ABSTRACT
The old stories say that at the beginning of time, when the first men and women emerged from a cave, cattle came out with them. Archaeological evidence indicates that in the eastern regions of southern Africa, people and cattle have been living with each other for a thousand years and more. For as far back as historical records permit us to see, owning cattle meant wealth and power. Crops were a vitally important food supply but open fields could never be as tightly controlled as cattle. Competition accelerated in the eighteenth century both among Africans and traders from Europe. In 1721 the Dutch East India Company tried the experiment of planting a permanent trading post on the site of the present city of Maputo. By the 1770s the sea trade had expanded to include visitors from England, France and Austria, as well as Muslim traders from farther north on the east African coast.
