| "The Phantom Voyagers"
The Phantom Voyagers
is about Indonesian mariners who came to Africa and Madagascar in ancient times,
long before Europeans knew anything of Africa beyond the Sahara, and long before
Arabs and Shirazis sailed down the coast in their dhows to found exotic cities
such as Kilwa, Lamu and Zanzibar.
We don’t know with
certainty who these Indonesians were, where they came from, or even why they
came. But though they left no records, their legacy on the mainland of Africa
is far greater than is generally recognised. For beneath the surface of the
Africa we know today, the footprints and fingerprints of those phantom voyagers
are legion.
Why is
“The Phantom Voyagers” of special interest?
If the History of
Britain had been written without any mention of the Vikings we would be left
with a grossly distorted picture of the truth. Many aspects of the arts and
ancient culture which, in fact, we know to have been brought into the islands
by Scandinavians would have been attributed incorrectly to ‘British
genius’.
The Indonesians
were, in a sense, Africa’s Vikings. They brought with them important new
plants, new forms of music, new diseases, new technologies, new arts, new ways
of predicting events, and other lasting facets of culture.
It would be fair
to say that without the input of Indonesians in ancient times, sub-Saharan
Africa would be a very different place today. Amongst other things, one wonders,
would the world have such
magnificent African icons as The Great Zimbabwe or Nigeria’s famous bronzes?
_______________
What readers said about
early drafts of the manuscript:
Dr Roland Oliver,
Emeritus Professor of African History, School of Oriental and African Studies,
London, and co-founder of the ‘Journal of African History’
wrote:-
“This is just to say
that I have spent three very interesting days reading your book … I can see that
in Part One you have to range pretty widely over the South-East Asian seascape
in order to establish the most likely origins of your Phantom Voyagers, and I
found this section of the book quite enthralling … With all good wishes for the
eventual success of your work, which I am convinced could reach and interest a
wide public”.
Sir Mervyn Brown, ex-British Ambassador to
Madagascar, and High Commissioner to Nigeria, author of “Madagascar Rediscovered”, and “A History of Madagascar”
wrote:
“… I found it
a fascinating read and a most impressive work of scholarship, based on a wide
range of sources and a lifetime of travel and study of the art and culture of
many African and other countries.
I learned a
great deal, especially about the Indonesian links with Nigeria. Thank you for
letting me see this fascinating work, and I wish you good luck in your search
for a publisher.”
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