Mombasa Roots achieving a great popularity. In 1987 they recorded for Polygram their debut album, "Msa Mombasa", from which hit singles "Disco Chakacha" and "Kata" were taken. As many Kenyan bands, Mombasa Roots mostly played live in great hotels. This gave them some popularity among European and American tourists and foreigners in general, as well as the opportunity to play abroad (most notably in Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Dubai, and Oman). In 1999 they recorded a successful CD, "Lele Mama", that included some tracks from "Msa Mombasa" as well as previously unreleased material. Despite their success, Mombasa Roots experienced much personnel rotation. Most
Mombasa c. 1300. The Mandhry Mosque, built in 1570, has a minaret that contains a regionally specific ogee arch. This demonstrates that Swahili architecture was an indigenous African product and disproves assertions that non-African Muslims brought stone architecture to the Swahili Coast. During the pre-modern period, Mombasa was an important centre for the trade in spices, gold, and ivory. Its trade links reached as far as the Indian subcontinent and modern-day China and oral historians today can still recall this period of local history. History shows that there were trade links between Mombasa and Cholas of South India. Throughout the early