Lamu has hosted major Muslim religious festivals since the 19th
century, and has become a significant center for the study of Islamic
and Swahili cultures. The island is linked by boat to Mokowe on the
mainland and to Manda Island, where there is an airport. There are no
roads on the island, just alleyways and footpaths, and therefore, there
are few motorized vehicles on the island. Residents move about on foot
or by boat, and donkeys are used to transport goods and materials.
A
port was founded on the island of Lamu by Arab traders at least as early
as the fourteenth century, when the Pwani Mosque was built. The island
prospered on the slave trade. After defeating Pate Island in the
nineteenth century, the island became a local power, but it declined
after the British forced the closure of the slave markets in 1873. In
1890 the island became part of Zanzibar and remained obscure until Kenya
was granted independence from Great Britain in 1963. Tourism developed
from the 1970s, mainly around the eighteenth century Swahili
architecture and traditional culture.
Lamu Old Town was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001 based on 3 criteria:
Criterion
(i): The architecture and urban structure of Lamu graphically
demonstrate the cultural influences that have come together there over
several hundred years from Europe, Arabia, and India, utilizing
traditional Swahili techniques to produce a distinct culture. Criterion
(ii): The growth and decline of the seaports on the East African coast
and interaction between the Bantu, Arabs, Persians, Indians, and
Europeans represents a significant cultural and economic phase in the
history of the region which finds its most outstanding expression in
Lamu Old Town. Criterion (iii): Its paramount trading role and its
attraction for scholars and teachers gave Lamu an important religious
function in the region, which it maintains to this day
