The Quena and the influence of Goa (part 2)

Update

GEORGE NEWS - This is another delivery in a series by Sydney Opperman in which he sheds light on the origins and names of the country's indigenous (first) nation.

It was the name Komati (Incomati), a river that flows through Mpumalanga, Swaziland and Mozambique, which gripped the mind of a historian / researcher of Africa. Dr Cyril Hromnik obtained his MA and PhD at the Syracuse University in African, South Asian, Latin American history and Hindi.

His knowledge and ability to converse in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Russian, English, Slovak (similar to Czech), Hindi, some Tamil, Hausa (the lingua franca of West and Central Africa), Kiswahili and his Latin studies have empowered him to be an expert on onomastics (the study of the origins of proper names) and instilled in me an eagerness to look at names with new eyes.

Hromnik, who for research and study purposes visited and stayed in numerous countries, including seven times in India, knew, from his stay in India (Goa) and his knowledge of the Hindi and Tamil dialects, the name Macomates. (His travels included Indonesia, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Kenya, Mozambique, Angola, Liberia, Sierra-Leone, Swaziland, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Israel, Portugal, Spain, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Brazil, United States, Canada, etc.)

Hromnik writes as follows in one of his research documents:
"The MaKomati, or rather Kômati (Kômatti in Tamil and Malayalam Indian dialects), as is clearly indicated by their name, originated from India, the country which was the main consumer of African gold since the earliest recorded antiquity. The name Kômati itself is the professional name of a Dravidian merchant caste (gold traders) of South India which was a well-known trading partner of the Portuguese, English and other European trading companies."

"Gold," wrote the sixteenth century chronicler João de Barros with reference to ancient wisdom, "has this quality that when it is placed on earth the fame of it spreads from one people to another people until men come to seek it in the spot where it is formed." (Barros 1549/1981:44)

"The main water artery of Komatiland, which empties its waters in Dela(goa) Bay (my emphasis), the Komati river obviously received its name from the ancient Komati Traders, who used it as an access route to the goldfields of Komati, Swaziland, Barberton and Lydenburg," wrote Hromnik.

In the name uSutu for a river in Mpumalanga which later became Lusutfu in Swaziland, Hromnik recognised the Tamil word sottu for gold.

"Leaving the borders of Swaziland, the uSutu river meets another gold-bearing river running from the south, which once again bears a recognisably Tamil name, Pongola (from the Tamil pon for gold and gol to buy) i.e., Gold Trade river. These two rivers join and flow into Delagoa (my emphasis) Bay, the main harbour on the Indian Ocean south of Zanzibar, as one big river, which appears as Rio de Ouro or River of Gold on the earliest maps.

To be continued.

Extracts from: Dravidian Gold Mining and Trade in Ancient Komatiland by Cyril Hromnik, a man who deserves a Nobel prize for his ongoing research on Quena history since 1984.

Sydney Opperman, 14 Lynx Street, Pacaltsdorp, 083 378 4237, sydneyopperman@gmail.com.

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