika.
The East African mangroves are a mangrove ecoregion consisting of swamps along the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa in Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya and southern Somalia.
Malindi Museum is a museum located in Malindi, Kenya. It has control over four main heritage sites: The Vasco da Gama Pillar, The Portuguese Chapel, The House of Columns and The Heritage Complex museum.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Mombasa, Coast Province, Kenya.
Kenya–Portugal relations are bilateral relations between Kenya and Portugal. Both nations have had relations dating back 500 years since the Age of Discovery.
The Vasco da Gama Pillar in Malindi, Kenya, was erected by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. It was constructed in 1498 or 1499 during his pioneering maritime expedition from Lisbon to India via the Cape of Good Hope (1497–99).
City states in East Africa were independent, self-governing urban centres that were located on the coast of East Africa between the 12th and 15th centuries. These were primarily coastal hubs, including Kilwa, Mombasa and Zanzibar, which prospered due to their advantageous locations along Indian Ocean trade networks, enabling interactions between Africa, the Middle East and Asia. They stretched from Mogadishu to Sofala.
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