Austronesians in Africa, the “Sea People” of the Indian Ocean

[Emir of Zayla]

During ancient times it seems that the Austronesians travelled all over the Indian Ocean and were the ones who set up most of the trade routes of the sea. They travelled to practically every region that touches the Indian ocean.

It looks they also dropped off some cultural stuff for our southern neighbors in the Swahili Coast when it was populated by the Southern Cushites. Like chickens, banana, and xylophone to Africa that could’ve only been found in SouthEast Asia.

It also seems that the cultural exchange went both ways with the Southern Cushites giving some cultural contributions to the Austronesian culture with some semblance of Waaqist culture with them even having smth called the WaqWaq Tree prob from the monotheistic faith that Horners that weren’t influenced from Semitic people practiced.

They migrated all over the Indian Ocean and eventually populated Madagascar and even left behind some traces of their dna in the Swahili Coast.

The Austronesians didn’t just go to Southeast Africa but also Southern Arabia, specifically Aden where they settled for quite a while before being driven out by a Somali force from Berbera who captured and settled in the city after driving out a different group, thought to be the Austronesian settlers that colonized Madagascar.

“According to Ibn Al-Mujawir, they were expelled by the Berbera, i.e. people of Somali stock, who then conquered Aden and the valley; afterwards, a period of decline and ruin followed until new settlers appeared, coming from Siraf.”
Source:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4056515?seq=13

 

[Emir of Zayla]

There's also an Arabian legend of medieval era Indonesians/Austronesians invading the Swahili coast in a thousand boats to pillage for ivory, ambergris and gold.

 

[Idilinaa]

For anyone who doesn't know who the ''Sea people'' he is referring to, they are hypothesized to be the reason for the Bronze Age collapse especially along the Mediterranean sea.

The Sea Peoples were a group of tribes hypothesized to have attacked Egypt and other Eastern Mediterranean regions around 1200 BC during the Late Bronze Age.[

Do you know the date in which the story that Ibn Mujawir relates took place? He says its before the Persians conquered Yemen, which we know happened in the 520s.

“According to Ibn Al-Mujawir, they were expelled by the Berbera, i.e. people of Somali stock, who then conquered Aden and the valley; afterwards, a period of decline and ruin followed until new settlers appeared, coming from Siraf.”
Source:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4056515?seq=13

The Malagasy maritime invasions might explain the gap in historical sources between 1st century AD and 700 AD on red sea and indian ocean trade activity.

 

[Midas]

Wow this sounds like great material for a movie. The great somali austronesian war. But in all seriousness this sounds like we had a large trade network from yemen to east africa and these austronesians had a massive war with us . That caused us to lose dominance over the trade and arabs to take it over.

 

[Midas]

It fees like we're peeling back the layers of somali history. And that were discovering the common pattern of the rise and fall and rise again of somali trade.

 

[Idilinaa]

It fees like we're peeling back the layers of somali history. And that were discovering the common pattern of the rise and fall and rise again of somali trade.

Wow this sounds like great material for a movie. The great somali austronesian war. But in all seriousness this sounds like we had a large trade network from yemen to east africa and these austronesians had a massive war with us . That caused us to lose dominance over the trade and arabs to take it over.

I don't think it's so much that Arabs took over, i think trade was disturbed for all actors.
Its mainly Arab sources that speak about they were pillaged by them and others.

It wasn't just a Somali austronesian war, they attacked different places. We ended up getting involved in Yemen for some reason

You can tell it was worse for Arabs because we have a source that points out that during the 6th century AD "the men of Barbaria" (Somali coast) and even Abyssinians were more active seafarers than Arabians who seemed to be enduring a decline at the time:

Sada Mire mentions it briefly

But she messes up the dating It's from the 6th century AD, not the 4th century BC.

Persians, Abyssinians, Greeks. Even the men of ''Barbaria''(North Somaliland), have become navigators. What has happened to the Arabs? If Comas and the other writers pass over shipping without a single mention, does that prove it was none existent....