Mikindani is situated in the Swahili Coast, a cultural area spanning from Mozambique to Somalia. It is situated 250 kilometres south of Kilwa, a significant Swahili city, at the southernmost point of that coast.
Iron Age fishing and agricultural communities gradually became more integrated into the social and economic networks of the Indian Ocean in the second part of the first millennium. This transformation was sparked by the conversion of many coastal populations to Islam.