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Chika (Ras Shaka)

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Ibn Majid (1470) mentions Ras Shaka as Chika and also as Chikala. Also found at Yakut (1220) as Chouqar; Al Iskandari (1165) as Shaqar; Ibn Nasir al-din (1438) as Shuqran.

At Ras Shaka are found the ruins of the three Ozi (river) kingdoms. Mwana (Kamwana) the closest to the navigational point Ras Shaka (it starts 200m east of it). (With its tombs 800m further on the coast); Shaka town ruins just passed Ras Chaka on the way to Kipini and Ungwana the only settlement excavated (from the tenth century) which is the closest to Kipini.

Taken from: Swahili Monumental Architecture and Archaeology North of the Tana River. By Thomas H. Wilson.

Shaka is located at the edge of the current beach about 4.5 kilometres from Ungwana. The site runs about 800 metres along the shore and is approximately 300 metres wide, perhaps as much as 24 hectares. Sparse scatters of potsherds occur to within about 100 metres of these boundaries. Shaka consists of a mosque numerous houses represented by mounds of rubble, tombs, and wells, all surrounded by a town wall.  The features of the mosque suggest a neo-classic mihrab, perhaps sixteenth century. On the rising high ground north of the site, but within the town wall, are five tombs.

Some of the tombs north of the site. They are clearly more recent than the Middle Ages. But as the mosque is 16^th century the settlement might have been already there in 1470 when Ibn Majid wrote his book.

Mwana (Kamwana) is a large site consisting of the settlement proper including at least four mosques, houses and a few tombs, and a group spectacular tombs situated picturesquely atop a little hill about 800 metres northeast of the main site. Mwana is located on the high ground behind the present beach dunes. Quite justifiably the most famous structure at Mwana is the small domed mosque that sits just on the edge of the high ground.

Sections of several houses still stand in Mwana, but the real extent of the settlement is revealed by the monotonous mounds of rubble similarly oriented all over a large area. The standing remains include a house with two long parallel rooms with smaller rooms on the west side.

Mwana is notable for its size and for the quality of its architecture. I think we saw most of the standing structures of the site, but to view these we walked over acres and acres, seemingly, of ruined structures, almost totally below the surface, and marked only by the uniform ups and downs of the mounds. Most edging at the site was in cut coral, and most doors were arched, some ornamented with niches. It seems to have been a rich site.

Outlines of the tombs at Mwana known as the Seven Virgins are prominently etched against the sky several hundred metres northeast of the main site, atop a little hill above a coral outcrop adjacent the sea.

Taken from: Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

Fumo Liyongo or Liongo was a Swahili writer and chieftain on the northern part of the coast of East Africa sometime between the 9th and 13th centuries. He is celebrated as a hero, warrior, and poet in traditional poems, stories, and songs of the Swahili people, many associated with wedding rituals and gungu dances. Liongo himself is credited with many such songs and poems. ….. He is supposedly buried at Ozi.

Many elements of the epics of Liongo appear to relate to the transition of the East African coastal society from matrilinear, Bantu organization to a new patrilinear Islamic model. Liongo is sometimes described as a follower of traditional African beliefs and sometimes as a Muslim. This had led some scholars to suggest that he could have lived around the 13th century, when mass Islamisation began to take shape.