Malindi Kingdom

The Malindi Kingdom was a Bantu civilization on the eastern coast of Africa, in modern Kenya, from approximately the 9th through 15th centuries. It was a noteworthy cultural and trade crossroads between the Bantu and Arab peoples, and also traded with Ming China, India, and Portugal; pottery from all three regions has been found there dating to between the 13th and 15th centuries.^[1]

Knowledge of this kingdom became available when the Communist Chinese government took interest in stories of exploration by 14th century diplomat Zheng He, now a national hero, and began sponsoring archeological digs of sites in places like modern Malindi and Mambrui. Zheng He does indeed appear to have traveled at least this far, before trade was banned by the bureaucracy of the Ming dynasty and most records of that exploration destroyed.^[2][3]