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A'zania (Ancient Greek:Ἀζανία)[1] is a name that has been applied to various parts of southeastern tropicalAfrica.[2] In theRoman period and perhaps earlier, the toponym has been hypothesised to have referred to a portion of theSoutheast African coast extending from southernSomalia to the border betweenMozambique andSouth Africa.[3][4] During classical antiquity, Azania was mostly inhabited bySouthern Cushitic peoples, whose groups would rule the area until the greatBantu Migration.[5][6]
In 1933,G.W.B Huntingford proposed a theory of Azanian civilization existing inKenya and northernTanzania, between theStone Age andIslamic period. It was supposed that these people were fromSomalia where they eventually perished around the 14th to 15th-century.[7]
Origin word of A'zania Related to Arabic عَجَمِيّ/Ajami (ʕajamiyy, “foreign"). The Greeks likely remoulded whichever word to a familiar form (Etymology ).[8]
A'zania was a region in ancient Arcadia, which was according to Pausanias named after the mythical king Azan. According to Herodotus, the region contained the ancient town of Paus. The use of this name coincides with a reference in whichPliny the Elder mentions an "Azanian Sea" (N.H. 6.34) that began around the emporium ofAdulis and stretched around the south coast of Africa. It may well be that the Greek usage resonated with a term already in use around the Horn of Africa especially in the light of the fact that the term with a different meaning to the Greek Arcadian meaning, was in use in South Asia, Southeast Asia and China,Or perhaps the word Azania is borrowed from the Arabic word Ajamiya orAjami via the Greek wordἈζανία. The Greek Travelogue is unlikely to reflect navigation of the African East Coast.The 1st century AD Greek travelogue thePeriplus of the Erythraean Sea first describes Azania based on its author's intimate knowledge of the area. According to thePeriplus, traded items included awls, knives, glass, and iron implements, although this does not suggest the "Azanians" were unaware of iron smelting. Chapter 15 of thePeriplus suggests that Azania could be the littoral area south of present-day Somalia (the "Lesser and Greater Bluffs", the "Lesser and Greater Strands", and the "Seven Courses").[9] Chapter sixteen describes the emporium ofRhapta, located south of the Puralean Islands at the end of the Seven Courses of Azania, as the "southernmost market of Azania". ThePeriplus does not mention any dark-skinned "Ethiopians" among the area's inhabitants. They only later appear inPtolemy'sGeographia, but in a region far south, around the "Bantu nucleus" of northernMozambique. According toJohn Donnelly Fage, these early Greek documents altogether suggest that the original inhabitants of the Azania coast, the "Azanians", were of the same ancestral stock as theAfro-Asiatic populations to the north of them along theRed Sea. The "Azanians" made extensive use of small sewn boats, which were used to fish and hunt. ThePeriplus's description of the "Azanians" is brief, merely characterizing them as "Dark-skinned" and "Of great stature".[10] Subsequently, by the 10th century AD, these original "Azanians" had been replaced by early waves ofBantu settlers.[11]
Later Western writers who mention Azania includeClaudius Ptolemy (c. 100 – c. 170 CE) andCosmas Indicopleustes (6th century CE).
The term was briefly revived in the second half of the 20th century as the appellation given toSouth Africa byMarxists such as thePan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) party. In 2025, theAfrican Transformation Movement (ATM) proposed changing the name of the Republic of South Africa to the Republic of Azania.[12][13][14] However, South Africans have widely criticised the proposal.[15][16]
It has also been applied to the regional state ofJubaland within Somalia.[17][18]
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