Trajectories and Turning Points: Swahili Agency in the Portuguese Age of Discovery

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines the extent to which Swahili agency shaped the Portuguese arrival as a turning point in East African economic history. Situating the encounter within the longue durée of Swahili integration into Indian Ocean trade networks, it aims to challenge interpretations that portray colonial contact as a purely exogenous rupture. Drawing on a bargaining-power framework, the study thus analyses how factors such as internal political rivalries, market structures, ecological constraints, and decentralised trade networks influenced the expression of Swahili agency amidst changing global contexts. The findings suggest that while the Portuguese imposed significant external constraints and narrowed the scope for autonomy, outcomes along the coast were far from uniform. By combining a long-run perspective on Indian Ocean integration with focused analysis of early Portuguese–Swahili encounters, the thesis demonstrates that indigenous agency significantly shaped early outcomes within structural limits.