famao: African-Chinese clan

[kimpossible]

If any of you watched the PBS special about the possibility of the Chinese "discovering America" then you know it included one part about Chinese sailors shipwrecked in Africa, later to settle down and marry into local families.

The clan is called famao. It was very interesting. While the show didn't really concentrate on the people or if any Chinese culture was preserved in these families, a couple of them had rather Chinese or Asian features in the clips that were shown.

Part of an article below. Link to article.

And then on a still and sweltering afternoon I strolled through the coconut palms into the village of Siyu, where I met a fisherman in his 40's named Abdullah Mohammed Badui. I stopped and stared at the man in astonishment, for he had light skin and narrow eyes. Fortunately, he was as rude as I was, and we stared at each other in mutual surprise before venturing a word. Eventually I asked him about his background and appearance.

"I am in the Famao clan," he said. "There are 50 or 100 of us Famao left here. Legend has it that we are descended from Chinese and others.

"A Chinese ship was coming along and it hit rocks and wrecked," Badui continued. "The sailors swam ashore to the village that we now call Shanga, and they married the local women, and that is why we Famao look so different."

Another Famao, with the same light complexion and vaguely Asian features, approached to listen. His name was Athman Mohammed Mzee, and he, too, told of hearing of the Chinese shipwreck from the elders. He volunteered an intriguing detail: the Africans had given giraffes to the Chinese.

Salim Bonaheri, a 55-year-old Famao man I met the next day, proudly declared, "My ancestors were Chinese or Vietnamese or something like that." I asked how they had got to Pate.

"I don't know," Bonaheri said with a shrug.

Most of my conversations were like that, intriguing but frustrating dead ends. I was surrounded by people whose appearance seemed tantalizingly Asian, but who had only the vaguest notions of why that might be. I kept at it, though, and eventually found people like Khalifa Mohammed Omar, a 55-year-old Famao fisherman who looked somewhat Chinese and who also clearly remembered the stories passed down by his grandfather. From him and others, a tale emerged.

Countless generations ago, they said, Chinese sailors traded with local African kings. The local kings gave them giraffes to take back to China. One of the Chinese ships struck rocks off the eastern coast of Pate, and the sailors swam ashore, carrying with them porcelain and other goods from the ship. In time they married local women, converted to Islam and named the village Shanga, after Shanghai. Later, fighting erupted among Pate's clans, Shanga was destroyed and the Famao fled, some to the mainland, others to the village of Siyu.

Every time I heard the story about the giraffes my pulse began to race. Chinese records indicate that Zheng He had brought the first giraffes to China, a fact that is not widely known. The giraffe caused an enormous stir in China because it was believed to be the mythical qilin, or Chinese unicorn. It is difficult to imagine how African villagers on an island as remote as Pate would know about the giraffes unless the tale had been handed down to them by the Chinese sailors.

Chinese ceramics are found in many places along the east African coast, and their presence on Pate could be the result of purchases from Arab traders. But the porcelain on Pate was overwhelmingly concentrated among the Famao clan, which could mean that it had been inherited rather than purchased. I also visited some ancient Famao graves that looked less like traditional Kenyan graves than what the Chinese call "turtle-shell graves," with rounded tops.

Researchers have turned up other equally tantalizing clues. Craftsmen on Pate and the other islands of Lamu practice a kind of basket-weaving that is common in southern China but unknown on the Kenyan mainland. On Pate, drums are more often played in the Chinese than the African style, and the local dialect has a few words that may be Chinese in origin. More startling, in 1569 a Portuguese priest named Monclaro wrote that Pate had a flourishing silk-making industry -- Pate, and no other place in the region. Elders in several villages on Pate confirmed to me that their island had produced silk until about half a century ago.

[TB4000]

I'll have to check this out if they plan on showing it again...or at the very least fake donate to PBS to get a free copy. Sounds interesting.

[ModernLogic]

Who else saw the PBS special?

I felt so bad for Menzes. They were ripping his theory up in front of him and he couldn't respond. He looked hella dumb-founded.

[kimpossible]

Originally Posted by Stevo1202

Who else saw the PBS special?

I felt so bad for Menzes. They were ripping his theory up in front of him and he couldn't respond. He looked hella dumb-founded.

His theory breaks down mainly to his own intractability. He picks scholarly sources based on how much they affirm his beliefs rather than if they are the recognized preeminent authorities on the subject in question.

For example, though Menzies' theories are embraced by the Chinese scholars overall, when mistakes in his interpretations are pointed out (like the old tablet that was thought to read 3,000 countries rather than 30) he in no way absorbs it to update and alter his research and theory. Same goes for the professor of medieval Portuguese. Menzies refused to consider that expert, instead relying on the professor of Portuguese literature who admitted that he knew nothing of medieval Portuguese.

[SunWuKong]

Originally Posted by kimpossible

His theory breaks down mainly to his own intractability. He picks scholarly sources based on how much they affirm his beliefs rather than if they are the recognized preeminent authorities on the subject in question.

For example, though Menzies' theories are embraced by the Chinese scholars overall, when mistakes in his interpretations are pointed out (like the old tablet that was thought to read 3,000 countries rather than 30) he in no way absorbs it to update and alter his research and theory. Same goes for the professor of medieval Portuguese. Menzies refused to consider that expert, instead relying on the professor of Portuguese literature who admitted that he knew nothing of medieval Portuguese.

i've read that Menzies book 1421 is pretty much all based on circumstantial evidence. i read a little bit of it and there didn't seem to be anything solid. just a lot of might have been.

[Mai-Sai-Le]

Yes I seen the special. I posted it up here on this site under this forum a day before it aired. Menzies had some good points, but he failed to make the connection of China discovering United States. But anyways, I was intrigued by the relationships between the Chinese and Africans. I have known about it for some time. I also have learned that Emperor Ming's mother was Sudanese. Anyone have any definite evidence to back this up?

[SunWuKong]

Originally Posted by Mai-Sai-Le

I also have learned that Emperor Ming's mother was Sudanese. Anyone have any definite evidence to back this up?

who's Emperor Ming? you mean Flash Gordan's enemy?

[hkRT]

This is fascinating. I never heard of the famao people until now. But I doubt there is much chinese culture or tradition remaining there since it was so long ago. It would be nice to meet these people and have some cultural exchange with each other. I wonder if they are ever curious about their Chinese ancestors...

Chinese history is so interesting. I remember taking introductory chinese history in Forms 1, 2 (Grades 7,8) in Hong Kong before I moved to Canada. Studied up to the Ming Dynasty. Didn't like Chinese literature and dictation though as I barely passed those subjects. Chinese history on the other hand was fun and it was a subject I did well in.

My world view was pretty confined while growing up in Hong Kong. I used to think that all Chinese people are pretty much the same-- except that some speak Cantonese, others speak Mandarin, and a few others are from nomadic tribes. It is interesting to see so many different ethnicities in China.
This site is pretty informative ----> http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Minori...onalities.html

[Mai-Sai-Le]

shut up Sun! loooool i saw that mess when i was a kid. and nooooo that dude was white! Yeah I learned about Chinese history studying on my own from various sources w/o the help of my dumba$$ teachers who screwed stuff up. I learned that China actually embraces it's minorities and there isn't mass racism against them like it is here in the states. China is on a whole nother level.

[SunWuKong]

Originally Posted by Mai-Sai-Le

shut up Sun! loooool i saw that mess when i was a kid. and nooooo that dude was white! Yeah I learned about Chinese history studying on my own from various sources w/o the help of my dumba$$ teachers who screwed stuff up. I learned that China actually embraces it's minorities and there isn't mass racism against them like it is here in the states. China is on a whole nother level.

well, that's only legally speaking. of course there is discrimination against ethnic minorities in China. and there is discrimination against rural people in China, period.

there is no legal racism in the US, but does racism exist in the US? of course.

[Mai-Sai-Le]

I know Sun. No country is perfect when it comes to that, but I still think the states give it over kill.

My bad about the Ming thingy, my brain is dusty. The correct way to say it is "Ming Dynasty" of which their were numerous emperors that reigned during it.

[Shogun Empress]

Originally Posted by kimpossible

If any of you watched the PBS special about the possibility of the Chinese "discovering America" then you know it included one part about Chinese sailors shipwrecked in Africa, later to settle down and marry into local families.

The clan is called famao. It was very interesting. While the show didn't really concentrate on the people or if any Chinese culture was preserved in these families, a couple of them had rather Chinese or Asian features in the clips that were shown.

Part of an article below. Link to article.

So thats where the Wu-Tang Clan came from...

[SunWuKong]

Originally Posted by Mai-Sai-Le

I know Sun. No country is perfect when it comes to that, but I still think the states give it over kill.

My bad about the Ming thingy, my brain is dusty. The correct way to say it is "Ming Dynasty" of which their were numerous emperors that reigned during it.

really? do you happen to know which emperor(s) had a Sudanese mother? the first Ming dynasty emperor was of peasant stock.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally Posted by Mai-Sai-Le

China is on a whole nother level.

Translated quote from Chinese-published guidebook to Shenzhen: "Recently, Uyghur pickpocket gangs have been conducting activities in the Huaqiang North Road area, so if you plan to visit there, you should take care to protect your belongings." When's the last time you saw a guidebook to New York warning you to be careful of black muggers?

[Mai-Sai-Le]

I'm aware of that guidebook AliBaba, tell me something else new. No New York doesn't say that. But they ACT like it. Not to mention countless places in the U.S.A . I see your point, but just because someone doesn't publish their "racism" doesn't mean that their racism is less. America is big on "institutionalized racism", which prevents a lot of non-whites acheiving the so called "American Dream".