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Swahili term for a dugout canoe, but exact connotation varies from place to place. Constructed along the East African coast and on Zanzibar and Pemba beginning in the early 1930s and still used in isolated areas for fishing and transporting light cargo and passengers. Word also used for a dugout on Lake Tanganyika. Some are simple dugouts with a flattened bottom, others have rounded block ends fitted to an open-ended dugout hull. Some sail with the addi¬tion of a small square or lateen sail and rudder. Sail may be hung from crossed poles. Also rowed, paddled, or poled. Generally small, ranging from ca. 3.5-6m in length, but known to have been large enough to convey 20-40 passengers.
Tanzania 1990;13s;SG799; 200…;350s;SG?
Source : A Dictionary of the world’s Watercraft from Aak to Zumbra.