ABSTRACT

In this chapter I will focus on the village of Kanga 1 on northern Mafia Island, which I have come to know well since I first visited it half a century ago (Caplan 1975). At the same time, I will consider how some of its features are replicated in other villages of Mafia Island and elsewhere on the eastern African coast and islands of Tanzania and Kenya, and ways in which they differ. Some village settlements are of ancient origin, as attested by grave sites and mosques, others have grown up more recently and expanded as a result of political and economic changes. But it will also be the contention of this chapter that the boundaries and differences between villages and towns are less clear-cut than has often been imagined.