ABSTRACT
There are numerous references to Africans in India from the thirteenth century onwards. This chapter provides a description of the East African slave trade from the travel accounts of Portuguese, Arab and European travellers from the fourteenth century to the nineteenth century. The lucrative East African slave trade carried out by the Arabs involved the transportation and sale of Africans from the Swahili coast to the Persian Gulf, Rea Sea ports and India. These accounts come from the writings and observations of Ibn Battuta, Niccolo de’ Conti, Abdur Razzak, the Russian Athanasius Nikitin, the Dutch traveller Linschoten, Francois Pyrard de laval, Mandelslo, Tom Pires, William Finch, Tod, Richard Burton and Pietro della Valle. Accounts by European travellers, adventurers and officials contain frequent references to the African settlements in India. These travel accounts provide much useful information and insights into the slave trade and the plight of the slaves.
