3 - The Stowaway and the Sultan: How Do Swahili Islands Narrate and Conceptualize Seascapes and Island Identities?

That the cultures of Swahili city states have been shaped by transoceanic connections hardly needs any further mention. But (how) has the situatedness in the Indian Ocean been narrated by Swahili islanders and inhabitants of coastal port cities themselves? How do these narratives change over time and in relation to place? How have they been shaped by motifs travelling the sea and the land? In my paper, I will pay particular attention to a seafaring poem, the Utendi wa Msahibu, written by the female poet Mwana Bukhalasi from Mombasa. The poem which maps out a large Indian Ocean seascape has hardly received any scholarly attention so far, but builds both on local tales and a variety of Arabic-Persian motifs, which I am aiming to consider further. In comparison I will make reference to a variety of different Swahili genres – chronicles, folk takes and seafaring poetry – from different centuries, islands and port cities in the Western Indian Ocean to underline specifics of place and time. How can such a view watching out for local but widely entangled narratives enlighten present debates on cultural island heritage?