The origins of east African coastal trading society
Azania: the east African coast to 500 CE
The east African coast was known to the Greek and Roman traders of the early centuries CE. They referred to the region as 'Azania. The earliest known written reference to the land of Azania is in a mid-first-century Greek handbook, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (The Voyage of the Indian Ocean). Written in the great Egyptian trading port of Alexandria, it was intended for Greek trading ships, as a guide to the known ports of the Indian Ocean. It refers to a series of market towns along the Azanian coast from which overseas traders were able to obtain ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell and a little coconut oil. In exchange for these goods, traders from Arabia and the Red Sea provided the Azanians with iron tools and weapons, cotton cloth and a small quantity of wheat and wine. The Periplus referred to 'Rhapta' as the most southerly known port on the coast of Azania.
The exact site of Rhapta has not yet been identified, but it is thought to have been situated either somewhere in the Rufiji delta, in the central coastal region of modern Tanzania (see Map 10.1), or possibly close to Dar es Salaam, opposite Zanzibar Island.
The peoples of Azania were clearly experienced fishermen, well practised in the use of small boats along the coastal waters offshore. They fished and caught turtles from dugout canoes and they sailed among the islands in small coastal boats made of wooden planks knotted together with lengths of coconut fibre. Each market town was under the rule of its own chief, although the Periplus tells us little more about the people except that they were tall and dark-skinned. A few Arab traders were known to have settled in the region, intermarried with the local people and adopted their language. But there is no sign that these early Arab settlers had any significant impact or influence on the Azanians. They were settling within already existing fishing and trading communities.
Who exactly these early Azanians were is not known for sure. Archaeological research has not yet revealed evidence of any of their early coastal market towns. Future archaeological research might reveal pottery or other artefacts, which would tell us more about them. In the meantime, it seems likely that they were part of the developing east African Early Iron Age, probably Bantu speaking, as discussed in Chapter 4. The report of the Periplus, that they imported iron goods, need not contradict this. They may simply have found it easier to import manufactured iron goods rather than spend the time and effort smelting and making their own. They probably adopted the fishing techniques already developed by pre-existing hunting and fishing communities. The use of 'sewn' boats and the presence of the coconut suggest some early contact with the sort of Austronesian sailors who colonised Madagascar in the early centuries CE. But it does not appear that any Austronesians actually settled permanently on the coast at this time. What is known from archaeological and linguistic evidence is that by at least the fifth century CE, Bantu-speaking farmers and fishermen were well established along the east African coast.
The Land of Zenj: the east African coast to 1000 CE
Indian Ocean trade was given a great boost by the spread of Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries. The shift of the Islamic capital to Baghdad in 750 Ce brought the Persian Gulf more firmly into Indian Ocean trading networks. A number of Shi'ite refugees from southern Arabia settled along the northern half of the east African coastline during the eighth century. They intermarried with the African population and learnt the local language. The increasing presence of Arabic-speaking peoples on the offshore islands greatly eased trading relations between the east African coast and the rest of the Muslim world. Arabic writers of the time referred to the main central region of the east African coast as 'the Land of Zenj' (sometimes spelt 'Zanj').
In the western Indian Ocean, the monsoon winds blow towards east Africa between November and March, and towards India and the Persian Gulfbetween April and October. This seasonal pattern of monsoon winds largely influenced the pattern of cross-ocean trade that developed between the east African coast and the Islamic world of western Asia. Most of the long-distance trade of the western Indian Ocean was carried in Arab sailing ships known as dhows (see Figure 10.1). The journey across the ocean could take several months. This did not leave them much time for trading along the east African coast before they had to turn for home on the southwest monsoon. The more northerly ports of Mogadishu and Barawa and the Lamu islands thus became their most common ports of call. Local coastal trading was generally left in the hands of African traders who brought their goods to the principal market towns. This enabled merchants from across the ocean to complete their business quickly without wasting valuable time calling between one tiny settlement and the next.
As the demand for African ivory and, later, gold rose, so more Muslim Arabs settled in the island towns to try and direct the local trade to their advantage. The local African ruling family was generally happy to develop close relations with these early Muslim settlers, often through intermarriage. In this way, they were able to ensure that overseas Muslim merchants would feel welcome and be well received within the town.
By the ninth century, there were a number of well-established market towns along the coast of the Land of Zenj' (see Map 10.2). Most were situated on the offshore islands. There were several on the Lamu islands off the northern Kenyan coast and others further south on Zanzibar, Kilwa and the Comoro Islands. Although clearly involved in overseas trade, they were nevertheless primarily local African towns. Archaeological evidence has shown that they were cattle-keeping, mixed farming communities who had added trade to their basic agricultural economy. Cattle were kept in central fenced enclosures and domestic houses were generally built on a circular pattern, made of mud brick and thatch. Most of the pottery that archaeologists have found in these sites was locally made, on a general east African Iron Age pattern. Small quantities of imported pottery from the Persian Gulf, western India and China confirm the trading link. The style of local pottery is remarkably similar through the 3,000-kilometre stretch of coastland from Mogadishu to Mozambique. This suggests close cultural links and regular sailing contacts between the various trading settlements along the coastal region.
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language of the Early Iron Age peoples who appear to have lived in the region of the Tana valley and the Lamu islands. The Arabic additions came from Arab settlers who married into coastal society. They retained Arabic for writing and communicating with overseas traders, but used Kiswahili in their normal daily speech. In due course, Kiswahili was developed as a written language, using an Arabic script.
Between the tenth and fourteenth centuries, the term 'Swahili' came to denote a distinctive coastal society that was Islamic in religion and culture, but primarily African in language and personnel. It was an urban, coastal trading culture and economy, and it is to the development of these Swahili towns that we now turn.
The period from about 970 to 1050 was one of renewed growth for the east African trading towns. This coincided with a rising demand for African ivory and gold in Byzantine Europe and Fatimid Egypt. There is evidence of further Muslim settlement on east African coastal islands. Al-Masudi's reference to the island of Kanbalu having a Muslim king suggests that this was unusual in the early tenth century. A century later it was more common, as Muslim influence increased. Mosques were built in some of the towns, as a number of African rulers converted to Islam or Muslim settlers married into local ruling families. Rectangular houses made of blocks of coral stone began to be built at some of the northern market towns. This was in the style of houses on the Dahlak islands of the Red Sea, suggesting closer links through this trade route with Egypt and the Mediterranean. There were general signs of growing prosperity, at least among the ruling classes. A number of wealthy merchant rulers began to mint their own coins out of silver and copper (see Figure 10.2). The gold Fatimid dinar remained the principal currency of international exchange, but small local coins were used for local transactions.
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The gold trade and the rise of Kilwa The period 1050-1200 saw further Muslim immigration from the Persian Gulf and Oman. Possibly because of pressure from these newcomers, a number of northern Swahili Muslims, particularly from the Lamu islands, moved south to settle on the islands of Zanzibar, Mafia, Pemba, Kilwa and the Comoros. Here, they settled in existing trading towns and set up new dynasties that ruled the islands for generations to come. The leading members of these ruling families claimed to trace their Muslim ancestry to immigrants from Shiraz in the Persian Gulf. The dynasties they founded are therefore usually referred to as 'Shirazi. But there is no evidence of direct Persian immigration and it seems likely that some prominent northern Swahili families invented the connection for added status. From the time of this so-called Shirazi 'migration, houses made of blocks of coral stone began to be built on the islands of Pemba, Zanzibar, Mafia and Kilwa (Map 10.3).
Of all the new Swahili towns, Kilwa was destined to become the most important. Until this time, the gold trade, such as it was, had been largely organised by the Muslim merchants of Mogadishu, the northernmost Swahili town, founded in about 1000 CE. Through their Muslim contacts along the coast, the Mogadishu merchants arranged for gold dust to be brought north from the 'land of Sofala' far to the south. The new Shirazi rulers of Kilwa were now in a position to break Mogadishu's control of the gold trade. Kilwa was the most southerly point to which overseas merchants could sail in one season. It was therefore ideally placed to control the southern trade. The merchants of Kilwa sent ships south to form a small trading settlement at Sofala, just south of modern Beira (Map 10.3). Here, the peoples of the interior brought gold from the emerging societies of the Limpopo valley and the Zimbabwe plateau. By the thirteenth century at the latest, Kilwa had broken the hold of Mogadishu and established local control of the overseas trade in the gold of southern Africa. For the next 200 years, Kilwa remained one of the most important and perhaps the wealthiest of all the Swahili trading towns.
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BOOK NAME: History of Africa
PUBLISHED: August 28, 2018
AUTHOR: Kevin Shillington
