The Arab writer, Macoudi, in the tenth century visited the East African coast somewhere north of the equator.  He found the Indian Sea at that time frequented by Arab and Persian vessels, but there were no Asiatic settlements on the African shore.  The Bantu, or as he calls them, Zenji, inhabited the country as far south as Sofala, where they bordered upon the Bushmen.  These Bantus were under a ruler with the dynastic title of Waklimi.  He was paramount over all the other tribes of the north and could put three hundred thousand men in the field.  They used oxen as beasts of burden and the country produced gold in abundance, while panther skin was largely used for clothing.  Ivory was sold to Asia and the Bantu used iron for personal adornment instead of gold or silver.  They rode on their oxen, which ran with great speed, and they ate millet and honey and the flesh of animals.

Inland among the Bantu arose later the line of rulers called the Monomotapa among the gifted Makalanga.  Their state was very extensive, ranging from the coast far into the interior and from Mozambique down to the Limpopo.  It was strongly organized, with feudatory allied states, and carried on an extensive commerce by means of the traders on the coast.  The kings were converted to nominal Christianity by the Portuguese.

There are indications of trade between Nupe in West Africa and Sofala on the east coast, and certainly trade between Asia and East Africa is earlier than the beginning of the Christian era.  The Asiatic traders settled on the coast and by means of mulatto and Negro merchants brought Central Africa into contact with Arabia, India, China, and Malaysia.

The coming of the Asiatics was in this wise:  Zaide, great-grandson of Ali, nephew and son-in-law of Mohammed, was banished from Arabia as a heretic.  He passed over to Africa and formed temporary settlements.  His people mingled with the blacks, and the resulting mulatto traders, known as the Emoxaidi, seem to have wandered as far south as the equator.  Soon other Arabian families came over on account of oppression and founded the towns of Magadosho and Brava, both not far north of the equator.  The first town became a place of importance and other settlements were made.  The Emoxaidi, whom the later immigrants regarded as heretics, were driven inland and became the interpreting traders between the coast and the Bantu.  Some wanderers from Magadosho came into the Port of Sofala and there learned that gold could be obtained.  This led to a small Arab settlement at that place.

Seventy years later, and about fifty years before the Norman conquest of England, certain Persians settled at Kilwa in East Africa, led by Ali, who had been despised in his land because he was the son of a black Abyssinian slave mother.  Kilwa, because of this, eventually became the most important commercial station on the East African coast, and in this and all these settlements a very large mulatto population grew up, so that very soon the whole settlement was indistinguishable in color from the Bantu.