Jim,
Quote:
"So here we can establish both the Omani long hilt kattara as well as presumably the long hilt curved kattara in the African interior as far as the Great Lakes. From here, trade interaction with caravans from the north came from and returned to the regions of Sudan and Darfur. The Omani's did not go with them, but surely their influences did.
The traders from the Darfur and Sudan regions equally did not include Manding tribal traders, but again, influences from them surely were present in the same way. "
While your hypothetical is well presented and sounds reasonable, I still can't imagine that either Manding (via Darfur) agents and or Omani (via Swahili) agents had any profit to be had by inter-trade across the river basins of Central Africa including the Bahr el Ghazel. They both had ample slaves and ivory in their home territories and other goods could be had via their other traditional supply lines. Speke and Grant made the Zanzibar-Lake Victoria-Gondokoro, South Sudan on the Nile in the Oct. 1860-Jan. 1863 period. But other than to find the source of the Nile, what would be the point.
Best,
Ed
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