China and East Africa: Ancient Ties and Contemporary Flows marks the culmination of a new round of archaeological and historical research on the relations between China and Africa, from the origins to the present. Africa and Asia have always been in constant contact, through land and seas. The contributors to this volume debate and present the results of their research on the very complex and intricate networks of connections that crisscrossed the Indian Ocean and surrounding lands linking Africa to East Asia. A growing number of speakers of Austronesian languages returned to Africa, reaching Madagascar in the early centuries of the Common Era. The diffusion of domesticated plants, like bananas, from New Guinea to South Asia and Africa where phytoliths are dated to the mid-fourth millennium in Uganda and mid-first millennium BCE in southern Cameroon, provide additional evidence on early interactions between Africa and Asia. Africa and Asia have always been in constant contact, through land and seas. Edited by Chapurukha Kusimba, Tiequan Zhu, and Purity Wakabari Kiura, this collection explores different facets of the interaction between China and Africa, from their earliest manifestations to the present and with an eye to the future.
Chapurukha Kusimba is professor of anthropology at American University. Tiequan Zhu is professor of scientific archaeology at Sun Yat-Sen University. Purity Kiura is director of museums, sites, and monuments at The National Museums of Kenya
Preface: China and East Africa Ancient Ties and Contemporary Flows. Chapurukha Kusimba Part I: Ancient Ties Chapter 1: The Emergence of Stone Tool Technology: A Comparative Study between Some Early Stone Age Assemblages in East Africa and China Louis De Weyer Chapter 2: Tracing Prehistoric Trade and Economic Links between the East African Coast and East Asia Emmanuel K Ndiema Chapter 3: Ancient Connections between China and East Africa Chapurukha Kusimba Chapter 4: The Biological and Cultural Identity of The Early Swahili Peoples of Coastal Kenya Janet Monge, Allan Morris, Sloan Williams and Chapurukha Kusimba Chapter 5: Incipient Globalization in First Millennium CE China and East Africa and China Herman Kiriama Chapter 6: Siyu Intertwined Exchange Networks from the Early Beginnings to the 15th Century Ibrahim Busolo Namunaba Chapter 7: Unravelling the Links between the Tanzania's Coast and Ancient China Elgidius Ichumbaki Chapter 8: Chinese Porcelain as Proxy for Understanding Early Globalization Between China and Eastern Africa Tiequan Zhu and Chapurukha Kusimba Chapter 9: The Sources of East African Chinese Longquan Celadon and Imitation Celadon Min Wang, Tiequan Zhu, Khalfan Bini Ahmed and Chapurukha Kusimba Chapter 10: The Consumption of Glass Beads in Ancient Swahili East Africa Laure Dussubieux, Gilbert Oteyo and Chapurukha Kusimba Part II: Contemporary Flows Chapter 11: Six Hundred Years of Harmony: Comparing Zheng He's West Ocean Navigation with China's African Policy Li Xinfeng Chapter 12: Impacts of Chinese Influence in Contemporary East Africa Angela Kabiru Chapter 13: Becoming Mitumba: Transnational Secondhand Clothing Trade between China and Kenya Boyang Ma Chapter 14: The Potentials, Opportunities and Challenges of Underwater Cultural Heritage for Understanding Early Global Networks Caesar Bita Chapter 15: Opportunities and Challenges of Preserving Cultural Relics in a Globalized World Zhan Changfa Chapter 16: China and East Africa Ancient Ties and Contemporary Flows. A Critical Appraisal Augustin F.C. Holl
The book offers a complex vision of different organisational forms of economic life and different evolutionary patterns of Sino-African exchanges. A broad array of commodities (ceramics, textile, coins, etc.) traded between China and East Africa that have been recovered from archaeological excavations are described and discussed. * Azania:Archaeological Research In Africa * This book is a great resource for archaeologists working in East Africa and China. Altogether, the contributors provide a better understanding of the ancient socio economic ties and contemporary flows between China and East Africa. * African Archaeological Review *
