UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

The East African coast and its role in maritime trade
of trade which led down the East African coast. It has already been
suggested that one of the driving forces for Ptolemaic commercial expansion
down the Red Sea was the increasing demand for Oriental luxuries, including
ivory. It is therefore possible that the Arabs extended their commercial
activities to the East African coast at this time to supply that demand for
ivory. It is significant that when, at the end of the second century before
our era, the north-east monsoon apparently blew Eudoxus on to the African
coast somewhere south of Cape Guardafui, he was able to obtain a pilot,
probably an Arab, who took him back to the Red Sea. 30 These trading
connections undoubtedly preceded the establishment of any formal Arab
suzerainty* on the East African coast which the Periplus in the second half
of the firstcentury of our era describes as 'ancient'. 31 Exactly how early and
how far down the coast these trading connections extended in the pre-
Roman period is difficult to determine in the absence of archaeological
evidence. To date only one Ptolemaic gold coin of the late second century
before our era has been allegedly found in the vicinity of Dar-es-Salaam,
while the twenty-two Ptolemaic coins in the Haywood collection could not
have been deposited before the fourth century of our era at the earliest. 32
On present evidence, therefore, we can date Arab commercial expansion
to the East African coast to perhaps as early as the second century before
our era. Miller, however, argues that East Africa formed a vital link in the
cinnamon trade between east Asia (the spice's natural habitat) and the
northern coast of Somalia, where not only the Graeco-Romans but also the
ancient Egyptians obtained it from the second millennium before our era.
On the strength of Pliny's reference to the transport of cinnamon 'over wide
seas on rafts', Miller postulates trans-oceanic voyages by Indonesians to
Madagascar and the East African coast, followed by coastal and overland
routes ending at the Somali ports. 33 While Indonesian migration to
Madagascar may have taken this form, it is now held to have taken place
during the first millennium of our era. Moreover, there is nothing to link
that migration with the trade-route described by Pliny, which quite clearly
appears to follow the northern coast of the Indian Ocean, terminating at
the South Arabian port of Ocilia. 34 There is thus no support for Miller's
circuitous cinnamon route, or for his enormous extension of the time when
East Africa was linked commercially with the lands across the Indian Ocean.
30. Strabo, Vol. 1, pp. 377-9.
31. Periplus, p. 16; B. A. Datoo, 1970b, p. 73, adopts a later date based on a later dating
of the Periplus; 1963, G. Mathew, 1963, p. 98, suggests third century before our era, but
this is based on the Haywood collection of doubtful historical significance. See p. 553 above.
32. See pp. 553-4 above.
33. J. I. Miller, pp. 42-3, 53-7, 153-72. Professor N. Chittick, consulted by the
Committee, expressed reservations about the existence of this commerce of cinnamon.
34. B. A. Datoo, 1970b, p. 71; Pliny, Vol. XII, pp. 87-8.
* It has been suggested that 'vassal' be replaced by 'dependant' and 'suzerainty' by
'domination'.
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