Dandama (Angoche)
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No medieval author mentions this place. Idrisi (1150) mentions Dandama which according to the location he gives of the place might be Angoche. It is now also proven, through archaeology, that the settlement in the time of Idris (1150) was already an import-export harbor. Al Himyari (1461) copied him.
Archaeological sites on the Angoche islands.
Taken from: Settlement and Trade from AD 500 to 1800 at Angoche, Mozambique by Edward Pollard, Ricardo Duarte & Yolanda Teixeira Duarte. African Archaeological Review volume 35, pages 443–471 (2018)
Previous archaeological investigations have revealed local ceramics from the early second millennium AD and imports from the late fifteenth century. According to oral traditions and ancient sources, Angoche’s growth is associated with the arrival of coastal settlers from Kilwa in 1485. The survey revealed evidence for occupation dating from c. AD 500 and trading evidence from the late first millennium AD. Artefacts from the thirteenth to sixteenth century on the islands are similar to those found at Kilwa and Sofala, which shows a link to Kilwa earlier than the oral traditions and the name of one of the Angoche Islands ‘Quilua’, is Kilwa in Portuguese. The name of Angoche relates to a port of call and the presence of ninth-tenth-century- storage vessels from southern Iran supports this theory. Traded glass and ceramic artifacts and beads increase from the late medieval period revealing that Angoche became an important and wealthy entrepôt. The lack of coral limestone and reef coral, on the sandy Angoche Islands, indicates some building materials would have had to have been imported. Although many buildings would have been made of wood, some stone ruins are likely to have been demolished and burnt to make lime.
Island Archaeological Survey
In 1975, Dickinson (1976) briefly surveyed two of the Angoche Islands: Catamoio (Muchelele site) and Quilua. The site of Muchelele on Catamoio Island revealed pottery dating from the late fifteenth to early seventeenth century (Dickinson 1976, p. 5). He accepted, based on oral tradition and artefact evidence, that Muchelele was the site associated with the beginning of the sultanate at the end of the fifteenth century. He described the assemblage as celadon from c. 1500, blue and white Ming porcelain from c. 1600, earthenware with highly glazed exteriors in sea greens and turquoise, imported glass beads of Indian red predominating but also purple, yellow, green and blue, and a bronze bead; African ceramics decorated with chevrons of parallel grooved lines, incised crisscross, wavy-shell impressions of diagonal parallel lines, red oxide polish and a baked-clay decorated spindle whorl (Dickinson 1976, pp. 6 – 7).
Early Medieval (AD 500 to 1000) Four sites were discovered that have evidence from the late first millennium AD: Namakuli on Quilua, Mitubani, Joca and Nhanluqui.
On Nhanluqui, three thick earthenware fragments, a rim, a fragment with two drilled holes and a flat base, are probably storage vessels and are similar to pottery fragments from southern Iran that have been recorded at Manda in Lamu Archipelago, Unguja Ukuu on Zanzibar, Sohar in Oman and Siraf in the Gulf dated to the late eighth to tenth centuries (Chittick 1984, pp. 84). The low number of substantial sites indicates Angoche was not an important port in the Indian Ocean trading system.
Late Medieval (AD 1000 to 1485) Six sites have been ascribed to this period.
Imported ceramics include one with a pink matrix and green and yellow glaze that is possibly Islamic sgraffiato of the eleventh to twelfth century at the Catholic Church. Nhanluqui surface artefacts included a wound light blue glass bead, late sgraffiato, a shard of thick clear glass and a celadon bowl rim with fluting. The latter is possibly Lung-chuan common at fourteenth century Kilwa (Chittick 1974, pp. 311 – 312). Late sgraffiato dates from the eleventh-thirteenth century AD at Shanga in the Lamu Archipelago and Kisimani Mafia near Kilwa (Horton 1996, p. 289).
The Muchelele (Catamoio) and Catholic Church (Angoche city) collection is very interesting as it associates Lumbo tradition sherds with imports, not recorded previously at Lumbo tradition sites. Some of the Chinese greenwares (celadon) and porcelain recovered are possibly Song dynasty (tenth to thirteenth century) though there is also later Ming Dynasty (fourteenth – seventeenth) ceramics present. It is also possible, however, that there are Islamic copies of glazed Chinese wares dating to the same period in the assemblage.
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Imported artefacts found during the survey. A Muchelele celadon. B Nhanluqui celadon. C Ming porcelain from Muchelele |
D Qing porcelain from Muchelele. E Storage vessel from Nhanluqui. F Late Islamic Sgraffiato from Nhanluqui (photos: R.Duarte and Y. Teixeria Duarte) |
Taken from: OBSERVATIONS PRELIMINAIRES SUR LES SITES DU MOZAMBIQUE - PIERRE VÉRIN 1970 Azania.
According to Arnaldo Ramos da Fonseca, Angoche was a name given for centuries to an entire region that constitutes the current district of Antonio Enes. Still according to this author, around 1450 an important establishment was founded on the island of Quiloa in the country of Angoche by 'Xossa', son of a certain 'Hassini', originally from Zanzibar who married Malivo, daughter of Buana Mecussi of Quiloa. Their descendants reigned until the end of the 19th century.
In 1512 the first revolt of the Moors of Angoche took place. Alfonso d'Albuquerque sent Antonio Saldanha to chastise her.
From these independent times, there remain the arms of the Sultans of Angoche in the small museum of the Municipality of Antonio Enes as well as archaeological remains in Velha Angoche in the island of Quiloa and in Catamoio. We have not yet been able to see these remains and to our knowledge, they have never been described.
Taken from: THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF AFRICA General Editors: J. D. FAGE and ROLAND OLIVER Vol. 3.
Late in the fifteenth century Angoche was visited by refugees from Kilwa, who founded a new sultanate, the trade of which grew as the Sofala-Kilwa axis collapsed. A few years later commercial power shifted again, as Angoche was gradually replaced by the Portuguese establishments of Mozambique island, north of it, and Quelimane, south of it. The gradual shift from Kilwa to Angoche, Quelimane and the other northern ports was a sign that from the fifteenth century the Zambezi valley had become the major trade artery of the region and replaced the routes inland from Sofala.
Taken from: Newitt, M. D. 1972. The early history of the Sultanate of Angoche. Journal of African
History 13, 397–406.
By 1511, the Portuguese had come to realize that Angoche was the center of clandestine trade, principally with cloth, and an armed expedition of 1200 men sacked the town. No military garrison was set up though and a year later the clandestine trade was again in effect (Newitt 1972, p. 401; Newitt 1995, pp. 20–2).
Taken from: Barbosa, D. 1995. A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the beginning of the Sixteenth Century. Facsimile edition. New Delhi: J. Jetley.
Duarte Barbosa, in his major work of the Indian Ocean region, probably completed shortly before 1516, describes Angoche and its inhabitants:
After passing the river Zuama, at XL leagues from it, there is a town of the Moors on the sea coast, which is called Angoy, and has a king, and the Moors who live there are all merchants, and deal in gold, ivory, silk, and cotton stuffs, and beads of Cambay, the same as do those of Sofala. And the Moors bring these goods from Quiloa, and Monbaza, and Melynde, in small vessels hidden from the Portuguese ships; and they carry from there a great quantity of ivory, and much gold. And in
this town of Angos there are plenty of provisions of millet, rice, and some kinds of meat. These men are very brown and copper coloured; they go naked from the waist upwards, and from thence downwards, they wrap themselves with cloths of cotton and silk, and wear other cloths folded after the fashion of cloaks, and some wear caps and others hoods, worked with stuffs and silks; and they speak the language belonging to the country, which is that of the Pagans, and some of them speak Arabic. ... These [the people of Ilha de Mozambique] are of the language and customs of the Moors of Anguox. (Barbosa 1995, pp. 9–10)