'Indonesia Jones' Theory for Africa

jf_pratama

They were Africa's Vikings. Tough, daring voyagers who sailed thousands of miles to pluck riches from unmapped lands known today as Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa and Nigeria.

Centuries before Europeans, mariners from Indonesia raided and traded across the continent, filling their vessels with gold and silver for the princes of Java and Sumatra.

In return they gave Africa the secrets of iron and bronze, exotic plants such as banana and yams, and a new culture enriched with music, architecture and spirituality.

And then the seafarers vanished. Some died, some returned home, others inter-married with the locals. So absorbed was the Asian influence that by the time the white man came he never noticed it.

So says a controversial new theory about Africa's development more than 2,000 years ago which could revive a racially tinged debate about whether outsiders fathered certain advances in technology, agriculture and art.

The researcher making these claims is no professional historian. Robert d!ck-Read never finished university and has no academic qualifications.

But his self-confessed "obsession" with Indonesia's influence has fuelled more than 50 years' lonely slog collecting evidence which has been turned into a manuscript which will, he hopes, prove his case.

Some experts have rubbished Mr d!ck-Read as misguided, but others say the "Indonesia Jones" thesis is plausible.

An unrelated attempt to demonstrate that mariners from south Asia could have reached west Africa is halfway to success: an expedition which reconstructed a ship illustrated in the reliefs of an 8th century Buddhist temple in Java has crossed the Indian Ocean and reached South Africa, destination Ghana.

After stopping in Cape Town last week the 15-strong crew will resume the voyage today, said Mujoko, an Indonesian crew member. "We believe our ancestors came here. When we finish I think historians will appreciate that this voyage would have been possible."

It is generally agreed that approximately 1,500 years ago sailors from Indonesia, famed navigators who roved the Pacific, also sailed 3,700 miles west and settled Madagascar, a vast island off Mozambique.

It might be expected that they also explored the African mainland, just 150 miles further away, but unlike Madagascar there is little evidence: people on the continent do not resemble or talk like Indonesians.

Historians have noted fragments of Asian influence across Africa - plants, craftwork, instruments - but largely rejected the notion that it came via fleets of Indonesian double-outrigger canoes.

Inspired by a 1959 seminar at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, Mr d!ck-Read, 73, has spent decades travelling the continent bolting those fragments into a radical theory of "Africa's vikings" which he hopes to publish this year.

Indonesian spices such as cassia and cinnamon which ancient Rome imported came not via India but east Africa after an epic sea voyage, he says, which would also explain how early iron age pottery spread so quickly in the first and second century AD down the coast from Kenya all the way to South Africa.

Plants such as banana, plantain and yam are widely believed to have originated in Indonesia and Mr d!ck-Read cites oral and written accounts of rituals related to the food which suggest they reached west Africa too early for overland travellers.

Mr d!ck-Read says pottery and bronze sculptures found in Nigeria also came from seafarers since they were too far from Saharan trade routes and too sophisticated for indigenous artwork of that time.

Those familiar with Indonesian culture will take delight in mention of congklak, the popular shell game, and its presence in African culture. In
addition, one of the keys to unlocking this mystery is engraved at the Borobudur temple, in a bas-relief of a ship -- a replica of which was built
and sailed to Ghana in 2004.

Sir Mervyn Brown, Britain's former ambassador to Madagascar and a historian of the region, found Mr d!ck-Read's conclusions "generally plausible" and urged fresh research.

"d!ck-Read has not provided any great new revelations in this area but has produced more detailed supporting evidence," he said. "The influence in west Africa is not generally known, even among academics."

Other historians disagree. Robert Soper, an authority on east Africa, said there was no known evidence from artefacts, for example, of Indonesians spreading the iron age down the coast.

Acong

indiana jones = indonesia jones?

liyamariska

ahh sudah...ini pun nak di klaim jugekkk.... :re::re:

jf_pratama

Reply 3# liyamariska

Hahahaha ..... Tahukah anda bahwa tulisan di surat kabar Guardian itu dibuat oleh bekas majikan anda sendiri aka orang Inggris ....

Pertanyaannya .... mengapa mereka merefer sejarah ke Indonesia bukan ke Malaysia ... karena mereka tahu dan paham betol sejarah Malaysia masa lalu yang hanya merupakan bagian dari sejarah Indonesia/Nusantara ...

jf_pratama

^^^  Ini contohnya ....

[b]KD PANGLIMA HITAM NAMA BARU PASKAL TLDM
Saturday, 18 April 2009

Panglima Tentera Laut, Yang Berbahagia Laksamana Dato’ Sri Abdul Aziz bin Haji Jaafar telah menyempurnakan Upacara Pentauliahan Pasukan Khas Laut (PASKAL) di Pangkalan TLDM Lumut, Perak pada 15 April 09. Dengan pentauliahan tersebut Markas PASKAL kini dikenali dengan nama Kapal Diraja (KD) PANGLIMA HITAM.

Nama KD PANGLIMA HITAM telah diilhamkan oleh Duli Yang Maha Mulia Sultan Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Al Haj Ibni Almarhum Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Alhaj, selaku Kepten Yang DiPertua TLDM.

Panglima Hitam merupakan gelaran yang dianugerahkan kepada Pahlawan Melayu yang mempunyai sifat keberanian dan sikap taat setia yang tidak berbelah bagi kepada Baginda Sultan dan kerajaan. Sejarah gelaran Panglima Hitam juga boleh dikesan sehingga hari ini seperti fakta berikut:

Panglima Hitam (Taiping).
Merupakan seorang pendekar tujuh bersaudara berketurunan Raja Bugis yang berasal dari Mekasar, Sulawesi. Semasa belayar beliau telah singgah dan seterusnya menetap di Kuala Larut. Manakala saudaranya telah meneruskan perjalanan Kepulauan Melayu yang lain. Sepanjang hayatnya, beliau sentiasa memakai pakaian hitam dan mempunyai ilmu mempertahankan diri yang sangat tinggi berbanding saudaranya yang lain.

Panglima Hitam ( Muar Johor).
Panglima Hitam atau Baginda Zahiruddin berasal dari Padang Pariaman Minangkabau, Pulau Sumatera Indonesia. Merupakan pengasas Silat Lintau di Indonesia seterusnya ke Tanah Melayu pada abad ke 16. Beliau telah berkerjasama dengan penduduk tempatan dan berjaya menumpas dan menghapuskan lanun di muara Sungai Muar.

aziz79

Reply  liyamariska

Hahahaha ..... Tahukah anda bahwa tulisan di surat kabar Guardian itu dibuat  ...
jf_pratama Post at 6-6-2010 15:23

mereka pernah juga jadi tuan anda sebelum belanda....
jangan buat-buat lupa ya bung.

kawaq83

indon2 obama mmg camni... dah nyembah berhala obama hari ni bung??

zull4rs

this is all rubbish... stop uploading rubbish la wak pratam..

liyamariska

itu sbb ai tak layan indon sekor nih...perangai cam haram...kekunun nak provoke Malaysia padahal  indon tu teruk 500 ribu kali ganda dari Malaysia....kosserr... :re:

jf_pratama

Reply 12# liyamariska

Hahahaha ..... 500 ribu kali lebih teruk ... tapi kok banyak yang diakui atau dialu-alukan sebagai pahlawan di negara anda ... dan .... bahkan menjadi pemimpin dan raja yang berkuasa di Malaysia  hingga kini .....

pisang69

rakyat India mesti berbangga dgn Indonesia sbb guna nama diorg INDIA=INDO...

liyamariska

Reply 13# jf_pratama


    well...nowdays they are Malaysian although their ancestors came from Indo-what-so-ever-kapain and their indo-what-so-ever-kpain descendents seem never return back to the place where they used to live before as here they living comfortable peacefully not like at indo-what-so-ever-kapain-pembutohan-rasain-goyang-ngebur....hahahaha....pity indon,ngak ketahuan jadinya...stupido...

unekspekted

Pertanyaannya .... mengapa mereka merefer sejarah ke Indonesia bukan ke Malaysia ... karena mereka tahu dan paham betol sejarah Malaysia masa lalu yang hanya merupakan bagian dari sejarah Indonesia/Nusantara ...

sebabnye senang...

kalau dia refer 'pelayaran' ke afrika tu... tentu laa dari sumatra... bukan dari semenanjung malaysia.. sebab... direct belayar je terus sampai, takde sekat2. takde belok2.... tak payah pusing selat melaka bagai..

super_nova

sebahagian indonesia dahulunya bawah kekuasaan empayar  melayu melaka..jadi x da sebab nak banggakan pahlawan,pemimpin dan raja ni dr seberang..

winamp05

Hahahaha ..... Tahukah anda bahwa tulisan di surat kabar Guardian itu dibuat  ...
jf_pratama Post at 6-6-2010 03:23 PM

wahai endon, tahukah anda bahawa kini kami pula menjadi tuan tuan anda pabila PATI membanjiri negara kami untuk mintak kerja sama kami disini. mereka kami beri kerja membasuh jamban dirumah kami sendiri.

Chek_am8848

ada lagi thread bangang nie..?

seronok tgk org2 seberang mengaku itu ini.. sampai ker sejarah purbakala pun nak di amik kira...

Agak2 nama Republik Indonesia nie wujud lebih awal dari sejarah diorg sendiri kut..!!??

aziz79

Reply  liyamariska

Hahahaha ..... 500 ribu kali lebih teruk ... tapi kok banyak yang diakui atau ...
jf_pratama Post at 7-6-2010 17:15

jawa,bugis, minang etch. know nothing about country called  indonesia at 15th - middle 20th century.
you know about that or you just playing dumb?

mr_brown

Nama Indonesia hanya diperkenalkan oleh Sukarno ketika mula-mula merdeka....
Indonesia, Malaysia,etc masih tidak wujud sebelum 18XX ke bawah....
yang ada hanyalah Kepulauan Melayu....
yang terdiri daripada berpuluh-puluh kerajaan melayu.....
Pasal Sukarno bangang nih laa orang Indonesia hilang identiti melayu nya dan diganti dengan bangsa Indonesia nya itu...yang terdiri gak daripada bangsa-bangsa hilang lain di Indonesia...

Z77

moyang aku datang dari pulau jawa.... tak pernah la dia cakap kat anak2 dia dari indonesia dan dia kecewa kerana raja jawa hilang kuasa setelah penubuhan indonesia.

asher

wak pratam ni asyik meroyan apasal la..ni mesti pasal xdpt jadi PATI kat mesia gamaknyer..