Within a system, multiple patterns of rule combination may interact in complex ways. I present a detailed analysis of Swahili verb inflection in which simple rules, composite rules and aggregated rules all enter into intricate competition, yielding an extravaganza of deviations from canonical morphotactic criteria. At the center of this discussion are three characteristics of Swahili conjugation: (i) the polyfunctionality of verbal concords (in virtue of which the same rule is used to express the noun class of a verb’s subject, that of its pronominal object, or that of a relativized argument), (ii) the expression of negation (by means of three complementary rules), and (iii) the marking of relative verb forms (whose relativized-argument affix participates in an extensive pattern of affix counterposition). The rule-combining approach to morphotactics allows the interacting details of these subsystems to be resolved into two very general types exhibiting an unexpected degree of economy.

Situating the rule-combining approach to morphotactics in a wider theoretical context, I summarize its implications for the architecture of Paradigm Function Morphology and for schema unification in Construction Morphology. I further contrast the exponence-driven conception of morphotactics embodied by the rule-combining approach with the very different word-skeletal approach to morphotactics, drawing attention to two advantages of the rule-combining approach. First, it affords a more parsimonious inventory of morphological operations than is assumed in Distributed Morphology. Second, it avoids the cumbersome theoretical commitments of Information-based Morphology (the assumptions of position-based ordering, rule anchoring, and distributional pigeonholing), which entail numerous complications in the analysis of a language’s morphotactics. The distinct assumptions on which the rule-combining approach rests (those of combination-based ordering, unanchored rules, and distributional multidetermination) afford morphotactic analyses that are at once simpler and more explanatory.

Chapter 4 examines relationships within coastal trader communities, focusing on Omani and Swahili populations. It traces the existence of factions whose roots lay in historical developments on the coast, and then sheds light on power shifts between them across coastal and inland regions. It argues that despite there being a ‘pioneer ethic’ that in some ways bound coastal traders, there was always an ‘undercurrent’ of competition and conflict, which became more robust as the period went on. Unlike at the coast, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, this ‘undercurrent’ was often manifested in violence. This was a symptom of the recency of coastal traders’ arrival in the region, a lack of formal institutions from the coast that followed them inland, and the highly competitive nature of ivory trading. Violence between coastal traders on the shores of Lake Tanganyika was the surface manifestation of deeper tectonics whose roots lay in the Indian Ocean World’s littoral core.

The development of discourse markers is commonly believed to be a language-internal process. In this chapter it is demonstrated, however, that new discourse markers quite commonly also arise in situations of language contact. A range of borrowing processes are discussed, showing in particular that the borrowing process may extend across countries and continents. The Spanish discourse marker entonces "then, therefore, thus," for example, spread from Europe to Central and South America, Africa, and the Pacific Ocean area.

Chapter 2 provides the historical antecedents for everyday publics in Mombasa in the 2010s. It brings an original perspective on the city’s political history, by looking at how forms of rule and belonging emerged through interactions between people and media. Through waves of foreign occupation, Mombasa’s residents navigated different foreign and domestic claims to authority, which were presented and contested through government structures, face-to-face baraza, radio and print. From its early days, the city was marked by migration, trade and a cosmopolitan community. The transition to independence invoked new ideas and experiences of marginalisation as coastal communities. This informed post-independence patterns in citizen–state relations, in which ideas of political belonging and advantage were tied to religion, ethnicity, place of origin and race. The chapter concludes by commenting on the communication landscape of the 2010s, and situating the people’s parliaments, as this book’s empirical focus, within this landscape.

This introduction provides the setting of the book and the conceptual framework used to rethink how we understand identity on the Swahili coast. It provides historiography and the organization of the book.