When a Greek author and traveller from Egypt visited East Africa about the middle of the first century of the Christian era he found the Coast and its islands already settled by Arabs who recognized the King of Yemen as their suzerain lord. According to the writings of this author in his book The Periplus Of The Erythrean Sea, those Arabs had made their settlements in East Africa for centuries before his visit, and had already mixed their blood with the local population. By this evidence it becomes clear that Arabs have been inhabiting East Africa for much more than 2,000 years (John Gray: History of Zanzibar pp 10-11). W.H. Ingrams, quoting Rev. W.A. Crabtree, writes in his book - Zanzibar Its History and Its People that about four thousand years ago Arabs, known to the ancient Egyptians as "Aamu" and "Arapin", came to East Africa. Says Ingrams

                    "Some of these people wandered into the interior and some followed the coast. Those that went into the interior lost their nationality and became, claims Mr. Crabtree, the origin of the Hamites. The remainder were called Arabs."

The Egyptian word "Arapin" obviously means "Arabs", but is there not an intriguing connection between the ancient Egyptian word "Aamu" for Arabs, with the name of the island of "Amu", as the inhabitants call it, Lamu being merely a corruption of the Arabic "Al-amu"? About 1400 BC. the Egyptian king Rameses II sent an expedition to East Africa. That expedition, which was manned by Phoenicians, is supposed to have reached Madagascar. King Neco of the 26th Dynasty (630-527 BC.) dispatched another expedition which rounded the Cape of Good Hope, sailed northward along the West African coast, entered the Mediterranean through the Straits of   Gibraltar and arrived back in Egypt after three years of voyaging. At each place of call these ancient men stayed long enough to sow a crop of wheat and harvest it. Records do not say, but it can well be assumed, that they must have sown and cropped children as well as grain in their ports of call, much in the same way as their descendants, the 'Soori' tribe from Oman who claim descent from the Phoenicians, have down the ages been planting seed from their loins up and down the coast, from Lamu to Zanzibar and the Comoro isles. Phoenicians (in Arabic Finiqiyyin) used to call themselves Khna or Kina'an, which is a well-known Arab tribe.

It was from them that the Bajuni and the Watumbatu, the intrepid seamen of East Africa, derived the art of navigation. Keble Chatterton says in his book - Sailing Ships and Their Story: "...when at the end of the fifteenth century of our era, Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope and called at the East African ports, he found that the arts of navigation were as well understood by the Eastern seamen as by himself. This would seem to imply that these Africans had years ago reached the state of advancement in sailing a ship already possessed by the more civilized parts of the world. While the Phoenicians of the Mediterranean went as far as Cornwall for tin, their counterparts from Oman sailed as far as Comoro and China for various  ther commodities, and those from Tumbatu and Lamu plied with accustomed ease the western portion of the Indian Ocean seasonally between East Africa, India, the Gulf and Iran, exchanging material goods, culture, language and blood. Before the upheaval of 1964 the Zanzibar harbour used to accommodate as many as 2,000 dhows from the Gulf and Southern Arabia every monsoon season.

There is ample evidence in language and traditions to indicate the existence of a close connection between the Swahilis of East Africa and the Assyrians of 4-5,000 years ago as well as the Sumerians of 5-8,000 years ago. These very ancient Iraqis were highly civilized people. The Euphrates and Tigris valley is reputed to have been the cradle of civilization. The art of writing is believed to have been born there. Ingrams quotes a number of striking similarities in pronunciation and meaning between the Sumerian language and Swahili. For example, the word ZI in Sumerian indicating Spirit is in Swahili MZIMU. The word Goat is in Sumerian UZ, while in Swahili it is MBUZI. In the Gulf dialects, both Persian and Arabic, of today a goat stuffed with rice is significantly called Ghuzi. Man in Sumerian is MULU, while in Swahili it is MTU, or in other Bantu dialects it is MUNTU. One could go on indefinitely quoting historical, cultural and ethnic connections between East Africa and the Middle East from antiquity to the present day, which prove beyond the shadow of a doubt inalienable indigenousness of all those who dub themselves Zanzibaris or Swahilis.

With regard to Zanzibar's past connection with India, it is known that a certain people, practising Islam, came from the western coast of India and settled in the island between the 15th and 17th centuries. These are the so- called Wadebule. They are not to be confused with another group of settlers who seemed to have been ruling Pemba, Pujini to be more precise, and were called Wadiba. The latter's most remembered ruler is one Muhammad bin Abdulrahman, nicknamed "Mkame Ndume", a title, which I believe, is wrongly translated "Milker of Men", implying his alleged reputation of giving impossible commands. But the word "Mkame Ndume" does not sound correct Swahili. It could possibly as well have been derived from the word "Makamo wa Madume", which could have been calculated to mean: "Supervisor of Males", or "Ruler of Men", more or less equivalent to the Kiganda title for the Kabaka, "Sebasaja", meaning "Above Men", a loose substitute for His Highness, or His Majesty. The Swahili word Makamo and the name "Makame", are derived from the Arabic Maqaam, meaning rank or position. It is used, for example, in the expression: "S'aahibul maqaami rrafii', that is "He of exalted rank."

According to archaeological evidence the Wadebule were people from Dabhol, a port on the west coast of India about a hundred miles to the south of  Bombay. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries this port was ruled by the Bahmani dynasty. About this time there was a considerable population of Africans from East Africa in that part of India. These East Africans were known locally as "Siddis", from Arabic meaning "my lord", a trait of self- esteem not completely unknown among the Swahili people in a foreign country. Sir John Gray reports them to have played "a prominent part in the political dissensions which eventually led to the fall of the Bahmani dynasty and the disruption of their kingdom."

With regard to the Wadiba Sir John Gray presumes that they came from the Maldive Islands, which he claims were known to the Arabs as Diba. I have not been able to verify this claim, but what we do know is the existence of Diba in the Gulf, shared between Oman and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. It is a seaside town near the promontory of Musandam which guards the entrance into the Gulf. I have visited it. It is more logical therefore to believe that the Wadiba of Pujini to whom are attributed a number of mosques which they built, came from this original Diba which is on the Arabian side of the Gulf. They are reported to have been very particular about the formal observance of Islamic worship.