The name derives from an Arabic word , the plural of sahel, which means coast. The 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 Bant ....