# Did any Black Africans Travel To Europe during the Middle Ages

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-black-africans-travel-to-europe-during-the-middle-ages/266968>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 1, 2004, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-black-africans-travel-to-europe-during-the-middle-ages/266968 "2004-10-01T01:54:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-black-africans-travel-to-europe-during-the-middle-ages/266968/1 "2004-10-01T01:54:12Z")

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To what extent was there interaction between Europe and Africa beofre the start of the Renaissance? If we looked in a port city in Italy or somewhere else around 1300, would there have been any traders from Africa there?

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**Author:** ![Dancing\_Fool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Dancing\_Fool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancing_Fool)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-black-africans-travel-to-europe-during-the-middle-ages/266968/2 "2004-10-01T03:56:05Z")

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> [@ITR champion](#):
>
> To what extent was there interaction between Europe and Africa beofre the start of the Renaissance?

Well, Spain & Portugal was conquered and run by the Moors for about 800 hundred years between approx 700 and 1500. The Moors, though nominally Arab, where actually mostly Black African and Berber. I suspect that counts as interaction.

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-black-africans-travel-to-europe-during-the-middle-ages/266968/3 "2004-10-01T06:19:52Z")

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[Africans in Early Europe.](http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Classroom/9912/africanseurope.html)

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**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-black-africans-travel-to-europe-during-the-middle-ages/266968/4 "2004-10-01T09:56:16Z")

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Major trading ports such as Venice certainly had a significant black presence. As for Britain, I’ll have to settle for the African drummers employed by the Scottish court of James IV, around 1500: [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early\_times/moors.htm](http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/early_times/moors.htm)

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**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-black-africans-travel-to-europe-during-the-middle-ages/266968/5 "2004-10-01T12:30:58Z")

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This site gives much detail about the black population of Britain in historical times :-

[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/intro/intro.htm](http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/intro/intro.htm)

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-black-africans-travel-to-europe-during-the-middle-ages/266968/6 "2004-10-01T15:21:20Z")

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[One example in England](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102798/).

[A similar example](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107977/).

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**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-black-africans-travel-to-europe-during-the-middle-ages/266968/7 "2004-10-01T15:45:08Z")

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> [@ITR champion](#):
>
> To what extent was there interaction between Europe and Africa beofre the start of the Renaissance? If we looked in a port city in Italy or somewhere else around 1300, would there have been any traders from Africa there?

You may want to clarify your question, since there were traders from Africa crisscrossing the Mediterranean well over two thousand years ago. Do you mean sub-Saharan Africans? The northern coast of Africa has been economically associated with Europe since at least the Carthaginians.