Extension of Kiswahili during the German colonial administration in continental Tanzania (former Tanganyika), 1885-1917

When European explorers in the 19th century came to East Afiica they found Kiswahili was already established as a lingua franca in the coastal region and along the trade routes from the coast to the interior. One of them, an Englishman, John Hanning Speke, embarked on his second journey, in 1860, from Bagamoyo and travelled inland. When he reached Karagwe on the west side of Lake Nyanza, he was welcomed by Mukama Rumanika, the ruler of Karagwe, who `spoke to Speke in Swahili` (Clerke 1960: 74}. (On his previous journey to the same area, Speke gave the name of Victoria to Lake Nyanza, in honour of Queen Victoria of England) Kiswahili, then, was taken for granted as a language of communication as far inland as Karagwe. Other 19th century European travellers and explorers (Albrecht Roscher, Hermann von Wissmann, Richard Burton, David Livingstone and others) who reached trade centres inland, such as Njombe, Tabora and Ujiji, found Kiswahili was an inrportant language of trade