The Maritime Environments and the Boats of Kilwa Kisiwani, Southern Swahili Coast

What is a “dhow”?

Abstract

Kilwa Kisiwani (island) situated on the southern Swahili coast is surrounded by two different kinds of sea: inland sea characterized by its calm and shallow nature and mangrove forests, and open sea with a fringing-reef marked by rough wave and strong wind. The boat culture of Kilwa Kisiwani has been developed in these contrastive sea environments. Two kinds of boats can be found: 1. small boats such as mtumbwi and mbare used exclusively on the inland sea, 2. big boats such as dau, mashua and boti used on the open sea. The expensive big boats are possessed by rich people but not fishermen who own instead small boats or none. And they have traditionally fished on the inland sea or along the shore. This means that the original style of big boats culture symbolized by dau with keel structure is relatively recent and may not be based on fisheries' culture. Different from the English “dhow (ocean-going ship)”, the Swahili “dau” is a small boat. However, according to the local contexts, dau is a big boat with a revolutionary keel structure that can sail out to the open sea from the inland sea.