African Trade with the Deccan

The expanding market for military labour in the subcontinent is served by the import of textiles and enslaved people from Africa, particularly present-day Ethiopia. However, in contrast to enslaved African people in the Americas, slave-soldiers in South Asia often rise to positions of influence and power. 

These are not the only points of exchange in the historic Indian Ocean trade with Africa. Since the tenth century there are reports of African exports of ambergris, resin, tortoise shell and ivory to India and China. Where Africa exports gold and silver into South Asia, the latter is a key source for beads, which are socially and economically significant in Africa. Another key node of exchange in the Indian Ocean region is food and foodgrains — subsistence crops such as Asian rice and millets, and other crops such as sugarcane, bananas and taro — along with the movement of cattle species like the Zebu.