A general history of African explorers of the Old world, and a 19th century Bornu traveller of twenty countries across four continents.

This article provides a brief outline of over sixty African explorers who traveled across the ‘Old World’ from the classical period to the turn of the 20th century. The linked articles and the footnotes include sources on individual travelers for further reading.

In antiquity, African travelers and diasporic communities began appearing across several societies in the eastern Mediterranean world and beyond. From the 8th century BC, classical accounts from ancient Assyria to ancient Greece mention the presence of Africans referred to as 'Kusaya'/'Aithiopians' who appeared in various capacities, as rulers, diplomats, charioteers, mercenaries, and horse-trainers, and were often associated with the Kingdom of Kush which had expanded into parts of modern Palestine and Syria.¹

By the 5th century BC, Aithiopian auxiliaries from Carthage were involved in the Battle of Himera on the Island of Sicily, and would later appear as mahouts in the ancient Punic wars between Carthage and Rome. However, most of these Aithiopians would have come from the Maghreb rather than from Kush or from West Africa.²

Envoys, priests, and pilgrims from Kush and Aithiopian travelers from other parts of Africa would begin to travel across the Roman world beginning in the 1st century BC and continuing into the early centuries of the common era. While most of their activities would be concentrated in Roman Egypt, such as the Meroite envoys; Pasan son of Paese, and Abaratoye in 253 CE and 260 CE, a handful of them would travel to the Greek Island of Samos, and the cities of Rome and Constantinople, along with envoys from the neighboring kingdoms of the Blemmyes and the Aksumites.³

Roman mural from Herculaneum (Italy) showing african figures among the priests and worshippers of the deity Isis. 1st century, National Archaeological Museum of Naples⁴

From the 3rd century of the common era, Aksum's armies, merchants, and settlers were active across much of the western Indian Ocean and the Red Sea coast. Aksumite people, coinage, and inscriptions, appear in multiple places from western India and the island of Sri Lanka, to Yemen and western Arabia, to the Jordanian port city of Aila and the Eastern Roman capital Constantinople. Aksumite envoys would also visit the Chinese capital of Luoyang in the 1st century.⁵

By the 6th century, a large Aksumite army conquered the kingdom of Himyar in the western Arabian peninsula, ostensibly to protect the diasporic communities of Aksumite Christians and their allies. Under the Aksumite general Abraha and his successors, the province of Himyar would extend its control over most of western, southern, and central Arabia, although the diasporic communities of Aksumite elites and soldiers would be concentrated in Yemen.⁶

Envoys from the kingdom of Aksum and the medieval Nubian kingdom of Makuria appeared in Constantinople in 532, 549 and 572 CE, while Nubian and Aksumite pilgrims begun to travel to the 'Holy lands' in Palestine, beginning in the 8th century. By the late Middle Ages, royals, scholars, and other pilgrims from the kingdoms of Nubia and the successor states of Aksum would establish diasporic communities in Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, and Cyprus.⁷

The Ethiopian church of Kidane Mehret in Jerusalem, part of the Dabra Ganat monastery complex built in the late 19th century.

The itineraries of travelers like the 12th-century Nubian king Moses George, the Ethiopian scholar Ewostatewos (d. 1352), and other pilgrims would take them as far as Armenia, Constantinople, and the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

In the centuries following the rise of Islam, west African Muslims from the kingdom of Takrur and the empires of Ghana and Kanem would appear across the Muslim world from Andalusia (Spain) to the Hejaz (western Saudi Arabia) and to Palestine in various capacities.

Some were scholars like Ibrahim Al-Kanemi (d. 1211) and auxiliaries from Takrur and Ghana who visited Andalusia due to their alliance with the Moorish empires of the Almoravids and Almohads during the 11th to 13th century, Others were pilgrims who journeyed across Egypt, western Arabia and Palestine, including royals like the Kanem king Mai Hume and the Malian king Mansa Musa, and ordinary travelers like the Timbuktu scholar and Medina resident Abu Bakr Aqit (d. 1583), while others were military leaders like Sawdan who ruled the kingdom of Bari in southern Italy during the 9th century. ⁸

African travelers from the Muslim societies of the northern Horn of Africa were also attested across multiple places from the Eastern Mediterranean and western Indian Ocean. The Jabarti and Zaylai scholars from the kingdom of Ifat, Adal, and the city of Zeila formed diasporic communities from Damascus to Egypt, the Hejaz, and Yemen.

Historical accounts associated with the coastal city of Zeila (in Somalia) mention itinerant scholars such as Sharaf al-din Isma'il al-Jabarti (d. 1403) became administrators in Zabid in the Rasulid kingdom of Yemen, others like Ahmad b. 'Umar al-Zayla'ī established the port town of al-Luhayya in Yemen in 1304, while ordinary merchants from the city of Zeila sailed to Aden where they joined diasporic communities that included Africans from Mogadishu and the rest of the East African coast.

Old mosque in the town of Luhayya, Yemen, 19th century engraving.

There is archaeological and documentary evidence for the presence of diasporic communities of Africans from the cities of the East African coast in Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and China during the late Middle Ages. This is attested in the towns of Sharma (Yemen), al-Hamr al-Sharqiya (Oman), and Julfār (U.A.E), and accounts of East African traders and pilgrims from Barawa, Mogadishu, Kilwa, Zanzibar, Pate and Lamu and Comoros in Mecca, al-Shihr, Mocha, Hormuz, Muscat, Socotra and Sri Lanka.⁹

Known travelers from the East African coast during the late Middle Ages appear frequently in Chinese accounts, especially during the Song and Ming dynasties. They include the Zanzibari envoy Amîr-i-amîrân Zengjiani who traveled to China twice in 1071 and 1083, the envoy Puluo Shen (Abu-al-Hasan) from Yuluhedi (Manda, Kenya) who reached who arrived in Bianliang on December of 1073. These were later followed by many unnamed envoys from; Mogadishu (1101 CE); 'Gudanu' and 'Yaji' in Ethiopia (1283 CE, 1328 CE); and the envoys sent to meet the 15th-century Chinese admiral Zheng He, who traveled from the cities of Zhubu, Mogadishu, Barawa in Somalia, and Malindi in Kenya.¹⁰

Other early East African travelers include the 14th-century Mogadishu scholar Sa'id who visited the Hejaz, India, and China, and the 15th-century Qadi of Lamu who traveled to Mecca and Egypt where he met the scholar al-maqrizi.¹¹

Pilgrims from Zanzibar in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, ca. 1888, Qatar National Library digital repository 

Beginning in the 15th century, several African kingdoms sent embassies to the kingdoms of southern Europe.

These include the Ethiopian embassies to Venice (1404), Rome (1403,1404, 1450, 1481, 1533), Aragon (1427, 1450), and Portugal (1452, 1527), led by envoys and scholars such as Sägga Zäᵓab and Yohannes of Cyprus, who visited and briefly resided in Lisbon in 1527, and Rome in 1533, where the latter scholar would also be received by an established community of pilgrims led by Tomas Wāldā Samuʾel (1515-1529) and Yoѐannǝs of Qänṭorare (1529- ca. 1550) and forty-one other resident scholars that included Täsfa Sәyon (d. 1553).¹²

They were soon joined by African embassies from the kingdoms of the Atlantic Coast to the Portuguese capital Lisbon. These came from the Kingdom of Benin (Nigeria) in 1486-87, led by Ohen-Okun, the Kingdom of Kongo (in Angola) in 1487-88, led by Kala ka Mfusu, and the Kingdom of Jolof (in Senegal) in 1488, led by Prince Jelen.¹³

Over the 16th and 17th centuries, the Christian Kingdom of Kongo and the neighboring kingdom of Ndongo would send several embassies, royals, and students to Portugal, Spain, Rome, and the Netherlands.

These included Prince Henrique Ndoadidiki Ne-Kinu a Mumemba who was a resident of Lisbon and became the first black Catholic Bishop in 1518, king Afonso Nzinga's cousin; Pedro de Sousa, who traveled as an envoy to Lisbon in 1512 where he was knighted in the ‘Order of Saint James of the sword’, the Kongo nobleman Antonio Vieira who was an envoy and resident of Lisbon where he was married in the 1540s; the envoy of the Kongo King Diogo ( r. 1545-1561) to Lisbon named Jacome de fonseca; the Ndongo envoy D. Pedro da Silva who traveled to Lisbon in 1579 where he was also knighted in the ‘Order of Saint James of the sword’¹⁴. Others include; the Kongo envoys to Rome such as; Antonio Vieira (1595) and António Manuel Nsaku ne Vunda (1604); and the envoy Dom Miguel de Castro from the Kongo province of Soyo who traveled to the Dutch Republic in 1643.¹⁵

African knight of the order of Saint James of the Sword, in Chafariz d’el Rey (The King’s Fountain) painting in the Alfama District, Anonymous painter, ca. 1560-1580, Lisbon.

African travel across the Old World grew exponentially between the late 16th to mid-19th centuries, with multiple African explorers from different parts of the continent traveling as far as Western Europe and Japan during the Sengoku period, as well as more proximate places like western India and Istanbul.

Known travelers from this period include; the Ethiopian traveler Abba Gorgoryos who traveled to Rome in 1649 where he briefly resided before journeying to Nuremberg in Germany around 1652; the Ethiopian prince Zaga Christ, who traveled to Europe in 1634 and documented his journey across Italy and France where he was hosted by various nobles; The ambassador of the kingdom of Allada (in Benin), Don Matteo Lopez, who traveled to Paris in 1670, and the Assine princes Aniaba and Banga from Cote D'ivoire, who traveled to Paris in 1687, the envoy of Annamaboe (in Ghana), Louis Bassi, Prince de Corrantryn who traveled to and briefly resided in Paris during in the 1740s, while his brother William Ansah Sessarakoo also traveled to London in 1749 as an envoy; Philip Kwaku from Cape coast (Ghana) who traveled to England in the late 1750s where he studied and married before returning in 1765. Later travelers included the 'Ga' Prince Frederick Noi Dowunnah who traveled to Copenhagen (Denmark) from Ghana in the 1820s; the 'Temne' Prince John Frederic who traveled to England in 1729, the two pairs of young Asante princes Owusu Ansa and Owusu Nkwantabisa, and Kwame Poku and Kwasi Boakye, who were sent to England and the Netherlands in 1836 and 1837; and the Xhosa prince Tiyo Songa who traveled from South Africa to Scotland in 1846.¹⁶

Known travelers from Africa to Istanbul during this period include; the Bornu envoy El-Hajj Yusuf who reached the Ottoman capital in 1574; scholars from the Funj kingdom (Sudan) like, Ahmad Idrìs al-Sinnàrì (b. 1746) who traveled from the Funj Kingdom (Sudan) across Yemen, Hejaz, and Istanbul before settling down in Syria; and Ali al-Qus (b. 1788) who traveled across Syria, Crete, the Hijaz Yemen and Istanbul, before returning to settle at Dongola; and the scholar Muhammad Salma al-Zurruq (b. 1845) from Djenne who traveled across Ottoman territories and Morocco in the 1880s.

Known travelers from Africa to western India during this period include; Swahili Prince Yusuf ibn al-Hasan of Mombasa (Kenya) who traveled from Kenya to Goa in 1614 where he briefly resided, the Mombasa envoys Mwinyi Zago and Faki Ali wa Mwinyi Matano who traveled to Goa in 1661 and 1694 respectively; the Swahili merchants; Bwana Dau bin Bwana Shaka of Faza (Kenya) who settled in Goa after 1698; Mwinyi Ahmed Hasani Kipai who traveled to Surat and Goa in 1724 and Bwana Madi bin Mwalimu Bakar from Pate, who regularly traveled to Surat in the 1720s. Others include the Kalanga princes from Mutapa (zimbabwe) who were sent to Goa such as Dom Diogo in 1617, Miguel da Presentacao in 1629 (and Lisbon in 1630), and the princes Mapeze and Dom Joao who were sent to Goa in 1699.

By the mid-19th century, African travelers began to document their extensive travels across the Old World. These include; the travel accounts of the Hausa travelers Dorugu and Abbega who visited England and Prussia (Germany) in 1856¹⁷, The Swahili traveler Amur al-Omeri who journeyed across Germany in 1891¹⁸, the Comorian traveler Selim Abakari who explored Russia in 1896, and Ethiopian traveler, Dabtara Fesseha Giyorgis who explored Italy in 1895¹⁹, and the book-length travelogue Ham Mukasa and Apolo Kagwa from Buganda (Uganda) who visited England in 1902,²⁰ where they encountered a delegation led by King Lewanika of the Lozi kingdom, and another delegation led by Ethiopia's Ras Mokannen, who also produced an account of his travel to England.²¹

(L-R) Ras Mäkonnen and his entourage in 1902, Apolo Kagwa, Katikiro of Buganda and Ham Mukasa, King Lewanika in court dress.

While the above outline of African travelers is far from exhaustive, as it excludes the numerous scholars from across the continent who traveled to western Arabia and Palestine for pilgrimage and trade, it demonstrates that the history of Africa's exploration of the Old World is sufficiently known, including the individual African travelers and some of their own accounts of the exploratory journeys.

My Latest Patreon article unites the history of African exploration of the ‘Old World’ with the ‘New World’ through the travel account of the Bornu explorer Muhammed Ali ben Said who traveled across over twenty countries in the four continents of; Africa, Asia, Europe and America between 1849 and 1860.

After serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War, Said settled in the state of Alabama and published a fascinating account of his life and travels. Employed as a ‘Valets de chambre’ by two Russian aristocrats and a Dutch abolitionist, Said presents an insider's perspective of the aristocratic families of the Ottoman, Russian, and Austrian empires, a first-hand account of the politics of the Italian reunification, the customs of Victorian England, the complex history of Haiti, and the racialized society of the southern United States.

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1. check footnotes of the article on Kush, additional sources include; The Horses of Kush by Lisa A. Heidorn, Cushites in the Hebrew Bible: Negotiating Ethnic Identity in the Past, and by Kevin Burrell

2. Blacks in Antiquity by Frank M. Snowden pg 4, 130-131, 142 Before Color Prejudice by Frank M. Snowden pg 31-32

3. Between two worlds by L. Torok pg 467-468, 523, Blacks in Antiquity by Frank M. Snowden pg 20, 193-195, 187-189, 167 Before Color Prejudice by Frank M. Snowden pg 97-99, 55, 78 An analysis of Aethiopians in Roman art pg 54

4. Before Color Prejudice by Frank M. Snowden, images No. 60 and 61

5. Cultural Flow between china and Outside World Throughout History by Shen Fuwei pg 50

6. Arabs and Empires Before Islam by Greg Fisher, Soixante dix ans avant l'islam by C. J. Robin, Abraha et la reconquete de l’Arabie d´eserte by C. J. Robin

7. A Note towards Quantifying the Medieval Nubian Diaspora by Adam Simmons, Nubia, Ethiopia, and the Crusading World, 1095-1402 by Adam Simmons

8. Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, Volume 4 pg 459-460, Black women warriors Renaissance Europe by Thomas Foster Earle, K. J. P. Lowe pg 182-184, The conquest that never was by David Conrad and Humphrey Fisher pg 31-32, Black morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam By Chouki El Hamel pg 123-124, on al-Kanemi, see; Arabic Literature of Africa: The writings of Central Sudanic Africa. Vol. 2 by John Hunwick, pg 17-18, on Abu Bakr Aqit, see; Arabic Literature of Africa, Volume 4: The Writings of Western Sudanic Africa edited by John O. Hunwick, R. Rex S. O'Fahey pg 15, On Swadan, see; The Muslims of medieval Italy By Alex Metcalfe pg 21, L'emirato di Bari By Giosuè Musca

9. When did the Swahili become maritime by J Fleisher pg 106, L’Arabie marchande: État et commerce sous les sultans rasūlides du Yémen (626-858/1229-1454) by Éric Vallet, Chapter9, East African travelers and traders in the Indian ocean by Thomas Vernet pg 182-183, Julfār, an Arabian Port by John Hansman pg 49-51

10. Cultural Flow Between China and Outside World Throughout History by Shen Fuwei pg 278, A History of Overseas Chinese in Africa to 1911 by Anshan Lipg 37-47)

11. The travels of Ibn Battuta vol. IV pg 809, Les cités-États swahili de l'archipel de Lamu, 1585-1810: dynamiques endogènes, dynamiques exogènes by Thomas Vernet pg 71)

12. Encounters Between Ethiopia and Europe, 1400–1660 by Matteo Salvadore, An Ethiopian Scholar in Tridentine Rome by Matteo Salvadore, The Two Yohannәses of Santo Stefano degli Abissini by Samantha Kelly, African cosmopolitanism in the early modern Mediterranean by Matteo Salvadore

13. Africa's Discovery of Europe: 1450-1850 by David Northrup pg 25-40

14. Atlantic world and Virginia by Peter C. Mancall pg 202-206, Representing Africa : Ambassadors and Princes from Christian Africa to Renaissance Italy and Portugal, 1402-1608 by Kate Lowe pg 107, 112-114, Black Africans in Renaissance Europe by Thomas Foster Earle, K. J. P. Lowe pg 294-296

15. The Kingdom of Kongo and the thirty years' War by John K. Thornton pg 212-213

16. Gorgoryos and Ludolf : The Ethiopian and German Fore-Fathers of Ethiopian Studies by Wolbert Smidt, The narrative of Zaga Christ by Matteo Salvadore, The Negro in France by Shelby Thomas McCloy pg 16-18, To be the key for two coffers pg 1-25, Where the Negroes are masters by Randy J. Sparks pg 35-51, Africa's discovery of Europe by David Northrup pg 143-144, 120, 121, 147-148

17. West African Travels and Adventures. Two Autobiographical Narratives from Nigeria., by Anthony Kirk-Greene and Paul Newman

18. Anthologie aus der Suaheli-Litteratur by Carl Gotthilf Büttner, pg 156-170

19. "De la Côte aux confins" by Nathalie Carré, The Voyage of Däbtära Fesseha Giyorgis to Italy at the end of the 19th Century

20. Uganda's Katikiro in England: Being the Offical Account of His Visit to the Coronation of His Majesty King Edward VII by Ham Mukasa.

21. Black Edwardians: Black People in Britain 1901-1914 By Jeffrey Green, see Chapter on ‘Imperial Visitors’.