The lower Tana from about Garissa to the delta is a green ribbon of flood-plain farming through dry bush.
Abungu's archaeological survey traces farming and trading villages on the lower river and in the delta from about 700 onward, with links to the coastal towns. In later centuries this is the land of the Pokomo, who speak a Sabaki language close to Swahili and remember Shungwaya; on most readings their forebears farmed the river in 1200, though the Pokomo name and clans are recorded only much later. The Swahili town of Ungwana stood near the old river mouth.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not named
- Title
- Village and clan elders
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
What it holds
- The Tana flood-plain from about Garissa to Kipini
- The Tana delta
How things stand that morning
Self-governing villages.
Customs
Village and clan elders; later Pokomo had age-graded councils and clan-based river lands (not attested for 1200).
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Archaeological survey (Abungu) and linguistic inference; no written source.
On the map: A strip along the river widening into the delta.
Sources and studies
- G. H. O. Abungu, Communities on the River Tana, Kenya: an archaeological study of relations between the delta and the river basin, AD 700-1890 (PhD thesis, Cambridge, 1989)
- Wikipedia, 'Pokomo people'
- D. Nurse and T. Spear, The Swahili: Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 800-1500 (1985), on the Sabaki languages
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.