Historical Production and Materiality: The Mystery of the Zheng He’s Chinese Descendants on the Kenyan Coast.

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Globalisation of Sino-foreign Maritime Exchange: Ocean Cultures", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Chinese navigator Admiral Zheng He led seven epic voyages into the Indian Ocean, reaching the shores of North-Eastern Africa. Chinese historical documentation records his visit to Malindi on the Kenyan coast in 1417-19. Since 2000 there have been several spectacular announcements in Kenya and China that have seized the world’s attention. These include the alleged presence of a shipwreck of a vessel from Zheng He fleet and the discovery of descendants of the sailors from that event on the island of Pate in the Lamu Archipelago. This chapter approaches these declarations through an investigative lens on the archival, archaeology, ethnographical and genealogical evidences that reflects on the subject of Zheng He and its role in the production of popular history in Kenya.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Globalisation of Sino-foreign Maritime Exchange: Ocean Cultures   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow