posted
As I sat here in an Asian Country...reflecting on myself the and especially the constant comings and goings of ma Peeps...mostly Africans from all over..but Nigeria and Ghana much heavly represented. I sometimes feel the weight of history pressing down on us...well on me anyways most of ma boyz could care-less..too busy converting Yen into Won and Yuwan into Dollars.
IT hit me like a ton of bricks...we have being doing this for a longtime before the interlude of Europeans...the more things change the more they remaind the same. the players may have changed somewhat but we are not exactly a bunch of johnny come lately. This thread is a Shout out to them.
The following article is an excerpt from the e-book They Came Before Marco Polo, by Khalifa A.Khaliq
Early depiction of the giraffe brought to China by African sailors.
Swahili Sailors in Early China ln 133l a very famous scholar and world traveler from the City of Fez, Morocco traveled down the east coast of Africa. This traveler's name was Ibn Battuta. Ibn Battuta left in his memoir descriptions of all the foreign cities he visited all over the world.
When he went to East Africa he visited the famous city of Kilwa. Ibn Battuta described Kilwa as "one of the most beautiful and well constructed towns in the world." In the city of Kilwa government officials, teachers and accomplished business men greeted Ibn Battuta.
The people of Kilwa are generally called "Swahili". Today, as in the past, the Swahili people mainly reside in East Africa. The name "Swahili" comes from the Arabic term "Sahel" or "Swahil". These words mean "shore" or "coastline". Since they resided along the coastal areas these east African peoples called themselves "Swahili" meaning "people of the coastline".
The period when the Swahili people initially occupied East Africa goes back more than 2000 years. Initially small groups coming from other parts of Africa began to settle in the area. These groups established small villages along this east coast area. Because of its close proximity, these peoples took to the ocean. Due to their frequent contact with the Indian Ocean their ocean navigational capabilities and ship sailing skills evolved to a high level. Soon the Swahili people were able to voyage for long distances and for extended periods across the Indian Ocean.
The Swahili eventually made contact with other countries along the Indian Ocean. Swahili sailors were able to reach Arabia, India, Indonesia and even China. Strong trade links were established between East Africa and these other nations. The Swahili became very wealthy due to these trade links. Between the 10th to the 15th century more than 30 trading-cities or trading~empires developed along the east coast of Africa. These cities existed in the areas which today are called Kenya, Tanzania and the island of Zanzibar.
During the peak period of this commerce, on any given day, Swahili sailors could be seen loading their large ships with gold, iron, ivory and coconuts, and unloading from them textiles and jewelry from India and exquisite porcelain from China. The Swahili also saw ships from China and other nations pulling into their harbors. These ships were making frequent stops at Lamu, Malindi, Mombosa and other trading city-states along the east African coast. These cities had developed into affluent thriving cosmopolitan cultures due to this trade. East African ivory was in high demand during this period and this ivory found its way into India, the Persian Gulf and China. South African gold was also in high demand.
Three major items used in East African trade. Ivory, gold and salt. African elephant tusks were the source of most of Asia's ivory. Gold coins were much sought after in North Africa and cylinders of salt were in demand in South Africa.
In 1500 the Portuguese sailed to East Africa for the first time. This expedition was under the command of Pedro Alvares Cabral. When the Portuguese saw the Swahili they were astonished. One sailor on the ship wrote:
ln this land there are rich merchants and there is much gold and sliver and amber and pearls. Those of the land wear clothes of fine cotton and of silk and many fine things, and they are blackmen. The liveliest and most prosperous city in all of East Africa during this period was the island of Kilwa. The island essential1y functioned like that of a market middleman. The Kilwa rulers controlled the exchange of goods between inner Africa and other nations along the Indian Ocean. This middleman role made the Kilwa rulers some of the wealthiest individuals on the entire continent. In 196l Nevill Chitic unearthed the mosque and pa1ace of the last Kilwa ruler. This structure is called the "Husuni Kubwa". It was the largest domestic residence in all of East Africa. The palace had wel1 over 100 rooms, with galleries, patios, and separate sections for residential and commercial purposes.
The citizens of Kilwa possessed very lavish, modern looking homes on the is1and. Some of their homes were actually two to three stories high. Many of them contained rugs from Persia, jewelry from India, spices from Southeast Asia and bowls from China. The Swahili made their homes out of the most available materials: namely, mangrove poles and coral. The main building material was a coarse vesicular coral broken into irregular blocks. When this coral is initially taken from the reef it is very soft and easily cut. As it is exposed to weather and rain, though, it starts to harden and become more durable. This need for the coral to weather meant buildings were often erected in stages over several years. The houses often had very impressive entrances. They usually had large arched doorways which led to private courtyards. A wide raised bank usually ran around three sides of the courtyard and provided space to sit. In this space visitors could be received and business transactions could be conducted. Usually a large narrow reception room, with wide doors and long windows, faced onto the court. Private rooms, often beautifully decorated, led off the reception rooms.
When we look at the documents and sources on Swahili or East African trade we find early Arab writings mentioning a few details here and there about the Swahili traders. We find them mentioned in such sources as the Muruj al-Dhahab, an Arab historical encyclopedia. We also have the archaeological evidence from various Asian countries, information from the Swahili oral and religious traditions and modern research now being conducted in this field.
When researching about East Africa the source most often cited is the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. This is the earliest detailed account about Swahili trade. This book was written around the first century by a Greek ship captain living in Egypt. It discusses Swahili imports and exports, their habits and hospitality and many things about their skills and interest.
One of the biggest misconceptions people have about Africa is the belief that in the past Africans never ventured outside their homeland. This belief has proven to be a myth because in ancient times it was a generally held view amongst the Swahili that all male children were born sailors. When we look at the Swahili religious practices we find that early in their history the Swahili accepted Islam. This faith became their dominant religion. Islam also helped develop them as a mercantile sea-faring people because the pursuit of trade, commerce and traveling to distant lands are highly encouraged in the Islamic faith. "Go in quest of knowledge, even unto China." was a popular saying of Mohammed, the founding prophet of Islam. Other sayings of his include "Travel for vigor and profit", and "The timid merchant gains nothing but disappointment while the bold one makes a living."
Next
Chinese sculpture of an African merchant from Zanzibar. This piece dates back to China's Tang Dynasty 618 A.D - 907 A.D.
When we turn our attention to some of the more ancient Chinese writings we find a few hints suggesting Swahili sailors arrived on Chinese shores. An interesting passage can be found in the Ch'en-han-shu. This document discusses China's maritime trade links with other countries during the early Han Dynasty. It states:
Going again by boat about four months, there is the country of Yi-li-mo. Going by land about ten days, there is the country of Fu-kan-tu-lu, two months beyond again, there was Huang-chih; and from Huang-chih Emperor P'ing received an envoy who brought a rhinoceros as a present. Bear in mind rhinos are indigenous to Africa. In the past, a Swahili trading center existed on the island of Zanzibar. This is a small island located just off the coast of East Africa. "Zanj" or "Zaniji" was the term medieval Arabs used for east African peoples. The name still survives today. It can be seen in the island named "Zanzibar". The term "Zanzibar" derived from "zanj-bahr". "Zanj-bahr" merely means "coast of the Zanj". Interestingly, the term "zanj" resurfaced in an Arab writing of 1154 AD. The passage speaks about India and China establishing trade links with one another. It stated India fell into a state of confusion and as a result the Chinese had to withdraw their trading post and establish them on the islands of a place it called "Zanedji".
And it was said that when there were rebellions in China and injustice and excesses prevailed in India, the Chinese transferred their commerce to Zanzibar and the dependent islands nearby. They entered into relations with the inhabitants and felt very comfortable with them because of their fairness, the pleasantness of their conduct, and the ease with which they transacted business. And so it is for that reason that the island prospered and travelers to it were many. Documents from China's Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD) have also provided some details. The Sung records of 1083 AD speak of another foreign envoy visiting the imperial court. The last three characters in this envoy's name translate as "the zanj". The document stated since the envoy traveled such a long distance, the emperor decided to do something special for him:
...besides giving him the same presents for which he formerly bestowed on him, added thereto two thousand ounces of silver. Several contemporary writers on east African culture have noted in ancient times the Swahili possessed the capability to build and navigate large ships. For example, in one of his more recent books, historian Basil Davidson notes:
All this reflected the Swahili role as market middleman, linking the caravans of the interior with the ships from overseas. Their own entrepreneurs traveled far in both directions, sharing in the caravan trade with the kingdoms of the Zimbabwe culture, and also sharing in the maritime skills of the region. Like the Arabs and Indians, the Swahili had the sailing and navigating expertise...to voyage out of sight of land for long distances; and they possessed these skills many years before such things were learned in the Atlantic waters. Davidson has actually discovered Chinese testimonials of Swahili sailors visiting their country. He writes:
A Chinese commissioner of foreign trade in Fukien province of southern China recorded in 1226 that the East African cities imported 'white cotton cloth, porcelain, copper, and red cottons' by way of ships that came every year... Substantial findings have been yielded by archaeological excavations in East Africa. Researchers have uncovered several plates and bowls in East Africa with Chinese characters written on them. Research has also turned up thousands of ancient coins found at various sites in the region. During the 1950s G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville began work on systematically classifying the ancient coins discovered. By 1959 he had classified a total of 19,600 coins. In 1960 Freeman-Grenville published his results in the Journal of African History. This journal presented a few details about the coins he examined. His study revealed a lot of the coins discovered were not from East Africa. It was discovered 233 of the coins came from China. Five of the coins dated back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) in China, 212 from the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD), six from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) and ten were from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD).
The study of ancient Chinese artwork has also provided evidence to us. The Chinese made small sculptures of the Swahili merchants visiting their country. In his book, Black Jade: The African Presence in the Ancient East, art historian James E. Brunson displays a miniature clay figure of a Swahili sailor. This clay figure was actually unearthed in China. It was made in the likeness of a merchant from the east African island of Zanzibar. The piece dates back to China's Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).
One of many types of East African trading ships. These ships were used to sail northward to Arabia and eastward to India, Indonesia, Malaysia and China.
There also exist a record of an eyewitness account of Swahili merchants in the Far East. The Portuguese trader Tome Pires lived in Malaysia from 1512 to 1515 AD. In his memoir he reported seeing in Malaysia peoples from the east African cities of Kilwa, Mombosa and Malindi. The most famed and well documented Swahili visits to China center around the trade links Chinese and African people established during the 1400s. On September 20, 1414 sailors from the east African city of Malindi had presented a very extraordinary present to the emperor of China. The ruler of Malindi ordered his ambassadors to tranship a giraffe to China. Louis Levathes in her book, When China Ruled the Seas, tells us the Chinese:
...had never seen the creature before and mistook it for the mythical qilin, one of the four sacred animals in China, along with the dragon, the phoenix, and the tortoise. The qilin was believed to make its appearance only in times of great peace and prosperity. It was said to have the body of a musk deer, the tail of an ox, the forehead of a wolf, the hooves of a horse, and a fleshy horn like a unicorn. Other descriptions noted that the male animal, called simply lin, sometimes had two or three horns. The qilin did not eat meat and avoided treading on any living thing, even grass, and thus became for the Chinese a symbol of goodness, appearing only in a land well governed or when a sage was born. Confucius' mother was thought to have become pregnant by a qilin when she stepped on the footprint of the animal while walking in the woods. When the Malindi sailors unveiled this creature at the imperial court the court officials gathered closer "to gaze at it and their joy knew no end." The emperor was so impressed with the gift that he ordered a calligrapher named Shen Tu to paint the animal. This famous painting now sits in the National Palace Museum of Taipei. The painting contains classical Chinese characters retelling the story of the giraffe being transported and presented to the court by African ambassadors. Shen Tu also composed a poem commemorating the animal:
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Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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The beginning of the end when they showed up. Having notthing worth-while to trade but with plenty of fire power they did this:
THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA DUARTE BARBOSA
Sofala
Going forward in the direction of India there is a river of no great size upon which up the stream is a town of the Moors [African Muslims] which they call Sofala, close to which the King our Lord [Portuguese King Manuel I] possesses a fort. These Moors have dwelt there a long time by reason of the great traffic which they carried on with the heathen of the mainland. The Moors of this place speak Arabic and have a king over them who is subject to the King our Lord.
And the manner of their traffic was this: they came in small vessels named zambucos from the kingdoms of Kilwa, Mombasa, and Malindi, bringing many cotton cloths, some spotted and others white and blue; also some of silk, and many small beads, grey, red, and yellow, which things come to the said kingdoms from the great kingdom of Cambay [on the coast of northwest India] in other greater ships. And these wares the said Moors who came from Malindi and Mombasa paid for in gold at such a price that those merchants departed well pleased...
Kilwa
Going along the coast from the town of Mozambique, there is an island hard by the mainland which is called Kilwa, in which is a Moorish town with many fair houses of stone and mortar, with many windows after our fashion, very well arranged in streets, with many flat roofs. The doors are of wood, well carved, with excellent joinery. Around it are streams and orchards and fruit-gardens with many channels of sweet water. It has a Moorish king over it...Before the King our Lord sent out his expedition to discover India, the Moors of Sofala, Cuama, Angoya and Mozambique were all subject to the King of Kilwa, who was the most mighty king among them. And in this town was great plenty of gold, as no ships passed toward Sofala without first coming to this island...
This town was taken by force from its king by the Portuguese, as, moved by arrogance, he refused to obey the King our Lord. There took many prisoners and the king fled from the island, and His Highness ordered that a fort should be built there, and kept it under his rule and governance...
Mombasa
Further on, an advance along the coast toward India, there is an isle hard by the mainland, on which is a town called Mombasa...This Mombasa is a land very full of food. Here are found many very fine sheep with round tails, cows and other cattle in great plenty, and many fowls, all of which are exceedingly fat. There is much millet and rice, sweet and bitter oranges, lemons, pomegranates, Indian figs, vegetables of diverse kinds, and much sweet water. The men are often times at war...but at peace with those of the mainland, and they carry on trade with them, obtaining great amounts of honey, wax, and ivory. The king of this city refused to obey the commands of the King our Lord, and through this arrogance he lost it, and our Portuguese took it from him by force. He fled away, and they slew many of his people and also took captive many, both men and women, in such sort that it was left ruined and plundered and burned. Of gold and silver great booty was taken here, bangles, bracelets, earrings and gold beads, also great store of copper with other rich wares in great quantity, and the town was left in ruins.
The City of Brava
Yet further along the coast, beyond these places, is a great town of Moors, of very fine stone and mortar houses, called Brava. It has no king, but is ruled by elders, and ancients of the land, who are the persons held in the highest esteem, and who have the chief dealings in merchandise of diverse kinds. And this place was destroyed by the Portuguese, who slew many of its people and carried many into captivity, and took great spoil of gold and silver and goods. Thenceforth many of them fled away toward the inland country, forsaking the town; yet after had been destroyed the Portuguese again settled and peopled it, so that now it is as prosperous as it was before. staffwww.fullcoll.edu/amande/barbosa.pdf
Anansi's comments; then hundreds of years later the decendants of those who did the plundering would reflect on the supposedly lack of civilizations of the peoples of Africa and have the nerve to question their very humanity.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Thanks Markellion,I am beginning to think that globalization is inevitable..and it also means it dosen't have to be negative.. look especially at the ancient trade routes...bascally a win win..for all parties involved. Look at the diplomatic success of the gift of a giraffe..the Chinese not only reward the Traders handsomely...but sent hundreds of ships to visit and trade in East Africa and beyond...every kingdom made out from in-land Zimbabwe to countries up and down the coast.
It took a broke Euro with a loaded gun to really mess things up.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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quote:The more things change the more they stay the same
most definitly, even/especially on some of the deepest and teeniest details
Posts: 5555 | From: Tha 5th Dimension. | Registered: Apr 2006
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It must be understood that colonialists were determined to draw all Africans as being docile and easily exploited but they wanted to draw the Zanj as being passive more than anything else.
"Portuguese Conceptual Categories and the 'Other' Encounter on the Swahili Coast" by Jeremy Prestholdt
This article demonstrates some of the conceptual limitations of the "Other" in the analysis of cross-cultural encounters by interrogating early modem Portuguese ideas about Swahili-speakers. Portuguese authors imagined Muslims of the East African coast as "after our fashion," and the intimate, though conflicted, relationships that developed between these two groups illustrate the legacies of such perceptions. The essay challenges the notion that Luso-Swahili relations were entirely antagonistic and suggests, instead, that Portuguese interpretations of Swahili-speakers as familiar allowed some East Africans to maintain, and even further, their commercial and political interests. Since Portuguese administrators in East Africa became dependent on the Swahili as a result of the conceptual categories they employed, we should more closely scrutinize the role and legacies of preconceptions in cross-cultural interaction.
The above is just an abstract but the bellow is from page 2 and 3 from the article
quote: Spiking the Historiographical Canon: Luso-Swahili Relations Reconsidered
With the exception of a few summations of the Portuguese role in underdeveloping the Swahili region, Luso-Swahili relations have not been critically explored.[4] However, the argument most commonly repeated by East Africanists is that relationships between Swahili-speakers and the Portuguese were predicated on fierce antagonism. Since the Portuguese fought Muslims in southern Europe and North Africa, the argument goes, they saw the Swahili as another population of Moors to be conquered or destroyed (Strandes 1961; Axelson 1940, 1973).[5] This argument, however, loses much of its explanatory power when we consider the specific relations that the Portuguese developed with Swahili-speakers: [b]economic partnerships, military and political alliances, and even marriages. Europeans depended on coastal Muslims for most everything, including pilots for navigating East African waters, guides for travel on the mainland, interpreters for communication with non-Swahili, agriculturists for food, and even masons and quarrymen for constructing Portuguese forts.[6] (Silva da Rego 1962–89(2):46, 78, 142–4). From the evidence available it seems the entire Portuguese commercial venture in East Africa would have been of little success without Swahili aid. In comparison to other African societies which had contact with the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, the Swahili coast is unique in that nowhere else did the Portuguese arrive with such violence and yet build such intimate relationships with regional populations. Further, nowhere else in Africa, including Christian Ethiopia, were the Portuguese as disinterested in proselytizing as on the Swahili coast.[7] Given the repercussions of Luso-Swahili relations, a reassessment of the foundations, intricacies, and contradictions of such relationships is necessary.
quote:Originally posted by Brada-Anansi: The beginning of the end when they showed up. Having notthing worth-while to trade but with plenty of fire power they did this:
THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA DUARTE BARBOSA
Sofala
Going forward in the direction of India there is a river of no great size upon which up the stream is a town of the Moors [African Muslims] which they call Sofala, close to which the King our Lord [Portuguese King Manuel I] possesses a fort. These Moors have dwelt there a long time by reason of the great traffic which they carried on with the heathen of the mainland. The Moors of this place speak Arabic and have a king over them who is subject to the King our Lord.
And the manner of their traffic was this: they came in small vessels named zambucos from the kingdoms of Kilwa, Mombasa, and Malindi, bringing many cotton cloths, some spotted and others white and blue; also some of silk, and many small beads, grey, red, and yellow, which things come to the said kingdoms from the great kingdom of Cambay [on the coast of northwest India] in other greater ships. And these wares the said Moors who came from Malindi and Mombasa paid for in gold at such a price that those merchants departed well pleased...
Kilwa
Going along the coast from the town of Mozambique, there is an island hard by the mainland which is called Kilwa, in which is a Moorish town with many fair houses of stone and mortar, with many windows after our fashion, very well arranged in streets, with many flat roofs. The doors are of wood, well carved, with excellent joinery. Around it are streams and orchards and fruit-gardens with many channels of sweet water. It has a Moorish king over it...Before the King our Lord sent out his expedition to discover India, the Moors of Sofala, Cuama, Angoya and Mozambique were all subject to the King of Kilwa, who was the most mighty king among them. And in this town was great plenty of gold, as no ships passed toward Sofala without first coming to this island...
This town was taken by force from its king by the Portuguese, as, moved by arrogance, he refused to obey the King our Lord. There took many prisoners and the king fled from the island, and His Highness ordered that a fort should be built there, and kept it under his rule and governance...
Mombasa
Further on, an advance along the coast toward India, there is an isle hard by the mainland, on which is a town called Mombasa...This Mombasa is a land very full of food. Here are found many very fine sheep with round tails, cows and other cattle in great plenty, and many fowls, all of which are exceedingly fat. There is much millet and rice, sweet and bitter oranges, lemons, pomegranates, Indian figs, vegetables of diverse kinds, and much sweet water. The men are often times at war...but at peace with those of the mainland, and they carry on trade with them, obtaining great amounts of honey, wax, and ivory. The king of this city refused to obey the commands of the King our Lord, and through this arrogance he lost it, and our Portuguese took it from him by force. He fled away, and they slew many of his people and also took captive many, both men and women, in such sort that it was left ruined and plundered and burned. Of gold and silver great booty was taken here, bangles, bracelets, earrings and gold beads, also great store of copper with other rich wares in great quantity, and the town was left in ruins.
The City of Brava
Yet further along the coast, beyond these places, is a great town of Moors, of very fine stone and mortar houses, called Brava. It has no king, but is ruled by elders, and ancients of the land, who are the persons held in the highest esteem, and who have the chief dealings in merchandise of diverse kinds. And this place was destroyed by the Portuguese, who slew many of its people and carried many into captivity, and took great spoil of gold and silver and goods. Thenceforth many of them fled away toward the inland country, forsaking the town; yet after had been destroyed the Portuguese again settled and peopled it, so that now it is as prosperous as it was before. staffwww.fullcoll.edu/amande/barbosa.pdf
Anansi's comments; then hundreds of years later the decendants of those who did the plundering would reflect on the supposedly lack of civilizations of the peoples of Africa and have the nerve to question their very humanity.
If that wasn't bad fortune I don't know what is.
Posts: 368 | From: Oxford | Registered: Jan 2008
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Markellion,the Portuguese and the Spanairds are sometimes funny like that...remember our conversations on the Kongolese civilization...perhaps it was their constant interractions with Blacks albeit hostile to cause them to behave...not better but different than say the Dutch or the English...anyways not to go off topic. The Ethiopians
Be patient It is a long post.. But good read I promise you won't be bored:
The Aksumite state bordered one of the ancient world's great arteries of commerce, the Red Sea, and through its port of Adulis Aksum participated actively in contemporary events. Its links with other countries, whether through military campaigns, trading enterprise, or cultural and ideological exchange, made Aksum part and parcel of the international community of the time, peripheral perhaps from the Romano-centric point- of-view, but directly involved with the nations of the southern and eastern spheres, both within the Roman empire and beyond. Aksum's position in the international trade and diplomatic activity which connected the Roman provinces around the Mediterranean via the Red Sea with South Arabia, Persia, India, Sri Lanka, and even China, tied it too firmly into the network of commerce to be simply ignored (Ch. 3: 6). Map A. Map showing Aksum with Ethiopia, Sudan, the Red Sea, Arabia, Persia, India and Ceylon. Whether or not Aksum, as is sometimes claimed (Ch. 4: 5), gave the final coup-de-grâce to the ancient Sudanese kingdom of Meroë in the modern republic of Sudan, it nevertheless had an important influence on the peoples of the Nile valley, and also on the South Arabian kingdoms across the Red Sea (Ch. 3: 6). As far as the history of civilisation in Africa is concerned, the position of Aksum in international terms followed directly on to that of Pharaonic and Ptolemaic Egypt and Meroë; each was, before its eclipse, the only internationally recognised independent African monarchy of important power status in its age.
Aksumite Ethiopia, however, differs from the previous two in many ways. Its economy was not based on the agricultural wealth of the Nile Valley, but on the exploitation of the Ethiopian highland environment (Ch. 8) and the Red Sea trade; unlike Egypt and Meroë, Aksumite Ethiopia depended for its communications not on the relatively easy flow along a great river, but on the maintenance of considerably more arduous routes across the highlands and steep river valleys. For its international trade, it depended on sea lanes which required vigilant policing. Most important, Aksum was sufficiently remote never to have come into open conflict with either Rome or Persia, and was neither conquered by these contemporary super-powers, nor suffered from punitive expeditions like Egypt, South Arabia or Meroë.
Even the tremendous changes in the balance of power in the Red Sea and neighbouring regions caused by the rise of Islam (Ch. 4: 8) owed something to Aksum. It was an Ethiopian ruler of late Aksumite times who gave protection and shelter to the early followers of the prophet Muhammad, allowing the new religious movement the respite it needed (Ch. 15: 4). Ethiopia, the kingdom of the `najashi of Habashat' as the Arabs called the ruler, survived the eclipse of the pre-Islamic political and commercial system, but one of the casualties of the upheaval was the ancient capital, Aksum, itself; various factors removed the government of the country from Aksum to other centres. The Ethiopian kingdom remained independent even though the consolidation of the Muslim empire now made it the direct neighbour of this latest militant imperial power.
But eventually Ethiopia lost its hold on the coastal regions as Islam spread across the Red Sea. Nevertheless, the Aksumite kingdom's direct successors in Ethiopia, though at times in desperate straits, retained that independence, and with it even managed to preserve some of the characteristics of the ancient way of life until the present day. The Aksumites developed a civilisation of considerable sophistication, knowledge of which has been much increased by recent excavations (Ch. 16). Aksum's contribution in such fields as architecture (Ch. 5: 4-6) and ceramics (Ch. 12: 1) is both original and impressive. Their development of the vocalisation of the Ge`ez or Ethiopic script allowed them to leave, alone of ancient African states except Egypt and Meroë, a legacy of written material (Ch. 13: 1, Ch. 11: 5) from which we can gain some impression of Aksumite ideas and policies from their own records. In addition, uniquely for Africa, they produced a coinage, remarkable for several features, especially the inlay of gold on silver and bronze coins (Ch. 9). This coinage, whose very existence speaks for a progressive economic and ambitious political outlook, bore legends in both Greek and Ge`ez, which name the successive kings of Aksum for some three hundred years.
The coinage can accordingly be used as a foundation for a chronology of the kingdom's history (Ch. 4: 2). It may be as well to outline briefly here Aksumite historical development, and Aksum's position in the contemporary world, discussed in detail in later chapters (Chs. 4& 3: 6). Aksumite origins are still uncertain, but a strong South Arabian (Sabaean) influence in architecture, religion, and cultural features can be detected in the pre-Aksumite period from about the fifth century BC, and it is clear that contacts across the Red Sea were at one time very close (Ch. 4: 1).
A kingdom called D`MT (perhaps to be read Da`mot or Di`amat) is attested in Ethiopian inscriptions at this early date, and, though the period between this and the deve lopment of Aksum around the beginning of the Christian era is an Ethiopian `Dark Age' for us at present, it may be surmised that the D`MT monarchy and its successors, and other Ethiopian chiefdoms, continued something of the same `Ethio-Sabaean' civilisation until eventually subordinated by Aksum. A certain linguistic and religious continuity may be observed between the two periods, though many features of Aksumite civilisation differ considerably from the earlier material. The Aksumite period in Northern Ethiopia covers some six or seven centuries from around the beginning of our era, and was ancestral to the rather better known mediaeval Ethiopian kingdoms, successively based further south in Lasta and Shewa. The Semitic- speaking people called Aksumites or Habash (Abyssinians), centred at their capital city Aksum (Ch. 5) in the western part of the province of Tigray, from there came to control both the highland and coastal regions of northern Ethiopia. They were able to exploit a series of favourable situations, some of which we can only guess at at this stage, to become the dominant power group in the region and to develop their very characteristic civilisation in an area now represented by the province of Tigray, with Eritrea to the north where they gained access to the Red Sea coast at the port of Adulis (Ch. 3: 2). Aksumite inscriptions (Ch. 11: 5), an important, and for Africa this far south, very unusual source of information, mention a number of subordinate kings or chiefs, and it seems that the developing state gradually absorbed its weaker neighbours, but frequently retained traditional rulers as administrators (Ch. 6) under a tribute system. The title negusa nagast, or king of kings, used by Aksumite and successive Ethiopian rulers until the death of the late emperor Haile Sellassie, is a reflection of the sort of loose federation under their own monarchy (Ch. 7) which the Aksumites achieved throughout a large part of Ethiopia and neighbouring lands. In the early centuries AD the Aksumites had already managed, presumably by a combination of such factors as military superiority, access to resources, and wealth resulting from their convenient situation astride trade routes leading from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea, to extend their hegemony over many peoples of northern Ethiopia. The process arouses a certain amount of admiration; anyone familiar with the terrain of that region can readily envisage the difficulties of mastering the various tribal groups scattered from the Red Sea coastal lowlands to the mountains and valleys of the Semien range south-west of Aksum. One Aksumite inscription, the so-called Monumentum Adulitanum (Ch. 11: 5) details campaigns undertaken in environments which, in a range of only some 250 km across Ethiopia, varied from the snow and frost of the Semien mountains to the waterless salt plains of the eastern lowlands. The highest point in the mountains reaches about 4620 m and the lowest, in the Danakil desert, is about 110 m below sea level, and although the campaigns would not have touched quite these extremes, the diversity of the country the Aksumites attempted to subdue is well illustrated. The same series of campaigns continued to police the roads leading to the Egyptian frontier region and over the sea to what are now the Yemeni and Saudi Arabian coastlands. The Aksumite rulers became sufficiently Hellenized to employ the Greek language, as noted quite early on by the Greek shipping guide called the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Ch. 2: 2), a document variously dated between the mid-first and third centuries AD with a consensus of modern opinion favouring the first or early second centuries.
Somewhat later, Greek became one of the customary languages for Aksumite inscriptions and coins, since it was the lingua franca of the countries with which they traded. The Aksumites grew strong enough to expand their military activity into South Arabia by the end of the second or early third century AD, where their control over a considerable area is attested by their Arabian enemies' own inscriptions (Ch. 4: 3& 4); a direct reversal of the earlier process of South Arabian influence in Ethiopia already mentioned. As the consolidated Aksumite kingdom grew more prosperous, the monuments and archaeological finds at Aksum and other sites attest to the development of a number of urban centres (Chs. 4& 5) with many indigenous arts and crafts (Chs. 12& 13: 3) demonstrating high technological skills, and a vigorous internal and overseas trade (Ch. 8).
The inscriptions and other sources imply a rising position for Aksum in the African and overseas political concerns of the period. In the towns, the lack of walls even at Aksum seems to hint at relatively peaceful internal conditions, though the inscriptions (Ch. 11: 5) do mention occasional revolts among the subordinate tribes. Exploitation of the agricultural potential of the region (Ch. 8: 2), in places probably much higher than today and perhaps enhanced by use of irrigation, water-storage, or terracing techniques, allowed these urban communities to develop to considerable size. Perhaps the best- known symbols of the Aksumites' particular ideas and style are the great carved monoliths (Ch. 5: 6), some of which still stand, erected to commemorate their dead rulers; they also record the considerable skill of the Aksumite quarrymen, engineers, and stone-carvers, being in some cases among the largest single stones ever employed in ancient times. The prosperity which such works bespeak came from Aksum's key position in the exploitation of certain costly luxuries, either brought from areas under Aksum's direct control, traded locally, or transhipped from afar (Ch. 8: 4). We have accounts of trade in such precious items as turtle-shell from the Dahlak Islands near Adulis, obsidian, also from Red Sea islands, ivory from across the Nile, rhino-horn, incense, and emeralds from the Beja lands in the Red Sea hills. Gold from the Sudan was paid for by salt from the Danakil desert, cattle, and iron. Other commodities such as civet, certain spices, animal skins, and hides seem also to have been among Aksum's exports. Royal titles on inscriptions attest (Ch. 7: 5) to Aksum's claim to control the catchment area of some of these exports, including parts of such neighbouring regions as the old Kushite or Meroitic kingdom, the lands of the Noba and Beja peoples, other now-unidentifiable African districts, and even parts of South Arabia. To some extent such claims may be wishful thinking, but the general prosperity and reputation of the country led the Persian religious leader Mani to label Aksum as the third of the kingdoms of the world in the later third century; and something of this reputation is substantiated by the production of an independent coinage (Ch. 9) at about this time. It paralleled the country with the few other contemporary states with the wealth and political status to issue gold coinage; Rome, Persia (to a lesser degree), and, into the third century, the Kushana kingdom in northern India. Aksum's considerable imports (Ch. 8), ranging from wines and olive oil to cloth, iron, glass and objects of precious metals, are reported by various ancient writers, but containers for the foodstuffs and examples of some of the others have also been found in tombs and domestic buildings excavated at the capital and other towns. From such discoveries some ideas can be suggested concerning the social structure and way of life of the Aksumites (Ch. 14), while the tombs reveal something of their attitude to death and expectations of an afterlife. There was a radical change in this sphere in the second quarter of the fourth century, when the Aksumite king Ezana, previously a worshipper of gods identified with such Greek deities as Zeus, Poseidon, and Ares, was converted to Christianity (Ch. 10).
From then on the coins and inscriptions show royal support for the new religion by replacing the old disc and crescent motifs of the former gods with the cross, though it may have taken a considerable time for Christianity to spread into the remoter regions under Aksumite control. Aksumite inscriptions from this period are in three scripts and two languages; Ge`ez, the local language, written both in its own cursive script and in the South Arabian monumental script (Epigraphic South Arabian, or ESA), and Greek, the international language of the Red Sea trade and the Hellenized Orient. The adoption of Christianity must have aligned the kingdom to some extent towards the Roman empire, but this seems not to have been a slavish obedience for political ends. The Alexandrian patriarch Athanasius appointed, about 330AD, a Tyrian called Frumentius, who had lived in Aksum for some years, as Aksum's first bishop (Ch. 10: 2), and this apparently founded a tradition of Alexandrian appointments to the see of Aksum. In about 356AD the emperor Constantius II wrote to Ezana trying to persuade him to submit Frumentius to doctrinal examination by his own appointee to Alexandria, the bishop George of Cappadocia, who, with the emperor, subscribed to the Arian heresy. In such matters of church politics, Aksum seems to have followed Alexandria's lead, and refused to adopt Constantius' proposed changes. After the Council of Chalcedon in 451 the international church was divided, and Aksum, with Egypt and much of the east, split from the so-called melkite or imperial church and followed the monophysite interpretation of Christ's nature which Ethiopia still retains. Little is known about fifth century Aksum, but in the sixth century king Kaleb (Ch. 4: 6& 7) reiterated Aksumite claims to some sort of control in the Yemen by mounting an invasion. This was ostensibly undertaken to prevent continued persecution there of the Christians by the recently emerged Jewish ruler, Yusuf Asar, though interference with foreign traders, and perhaps fears of a new pro-Persian policy in Arabia, may have been strong incentives for Aksum, with Constantinople in the background, to interfere. The invasion succeeded, and Kaleb appointed a new ruler. However, Aksum does not seem to have been able to maintain its overseas conquests, and a military coup soon deposed Kaleb's client king, who was replaced by a certain Abreha. The latter maintained himself against subsequent Aksumite invasion forces, and is said by the contemporary historian Procopius to have come to terms with Kaleb's successor.
In any event, as the sixth and seventh centuries progressed Aksum's position grew more difficult. The independence of the Yemen was followed by its conquest by Persia during the reign of the Sassanian king Khusro I (531-579), and further Persian disruption of the Roman east followed with the conquest of Syria and Egypt under Khusro II. This seems to have dried up some of Aksum's flow of trade, and the kingdom's expansionist days were over. 28). Illustration 1. Painted miniature from a XVth century Ethiopic Psalter depicting king Solomon, reputed ancestor of the Ethiopian monarchy. Photo B. Juel-Jensen. In the tales describing life in Ethiopia before the reign of the queen of Sheba, Aksum holds an important place. A tale about a local saint, Marqorewos, states that Aksum was formerly called Atsabo (Conti Rossini 1904: 32).
Several modern authors (eg. Doresse 1956, 1971; Kitchen 1971) have speculated as to whether Tigray or the Ethiopian-Sudanese borderlands, instead of Arabia or the Horn of Africa, may have been the legendary `God's Land' of the ancient Egyptians. This land of Punt, producer of incense and other exotic treasures, where the pha raohs sent their ships, may at least have been one of the regions included at some time in the Aksumites' extended kingdom. Egyptian expeditions to Punt are known from as far back as Old Kingdom times in Egypt, in the third millenium BC, but the best-known report comes from the New Kingdom period, during the reign of queen Hatshepsut, in the fifteenth century BC. She was so proud of her great foreign trading expedition that she had detailed reliefs of it carved on the walls of her funerary temple at Dayr al-Bahri across the Nile from the old Egyptian capital of Thebes.
The surviving reliefs show that the region was organised even then under chiefly rule, with a population eager to trade the recognisably African products of their lands with the visitors. Aksum is still today a sorting and distribution centre for the frankincense produced in the region, and it is not unlikely that the coastal stations visited by the ancient Egyptians acquired their incense from the same sources. Punt is suggested to have been inland from the Sawakin-north Eritrean coast (Kitchen 1971; Fattovich 1988, 1989i), and, apart from the great similarity of its products with those of the Sudan-Ethiopia border region, an Egyptian hieroglyphic text seems to confirm its identity with the Ethiopian highland region by reference to a downpour in the land of Punt which caused the Nile to flood (Petrie 1888: p. 107). The inscription dates to the twenty-sixth Egyptian dynasty, and knowledge of Punt seems to have continued even into the Persian period in Egypt, when king Darius in an inscription of 486-5BC mentions, or at least claims, that the Puntites sent tribute (Fattovich 1989ii: 92). One extremely interesting Egyptian record from an 18th Dynasty tomb at Thebes actually shows Puntite trading boats or rafts with triangular sails (Säve-Söderbergh 1946: 24), for transporting the products of Punt, indicating that the commerce was not exclusively Egyptian-carried, and that local Red Sea peoples were already seafaring. www.dskmariam.org/artsandlitreature/litreature/pdf/aksum.pdfPosts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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quote:Originally posted by Brada-Anansi: Thanks Markellion,I am beginning to think that globalization is inevitable..and it also means it dosen't have to be negative.. look especially at the ancient trade routes...bascally a win win..for all parties involved. Look at the diplomatic success of the gift of a giraffe..the Chinese not only reward the Traders handsomely...but sent hundreds of ships to visit and trade in East Africa and beyond...every kingdom made out from in-land Zimbabwe to countries up and down the coast.
It took a broke Euro with a loaded gun to really mess things up.
Nice stuff. I wonder if the towering Chinese Admiral Cheng Ho (who travelled greater distances than Columbus in better ships) ever met the Swahili when he made his journey in the Indian Ocean?
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I should have mentioned this I think many Portuguese writings were distorted, at least when it came to the land of Zanj. Later colonialists went through a great deal of trouble distorting the history of this coast in particular wanting to believe this civilization was ruled by Arabs
If anyone can make sense of the bellow I'll appreciate any help. I don't see why the Portuguese (of this time period) would want to see the people on this coast as being white Arabs.
"A report of the Kingdom of Congo: and of the surrounding countries"
It lies at the mouth of the River Coavo, which, ifluing from the fame lake as the Nile, flows for feventy miles towards the fea, where it becomes a wide ftream, and at its mouth forms a large ifland, peopled by Mohammedans and heathen. Weftwards, towards the coaft, lies the faid Ifland of Quiloa. The latter is peopled by Mohammedans, who are almoft white, and well clad in filk and cotton garments.
The women are fair, and adorn themfelves in Moorish fafhion, with great difplay, wearing filk robes, and on their neck, arms, and feet, chains of gold and filver. Out of doors they are covered with a thin filk veil, so that unlefs they wifh it, they are not recognized. In this territory fhips find good harbours and anchorage. As a rule, the people are friendly, truthful, and familiar with ftrangers, and have at all times received and made much of the Portuguefe, confiding in them, and never doing them harm in any way. Near thefe two capes of Mombaza and Melinde, three Iflands rife out of the fea, one called Monfia, another Zanzibar, and the third Pemba, all peopled only by white complexioned Mohammedans. Thefe iflands are very fruitful, like thofe of which we have already fpoken, the people being little given to warfare, and more ready to cultivate the land, efpecially as fugar is grown here, which they take for fale in fmall veflels to the mainland, together with other products of that country.
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Several sources that I've read say that the Portuguese saw the "Swahili" as separate and distinct from other Africans. Evidently the Portuguese thought "black Africans" could not build such a civilization. Black Arabs couldn't have built this Civilization either because according to this source the people here weren't black!
quote: On this account the Portuguefe have a fortrefs at the mouth of the River Cuama, trading with thofe countries in gold, amber, and ivory, all found on that coaft, as well as in flaves, and giving in exchange filk ftuffs and taffetas, which they bring from Cambaia, where they are worn. The Mohammedans now living in thofe regions are not natives of the country, but before the Portuguefe came into thofe parts carried on traffic there, going in fmall vefiels from the coaft of Arabia Felix. When the Portuguefe became rulers of the country, the Mohammedans whom they found there remained, and at this day are neither heathen nor of the feet of Mohammed.
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YqL718 wrote:Nice stuff. I wonder if the towering Chinese Admiral Cheng Ho (who travelled greater distances than Columbus in better ships) ever met the Swahili when he made his journey in the Indian Ocean?
I don't know if he himself ever visited the Swahili cities..since he split his fleet one part going to the gulf and the the other the Swahili cities..but he must of met some as they would need local knowladge upon entering Swahili waters...even today the U.S navy sometimes use local pilots upon entering certain waters.
Mark. the Portuguse and others were soon to try and distance one African from another...they or the Spanish were responsible for the term Negroland.
It is in some people nature to make people they admire even grudgingly...more like themselves
I even read in another book Amazons of Black Sparta...some Euro's who liked certain of the Female worriors as beautiful and appearing European like.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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quote:Originally posted by Brada-Anansi: Markellion,the Portuguese and the Spanairds are sometimes funny like that...remember our conversations on the Kongolese civilization...perhaps it was their constant interractions with Blacks albeit hostile to cause them to behave...not better but different than say the Dutch or the English...anyways not to go off topic.
Um, could it be that the Portugese now behave better because a third of their women are actually African (i.e. carrying African mtDna lineages)??
Posts: 3423 | From: the jungle - when y'all stop playing games, call me. | Registered: Jul 2006
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Well contact with Africans was not new..they themselves try to down play their own African ancestry in view of some mythical pure blood..but at the same time such blood runs deep. add that to the slave status then being pinned to most Blacks at that era... then you get that kind of weird contradictory behavior.
Loose a conflict in a very bad way and you loose your opponents respect.
The Zulus kicked a little ass from time to time and they almost got drummed into someones white race.
The Anglo's could more clearly distance themselves because for most... any kind of clearly Black or African rule was in buried in memories in some long distant past.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Mark. the Portuguse and others were soon to try and distance one African from another...they or the Spanish were responsible for the term Negroland.
I'm not sure about this. The Portuguese also knew very well that it was mostly local languages that were the official languages of the area and Arabic was just language for intercommunicate with foreigners
Negroland just means Sudan (Arabic) or Ethiopia (Greek). I just don't see why later colonial ideas would exist at this time period. Colonialists like to attribute their ideas to earlier people
Here is an example I think it is a red flag when they go out of their way to say "no one can deny it" or whatever.
(At the south end of Pemba began the Sofala country) (Art Sufala) (Sufala is used to mean shoal water, sometimes however it means lowland) This section embraces the description of the remainder of the country of Sofala. You first find two towns or better two big villages, in-between there are villages and camps that resemble those of the Arabs. Those big villages are called Djantama and Dandama (Chindi and Quilimane?) They are situated at the sea shore and rather small. The inhabitants are poor, miserable, and without resources to support them except iron, of this metal there are numerous mines in the mountains of Sofala. People of the Zabag (or Zanedj or Raneh) come hither for iron, which they carry to the continent and islands of India where they sell it for good money, because it is an object of big trade and it has a huge market in India. For although there is good quality iron in the islands and in the mines of that country, it does not equal the iron of Sofala for its quality and its malleability. The Indians are masters in the arts of working it. They prepare and mix the substances so that through fusion one gets the soft steel normally called: India steel. They have factories that make the best swords in the world. This is how in iron Sind, Serenbid and Yemen rival among each other in quality through local circumstances, as well as the art of manufacturing, the pouring of the steel, the smelting, and the beauty of the polished surface. But nothing cuts better then this iron from India. Everybody knows that and nobody can deny it.
Beyond them to the south, there is no civilization in the proper sense. There are only humans who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings. They live in thickets and caves and eat herbs and unprepared grain. They frequently eat each other.68 They cannot be considered human beings. All the fruits of the Negro territory come from fortified villages in the desert of the Maghrib, such as Touat (Tawat, Tuwat), Tigurarin,69 and Ouargla (Wargalan).70 In Ghanah, an 'Alid king and dynasty are said to have existed. (These 'Alids) were known as the Banu Salih. According to the author of the Book of Roger, (Salih) was Salih b. 'Abdallah b. Hasan b. al-Hasan, but no such Salih is known among the sons of 'Abdallah b. Hasan .71 At this time the dynasty has disappeared, and Ghanah belongs to the Mali ruler.
"The Negroland of the Arabs examined and explained"
quote: " When the conquest of the West (by the Arabs) was completed, and merchants began to penetrate into the interior, they saw no nation of the Blacks so mighty as Ghanah, the dominions of which extended westward as far as the Ocean. The King's court was kept in the city of Ghanah, which, according to the author of the Book of Roger (El Idrisi), and the author of the Book of Roads and Realms (El Bekri), is divided into two parts, standing on both banks of the Nile, and ranks among the largest and most populous cities of the world.
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Thanks Mark. I am working from memory here so I'll try to find who exactly is responsible for the name Negroland. Again thanks...how many have gone to their graves with a mistranslated misunderstood version of Ibn Khladun work.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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The damage was mostly the European demand for slaves and not Europeans actually going in and destroying anything. These societies became highly dependent on the slave trade (selling human beings to Christians)
For example, in Ethiopia the expulsion of the Portuguese happened during the reign of Fasiledes and also at the same time there was a rise in slave trading
Just found this an interesting read
"Zanzibar: Pemba - Mafia: By Chris McIntyre, Susan Shand pages 10-20
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Mark.I did not want this to end in yet another slavery Issue. But the fact is ending slavery and starting colonalism is the other side of the same coin...the Fact was if Euros could not control the pie they sought it's distruction....of course Africans weren't mere victems but players also in their own demise. Something about the Upper classes looking out for their own. Racism and all the other ism was just a means to an end..we want your labour for free...see slavery..or we want your labour for cheap see... colonalism...right down to today's give us your oil..uranium..cobalt..agricultural goods for cheap or else!!!.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Black Mongolians I saw a scroll in the Fukouka museum depicting Mongolian invaders about half of whom were blacks and the others plus the Japanese defenders were light-skinned and when I say Black I dont mean merely dark. anyways follow this link and it will show you an amazing painting of an African Nobleman in 14century China. www.blackjadeworld.com/article3.htmlPosts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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My point is that relations in the 16th century were not like those of later times and scientific racism didn't exist to a great extent in the 16th century.
I've only skimmed through the article so far but I found this it shows that the Portuguese did not have the same thinking about this coast as later Europeans did. This is significant because modern day racists want to attribute their ideas to earlier people
"Portuguese Conceptual Categories and the "Other" Encounter on the Swahili Coast" by Jeremy Prestholdt
quote:10 Mbuia-João (1990) suggests that Portuguese knowledge of Islam was so limited that they assumed that there were no differences between Muslims of disparate world regions. He maintains that the Portuguese saw no distinction between the ‘Moors’ of Morocco and those of East Africa. I argue, conversely, that while the Portuguese used the term “mouro” indiscriminately, they did make distinctions between different peoples of the Islamic world. In terms of language, Manuel de Faria e Sousa noted that Arabic, for example, was not widely spoken between Kirimba and Sofala: “the language of those people cannot be harsh, being mostly compounded of the soft letters 1 and m” (Theal, 1898(1):22). The Portuguese generally described Arabic dialects as “harsh,” while Swahili, or the “language of the coast of Melinde,” was described as “soft”. M. de Figueroa described Swahili as “clearer than Arabic” (Figueroa, 1967:62). By the seventeenth century, Portuguese accounts made strong distinctions between ‘mouros da costa’ (Swahili) and ‘mouros da Arabia’ (Omanis or Yemenis). See, for example, “Carta de Março de 1622” (Livros dos Monções: Liv. 16, fol. 411), Leaé (c. 1696), and n.a., Relação da perda e restauração de Mombaça (c.1698). Portuguese narrators invariably described ‘mouros da Arabia’ in scathing terms, especially after the Portuguese loss of Muscat, while ‘mouros da costa’ were treated in a more even-handed fashion.....
22 Many sixteenth-century Europeans (both Spanish and Portuguese) in search of gold conceived of the populations that possessed it either as (1) childish, and, therefore, not responsible enough to have it, or (2) somehow morally superior and thus having no lust for gold (McGrane 1986:26). The Swahili, however, were neither of these, and, at least south of the Zambezi, they were in many ways dependent, just as the Portuguese garrison, on the survival of the trade in gold.
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I read through the article and the author does say the Portuguese thought these “Swahili” to be different from Kaffirs (unbelieving Africans) and perhaps similar to Arabs but I have reason to believe that the Portuguese didn’t feel they had to divide Africans. The Portuguese were very cruel of course but they seemed biased toward seeing the nations of “Negroland” as being some kind of great confederacy as opposed to separating them into separate distinct groups. Negroland of the Arabs was written in 1841 and I think the author is going by more accurate translations. Later translations of texts perhaps became more and more distorted over time
“The Negroland of the Arabs examined and explained”
quote:The boldness here evinced in bringing together and joining in commerce countries far asunder, is constantly exhibited in the geographical speculations of an early or ill-informed age. Distances are then enlarged as expediency requires; hypothesis leaps over the vacant spaces, and forcibly stretches the known portions in the opposite sides of a continent till they meet in the centre. Illustrations of this truth may be found in all ages. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Abyssinia, Congo, and Monomotapa were all supposed to meet together. One of the Jesuits resident in Abyssinia asserts, that salt was carried from that country to Tomboktu. The reasoning which led to this statement was, in its nature, exactly the same as that from which the Arabs inferred an intercourse between Sofalah and Yufi
quote: From the shores lying between these two rivers, Magnice and Cuama, stretches out inland the Kingdom of Monomotapa, which abounds in gold-mines, the metal being carried into all the neighbouring provinces, to Sofala, and to other parts of Africa. It is said, that from these regions the gold was brought by sea which served for Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem, a fact by no means improbable, for in these countries of Monomotapa are found several ancient buildings of stone, brick, and wood, and of such wonderful workmanship, and architecture, as is nowhere seen in the surrounding provinces.
The Kingdom of Monomotapa is extensive, and has a large population of Pagan heathens, who are black, of middle stature, swift of foot, and in battle fight with great bravery, their weapons being bows and arrows, and light darts. There are numerous kings tributary to Monomotapa, who constantly rebel and wage war against it. The Emperor maintains large armies, which in the provinces are divided into legions, after the manner of the Romans, for, being a great ruler, he must be at constant warfare in order to maintain his dominion.
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I get you Mark. I was just saying that not too long after those events scientific racism soon took hold.the reletive easy in which they could over come and dominate the trade routes and plunder from the America's and Asia and Africa...coupled with the so-called age of enlightenment..they soon look for explaination for their dominance over others...when God no longer...apply they look for the answers in science. and all this took place in a reletively small amount of time. mahaguru58.blogspot.com/2007_11_21_archive.html
What some people fail to realize is that trade and colonization was in both direction...some people applaused the Malayians for their heroic voyage to Madagascar...but look at you funny when you say Africans made the trip in the other direction and also settled in that part of the world...and it had notthing to do with Slaves or Slavery..all the time...and that Asian Slaves also ended up In Africa...example South Africa with the Dutch and others. robertlindsay.wordpress.com/.../
The guy on the bottom is an African Malik Ambar..started life as a slave then trader then soldier then king.
The above Black Asians...That's why I would really like if the folks doing research in this area would focus on who is whom and who did what instead of lumping all together..as just one big messey phenotype. and also report on how the two can overlapp sometimes.Marc.W and Mike111.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Seafarers and settlers of new lands. Did Phoenicians, Moors, and the Swahili come from the same peoples or, conversely, do they overlap and sometimes be confused for one another?
Here is a related page that doesn't contain the Swahili but in terms of plank boat style I suppose well could.
Picture of Ibn Batutta with woolly hair and his plank ship in [ B ] and bigger one on left bottom in [H] next to Hannibal:
[Brada writes]:Black Mongolians I saw a scroll in the Fukouka museum depicting Mongolian invaders about half of whom were blacks and the others plus the Japanese defenders were light-skinned and when I say Black I dont mean merely dark.
[Marc writes]: Funny but anthropologists call non-Mongoloid-looking people living in Asia of ancient time Paleo-Monguls - these people look black. They also use that term for such peoples in the Americas pre-dating maybe 1000 BC.
But, (and I put this up before) as you speak about black Monguls and Japan is also Mongul, here are blacks in Asia during the 8th century looking every bit of African as anyone on the African continent.
posted
Hi Marc.W when I speak of Monguls I am speaking of people who refer to themselves as group an ethnic group as such...neither the Chinese nor Japanese refer to themselves as Monguls..a few in both countries could possibly get upset for calling them Monguls. the Images of the snarling figures above are proberly of Indic origin...again not to say that Black Asians did not exist in Japan...but the Figures posted above does not repersent them.please be carefull of lumping people togeather...the on the ground history is very important...It is important to know your subjects whose history you are studying...do not follow in the wake of Euros on how they study Continental Africans...by simply lumping and dumping and then ignoring.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Brada. I respect your desire to see shades of difference but we will never adopt the same modus operandi.
I see the world phenotypically in terms of three great races: white (mostly straight-haired and primarily narrow facial features); Asian (straight haired and typically oblong eyed); African (primarily wiry or woolly haired given to full facial features).
There are many types that don't fit this model and that's okay as my own focus is generally racial types before the large white migrations worldwide when civilizations worldwide were virtually all African by my definition still until centuries after Christ.
You will call those of my page above people of Indic origin. We had an exchange like this before. Here's how it went:
[beginning of August 29th exchange]
Brada. You wrote the Noh masks has it's roots in Chinese Buddhism.
Earlier, from above, I said pretty much the same thing writing:
Japan was populated from yet another route before the 10th century AD and that was from Southeast and Central Asia from which by the 8th century arose its Buddhist population - also African (see pics 1, 2, 3).
[end of August 29th exchange]
Back on the 29th, even before your clarification, I noted that these people arose in SE and Central Asia - we can name countries of origin and name China and Japan. I've previously done so.
However, you are speaking of cultural origins of sorts and I am speaking of phenotype - apples and oranges. Yet, I do often refer to origins.
Brada. I would say that in most of the pages I show that I often (not always) do two things. The first is to identify phenotype as African if it is. The second is to state the immediate country of origin as you are suggesting I do but as I already do (most of the time).
But, I will always refer to those who look African as African - not geographically but phenotypically.
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-------------------- The nature of homelife is the fate of the nation. Posts: 2334 | Registered: May 2006
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posted
HI Marc.W, I know very well your positions on the above phenotype. My point is there is a Country called Mongolia..which is full of people called Monglians...now ultimately they share the same ancestry...but also you and I ultilmetly share a common ancestry with Kenyans..but we are not Kenyans..how ever we are of very recent African decent...so we are Africans like the Kenyans...Mongolians and Japanese are Asians.
Calling a Japanese or a Chinese a Mongol...is the same as calling every light-skinned lank-haired Asian person you meet a Chinese no matter where they are from. But they are all Asians...it helps to reduce confusions.
PS... I know very well that the term Mongoloid was used like Orientals as a race cathagory. But see the peoples themselves hated such lump and dump terms...in total disregard for what they called themselves.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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