When African People Sailed the World 

@fromNothing have u ever heard of a story about a magical leaf sword. the blade was in the shape of a leaf and I think came from a tree. but i cant find anything on it

So true. However the problem is European historians finds a way to discredit any type of African history that doesn't fit their narrative of "Africa has no history"

@@slimpickens01 you believe that it's a conspiracy? I don't think it's historians making the claim that Africa has no history, rather internet layman or ignorant people that learned nothing else beyond what they were taught in school. That goes to those same people that claim that no other people group besides white Europeans contributed to science and math etc etc just because white Europeans happen to add contributions in modern history. People in the U.S. are taught primarily U.S. history and contributions of the majority which happens or by past favoritism via immigration policy to be white European. East Africa in particular has a long tradition of trade. Swahili is like 20% Arabic due to it being developed as a trade language. Trade routes from the coast of Africa to India and the islands in Micronesia has existed for a long time. I don't think it's a failing or conspiracy though, it's available in books and the internet. The U.S. school system has no incentive to teach African, Asian, Native American, or European history. The same way they have school children sing the pledge of allegiance to the flag. The school system is likely designed in a way that teaches you to be an "American" or at least the attitudes, beliefs, and culture that binds the citizens as one people despite different cultures, race, religion, and sex. With that, it sacrifices the aspects. Pros and cons in the education system that weights creating "Americans" over every else. From K-12 however everyone should have the ability to search and read and learn in their own direction (one of the main concept behind college. Though you don't necessarily need college to learn this.).

austronesian have good history in seafaring. they are sea people. and arhcipelago kingdom and empires, for example 'borobodur ship', the malay ship like 'lanchara, lancang kuning. bugis 'pinsi' ship and many others.

@@slimpickens01 actually Europeans have nothing to do with the failures of scientific advancements in Africa. Only Africans to blame for that.

Somali*

It is not entirely lost, there are pockets of domestic rural iron production scattered around.. I watch a lot of African blacksmithing videos, and the scrap steel frustrates me - because its near impossible for them to forge weld when the steel constantly changes alloy... So the technique of forge welding is nearly lost in Africa it seems - and when you look at the historical artefacts, they are marvels of complex forge welding... In India, Pakistan and southeast Asia this dependence of scrap steel also seems to cause a loss of technical knowledge. I hope someone in Africa realizes at some point, that because there is a global demand (mabye not large but its there) for bloomery iron for artisan blacksmiths, they can actually make business getting the bloomery kilns running again.

@@EmilReiko Do you have any information about blacksmithing in the Indian subcontinent? I know that in the preislamic and early Islamic period there was a lot of prestige to having an Indian sword because it was supposed to be good quality. And I believe the Muslim name Muhannad is named after this Indian sword (which the prophet Muhammad was compared to in a famous poem.)

@@stevenv6463 Not much, i have mainly been focusing on the history of forging in Northern Europe (Mainly Scandinavia) and around Africa. I know that metallurgy and forging traditions in India suffered greatly when the british forcibly de-industrialized the continent. The steel that was called Damascus and was sought after in all of the muslim and persian world (as well as europe), was a crucible steel that came from India known as wootz.. The knowledge of its manufacture was lost in the wake of the British de-industrialization - it has recently been reversed ingenered by needs. What is sold today as damascus has nothing to do with the historical damascus, but is "just" patternwelded steel I have been binging a lot of blacksmithing videos from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan as they are a great inspiration, just like the African, for someone like me who is into living history and reconstructive blacksmithing. And because its a joy to see that the traditions have survived...

Actually the higher quality iron was found in late Middle Ages around the Arabian peninsula and before then was in Europe. The bronze in north east Africa - specifically Egypt was at one point the best.

There were but is not like africans had a strong sea traditions

They did though. Did you not watch the video?

malay/austronesian vs sub-saharan african which have great seafaring power? and have many type style of ship and boat?

@@FromNothing DAS RITE!!!!!! WE WUZ SAILORS TOO FAM! WE HAD TRADITION KNOWIMSAYIN?

They didn’t actually. Google anything from the video if you want, the creator is wrong on every point.

Sadly it's not "the new intro." It's just the one for this collaboration.

@@FromNothing A true buzz killer, aren't you! Oh well, it's a good intro anyway.

@@Morgue12free Hahaha sorry.

So, Vikings series femiprogresists haven should be Dublin and not Norway? Damn them.

Interesting stuff, where can I find more information on this, I'm interested in learning about it.

It really puts you into perspective how far could humans travel even milenia ago.

Colors aren't understood the same across languages so it could just be a kind of mistranslation of context. The Norse sagas use the same color terminology you're describing where people are "black" if they have dark hair or maybe are suntanned from working outside while dark skinned Africans are called "blue". Some dark-skinned Africans do have deep cool tones to their skin compared to more pink-tinted pale Celtic and Germanic Europeans so that could be why Africans were called "blue" by these northern people. It's notable that in Norse sagas, calling someone "blue" was never a negative descriptor the way calling someone "black" usually was.

@@HessianHunter Exactly! I tried to convey that in my post. Thank you for the clarification.

It was a great experience watching through them all 😀

Yep and they were still prone to leaking no matter how well they were constructed

pitch and caulking with fiber. You can also cover the lashings and seam with cloth or such and nail it over it all.

@@FromNothing I see would have been stressful as hek when they started leaking 😂

@@redwallzyl I see very interesting I wish we knew more about their voyages.

@@admirekashiri9879 Usually someone was assigned to just constantly bail out water. Wooden ships all leak real bad. I don't think they used pumps, probably not large enough to need that.

@From Nothing - you gunna tell him?

Mission accomplished :)

@@vnolan633 No but genetically they are the same.

If you actually look into any of it you would find the videos complete fiction. African traders would bring things to their ports and then foreign traders would bring them on their ships places.

​@@yourfinalhiringagency3890 not true somalis went to Iran India and Egypt. That's the red sea and Indian ocean.

@@skp8748 yes they did, and they’re not the topic! What is your problem bud - we are not talking about a people who were givin ship technology by Arabs along with half their dna. We are talking about full black blooded africans. Which one of those people were seafaring? N O N E

​@@yourfinalhiringagency3890the Mali empire was sea faring. And race is a nonsense anyway it's a cultural/social thing what's your insistence on this 100% black bs? All technology comes from a shared history with different people. We get it you think black people are stupid just say that so we can ignore you instead of trying to launder your racism

There wasn't just ONE giraffe sent there, nor was it just one voyage and nor were only giraffes sent there. Many animals were, as I mentioned in the video. As for your comment about Habesha, again I mentioned in the video that Habshi was a word used in India to denote ALL African people despite initially only being in reference to Ethiopians.

@@FromNothing the word chinese use come from somalis... yet u didnt wanna use thkde examples lol. Also im habesha. Stop stealing my history. They called other african slaves zanj. Habeshas or abyisinna ppl were only from modern day Ethiopia. Why do u africans try n black wash horn and north African history???

@@TheAtemiles I'm not African, I'm American and I'm not "blackwashing" anything. If you have any problems with any of my information, all of my sources are cited on my website. They are all peer-reviewed and accurate. The word that the Chinese used during that time in history denoted a mythical animal (As specified in the video). It was not an African word.

This inferior tribal community are sick! Malik Ambar is never Oromo in a million years! He is one of the Adal sultanate captured slave and Oromo came later

The giraffes were shipped from Malindi, a Swahili city state in present day Kenya

You don't need to lecture me on European "discoveries." I'm already aware of how that works. I actually researched that very topic when mentioning the lake. Unfortunately there are too many names to reference as it had many names in many languages. Lake Victoria is the only one that is universal. Fortunately it seems like many African countries are opting to change it's name to an indigenous one.

@@FromNothing even Barby from Geography Now referenced the indigenous names. Btw how in the hell you use a black avatar with a black name but your white? Black face is so passe and despicable.

@@slimpickens01 he’s literally black, dunce.

If you love them so much why don't you marry one?

@@mappingshaman5280 ⛵

Yea, Abubakari's Malian voyage to the Americas...

​@@adiamhaile-melekot8136 you act as if that is a historical fact. it's a story and in the story all the ships sunk and 1 came back then they sent more ship and none were ever seen again.. No west African evidence or influence the Americas that pre dates Columbus.

Complete Nut Alert 🚨

@@yourfinalhiringagency3890 no one cares what “no content, no subscribers” trolls think.

@@AfriasporaFilms that’s an interesting take, anyone with no videos or subscribers is a troll. Seems illogical, but whatever. Good luck with the rapture buddy

U see how it tries to frame it as swahili or ethiopian thing 😂

I never said anything about Ethiopia. And yes the giraffe was brought by Swahili merchants from Malindi, Kenya. Not sure why you are branding me as some shady guy trying to cover up Somali history.

@@FromNothing wrong it left from the somalia followed by somali diplomats leaving Zhang from mogadishu that he even recognised them as muslim like the family he hailed from as stated when they went to the court.

You know I think a better approach to all of this is to stop with the accusatory attitude and bratty demeanor. It's not helping. You're acting as if I'm some villain intentionally lying about Somali history. Maybe you should just consider the possibility that we just read two different sources. Many giraffes and other African animals have been exported to China throughout the middle ages so it is quite possible that the Somali as well as the Swahili could have done it as separate times. The one that I'm referring to was exported from Malindi to Bengal and then from Bengal to China.

​@@FromNothingChina is a country africa is a continent. Why not say asian and african trade. If you're going to name the Chinese you have to name the somalis. You don't conflate the Chinese with Sri Lankans.

That wasn't really a product of this trade though. Yasuke was a slave of Portuguese sailors.

@@FromNothing yasuke got where he did the same way nearly everyone and everything out of Africa did.

Ancient? No. Wood rots, especially wood that is in water all the time. But there are a few pre-colonial models still in existence.

The oldest watercraft called the Dufuna canoe was found in Nigeria and is around 8000 years old. That's not really a ship however.

@@redwallzyl Yep. The Dufuna is also the third oldest canoe discovered.

No but there are plenty of wooden tools that archeologists have found older than 50,000 years old, so if there was any ships, tools to build the ships, or depictions of the ships, or models of the ships I’m sure we would have found something somewhere. Or at least a description from one of the people they’d visited. But nope.

@@FromNothing look at this bro. You’re completely misleading people.

There is no African-Olmec connection.

Only superficial similarities such as wide nostrils/broad noses and Mounds/Pyramids. Wide nostrils or broad noses is a warm tropic evolutionary human trait found in South Asia, Pacific Islands, Central America, Pacific Islands, American Southeast, West Africa and Central Africa. Pyramids were found to be the ideal structure to build toll structures for many ancients across the ancient world because they had no strong enough beams to hold up the weight of the building, pyramid structure spreads out the weight of the building.

While I appreciate the feedback, just because people traded crops and farming methods with one another doesn't mean that they speak the same language. I'm sorry but that's just broken logic. Also I immediately followed the statement by saying that: "Aside from this fact however, research and evidence on early contact between these distinct regions of the world remains scant and how direct, or indirect it occurred remains open for debate until further evidence is discovered."

@@FromNothing ¿?¿? I think here there is a confusion. What I mean is, if swahilis would have arrived to china 3200 years ago, they would have arrived too to Madagascar and colonized it. I dont know if you have updated info, but as long a Ive read, Madagascar was founded by malay sailors, so it speaks a malay language. So, I think those cultivation interchanges were done by the malays, whose ancestors we know they have crossed oceans for 6 millenia.

@@adamnesico Once more I will refer you to the quote from the last comment. That is literally why it's "open for debate." There is no rulebook that states that Madagascar is a prerequisite for China. Australia for example was settled over 40,000 years ago but New Zealand was only settled 1500 years ago.

@@FromNothing it isn’t, but is far more near. Sailors who are able to arrive to China are able too of arrive to Madagascar, wich being far more near, should be far easier to arrive. Although certainly is far enough to not be discovered by people scared of venture towards the unknown ocean. Aniways, you said it, we have no proof of wich people made those interchanges. I guess the odds are in the most spreaded sailors ve4 europeans.

Well Madagascar is special in Africa. There it was the polynesians whom reached it first (if I'm not wrong something about the currents delayed bantu Inhabitation of the island) so Madagascar isn't really related to Chinese african trade.

A little too amazing, and fantastical

Khoisan people.

@@FromNothing Only them?

@@FromNothing Whoa, really? I thought Bantus only colonized central and Southern Africa.

Easy Africa too as far north as places like Kenya and Uganda.

Not just the Khoisan. East Africa has been inhabitted by Nilotes and Cushites too. Bantus were the last to arrive

Yes.

Yes but this content is pure fiction

What does Russia and Ukraine have to do with the topic at hand. Like I could have understood if you asked what his opinion on Russia entering the Neo colonial game in Africa. But this has nothing to do with African History at all.

@@OhSanjiBoi Well, it's just that in francophone channels, there plenty of african bot who post pro-Putin message anytime there a video on Ukraine. And there even channel aboot african culture, who use there channel at plateform to spread pro- Putin propaganda. It's seems to be more of an Fracophone problem then an anglophone one, but I think this need to be adress, or at least raise awerness, because this kind of channel are a danger for channel like "Fromnothing" who try to teach aboot African history wihout spoutting propaganda from either of the camp. Because he and other risk to be amalgamate with this propaganda channel.

India has elephants and China also had a native species of elephants till they went extinct but supposedly there are Indian subspecies of elephants in China.

I know shocking right? I'm sure many people have their own coping mechanisms against new info that contradicts their bigoted viewpoints on things. I see yours is two-fold. 1) Regurgitating an overused and unfunny meme. 2) Liking your own comment I'm not judging. As long as it makes you feel better :)

Stop coming to this channel it pathetic honestly

@@FromNothing DAS RITE YOU TELL EM MY NINJA

@@FromNothing DEY BE BIGOTED AIGHT YOU TELL EM DAS RITE

@@kenopsia6748 You have no life do ya

Nope

I'm not slacking, I just have personal things going on. I will upload again though. Also that's not very nice.

Do some research on the topic then, your initial assumption was correct.

@@ILoveAsia-dk6ug did you watch the video? The real question is what did he say, if anything, that was true! Jabari straight says African traders brought giraffes to China via sea trade. WTF when? Who? What boats carried giraffes Jabari? Wtf? Absolute fiction. Then he goes on to imply grains found in in Indonesia and England are from African traders? WTF more pure fiction. Tbf it’s been a while since I watched the video. Black people did sail the oceans - but Africans did not. Black aborigines peoples sailed possibly as far east as South America while African sailers went around africas coast for the most part. None of their vessels were sea worthy for expeditions, only could keep water out for a little while, african fishermen would bring buckets of clay and grass to patch leaks in the boats, these were very short except for an occasional daring explorer they only ever stayed on the african coast. Goes on and on.

@@ILoveAsia-dk6ug my comment got deleted somehow so I’ll just make another. Jabari claims African traders brought giraffes to China, and that they traded grain continents away. This is completely untrue - the vessels jabari names are very small and not sea worthy- the fisherman would bring mud and grass to help patch holes as they were underway meaning these were only ever used close to shore. It’s complete bs Africans were definitely not sailing the world. Black people as in aboriginal island people sure - they may have gotten as far as South American but sure I’ll say that’s impressive and give a pass on someone saying they sailed it sure, but sub Saharan African? Nope. Never. Except as slaves sadly or in modern navys. Now why is From Nothing suspect in doing this? In changing African history. Well bc it implies something is wrong with real black history- so jabari has taken it upon himself to make things more impressive by embellishing or leaving it to the listener to surmise what he’s suggested and it’s completely dishonest and disrespectful to our ancestors and anyone else who has history as a passion Not everyone sailed the world, that’s why it’s special. If everyone did it it’d be as special as pooping.

@@ILoveAsia-dk6ug if it’s ok with jabari I’d love to reply but my comments get deleted now 🤣

Nobody is deleting your comments, and nobody ever said anything about African traders in Europe or Indonesia. Like what?? Literally where? Time stamp please? Also you asked "what ships." I literally gave you 2 example by name. Mtepe and Beden. Further proof that you're not only neglecting to watch the video at all, but you're actively spewing bullshit. My guess is that if your comments aren't showing up, it's probably because I blocked you for this very same reason. At some point in the past, under a different name, you were flooding my notifications with bullshit assertions. Try looking in a mirror next time.

So all of a sudden I'm being Afrocentric just because the title of my video confused you despite me saying in the video that "they traded with lands as far away as China" and because I mentioned coins in Australia that I very obviously said "Could have been placed there in more recent times as a hoax." You should probably take it easy on the accusations. Because I was very fair and objective with all information presented and cited peer-reviewed sources for it all.

@@FromNothingYou didn't "confuse" me. You gave a clickbait misleading title. Just own up to it. The coins were most likely left in Northern Australia by Indonesian traders. My objection is not to the content of your video, but to the clickbait title. Needed efforts like yours to correct historical oversights (African sea voyages) should be sold for what they are, without exggeration.

@@FromNothing ignore him, anything that puts African in a positive way is "afrocentric" to white people who for 400 years have been told that white people didn't even pass the stone age, so they can't grasp everything they been taught is a LIE!

Good statement you’re 100% correct

Is China not part of the world? Did I use words like "circumnavigate?" Did I claim they went to the Americas? When someone says "I traveled the world" you don't tell them they are lying just because they've only been to 5 countries. Again, this seems like a YOU problem. Nobody else had any issues with the title. Your gripes would be better concentrated on ACTUAL afrocentric channels that claim things like Africans founding the Olmec civilization.

Nowhere in the video was it claimed to be "the other way around." The trade was 2-way. These African ships weren't built for nothing.

@@FromNothing *"These African ships weren't built for nothing."* Don't you mean that *Chinese* ships weren't built for nothing. Can't you just honestly answer a question for once?? Once an afroclown always an afroclown smfh.

I said that it was a TWO-WAY TRADE. Meaning there were Chinese sailors AND African sailors involved in the trade. Hell there were many sailors involved from Arabs, to Persians, Indians, to Chinese, Swahili, to Somali and Austronesians. I literally gave you names of the ships, building methods and materials, date ranges, and written records describing them. I even cited my sources publicly for anyone to see, as always yet all you have to say is "But... but... but... it's not possible for Africans to build and sail ships to China. It had to be the Chinese! You're just an afroclown!" Go somewhere else with a better argument unless you wanna keep wasting your time with a baseless complaint.

@@FromNothing Dammit Jabari, who built the maritime vessels man? Who navigated the east Asian maritime routes?

@@tonyducks1121 The is no evidence in Eastern literature that supports Subs Sailing to their lands. I doubt there is in Sub Saharan Niger Congo literature either.

Literally not even 5 minutes of research and I already have 2 sources proving you wrong.

@@ibrahim1869 Sorry bud it's well documented with names/how many vessels/time period, the Chinese during that time period were fairly good at keeping records. Point me in the right direction in terms of sources please and not some biased source.

@@KingZealotTactics If you go on both the Smithsonian and Silkroadsnippets prove you wrong.

@@ibrahim1869 Sorry but i'm not proven wrong when we have documentation of the events by those that are involved, Smithsonian has been wrong about more than a few things.

​@@KingZealotTactics If you have any questions or doubts, all of my peer-reviewed academic sources are cited on my website. Don't go venting your anger at afrocentrics on me because I'm not one of them and I hate them too. Also nowhere in the video did I ever directly claim that the Chinese did not transport animals or that it was exclusively Africans. If so I welcome you to quote it.

And you never watched the video or checked my sources. You just saw the title and the thumbnail and refused to accept it. I know how this works. 🥲

@@FromNothing then you also know yt is plagued by black supremacists saying 💩 that never happened. Africans sailing the world - didnt happen till they were incorporated into Western European navy’s, USA’s or slave trade ships. I’m not watching your vid to learn some kind of hidden history only u know of. I’m just saying the historical truth.

For you to assume that I am one of those black supremacists even though I quite literally make fun of them in my videos is the sad part of this whole situation. And for you to keep insinuating that it's untrue that black people sailed is also concerning. If you're too bigoted to watch the video, I can't change that. But hopefully you at least do yourself a favor and look up the Mtepe or the Beden. Both of those are traditional varieties of indigenous African ships used nowhere else in history except East Africa. And they were used extensively throughout the indian Ocean for the past 1000+ years. Any peer-reviewed university-level resource will agree. In fact, I cite the resources on my website. Check the video description if you're interested. If you're not willing to do either of those things and you just want to keep denying it then that's on you but there's no point in discussing this any further if that's the case. If you refuse to check the sources or watch then nothing else needs to be said. Have a good night sir/ma'am.

@@FromNothing now I have watched the video, and can safely say it’s complete bs. I never said u were one of them, I said it’s a common theme on these types of videos and you seem to know that’s a fact. Yes the Africans had small skiffs, no they absolutely never went far out with them. You’re attribute to Africans trade with China when the traders were chinese, the giraffe is well documented as being part of a Chinese explorers voyage, not an Africans. The spice trade by sea was mostly conducted by Arabs, very rarely people further east, more rarely Indians, and almost never by Africans unless they were onboard ships of others. The entire vids wrong kid, you call me a bigot point blank I never called u a blk sprmc despite the bs. You’re simply taking other ethnic groups advances and attributing them to blacks. The Arabian Sea doc was made by Arabs who traded along Horn of Africa. Sailing from the Horn of Africa to India is not “sailing the world” its sailing a few countries over at best

@Your Final Hiring Agency Yes I know there are Afrocentric idiots out there and it makes me sad that I have to be guilty until proven inoccent because of them. And frankly I shouldn't have to waste my effort "pleading my case" to you. As for your remark about the giraffes. There were many giraffes (along with other exotic African animals) transported to China at many different times in history. It wasn't just one. The one I described in the video was transported by Swahili sailors to Malindi, India. It was later encountered in India by Chinese traders. It had been transported there aboard indigenous African vessels and no they weren't "small skiffs." I described the exact specifications of the ships and the sizes and capacity of them. I described their construction techniques, sails, and routes. I gave you names and primary sources from Greek observers as well. All of this info can be found in my sources including JSTOR (used by many universities all around the world). My videos are also used as learning material in universities. If in your head all you want to believe is "Black people were only on small skiffs and slave ships" then that is nothing more than willful ignorance and borderline racism. I will longer no entertain this discussion. Good day.