WHAT WAS THE LAND OF ZENJ/AZANIA? (10 MARKS)

The land of zenj referred to the stretch of land between Mogadishu and Cape Delgado.

It was approximately 3000 kilometers long.

It also stretched 10 miles into the interior of east Africa.

The name was an original interpretation given to the coastal settlements by the early Arabs and Persians to mean the land of the black people.

By 1500AD this stretch consisted of prominent towns like kilwa, Mogadishu,malindi,Mombasa etc.

It also included islands like Zanzibar,pate,lamu,sofala,mafia,pemba,barara,merca,gedi,oja,kismayu and all together totaled up to thirty seven in number.

The land of the zenji later was called the zenji empire but this was a misleading interpretation because such an empire never existed on the east African coast.

The land of zenji was originally inhabited by the bushmen,followed by the bantu and cushites.later the Arabs,Persians Indonesians,Egyptians and Indians came to the coast.

The greeks called the same land AZANIA also to mean the land of the black people.

Today the name zenji survives in the name of the Zanzibar