Zheng He, a close confidant of the Ming Dynasty Emperor Yung-Lo, was put in command of a great Chinese fleet of 200 ocean-going vessels with 27,000 men shipped aboard, to herald in the 'Age of Exploration' earlier than is widely known. Conditions in China were favorable for such an enterprise.
In the 15th Century, the star of China's Ming Dynasty was in the ascendancy, as by the year 1368 the occupying Mongols had been driven out, and a population larger and more united than the whole of Europe was administered by an efficient mandarin bureaucracy. The Emperor decided the time was ripe to show the flag, explore and exact tribute.
Admiral Zheng took the huge fleet to roam the Indian Ocean for seven successful expeditions from its base in Nanjing between 1405 and 1433 including a trans-oceanic crossing to the East African city of Malindi via Kenya's Lomu peninsular, where it was recorded that one of the fleet was lost.
On the seabed, off Lomu (nowadays a magnet for the safari-bound tourist) rests a wreck that is set to be excavated, in order to discover if it is indeed one of Zheng's fleet, according to Mazera Ndurya's 26, July 2010 report – "Experts set to unravel puzzle of a Chinese ship that sank near Lamu", in the online edition of Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper.
Chinese Enclave on the African Coast?
Ndurya's article also mentions a local Kenyan young woman, Mwamaka Sheriff, who believes that her family is directly linked to some of the Chinese sailors who survived the Lomu shipwreck and then settled to marry African women in that area.
Coincidentally, Ms Sheriff is reportedly a student at Nanjing University, and it was in Nanjing itself, the ancient Ming Dynasty capital of China, that Zheng was born in 1371 and was buried after his death in the ancient Indian port-city of Calicut in 1433.
Joint African-Chinese Venture to Excavate the Site
In a subsequent article, "Digging up ancient kingdom", posted on 28, July 2010, on the same newspaper Web-site, Ndurya, tells how an ancient connection is to be renewed by the joint exploration of the shipwreck and other sites nearby by a ten-person team of archaeologists from both East Africa and China.
Dr Herman Kiriama, head of Kenya's 'Office of Coast Archaeology' is quoted by Ndurya:
"We are excited about the project because we hope, after this [excavation], we will be able to set up a maritime museum to house all the artifacts ... The sunken ship is believed to have been part of an armada commanded by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He, who reached Malindi in 1418. According to Kenyan folklore, reportedly backed by recent DNA testing, a handful of survivors swam ashore."
Zheng He – A Search for His Tomb
In a 2001 edition (precise date not stated) of Time Asia online magazine there is a comprehensive article on Zheng by Adi Ignatius entitled, "The Asian Voyage: In the Wake of the Admiral", which includes an account of an arduous search for Zheng's burial monument in a rural part of the Nanjing countryside whose inhabitants seemed unaware that a Chinese national hero lay interred nearby.
Ignatius reported eventually finding it near Zheng's grave, overgrown by grass and weeds, wondering to himself how a country could forget its greatest adventurer-hero.
One explanation for such lack of regard may be that some writers are critical of the intent of Zheng's voyages, regarding him as an aggressor and a colonialist; aspersions that would not sit easily in a communist China. But in Western eyes nothing to be ashamed of.
Sources:
Asimov, Isaac, Exploring the Earth & the Cosmos, London, Allen Lane, 1983. 16.17
Roberts, J.M., The Pelican History of the World, London, Pelican, 1987. 424. 431. 433
George Backwell - Merely a reporter who endeavors to provide a reliable compass for those who look for one.
