This book presents 13 papers treating the connections between East Africa and the Indian Ocean. Based in part on a 2015 conference held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the volume provides syntheses of various topics, with more in-depth coverage of others.
The volume begins with Amanuel Beyin and Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer highlighting the significance of the Eritrean coast, which may have been one of the regions from which early humans left Africa and dispersed into South-west Asia. The Red Sea Basin seems to have played a major role in this dispersion. Sites dating to the Middle and Late Stone Age reveal the exploitation of various environments by human groups along the Eritrean coast.
Using linguistic data with genetic research and evidence for the ‘tube-zither’—a musical instrument made from a bamboo tube—Roger Blench provides a good synthesis of the occupation of Madagascar. Blench rightly points out the complexity of settlement, and notes that while archaeology does not yet provide sufficient data to demonstrate the process of migrations, history and comparative anthropology can shed light on these movements of people.
In Chapter 3, Sing Chew rightly argues that increased trade and other exchange at the beginning of the Christian era fostered the formation of an Afro-Eurasian world system. Chew's discussion on world-system theory is, however, unsatisfactory. The article lacks a clear definition of a ‘system’ and of the concept of ‘globalization’ (for this, see Chase-Dunn & Hall Reference Chase-Dunn and Hall1997; Beaujard Reference Beaujard2012). Chew cites Han China and the Roman Empire as ‘cores’ (dominant regions); but ignores the Kushan Empire. He also neglects the concept of ‘semi-periphery’ (intermediaries between cores and peripheries), and does not address the roles of the Parthian and the Sassanid Empires.
Rosanne Hawarden reveals the pre-twentieth century use of large trading canoes on the Save River to transport gold and other goods from Zimbabwe and inland parts of Mozambique to the coast. Using historical and archaeological data, she documents the existence of a dock at the Runde/Save River confluence, and describes the discovery of a large unfinished canoe along the Save River.
Ancient connections between China and East Africa are explored by Chapurukha Kusimba in his chapter of the same name. The article correctly highlights the role of Islam in this indirect and then direct interaction. Beginning with a broad view of Indian Ocean trade, Kusimba goes on to focus on ancient Chinese ceramics excavated at historic sites in Kenya, and speculates on their uses. Some of the suggested dates for traded ceramics found on East African sites, such as Kilwa, Shanga, Ungwana and Mogadishu, are surprisingly early. A few misstatements should be noted: there is no evidence that banana and rice found their way to Africa during the second millennium BC; and the recovery of Chinese coinage does not necessarily imply direct contacts between China and East Africa.
Wensuo Liu and Yanrong Wang offer a synthesis on early relations between China and India, marked by the spread of Buddhism and ‘tribute’ envoys. Buddhist practices influenced the imports of products such as beads, coral, pearls, lapis lazuli, rock crystal, rubies and aromatics. Glass beads provide evidence for the use of maritime routes as early as the Han Dynasty.
In Chapter 7, Ian McIntosh examines the intriguing discovery on the Wessel Islands, north of Australia, of five copper coins from the Swahili port of Kilwa (off the coast of modern Tanzania), together with ancient Dutch coins. McIntosh places these islands in their historical context, noting that the north of Australia may have been within the Portuguese sphere of influence, while Indonesians were also probably early visitors. McIntosh suggests that the Kilwa and Dutch coins were deposited together, possibly by Makassan sailors.
Beatrice Nicolini demonstrates that Asian groups in East Africa, notably the Baluch, were introduced between the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries in the wake of Omani expansion. The Baluch people settled in the interior of East Africa as soldiers and then developed trading relationships. Nicolini provides an insightful account of the various ways that Asian communities integrated into, and influenced, East African societies.
In a well-informed chapter, Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer develops an interesting subject not often treated: how movements of goods and people have affected changes and métissages (fusion) in culinary traditions, in which names and products were both adopted and adapted. The chapter focuses on the cuisines of the Comoro Islands, which were a hub among the various regions of the Indian Ocean. The author shows how recipes can inform us about “food, trade, and population movements in the Indian Ocean” (p. 151).
Chapter 10 continues the focus on the Comoro Islands, as Martin Ottenheimer highlights the originality of the social organisation in these Islands, marked by the practice of matrilocal polygyny, and considers how this contributed to the development of oceanic trade. He demonstrates that women had significant roles in both trade and family life, while maritime trade offered men opportunities to accumulate wealth before marriage.
Akshay Sarathi examines marine shellfish exploitation at the site of Kuumbi Cave (Zanzibar), identifying three distinct phases of occupation: 13 040–11 340 BC; early first millennium to early–mid second millennium AD and the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. Sarathi's research has not yielded any of the large limestone tools or remains of domestic fauna described by other authors.
Taking an art-historical approach in her chapter on ‘Objects and ornamentation in the medieval port cities Kilwa, Songo Mnara and Pisa’, Vera-Simone Schulz presents a well-documented article that sheds light on the interrelations between architecture, imported artefacts and architectural ornamentation on the late medieval East African coast. The artistic fusion observed along the East African coast reflects the position of the coast as a node in various merging maritime exchange networks.
The final chapter by Marina Tolmachova focuses on the Arabo-Persian navigations and treatises. After outlining the contributions of various navigators and authors, she reminds us of the significance and unique knowledge of the fifteenth-century navigator, cartographer and poet Ibn Majid, and his sixteenth-century successor, Sulaiman al-Mahri.
This volume provides a good overview of maritime cultures in East Africa and the Indian Ocean, and offers insights into the interactions between East African societies and oceanic networks. The interest of the book goes beyond the geographic limits of the Indian Ocean by exploring comparative and multidisciplinary approaches.
