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 (Tana 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.
One of the Mwana Mosques. The fact that the dooms are still mostly intact shows that this is not a medieval building. Although the settlement itself might be.
This map shows part of the hinterland of the towns Ungwana, Shaka, Mwana. In later centuries (Portuguese times) towns resembling Swahili towns came into existence in this hinterland. They so extended the hinterland even further.
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 16th 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.
Taken from: The Pate Chronicle.
(Sultan Muhammad of Pate died 740AH (1339AD) and his son Sultan Omar reigned…
So, Sultan Omar reigned on the coast, it was he who was the Sultan to conquer Manda, Taka, Kitao, and Emezi on the mainland and Tukutu. After this he fought Mea, Kiongwe, and Komwana and the seven towns between Komwana and Shaka.
The Sultan of these towns was called Liyongo, and he subdued the country from Mpokomoni to Malindi, and this district was called Ozi.
Now Sultan Omar fought these towns for many days,’ and when he perceived the difficulty of taking them, he went to Magogoni, the harbor of Tukutu, and stayed there.
Every hour he sent out an expedition and he remained at Magogoni fifteen years till he got a son called Ahmad.
It was this son who finally overcame the towns of Ozi, and then sent the news to his father. So, his father returned to Pate and then went and fought Malindi.
Taken from: The Liyongo Conundrum: Reexamining the Historicity of Swahilis' National Poet-Hero by Ibrahim Noor Shariff.
The earliest possible date of the Liyongo saga is presented by the Arabs and Swahilis of Kau and Kipini in their letter to the district commissioner of Kipini. A translation of this letter was published in 1943. The opening section of this letter reads:
Sir,
Please read these records of this country, you will understand the events of old times.
We give you the story of Shaka, whose King was Mringwari of the tribe of Albaury, of the people of Ozi. He ruled Shaka from the year 121 from the Hegira of the Prophet of God [738 A.D.].
Then Fumo Liyongo came from the land of Jawa (Persia) and settled as an inhabitant of Shaka. He asked for a wife from Said bin Sheikh Ahmed Albaury, who gave him his daughter Somoe Mwana binti Said in marriage. She bore him a son who was named Liyongo Fumo. (The letter then goes on to narrate the heroic exploits of Liyongo Fumo.
Note: many other stories make him live in Shanga on Pate Island instead.
End of the Middle-Ages view on the Three Ozi Kingdoms by the Portuguese.
Taken from: João de Barros; Asia: dos feitos que os portugueses fizeram no descobrimento e conquista dos mares e terras do oriente : segunda década.
P21-23
…… So these Arabs filled this coast, of which we speak; and as one is more worthy than another, he immediately calls himself Sheik, or King, from which there comes to be a great number throughout. However, among them most are called Sheikhs, although those who are called Reyes, are those of Quiloa and Zenzibar Island, which is before (arriving at) Mombasa, and the people here, who are richer and more powerful than the others, have to do everything tyrannically to raise the first one who took this title against El Rey de Zenzibar, who was the Lord, and have him as Governor in Mombasa. Our friend from Malindi also wants to contend with the oldest people in the land, and says, that he comes from the Kings, who were formerly in the City of Quitau (1), who will be eighteen leagues from Malindi, which was the lord of all that land. Today it is a poor settlement, but the lofty towers and ruins which are still standing and can be seen, show that it was once an important place. Others say that nearby Luziwa (3) was once lord of all, and that Paremunda [= Pate, Manda], jaca [=Shaka], Oja (4) and other towns in the area all obeyed her.
Be that as it may, as there is no Village in the World, whose residents do not have great foundations for their first home; what does it do to our case to know, that everyone contends about the fear of the land in his region, and from here comes El-Rey of Malinde to say that Chiona (2), and Quilife (Kilifi), who are between him, and Mombaça, belong to him. This is the old dispute he has with the kings of the land. Above that, he also disputes about Oja for the same reason as for the other places.
Finally, everyone between them has a difference, and none of them in the countryside has a foot of land, because the Kaffirs do not allow them to do so, because they are afraid of them, and because of this, cities are surrounded by walls, some by mud, and others of stone, and lime. And it is true that the new King of Malindi comes from those who were lords of Quitau (1), or Luziva, it seems that he has justice in the claim of ancient antiquity, ……
(1) Quitau: Kitau at 18 leagues (100km) from Malindi would be at the mouth of the Tana Ozi river. But as the Portuguese distances are not very correct it might also be the Kitau on Manda island (further N) mentioned by Ibn Majid (1470).
(2) Chiona according to Thomas Vernet (2005) maybe Kitoka, south of Kilifi.
(3) Luziwa, a modest settlement on the mainland south of Lamu Island mentioned in Portuguese sources until the mid-17th century, had the ascendancy in former times.
(4) Oja according to Thomas Vernet (2005) maybe Ungwana. In 1637 when the Portuguese signed treaties with the cities in that area, Oja is not mentioned anymore.