China and Africa: A Century of Engagement

2. A Historical Overview of China-Africa Relations

2 A Historical Overview of China-Africa Relations Africa and Imperial China: It Started with Trade Trade was the first link between Africa and China. Chinese scholar Gao Jinyuan noted that Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, who reigned between 51 and 30 BCE, reportedly wore silks that likely came from China. In about 166 CE the Han emperor received gifts, some of which originated in northeast Africa, from the Roman emperor, who ruled Egypt at the time.1 Former Chinese ambassador to Kenya, An Yongu, stated that Chinese goods dating to the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) have been found in Africa.2 British scholar Basil Davidson agreed that Chinese products reached the Red Sea, Mediterranean, and even Meroë in present-day northern Sudan by the beginning of the Christian era.3 British businessman, traveler, and writer Philip Snow’s popular account of China-Africa contact acknowledged that Chinese scholars date the trade relationship from the Han Dynasty.4 Based on available research as of 1930, East African expert W. H. Ingrams argued that Chinese trade with the east coast of Africa took place during a later period, probably beginning in the Tang Dynasty (618–907).5 As more evidence becomes available, we are learning that the trade began earlier than many scholars believed. Largely confined in the beginning to northeast Africa, the eastern coastal areas, and African islands in the western Indian Ocean, trade now dominates China’s relationship with most of Africa’s fifty-four countries (fifty-five if you include the disputed Western Sahara). Although trade statistics for this early period are nonexistent, anecdotal information and archaeological evidence strongly support the existence of commerce 18 Chapter 2 between Africa and China. Before the arrival of Chinese military commander Zheng He’s fleet on the East African coast in the early fifteenth century, the evidence suggests that intermediaries, usually Arab seafarers, conducted trade in both directions.6 Imperial China did not consider these transactions with Africa or any other foreign region as trade, which Confucian doctrine looked upon with disdain. Rather, they were seen as tribute, homage from remote barbarian peoples to the Son of Heaven or Emperor, and an indication of his generosity to them.7 There is widespread agreement on what articles constituted the early trade between China and the limited geography of Africa where it occurred. Archaeological excavations have turned up Tang Dynasty Chinese porcelain and coins in Egypt, Kenya, and Zanzibar. Chinese coins and porcelain from the Song Dynasty (960–1279) and porcelain from the Yuan Dynasty (1279– 1368) have been found from the Somali coast to the southern coast of Tanzania and even inland to Zimbabwe. Chinese porcelain of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) has been recovered from an even wider area that includes Madagascar, the port of Suakin in Sudan, the Eritrean coast, and the Transvaal in South Africa.8 Many Chinese trade goods did not withstand the passage of time and, as a result, left no archaeological evidence. Chinese records indicate that rice was an important export to the Somali and Swahili coasts while textiles, especially colored satins and taffetas, were popular items throughout eastern Africa. China also exported sandalwood, pepper, beans, ivory boxes, lacquer ware, fine art objects, white and red cotton cloth, gold, silver, and copper to much of the eastern side of Africa.9 African exports to China were more exotic and included elephant tusks, which the Chinese considered superior to Asian ivory, rhinoceros horn, frankincense, myrrh, tortoiseshell, aloes, precious stones, and rare woods. China also imported oil of storax, the aromatic balsam exuded by liquidambar trees and used in medicine and perfume. Perhaps the most unusual export from Africa was ambergris, at the time thought by the Chinese to be solidified dragon spittle. Used in making perfume, ambergris is the waxy substance found floating in tropical waters from the intestines of sperm whales. It appeared frequently along the Somali coast. Occasional African giraffes, zebras, ostriches, and other animals also found their way to China.10 Although there was an active slave trade in eastern Africa conducted by the Arabs, it appears that relatively few slaves reached China. According to one account, an Arab ambassador took an African slave to the Chinese A Historical Overview 19 court in 976.11 Sinologist J. J. L. Duyvendak stated categorically that some African slaves found their way to China.12 American scholar and civil rights leader W. E. Burghardt...