One hundred years in Brava: The migration of the Umar Ba Umar from Hadhramaut to East Africa and back, c. 1890–1990

Abstract

Contacts between Arabia and the East African Coast, which have marked the history of the western part of the Indian Ocean since ancient times, have often involved the migration of individuals and groups of people who have contributed to the shaping of the Swahili society. However, details of group migrations from Arabia (even comparatively recent) remain to this day largely unexplored as to their causes, the impact the newcomers had on the East African societies, and their material and cultural contribution to the Swahili coastal centres. It has also never been assessed how long it took an Arab migrant group to become fully integrated into their new socio-economic environment. This paper tries to answer some of these questions by illustrating a migration that took place in the late nineteenth century and involved almost the entire South-Arabian qabila of the Umar Ba Umar, originally settled in and around Ghayl Ba Wazir, some 30 km inland from the ports of Mukalla and Shihr. This...