ABSTRACT
Iberian traders, mainly from Portugal, played a key role in the relationship between Africa and Asia in the early modern era. They not only spread Christianity and Western culture to these regions, but they also connected them to the emerging Atlantic economy, established new trading patterns in the Indian Ocean, and further expanded the slave trade between Africa and Asia. Africa and Asia have long been in contact with one another. Since the first century, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian traders sailed across the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea in search of exotic commodities produced in India and the Far East (Anonymous, 1912). After the rise of Islam, in the beginning of the seventh century, Arabs and Persians, especially from Yemen and Shiraz, spread their influence in the region. They developed new navigation skills and established commercial centers on both sides of the ocean, where they organized their expeditions and intermingled with the local population. Perhaps, the Swahili city-states of East Africa are the most important example of such centers. Arab and Persian traders married into local Bantu families and transmitted their religion and maritime skills to their descendants, who developed a new language – Swahili – and built fleets of dhows and sumbuks that crossed the Indian Ocean following the Monsoon, a seasonal variation in the ocean’s wind regime that allowed traders to sail between Africa and Asia (Middleton, 1992:10–23).
