BASHIR DATOO, PORT DEVELOPMENT IN EAST AFRICA:
 SPATIAL PATTERNS FROM THE NINTH.TO THE SIXTEENTH
 CENTURIES,        EAST AFRICAN LITERATURE BUREAU,
 NAIROBI,       1975, pp. 139, Illustrated     Bibliography.
  J IR. MLAHAGWA
Bashir    Datto's book is based upon part of his Ph. D thesis on
historical    geography written for London University           in 1968. According
to the author revision       has been made on the body <?fthe wor k in the
light of recent research       and publications.     He has also added a
final 4th chapter to set the discussion        of ports and trade in a wider
theoretical    framework     based on current     theory of development       and
underdevelopment.
       Principally,   the book is aimed at showing that the development
 of ports in East Africa was directly        related   to and was by and large,
 the result   of the changing pattern of alignment of major           trade-routes.
 He chooses these eight hundred years from ninth to the sixteenth
 centuries,    a period which saw 'vigorous'.       port development      in East
Africa mainly because this was, the time in which the East Afri can
Coast was most effectively        il}tegra ted into the Indian Ocean commer-
cial sy stem.     Thus chapter one shows the orientation          of the East
 Africa coast to the Indian Ocean trading activities,            especially   the
  coast's  connections    with western Iri.Jia'. The second chapter        takes us
 up the 15th century      whereby the author traces        the development     of
 the ports from a dispersed       pattern   to fully fledged    interconnected
 system,    the bigger ports having developed smaller           satelight   or
 feerier ports.    The wh ole of the coast between Moga dishu to Sofala
 became an entity.     The third chapter focuses on the intrusion           of th e
 Portuguese     and how th is affected the existing port system.           In
 addition,   the author shows the spatial       readjustments     which took
place in the course      at the superimposition      of Portuguese     establish-
ments on the indigenous port complex.
        Datoo's study,    like previous   studies on the area,      has one major
  shortcoming     which is that there is very little that is said in terms
  of the connections    between the coast an d the immedia te hinterland.
  The problem of the missing link between the coast             an d the hinter-
  land is an old one which many writers         have not come to terms
 with. While the effects of the commercial           activities  of the Indi an
 Ocean on the East African Coast should not'be under estimated,                 to
 say that the coast had no connection with its hinterland prior to the
 19th century is pro bably erroneous.         Even for the purposes of trade
 only it. was difficult to believe that East Africa was th e Western
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 shoe of the Indian Ocean.       The student of history finds it difficult
 to believe that merely on the basis of the paucIty of archeological
  evidence there was little or no contact between the East African
 coast and its immediate      interior.     In Datoo's work, some mention
 is made on the hinterland      in relation     to the    positions of Sofala
 and Kilwa as entrepots      (PP. 32-37).     That necessarily         meaDS talking.
 about Zimbabwe,       and much less on the immediate hinterland                of such
 centres,   especially    Kilwa • Who produced the food for the merchant
 classes   in those ports?     How did these changes in the developm~nt
 of ports relate     to the social formation,        especially    the mode of pro-
 duction in those port areas and treir         vicinity?      These are some of
 the questions that one hopes to get answers from reading the study.
       One has to read the added concluding chapter to get the
  answers   to some of the questions.        Apart from a forbidding
 penchant for models Datoo makes some useful contribution                    in this
 concluding chapter on the theory of underdevelopment.                  Borrowing
 from Sheriff,     he states that   "the surplus       that accrued from
commerce      was appropriated,      in the case of gold and ivory in
Rhodesia partly by the ruling classes            of Zimbabwe an d partly by the
Swahili elite of the port-towns,        but the bulk was retained          by foreign
 Arab and Indian traders      who retired      to a confortable       life in th eir
 homeland".      (P. 118). This is appreciable,          although one would like
 to know further     the exact relationship       that developed between
 commerce     production an d also the mode of appropria tion. This
 could profitably be analYf?ed in the body of the book; but it 'is a
work based on a thesis with limited scope of revision;                  hence the
inevitable problem of integration        of research       material     and post-thesis
theoretical   stance.
       On the whole, however,       Prof.    Datoo's study is a useful
 contribution.    His study of winds and sea-depth           charts    enables him
 to show us how certain harbours          came to be used an d pre ferred
 and why. His analysis of the monsoons is particularly                 interesting.
 For example,      he shows that tQe monsoon does not, contrary                to what
 many school textbooks say, allow dhows to travel northwards                     any
 time between April and September.            It was thus difficult for ships
 from Arabia to travel further         southwards than Kilwa without
having    to wait five months before returning            and by the same token
 it was difficult for ships from India to travel further              south than
Mombasa.      Hence the importance       of those      .particular   ports.
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