A'zania ()[ Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, 15] is a name that has been applied to various parts of southeastern tropical Africa.[Richard Pankhurst, An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia, (Lalibela House: 1961), p.21]
In 1933, G.W.B Huntingford proposed a theory of Azanian civilization existing in Kenya and northern Tanzania, between the Stone Age and Islamic period. It was supposed that these people were from Somalia where they eventually perished around the 14th to 15th-century.
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Ancient A'zania
A'zania was a region in ancient Arcadia, which was according to Pausanias named after the mythical king Azan. According to Herodotus, the region contained the ancient town of Paus. The use of this name coincides with a reference in which Pliny the Elder mentions an "Azanian Sea" (N.H. 6.34) that began around the emporium of
Adulis and stretched around the south coast of Africa. It may well be that the Greek usage resonated with a term already in use around the Horn of Africa especially in the light of the fact that the term with a different meaning to the Greek Arcadian meaning, was in use in South Asia, Southeast Asia and China. The Greek Travelogue is unlikely to reflect navigation of the African East Coast.
The 1st century AD Greek travelogue the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea first describes Azania based on its author's intimate knowledge of the area. According to the
Periplus, traded items included awls, knives, glass, and iron implements, although this does not suggest the "Azanians" were unaware of iron smelting. Chapter 15 of the
Periplus suggests that Azania could be the littoral area south of present-day Somalia (the "Lesser and Greater Bluffs", the "Lesser and Greater Strands", and the "Seven Courses").
[George Wynn Brereton Huntingford, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, (Hakluyt Society: 1980), p.29] Chapter sixteen describes the emporium of
Rhapta, located south of the Puralean Islands at the end of the Seven Courses of Azania, as the "southernmost market of Azania". The
Periplus does not mention any dark-skinned "
Aethiopia" among the area's inhabitants. They only later appear in
Ptolemy's
Geographia, but in a region far south, around the "Bantu nucleus" of northern
Mozambique. According to John Donnelly Fage, these early Greek documents altogether suggest that the original inhabitants of the Azania coast, the "Azanians", were of the same ancestral stock as the Afro-Asiatic populations to the north of them along the
Red Sea. The "Azanians" made extensive use of small sewn boats, which were used to fish and hunt. The
Periplus's description of the "Azanians" is brief, merely characterizing them as "Dark-skinned" and "Of great stature".
Subsequently, by the 10th century AD, these original "Azanians" had been replaced by early waves of
Bantu peoples settlers.
Later Western writers who mention Azania include Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100 – c. 170 CE) and Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th century CE).
Revival
The term was briefly revived in the second half of the 20th century as the appellation given to
South Africa by
Marxists such as the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) party. It has also been applied to the regional state of
Jubaland within Somalia.
Zanj Coast
,
Hadramut and
merchants established various trading posts on the Zanj Coast corresponding to Azania: the South Semitic etymology of A'Zania preceded the later Arabic Al-Zanjia. The roots of "land of the Zanj" - "Al-Zanjia" however is contested as not being related to the South Semitic etymology, nor to the Greek usage referring to an Arcadian territory and legend - and pronounced differently "e osania", but rather relates to Southeast Asia etymology.
Zanj in Arabic means the "country of the blacks". The name is also
transliteration Zenj,
Zinj or
Zang.
[.] Anthony Christie argued that the word
zanj or
zang may not be Arabic in origin: a Chinese form (僧祇
sēngqí) is recorded as early as 607 AD. Christie argued that the word is South East Asian in origin.
The Javanese word
means African people, precisely the people of Zanzibar.
It is known that the
Dayak people Austronesian peoples reached Madagascar by ca. 50–500 CE.
As for their route, one possibility is that the Indonesian Austronesian came directly across the Indian Ocean from
Java to
Madagascar. It is likely that they went through the
Maldives where evidence of old Indonesian boat design and fishing technology persists until the present.
[P. Y. Manguin. Pre-modern Southeast Asian Shipping in the Indian Ocean: The Maldive Connection. 'New Directions in Maritime History Conference' Fremantle. December 1993.]
See also
Bibliography
-
Casson, Lionel (1989). The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Lionel Casson. (Translation by H. Frisk, 1927, with updates and improvements and detailed notes). Princeton, Princeton University Press.
-
Chami, F. A. (1999). "The Early Iron Age on Mafia island and its relationship with the mainland." Azania Vol. XXXIV 1999, pp. 1–10.
-
Chami, Felix A. 2002. "The Egypto-Graeco-Romans and Paanchea/Azania: sailing in the Erythraean Sea." From: Red Sea Trade and Travel. The British Museum. Sunday 6 October 2002. Organised by The Society for Arabian Studies.www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/ane/fullpapers.doc
-
Huntingford, G.W.B. (trans. & ed.). Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Hakluyt Society. London, 1980.
-
Yu Huan, The Weilue in The Peoples of the West, translation by John E. Hill
External links
