Swahili The name Swahili derives from an Arabic word Swahili, the plural of sahel, which means coast. The Swahili are the descendants of the Arabs who came to the East African coast and intermarried with the Local Bantu-speakers. Arab traders sailed down to the coast on the north-east monsoon winds, between November and April, and sailed back up to south-west on the reverse monsoon winds, between June and October, already in pre-Islamic times. The coast, the land of Zenj to the Arabs, was inhabited by peoples of undetermined origin-perhaps by Bushmanoid groups, by Bantu speakers, perhaps by Cushitic-speakers, perhaps even by people of