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.

The history of Waswahili in Germany before the end of World War II, their life histories and living conditions have not as yet been subject of scientific research. In the period before the colonial occupation of Africa Africans came to Germany in small numbers voluntarily or as victims of violent abduction (Martin 1993). The Germans were interested in the exotic looks of the foreigners, but did not care about their regions of origin. Africa was the unknown black continent, terra incognita, its inhabitants indiscriminately `blacks´ or `negroes´. Their homelands and ethnic or linguistic identities remained obscure, relevant only to a small group of researchers with an early interest in the continent and its peoples. Concerning the so-called Swahili people from Eastern Africa who came to Germany from the colonial period on, one has to keep in mind that until the end of the forties their identities were usually defined by their knowledge of Kiswahili, not by their actual ethnic or linguistic origins. In this article some stories are told about Swahili- speaking people from the former colony of German East Africa, now Tanzania, who came to Germany temporarily or permanently and for different reasons left traces in written records, which help us to reconstruct parts of their biographies.

Iba Ndiaye Diadji, a Senegalese professor of aesthetics, sees water as intrinsic to African ontology. He also argues that water is the most important substance to inspire African artists. (Diadji 2003: 273–275.) Water certainly has a significant role in Swahili poetry, written traditionally by people living on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Swahili poems have used aquatic imagery in expressing different ideas and sensations, in different contexts and times. Water imagery can be found in hundreds of years old Islamic hymns as well as in political poetry written during the colonial German East Africa. This article discusses water imagery in traditional Islamic Swahili poetry.

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.

The history of Waswahili in Germany before the end of World War II, their life histories and living conditions have not as yet been subject of scientific research. In the period before the colonial occupation of Africa Africans came to Germany in small numbers voluntarily or as victims of violent abduction (Martin 1993). The Germans were interested in the exotic looks of the foreigners, but did not care about their regions of origin. Africa was the unknown black continent, terra incognita, its inhabitants indiscriminately `blacks´ or `negroes´. Their homelands and ethnic or linguistic identities remained obscure, relevant only to a small group of researchers with an early interest in the continent and its peoples. Concerning the so-called Swahili people from Eastern Africa who came to Germany from the colonial period on, one has to keep in mind that until the end of the forties their identities were usually defined by their knowledge of Kiswahili, not by their actual ethnic or linguistic origins. In this article some stories are told about Swahili- speaking people from the former colony of German East Africa, now Tanzania, who came to Germany temporarily or permanently and for different reasons left traces in written records, which help us to reconstruct parts of their biographies.

Iba Ndiaye Diadji, a Senegalese professor of aesthetics, sees water as intrinsic to African ontology. He also argues that water is the most important substance to inspire African artists. (Diadji 2003: 273–275.) Water certainly has a significant role in Swahili poetry, written traditionally by people living on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Swahili poems have used aquatic imagery in expressing different ideas and sensations, in different contexts and times. Water imagery can be found in hundreds of years old Islamic hymns as well as in political poetry written during the colonial German East Africa. This article discusses water imagery in traditional Islamic Swahili poetry.