Notes on Asian presence along the Swahili Coast during the nineteenth century, “Quaderni Asiatici”, Milano, 2014, n., 107, pp. 61-86.

Land and maritime realities before and after the European empires did constitute crucial issues throughout the history of the western Indian Ocean. Here, I tried to focusing on more than one littoral and on more than one region, with the object of looking at different perspectives both chronological and methodological. We are aware of the role of the European empires in these seas and on these lands, as well as of the ethnocentric views (eurocentric included) which did accompany numerous studies for a long time, and sometimes still do; nevertheless, it would be interesting looking at these regions - both fluid and solid - with more open eyes, with the object to reread the history and propose new historical and historiographical scenarios. Certainly, it’s a long, challenging voyage across a vast area, with many protagonists but also with many actors with no voice. The voyage could have started from Oman which was part of a global unity that long preceded the economic unification of the world from the sixteenth century, and the more recent processes of globalisation.