The Swahili people are a Bantu ethnic group and culture found in East Africa; mainly in the coastal regions and the islands of Kenya; Tanzania and northern Mozambique. The name Swahili is derived from the Arabic word Sawahil; meaning 'coastal dwellers'; and they speak the Swahili language.

The Swahili are original Bantu inhabitants on the coast of East Africa; in Kenya; Tanzania and Mozambique. They are mainly united by culture and under the mother tongue of Kiswahili; a Bantu language. This also extends to Arab; Persian; and other migrants who reached the coast some believe as early as the 7th-8th c. CE; and mixed with the local people there; providing considerable cultural infusion and numerous loan words from Arabic and Persian.