In the year 1616, Gaspar Bocarro, a Portuguese adventurer and trader in the Zambezi Valley, set out on a fifty-three-day march through southeast Africa. Travelling overland from a small mudwalled trading post on the banks of the Zambezi River, Bocarro headed eastward toward the shores of Melinde from where he was to board a boat and set sail for the island of Kilwa Kisiwani, an old trading port on East Africa’s Swahili Coast. At a village near Tete, the small mudwalled trading post that was his starting point, in the lands of Bororo and the territory of the MaKaranga, he bought a thousand copper wire bangles to use for everyday expenses on his march to the coast. Copper bangles served as a general-purpose currency in southeast Africa. Bocarro used them to purchase food, to rent accommodation, and to pay tribute to chiefs who, in return, provided him with guides and personal guarantees of safe passage through their kingdoms. He recorded that these bangles were the most widely accepted exchange medium throughout the region …

Merchants and Traders in Southeast Africa

Written by James Kipling BA (Hons) Archaeology

Mountains of the Moon

The word safari was introduced into English by the Victorian explorer, ethnologist, polyglot, and linguist Richard Francis Burton after his fever-ridden expedition to the Mountains of the Moon. From 1857 to 1859, Burton and John Hanning Speke were sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the unchartered interior of eastern Africa. The goal of their expedition was to map a series of East African lakes that were understood to be the source of the Nile. Accounts left by Greek and Arab geographers held that the Nile flowed from two great lakes filled with meltwater from snowcapped equatorial mountains. Burton and Speke followed ancient trade roads and caravan routes that connected the people of the African interior with old market towns scattered along the Swahili Coast. In 1858, the two men discovered Lake Tanganyika (which drains into the Congo River system). Illness prevented Burton from continuing leaving Speke to discover Lake Victoria alone (the main source of the Nile). Neither man ever reached the legendary Mountains of the Moon.

A trade caravan was called a ‘safari’ in Swahili, from the Arabic (and Urdu) word safar meaning “a journey”. Caravans followed well-established trading routes pioneered by African farmers, hunters, and metalsmiths. Central East Africa had (and still has) a single rainy season, roughly from December to April, and a single dry season spanning the rest of the year. Most metal smelting operations and long-distance trading expeditions took place during the dry months. Outbound safaris departed between June and September (early in the dry season) and announced their arrivals at the coast between August and October, with porters blowing horns and beating drums as they neared their destinations. Merchants from coastal towns would then meet them and compete for the right to sell their ivory, hides, horns, and other trade goods to traders from distant shores.

Ivory was the most important export commodity traded north of the Zambezi. By the 19th century, most of the old trading routes had fallen under the control of professional Nyamwezi traders (Nyamwezi was a name first recorded in ancient Indian texts and meant “men of the moon”). Caravans of Nyamwezi middlemen and carriers, oftentimes accompanied by Swahili and Arab merchant-adventurers, travelled deep inland to find the best tusks. Tsetse fly prevented the use of pack animals on these trading expeditions. Ivory and trade goods had to be transported on the shoulders of porters, escorted by armed guards who protected the convoy from the attacks of marauding animals and wild men.

“Do not speak of a rhinocerous if there is no tree nearby.”

(don’t take uneccessary risks)

African proverb

Inland trade routes south of the Zambezi remained under the control of powerful African kingdoms. Both ivory and gold were important export commodities from the region. The Kingdom of Butwa was one of the largest of the great kingdoms of Southern Zambezia. Between the 17th and the 19th centuries, the Changamires of the Rozvi Empire, descendants of the Mutapas of Munhumutapa, reigned over the Butwan Kingdom from their highveld capital at Dhlo-Dhlo (Danangombe). The Rozvi emperors had overthrown the Mambos of the Torwa Dynesty who had ruled Butwa since the fall of Great Zimbabwe in the 14th century. The courts of the Rozvi were fenced with ivory tusks. Enormous fortunes of gold and copper were stored in clay pots and were hidden inside dried antelope horns buried in caves and royal burial grounds. It was said that the entrances to these sacred burial places were protected by lions, appointed by the gods to stand guard over the treasures inside.

The Changamires, the dynastic title of the Rozvi emperors of central Africa (and of the Butwan lands of Guruuswa or lands of the long grass), issued licenses to elephant hunters and itinerant ivory traders. As owners of the land, the Changamires guarded the gold mines that lay between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. Vashambadzi traders (African middlemen) travelled through the kingdom visiting officially approved markets and state-run trade fairs in search of gold dust that had been washed from crushed rocks dug from imperial mines and panned from auriferous river sediments. The control the Rozvi emperors had over the gold mines, ivory trade, and inland markets restricted outside access to the central highveld and allowed the Vashambadzi access to and command over the trading routes that connected the Guruuswa grasslands with the coast.

Sultans, Spices and Ivory

Much like Nyamwezi and Vashambadzi traders, the Swahili people were commercial intermediaries. Luxuries and raw materials from the African interior were exchanged for manufactured goods from the Near and Far East through port cities like Kilwa, Lamu, Malindi, Manda, Mombasa, and Zanzibar. Swahili merchants and Arabian, Persian, and Indian traders exchanged more than just merchandise, they also shared ideas and a love for well-prepared food.

Inspired by Arabic pilafs, Persian biryanis, and Indian curries, aromatic spices like cloves and black pepper, cumin, coriander, cardamom, and nutmeg were blended together with golden brown cinnamon bark, green ginger, and bright yellow turmeric. Hot red chili peppers and dried allspice berries, first introduced into East Africa by early Portuguese traders, were mixed with local spice blends to create new seasonings. Sweet oranges, sour lemons, fresh coconuts, and tangy limes added to these flavourful ingredients to create food fit for the sultans of the Swahili coast.

Leopards in Sausage Trees

Safaris varied in size according to their destinations. During the 19th century, large expeditions set out from the coast and ventured deep into the interior where giant baobabs were said to drop from the skies fully grown and were buried as they had landed, upside down with their roots still in the air. Long merchant caravans (that could number between four-hundred and five-hundred men) travelled through miomba woodland savanna where flame trees burned with vermillion-red flowers and grasses green from seasonal rains turned golden yellow during the dry months. They made their way through lime-green fever tree forests and under sausage trees where the dappled shade sheltered spotted leopard.

“The eye never forgets what the heart has seen.”

African proverb

Smaller safaris were less ambitious both in distance and duration, with destinations that included palaces and country houses on coconut and clove plantations along the Mrima Coast (the traditional name given to the stretch of Eastern African Coast opposite Zanzibar). These shorter, more brightly-coloured travelling processions were protected by guards dressed in clean white robes, armed with muskets, swords, and daggers. Porters carried provisions on their heads, far more than might be needed to make allowance for any losses incurred along the way.

Ladies on safari wore richly embroidered cotton muslin shirts and light calico trousers. They rode on white horses with tails dyed henna red for the pleasure of their riders who sat atop leather saddles placed on colourful saddlecloths. Young women wore anklets with small brass bells that challenged the sounds of the cicadas with every step. Attendants walking alongside them carried tall parasols offering shade from the burning rays of the African sun, and large lanterns at nightfall to light the way.

Wherever the destination and whatever the circumstance, safaris were never easily forgotten and no sooner had one been completed than the next was being planned. Between safaris, adventure was always to be had in the kitchen. Below are a few of our favourite recipes, inspired by traditional southeast African dishes, slow cooked in cast iron pots over open flames and full of spices, a taste of adventure from our kitchens to yours. (Our recipes include lean ostrich meat as an ingredient, often combined with fatty lamb cuts for succulence. If you can’t find an ostrich you can use plain lamb instead.)

Butternut and Date Bredie

Ingredients :

250g stewing mutton or lamb (chopped) | 250g ostrich steak (diced) | splash of cooking oil | 3 onions, peeled and chopped | 1t ground cumin | 1/2t turmeric |1/2t sea salt | 1 cinnamon stick | 5 cloves | 5 allspice | 1 bay leaf | 1 cup dates chopped | 1 cup chicken stock | splash of boiling water | 2 small butternuts | 1/2t cayenne pepper

 To prepare :

Heat the oil in a pot, add the lamb and ostrich pieces a batch at a time, brown in the oil and remove. When all the meat is browned and set aside, cook the chopped onion for 5 minutes in the same pot until the onion begins to turn transparent (with a splash more oil if needed). Add all the spices and continue to cook for another 5 minutes or so.

Return the meat to the pot together with any juice that may have accumulated. Add the stock and the bay leaf.

Reduce heat to the lowest possible, cover with a lid and simmer for 1 hour, then remove the lid and stir. Keep the pot on a low heat, breaking up the meat as it cooks and adding a splash of water if needed to prevent it from drying out. While the meat is simmering uncovered, chop the butternut into 2 to 3cm cubes and place in a roasting pan in the oven and roast covered for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, add olive oil, chopped dates, and cayenne pepper. Return to the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes.

Cook borrie rice (white rice cooked with turmeric and cinnamon; with butter and raisins added at the end) and plate with a big spoon of the bredie and a portion of the roasted butternut and dates.

Wooly Bird Frikkadels

Ingredients :

500g lamb mince | 500g ostrich mince | splash of cooking oil | 1 onion | 1 tomato | 1 green pepper | 2t salt | 2t freshly ground black pepper | 1/2t cayenne pepper | 1t cumin | handful chopped parsley | 1 cup almonds | 2 eggs

 To Prepare :

Heat the oil in a pot. Slice up the onion and fry with cumin until starting to colour, then add chopped green pepper, chopped tomato and cayenne pepper and fry for 10 minutes. Allow to cool and chop fine.

Roughly chop almonds using a stone mortar and pestle or in a blender. Toast the chopped almonds in a pan or place in oven under grill for 2 min (check that they don’t burn).

Mix the lamb and ostrich mince together in a large pot and then add salt and pepper, the finely chopped onion mix, chopped and toasted almonds, eggs, and chopped parsley. Using your hands, form the mixture into meatballs and place on a wax paper lined roasting tray. Cover and place in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and cook in an oven at 220C for 45 minutes.

Serve with freshly squeezed lemon juice and butter or goats milk yoghurt. Great plated with a mix of lettuce leaves.

Ostrich and Coconut Bredie

Ingredients :

500g ostrich steak (diced) | 3 onions, peeled and chopped | splash of cooking oil | 1t ground coriander | 1t cumin | 1/2t turmeric | 1/2t salt | 1 or 2 small cinnamon sticks | 2 cardamom pods | 1 to 2cm fresh ginger chopped fine | 1 bay leaf | 1 cup chicken stock | 1 potato (peeled and chopped into 1 to 2cm cubes) | 1 can of coconut milk

  To Prepare :

Heat the oil in a pot, add the ostrich pieces a batch at a time, brown in the oil and set aside. When all the meat is browned, cook the chopped onions and spices in the same oil (add another splash if needed) for 10 minutes (will smell fruity). Return all the meat to the pot with any juice that may have accumulated.

Add the chopped potato, the stock and a bay leaf. Reduce heat to lowest possible, cover with a lid and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or so. Remove lid, stir and cook for another 30 minutes, breaking up the meat with a flat edged wooden spoon to thicken the bredie.

Add the coconut milk and stir. Heat over a medium flame.

Serve with white basmati rice, or with stywe pap (stiff maize meal porridge).

Wooly Bird Bobotie

Ingredients :

500g ostrich mince | 500g lamb mince | 2 onions, peeled and chopped | splash of cooking oil (about 2T) | 1 1/2T jaggery powder or brown sugar | 2t sea salt | 1/2t freshly ground black pepper | 1t freshly grated nutmeg | 1t turmeric | 1 1/2 to 2T balsamic vinegar | 3 whole allspice | 3 medium eggs | 1 bay leaf | 1/2 cup chicken stock | 1/2 to 1 cup raisins | 1/2 cup almond milk

 To Prepare :

Preheat oven to 180C.

Heat the oil in a pot and add the onions and spices and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the mince and cook for a few more minutes until brown.

Add vinegar, raisins, sugar and chicken stock and mix well. Spoon mixture into a greased baking dish (or into a dutch oven). Place the bay leaf standing up in the mixture and bake in oven (or over coals) for 30 minutes.

Beat eggs with almond milk and pour over mixture, placing the bay leaf on top of the almond-egg mix. Cook for another 30 minutes.

Serve with borrie rice (turmeric, cinnamon, butter and raisins).

Cape Denningvleis

Ingredients :

250g ostrich steak (diced) | 250g lamb steak (cubed) | 2 onions, peeled and chopped | splash of cooking oil | 1/2t freshly grated nutmeg | sea salt (a pinch) | 1/2t freshly ground black pepper | 2 whole cloves | 1 fresh chili (green) finely chopped | 1 bay leaf | 180ml to 200ml water | 1/2 fresh juicy lemon squeezed

 To Prepare :

Brown the meat in oil and set aside. Add a bit more oil to the pot and cook the spices and onions until transparent (about 10 minutes).

Return the meat to the pot with the water but not the lemon juice. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours stirring every 30 minutes or so (breaking up the meat with the end of a flat wooden spoon during the last 30 minutes).

10 minutes before serving add the lemon juice and stir in well.

Serve with basmati rice and a wild rocket salad, or with krummel pap (putu pap).

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