How did African communities in Mozambique trade with Middle Eastern and South Asian peoples?

Beginning in the first millennium, African communities in the region that is now Mozambique established significant external trade links with Middle Eastern and South Asian peoples. These merchants traveled across the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to exchange goods such as beads and cloth for gold.12

By the 14th century, this commerce supported the growth of flourishing Swahili trade cities along the coast, with smaller sultanates extending as far south as Angoche. These coastal centers served as hubs for a broader network of markets that facilitated both intraregional trade in raw materials and long-distance commerce involving gold, copper, ivory, and enslaved people. This economic activity was closely tied to the production centers of the interior, such as Great Zimbabwe, which controlled the mining and trade of precious metals from the 13th to the 15th century.12