Annex 5 – Evidence of Chinese fleets visiting Africa – West Coast including South Africa
1. Maps and star charts
- Kangnido
- Wu Pei Chih
- Ch’uan Chin
2. Chinese Records and Claims
Further research needed
3. Accounts of contemporary European historians and Explorers
Further research needed
4. Local peoples’ descriptions of Chinese or Asiatic peoples and their ancestors
who settled amongst them before Europeans arrived
- The earliest Dutch settlers called the Namaqua people ‘The Chinese Hottentots.’ They related the Namaqua people’s own claim that they were descendants of a shipwrecked Chinese junk which had rounded the Cape.
- In a television series entitled “Planeta Encantado”, directed by J.J. Benitez, he discloses that the people of Madeira found corpses on their beaches from people who Benitez believes to be Native American Indians because of the descriptions of the sailors and fishermen. Had these natives been travelling with the Chinese fleet, or were they indeed Chinese? (Elena Osuna)
- In The lost worlds of the Kalahari, by Laurens Van Der Post, 1958, the author describes how the Bushmen in Africa are the descendants of Chinese people – James D. Still
- A reader reports visiting a desert community of Arabs on the way to Al Um Quran, Mauritania, where he came across a Chinese craftsman. On enquiry the carpenter said that he was a native of the area, and that his ancestry was Chinese. The man was well versed with local culture and behaviour.
- The Kung people of south east of Angola are a curious people with Chinese facial characteristics living in the same way as the bush men – José Sol
- Northern Nigeria – we have had our attention drawn to “the tribe with Chinese names”. Like many minor tribes they had no written culture of their own. However their names when written in English would look perfectly normal in Hong Kong; the spelling is identical because many Nigerian languages are tonal like Chinese. Like every tribe in Nigeria there was folklore about their peculiar cultural habits. Most shocking to most Nigerians was that they ate dogs, a custom which was absolutely taboo to most Nigerians. Also whereas most Nigerians eat food which is highly spiced with chilli, this tribe used ginger – Bob Chard
5. Linguistics and languages common to China and New World
- South Africa – On the “wild coast”, the pure bushman language has at least 20 syllables that sound and mean the same in one of the Chinese languages – Roger Webster
6. Shipwrecks, Chinese anchors and fishing gear found in the wake of the treasure fleet
- Shipwreck found in South Africa under a playing field in Cape Town in the 1980’s. We are currently awaiting more information on this find – John Doble
7. Chinese porcelain and ceramics found in the wake of the treasure fleet
- Fragments of Chinese celadon porcelain at Mapungubwe, dated to about AD1250.
- Transkei Wild Coast, South Africa – broken pieces of blue and white porcelain can often be found as can beautiful glass beads – Linda Murray
8. Pre-Columbian Chinese jade found in the wake of the treasure fleet
Further research needed
9. Artefacts, gems, votive offerings, coins and funerary urns
- Raymond Dart, Adventures with the Missing Link mentions discoveries of gold charms or statuettes of obvious Chinese origin at archaeological sites in Africa, but he offers no explanation for them. (Dr. Anthony Tankard)
10. Stone buildings, artefacts, canals and aqueducts
Further research needed
11. Mining operations found by first Europeans when they reached the New World
Further research needed
12. Advanced technologies found by first Europeans on arrival in New World
Further research needed
13. Plants indigenous to one continent, found on another
Further research needed
14. Animals indigenous to one continent, found on another
- The extinct Quagga (aka Kwagga) or “Cape Horse”, an apparent mutation of the Burchell’s or Plains zebra. The last surviving Quagga was shot by hunters in the 19th Century although some skins and biological material have been preserved in various museums across the world including the Iziko Museum in Cape Town. This controversial zebra sub-species has been the subject of intense debate and an ongoing programme of selective breeding from extant zebra populations in an effort to re-create the Quagga and the interesting colour aberration that has come to characterise this so-called zebra sub-species. Given the assumed presence of Chinese horses among the livestock on the fleets, and the possibility of exploratory trips into the Cape hinterland early in the 15th Century by Chinese explorers, it may be possible to hypothesise that a few horses could have escaped and bred with the zebra population As such this might easily account for the small but obvious populations of atypically coloured zebras described by early European explorers into Southern Africa.
15. Distinctive artwork carried from continent to continent
- Raymond Dart, in Adventures with the Missing Link, relates a fascinating story about African houses in the Karoo (the dry inland plateau of South Africa) that have their walls decorated in Chinese style with Chinese characters. Locals maintain that it is a custom passed down through the generations. (Dr Anthony Tankard)
- Professor Raymond Dart in the March 1925 issue of “Nature” referred to San rock paintings of what appeared to be figures with Chinese hats. These paintings were found in the far south on the banks of the Kei River north of East London. He was severely criticised and ridiculed by his contemporaries and successors, even as late as in the 1990’s for having believed that the Chinese dared to venture into the dangerous currents south of Zanzibar. In the Mapungubwe collection, housed at the University of Pretoria, there are also shards of Chinese ceramics which prove that these artefacts must have found their way into the interior to the settlements of the early African kingdoms before European colonization. Further to this, skeletons of Mongoloid people were found in Whitcher’s cave, situated about 6 miles from the coast between Port Elisabeth and Mossel Bay, near to where the Dart San drawings were found – Professor Alex Duffey
- There is a rock engraving from Driekopseiland on the Vaal River which seems to be of a Chinese figure with turned-up shoes and a pagoda hat.
- The Fang / Bapounou “Mukundji” tribal masks from the Punu region of Gabon (NgunieéNyanga). They show narrow faced, elongated features, a pursed mouth, red or black narrow long nose, slit eyes and arched eyebrows. The faces are white painted and the black hair is in a remarkable chignon style, either single or double on top of the head.The faces are very “Chinese” looking – Walter H. Ziegler
- Near a small town in the Karoo (the dry inland plateau of South Africa) the design on the outer wall of a house said to have been passed down through the generations yet had no meaning. This particular design that of a Chinese name- (Anthony Tankard)
- A visitor to our website tells of a friend’s complete mask collection from Liberia. One of the masks comes from a tribe called “The Chen” or “The Chien” Tribe. Its eyes are slanted totally differently to any other mask from the country. Could the Chien have come from China, survivors of shipwrecks like the Pate islanders and the “Chinese Hottentots”? – Ulf Eriksson
Customs and games exported from China to New World
- Some of the traditional huts occupied by the Namaqua people or ‘Chinese Hottentots’ of South Africa resemble the traditional yurt from China (Robbie Cameron)
- Rafique Jairazabhoy’s work delineates Chinese influences in South America. Two recent books by Michael Coe and Douglas Peck about the Maya touch on comparisons of I Ching and certain aspects of Mayan astronomy. Quite separately, there are suggestions that I Ching and the Ife system of the Yorubas from Nigeria are also very comparable.(H. Bourne)
17. Armour, metal weapons and metal implements found in the New World
Gympie Pyramid site – the latest find is a strange horseshoe under 2 feet of topsoil.
– seven and a half inches (top to bottom)
– six and a half inches across (L to R)
– metal band is one and a half inches in diameter
– definitely an iron composition and very corroded.
“We have to assume at the moment it is not of the modern era – our horses are smaller – Fraser Island had wild horses roaming when the island was first explored. Whether there is a connection we do not know. We have discounted the draught horse theory – there is no record of them ever being used in this area. Small pieces of iron slag and small iron pegs have also been found.
Brett Green
18. Trans-oceanic spread of diseases from one continent to another
Further research needed
19. DNA studies and physical comparison
In the Western Cape of the tip of Africa there is a race called the Cape coloreds which have slit eyes
and pale brown almost yellow skin. Could this be African crossed with Chinese? (Nick Steadman)
20. Meteorological events and weather
Further research needed
21. Stars and navigation
Further research needed
View maps: The Cantino world map, The Vinland map, The Piri Reis map, The Pizzigano Nautical Chart
