Azania

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For other uses, see Azania (disambiguation).

Map of Africa, Description de l'univers (1683); A'zania is circled.
Map of Africa, Description de l'univers (1683); A'zania is circled.

A'zania (Ancient Greek: Ἀζανία)[1] is a name that has been applied to various parts of southeastern tropical Africa.[2] In the Roman period and perhaps earlier, the toponym has been hypothesised to have referred to a portion of the Southeast African coast extending from southern Somalia to the border between Mozambique and South Africa.[3][4] During classical antiquity, Azania was mostly inhabited by Southern Cushitic peoples, whose groups would rule the area until the great Bantu Migration.[5][6]

In 1933, G.W.B Huntingford proposed a theory of Azanian civilization existing in Kenya and northern Tanzania, between the Stone Age and Islamic period. It was supposed that these people were from Somalia where they eventually perished around the 14th to 15th-century.[7]

Etymology

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Origin word of A'zania Related to Arabic عَجَمِيّ/Ajami (ʕajamiyy, “foreign"). The Greeks likely remoulded whichever word to a familiar form (Etymology ).[8]

Ancient A'zania

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A'zania was a region in ancient Arcadia, which was according to Pausanias named after the mythical king Azan. According to Herodotus, the region contained the ancient town of Paus. The use of this name coincides with a reference in which Pliny the Elder mentions an "Azanian Sea" (N.H. 6.34) that began around the emporium of Adulis and stretched around the south coast of Africa. It may well be that the Greek usage resonated with a term already in use around the Horn of Africa especially in the light of the fact that the term with a different meaning to the Greek Arcadian meaning, was in use in South Asia, Southeast Asia and China,Or perhaps the word Azania is borrowed from the Arabic word Ajamiya or Ajami via the Greek word Ἀζανία. The Greek Travelogue is unlikely to reflect navigation of the African East Coast. The 1st century AD Greek travelogue the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea first describes Azania based on its author's intimate knowledge of the area. According to the Periplus, traded items included awls, knives, glass, and iron implements, although this does not suggest the "Azanians" were unaware of iron smelting. Chapter 15 of the Periplus suggests that Azania could be the littoral area south of present-day Somalia (the "Lesser and Greater Bluffs", the "Lesser and Greater Strands", and the "Seven Courses").[9] Chapter sixteen describes the emporium of Rhapta, located south of the Puralean Islands at the end of the Seven Courses of Azania, as the "southernmost market of Azania". The Periplus does not mention any dark-skinned "Ethiopians" among the area's inhabitants. They only later appear in Ptolemy's Geographia, but in a region far south, around the "Bantu nucleus" of northern Mozambique. According to John Donnelly Fage, these early Greek documents altogether suggest that the original inhabitants of the Azania coast, the "Azanians", were of the same ancestral stock as the Afro-Asiatic populations to the north of them along the Red Sea. The "Azanians" made extensive use of small sewn boats, which were used to fish and hunt. The Periplus's description of the "Azanians" is brief, merely characterizing them as "Dark-skinned" and "Of great stature".[10] Subsequently, by the 10th century AD, these original "Azanians" had been replaced by early waves of Bantu settlers.[11]

Later Western writers who mention Azania include Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100 – c. 170 CE) and Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th century CE).

Revival

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The term was briefly revived in the second half of the 20th century as the appellation given to South Africa by Marxists such as the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) party. In 2025, the African Transformation Movement (ATM) proposed changing the name of the Republic of South Africa to the Republic of Azania.[12][13][14] However, South Africans have widely criticised the proposal.[15][16]

It has also been applied to the regional state of Jubaland within Somalia.[17][18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, 15
  2. ^ Collins & Pisarevsky (2004). "Amalgamating eastern Gondwana: The evolution of the Circum-Indian Orogens". Earth-Science Reviews. 71 (3): 229–270. Bibcode:2005ESRv...71..229C. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2005.02.004.
  3. ^ Richard Pankhurst, An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia, (Lalibela House: 1961), p.21
  4. ^ The rise of Azania. Snippet w: David Dube. 1983. p. 17.
  5. ^ JournalInsert Hilton, John (1993–10). "Peoples of Azania". Electronic Antiquity: Communicating the Classics. 1 (5). ISSN 1320-3606.
  6. ^ Azania. 1983.
  7. ^ G.W.B, Huntingford (17 April 2022). "The Azanian Civilization And Megalithic Cushites Revisited".
  8. ^ "Combined Search". www.greek-language.gr. Retrieved 19 September 2025.
  9. ^ George Wynn Brereton Huntingford, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, (Hakluyt Society: 1980), p.29
  10. ^ Hilton, J. (October 1993). "Peoples of Azania". Electronic Antiquity. 1 (5). ISSN 1320-3606. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  11. ^ Fage, John (23 October 2013). A History of Africa. Routledge. pp. 25–26. ISBN 978-1317797272. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  12. ^ https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/atm-proposes-sa-name-change-to-republic-of-azania/
  13. ^ "'Republic of Azania': ATM proposes SA name change". ECR. Retrieved 25 November 2025.
  14. ^ "Proposal to change the name of South Africa". Retrieved 25 November 2025.
  15. ^ https://iol.co.za/news/politics/2025-07-08-atms-proposal-to-rename-south-africa-as-azania-what-does-it-mean-and-how-do-south-africans-feel-about-it/
  16. ^ lauray@mg.co.za (16 July 2025). "Azania has no link to South Africa; it's to do with slavery in East Africa". The Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 25 November 2025.
  17. ^ Whittaker, Hannah (20 October 2015). Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Kenya: A Social History of the Shifta Conflict, c. 1963–1968. BRILL. p. 153. ISBN 978-90-04-28308-4.
  18. ^ Warah, Rasna (12 June 2014). War Crimes: How Warlords, Politicians, Foreign Governments and Aid Agencies Conspired to Create a Failed State in Somalia. AuthorHouse. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-4969-8282-7.

Bibliography

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  • Casson, Lionel (1989). The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Lionel Casson. (Translation by H. Frisk, 1927, with updates and improvements and detailed notes). Princeton, Princeton University Press.
  • Chami, F. A. (1999). "The Early Iron Age on Mafia island and its relationship with the mainland." Azania Vol. XXXIV 1999, pp. 1–10.
  • Chami, Felix A. 2002. "The Egypto-Graeco-Romans and Paanchea/Azania: sailing in the Erythraean Sea." From: Red Sea Trade and Travel. The British Museum. Sunday 6 October 2002. Organised by The Society for Arabian Studies.[www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/ane/fullpapers.doc][dead link]
  • Collins, Alan S.; Pisarevsky, Sergei A. (2005). "Amalgamating eastern Gondwana: The evolution of the Circum-Indian Orogens". Earth-Science Reviews. 71 (3–4): 229–270. Bibcode:2005ESRv...71..229C. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2005.02.004.
  • Huntingford, G.W.B. (trans. & ed.). Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Hakluyt Society. London, 1980.
  • Yu Huan, The Weilue in The Peoples of the West, translation by John E. Hill
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