Comparative Study on Environmental/Lifestyle Assessment and Multi-ethnic Coexistence in Swahili Maritime Society focusing on Resource Use and Management

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This study analyzed the exploitation and sharing of coastal resources by according to ethnic groups in Swahili maritime society: Kilwa and Mafia in Tanzania and Lamu and Pate in Kenya. As the result, the inland seas covered with mangroves were important for residence and occupational spaces in each island. The ethnic groups on Kilwa Island are easily categorized into two types of fisheries. Gathering fishery on the mangrove inland sea was found to be practiced by Bantu fishers, whereas net fishing on the open sea was conducted primarily by fishers of Arab descent who possessed expensive large boats. Each ethnic group has been able to monopolize its own fisheries. This has contributed to the maintenance of harmonious multi-ethnic coexistence on the island. However, from around 2004, maritime resource use on Kilwa Island has changed due to coastal development. The fishing activities of Bantu fishermen, who generally fish on the mangrove inland sea, have been restricted due to new conservation policies for mangrove environments. Bantu fishermen who lost their fishing equipment and livelihood were forced into poverty. As a result, the economic gap between the two ethnic groups widened, and fear for the security of daily life has spread within Kilwa society. Bantu women on the island have started to more actively participate in economic activities, including starting fried fish businesses, to help family budgets. Since 2005, sorcery cases were increasing, and shamanism as an anti-sorcery ritual has burgeoned in Kilwa coastal societies. This study clarified how the changing of traditional resource use caused by the environmental conservation policy gives influences on cultural and economical structures in this region