In August 1505 Portuguese forces under Francisco de Almeida attacked and sacked Mombasa. The battle formed part of Portugal's effort to dominate the Indian Ocean trade routes. It disrupted Swahili city-state networks that had long joined African, Arab, Persian and Indian cultures.

The assault matters for literary history because Swahili coastal culture preserved poetry, praise, genealogy and Islamic learning through Arabic script and oral performance. Portuguese violence altered the political setting in which those coastal traditions continued to adapt.