As illustration only are added here some examples of the oldest letters from the Swahili. They are not connected with the list of authors on the left side of the page.

1711AD Swahili letters from Mfalme Fatima; queen of Kilwa; her daughter Mwana Nakisa, Fatima's brothers Muhammad Yusuf & Ibrahim Yusuf (heir). (Goa archive, SOAS London).

They were addressed to Mwinyi Juma a Swahili spy in Mombasa working for the Portuguese and are one of the earliest self-descriptions of the elites of Kilwa as "Swahili" and the Omanis as "Arabs".

This was during a time of political upheaval between the Swahili, Omanis and Portuguese the latter of whom had been expelled by a coalition of the former two, but the Swahili had grown weary of the Omanis of whom according to Yusuf: "...all the coast does not want the Arabs"; while there were promises of cordial relationships earlier between the Omanis and Swahili as stated in Fatima's letter where the Oman sultan had promised: "no Swahili will be mistreated by an Arab" the Arabs did just that, instead; briefly capturing Mwana Nakisa, accusing Fatima of harboring the Portuguese. This explains Mwana Nakisa's very low opinion of the Arabs. Nakisa: "this year, the Arabs who came from Muscat are all scabs, striplings and weaklings".

Yusuf's letter also explains the dynamics of Swahili trade: "this year all the cloth which came from Masqat is on credit and none of it is black, which to us is a deceitful omission, …send us some cloth secretly and we will give him as much in return in ivory".

(Taken from: The Portuguese and the Swahili, from foes to unlikely partners: Afro-European interface in the early modern era. By Isaac Samuel)