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 Kenyan independence. Tourism developed from the 1970s, mainly around the eighteenth century Swahili architecture and traditional culture. There is one town and three villages on Lamu Island
Lamu Island, infos taken from
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