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TRADE-EAST AFRICA: Learning From Past Glories

Sarah McGregor

DAR ES SALAAM, Aug 22 2007 (IPS) - East African scholars are delving into history for clues on cultivating economic ties and dealing with challenges in a new era of expanding trade with China and India.

A few centuries ago, the Indian Ocean was being criss-crossed as merchants moved goods from and to African, Arab and Asian regions. Transatlantic commerce overtook the eastern routes as Europe and North America became industrialized, historians say.

Trade activity involving Africa and Asia is on the upswing again now, bringing more wealth but also more labour, environmental and social demands to Africa.

‘‘In the 16th century, China had the military and technical power to dominate the robust Indian Ocean trade, but it did not. It was a relatively peaceful power,’’ Abdalla Bujra, executive director of the Development Policy Management Forum in Nairobi, told IPS.

‘‘Today, with the emergence of the Indian Ocean states as major economic powers, this model becomes important to study.’’

The Zanzibar Indian Ocean Research Institute (ZIORI), launched in June, is a non-profit research body led by academics in countries along the east coast of Africa. Its focus area includes Mozambique, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, Somalia, Madagascar, as well as the island states of Comoros and Seychelles.

The aim of ZIORI is to study ancient Swahili traders who used long, thin ships with lateen sails, known as dhows, to take on monsoon winds and voyage as far as Indonesia and China. The resulting trade connected people living all along the Indian Ocean, spreading new ideas about religion, particularly Islam, and influencing clothing, architecture, cuisine and language.

‘‘It created a culture of tolerance. People were engaging in business regardless of religion and culture. It is that culture and freedom of movement which we can compare with the present and learn from,’’ Abdalla Sheriff, executive director of ZIORI, said.

Those lessons could be relevant as trade expands between Africans and nations rimming the Indian Ocean. China and India are increasingly courting mineral-rich Africa for oil and commodities to feed their booming economies and expand manufacturing capacity while seeking to extend consumer markets.

The Asian countries are investing in the improvement of Africa’s neglected roads, railway lines and telecommunications networks while stepping up aid. Two-way trade between China and Africa amounted to 40 billion dollars in 2005, compared to 5 billion dollars in the early 1990s, according to statistics from the Chinese ministry of commerce.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has said he expects trade volumes to rise to 100 billion dollars by 2010. This year, the Chinese government pledged to double aid to Africa to one billion dollars by 2009, to set up a 5 billion dollars fund to encourage private sector investment in African countries and to build hospitals and schools.

However, Chinese polices have drawn criticism from activists. Some worry that China’s ‘‘don’t ask, don’t tell’’ policy on domestic issues could help prop up undemocratic governments, especially given China’s own poor human rights record.

Some fear the Asian businesses operating in Africa may also fail to uphold environmental and labour standards demanded by some Western civil society organisations.

‘‘The Indian Ocean has become a theatre of activity. With the global village has come global pillage. We need to preserve our heritage,’’ said Issa Shiviji, a law professor at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Organizers say another positive spin-off of the project is that ZIORI is based in Zanzibar’s trading capital of Stone Town where it will house a research library on the Swahili civilization, including rare publications donated from personal collections.

It will also encourage local scholars to investigate African history and equip themselves with better knowledge about their own past in order to develop pointers to the future.

‘‘In Tony Blair’s report on Africa the last 50 years were summed in two sentences: lack of accountability, or corruption; and a lack of capacity, or that we have stopped thinking. Africa is much more than that,’’ Shiviji said.