Mikindani (Mji wa kale wa Mikindani in Swahili) is a historic coastal town located in Mtwara-Mikindani District of Mtwara Region in Tanzania. The name comes from the Swahili word mikinda which means "young coconut trees". Therefore, the term "Mikindani', literally means "the place where there are young coconut trees" in old Swahili language. Mikindani is part of the city of Mtwara and is governed by the Mtwara Mikindani Municipal Council. The site is a registered National Historic Site.

About 50 kilometres north of the Mozambique border, in the Tanzanian Mtwara Region, is the location of settlement of Mikindani. Mikindani was a thriving port in the 19th century, when it participated in the trades of ivory, gum copal, and slaves for the Indian Ocean plantation system. It served as the starting point for Dr. David Livingstone's final expedition into the interior of Africa in 1866 during that time period. Kilwa, a significant Swahili city, has been the subject of archaeological studies in the area surrounding Mikindani. Mikindani participated in Indian Ocean trade during the first millennium CE, used marine resources with mixed farming subsistence practises, and extensively shared coastal trends.

However, as the millennium went on, Mikindani's material culture and economy set itself apart from that of northern coastal settlements. They did not follow Swahili patterns of historical development during the second millennium, which was strikingly evident in the absence of distinctive Indian Ocean import ceramics and the emergence of a new local ceramics style with ties to the interior and the south rather than Swahili sites further north. By the middle of the second millennium, when the town reintegrated with the Indian Ocean world, these differences from the rest of the Swahili coast were partially erased. However, the significance of interior linkages was still retained, as demonstrated by surviving material culture parallels.

Recent archaeological studies have substantiated the historical expectations regarding the ancient utilization of the Mikindani Bay area, indicating that human occupation extended into the Late Stone Age, specifically the final centuries before the Common Era . Notably, the archaeological findings reveal that the inhabitants of Mikindani participated in significant cultural developments associated with Swahili civilization along the East African coast. This participation included the establishment of Iron Age agricultural settlements in the early first millennium CE and the adoption of red-painted Swahili Ware ceramics during the mid-second millennium. However, it is important to note that they did not engage in the cultural advancements characteristic of the early second millennium flourishing of the Swahili region.

Despite evidence of early settlement, there is no historical documentation to support the designation of Mikindani as a major center of Swahili culture. The town, referred to as either Mikindani or Quindarmis, is not mentioned in the historical records of other Swahili towns until the accounts of the nineteenth century. In terms of pre-nineteenth-century stone architecture, the region appears to have possessed only modest stone mosques at Pemba and Msemo, along with a possible royal residence or a Portuguese fortified structure at Mikindani, as noted in European accounts.

The scarcity of such buildings, especially when contrasted with the extensive stone architecture—comprising multiple mosques, numerous stone structures, and occasional monumental buildings—found in other prominent Swahili centers is noteworthy. Historical narratives suggest that Mikindani was smaller in both size and population compared to major centers such as Kilwa or Mombasa. Nevertheless, European accounts consistently recognized Mikindani and its neighboring settlements around Mikindani Bay as regionally significant. This regional importance, coupled with involvement in interregional trade and the relative absence of substantial stone architecture, underscores Mikindani's classification as a mid-level Swahili town during the latter part of the second millennium.

The settlement of Mikindani is first mentioned in written history in the latter half of the eighteenth century in relation to French involvement in the slave trade, although several of these early records, such as one from David Livingstone in 1866, offer architectural evidence for a much longer habitation. In fact, archaeological study in the area surrounding Mikindani has shown that there has been intensive habitation since the fifth century and that there has been occupation since the final centuries BCE. The original inhabitants were the Makonde people

In comparison to other Swahili towns and cities, Makonde communities such as those in Mikindani were modest in size. They struck a balance between a matrilineally organised ritual authority for the offspring of early settlers and founders and a strong ambivalence towards authority and a propensity to disintegrate through small-scale movements in response to problems like drought and raiding, to acquire new land to support extensive agricultural patterns of bush fallowing, or out of simple ambition. Due to these traits, Makonde communities were able to survive on their own in spite of Portuguese pacification efforts, slave raids, and the actions of many African war leaders.