a brief note on the long history of African diplomacy.

historical links between west africa and the Maghreb.

In 1415, an embassy from the Swahili city of Malindi on the coast of Kenya carried with them a giraffe as a present to the Chinese emperor Yongle. The majestic creature, which was transported along with the Malindi envoys on the ships of admiral Zheng He, caused a sensation at the imperial capital Nanjing where it was thought to be a unicorn.¹

About a decade prior in 1402, an Ethiopian embassy arrived at the floating city of Venice after a lengthy journey overland through Egypt and across the Mediterranean. Dressed in monastic attire and accompanied by live leopards, the small party gracefully cruised the city's canals as onlookers wondered whether they had come from the land of the semi-legendary king Prester John.²

The history of Africa's engagement with the rest of the world is often framed in the context of imperial expansion and warfare, rather than the much older and more long-standing tradition of international diplomacy. While the practice of bringing exotic animals on diplomatic tours was quite rare, the dispatch of envoys by African states was a fairly common practice across the continent’s long history.

Many of my previous articles on Africa's historical links to the rest of the old world often include the activities of African envoys in distant lands. Such as the embassies from ancient Kush and Aksum in the Roman world, the embassies of the Swahili city-states to China during the late Middle Ages, and the embassies of the kingdoms of Kongo and Ndongo to Spain and the Netherlands during the early modern period.

Portrait of Dom Miguel de Castro, Emissary of the Kongo kingdom, 1643, National Gallery of Denmark. Tribute giraffe with attendant, Ming Dynasty, Yongle Period (1403-1424), Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The institution of diplomacy in Africa was a product of centuries of internal developments in its kingdoms and other complex societies. The case study of the kingdom of Asante's diplomatic activities within West Africa and abroad shows how its rulers' extensive foreign interests were incorporated into the complex bureaucracy of the kingdom with official diplomats, messengers, and non-official envoys. Asante’s ambassadors were provided with official attire and insignia, and were often accompanied by a large retinue whose gifts and expenses were paid for by the state.

The frequency of Africa's diplomatic activities reveals the antiquity and scale of the development of the continent's institutions, which enabled many of its societies to establish and maintain peaceful relations in order to facilitate the movement of ideas, goods, and travelers in various capacities.

This is most evident in the historical links between the kingdoms of West Africa and the Maghreb (north Africa), whose capitals were frequented by West African envoys since the 13th century. The intra-African diplomatic activities of these envoys provide further proof against the colonial myth of the separation of "sub-Saharan" Africa, by situating the political history of West Africa and the Maghreb within the same geographic and cultural space.

The history of West Africa's links with the Maghreb is the subject of my latest Patreon article, please subscribe to read about it here:

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bas-relief showing the arrival of the Ethiopian and (Coptic) Egyptian delegations in Rome in October 1441, ("Porta del Filarete" at the St. Peter's Basilica, Italy c.1445)

Portrait of Matheo Lopez, Ambassador of the kingdom of Allada to France in 1670.

1. A History of Overseas Chinese in Africa to 1911 by Anshan Li pg 43-46, China and East Africa by Chapurukha M. Kusimba pg 53-54.

2. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555 by Matteo Salvadore pg 24-33.