Land and Sea Links: 1500 Years of Connectivity Between Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean Rim Regions, ad 700 to 1700

Abstract

From the mid-first millennium ad onwards, southern Africa gradually became enchained to the Indian Ocean rim region, initiating over 1500 years of commodities and values exchange, which linked and transformed not just coastal regions but also their conjoined hinterlands in contrasting ways. Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean worlds had varying resource gradients which naturally stimulated conditions for trade and exchange relationships. Because of its strategic position, coastal east Africa acted as a conduit which enjoyed benefits from outbound and inbound commercial traffic. Whilst a lot of emphasis was traditionally placed on understanding the effect of Indian Ocean connections on coastal communities on the one hand, and hinterland communities on the other, little empirical research has focused on the links between individual coastal regions and their hinterlands. The implicit archaeological undercurrent is that the hinterland was always on standby to accept whatever the coast bestowed upon it—making every item of exotic origin a status icon in the interior. The popularity of commodities such as glass beads, cowrie shells and copper alloy objects, whose colours were compatible with preexisting cultural logics, when compared with the lack of popularity of imported ceramics, exposes that hinterland communities exercised a great deal of agency when accepting or rejecting inbound values and objects. Such selection processes account for why imported ceramics were popular on the coast but failed to appeal to interior populations, where local pottery was deeply wrapped up in transformation, theology and gender relations. This paper explores the archaeology of these processes and their consequences, from ad 700 to ca. 1700. It shows that whilst imports were incorporated into the hinterland value system, a great deal of continuity and change in selectivity forced the Indian Ocean world to stick to local tastes.