The wet mountain blocks of the north-east: the Usambara behind Tanga and the North and South Pare along the Pangani river.
Bantu farmers, forebears of the Shambaa and Bondei in the Usambara and of the Pare (Asu) and Gweno in the Pare, grow bananas, yams and grain on the slopes and irrigate with furrows; Pare iron was famous in later centuries. The kingdoms of these mountains (Ugweno of the Shana smiths and the Suya, the Kilindi of the Shambaa) are later, of the fifteenth century and after.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known: no leader is named for this date
- Title
- Heads of lineages, villages and clans
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
How things stand that morning
Independent mountain communities; no state yet.
Assemblies
Village and lineage elders settle disputes and allocate land; there is no chief over the whole people that the evidence can show for 1200.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- Through 1200No dated event is known.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Language history and later tradition; the archaeology of the Iron Age here is sparse for this date.
On the map: Drawn from modern language areas, physical geography and a few dated sites; the 1200 extent is a rough guess.
Sources and studies
- Ehret, An African Classical Age (1998) and Nurse and Spear, The Swahili (1985), on the language history of the East African interior and coast (cited from memory of the literature)
- UNESCO General History of Africa, vol. 4, and Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 3, chapters on East Africa and the interior (cited from memory of the literature)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.