The Malindi Kingdom was a Bantu civilization on the eastern coast of Africa, specifically the modern Kenya, from approximately the 9th through 15th centuries.
[1] Traces of pottery originating from the Ming dynasty have led to speculations that the Chinese diplomat and explorer Zheng He might have visited the town in the early 15th century.
A team of archaeologists financed by the Chinese government spent several years excavating a site near Mambrui without finding any conclusive evidence supporting the theory.
There were also Chinese texts dated as early as the 9th century indicating names of far-western ports that seem to be phonetically similar to Malindi.
Around that time, the Ajuran Empire north of Malindi appear to have been trading with China, as coins from as early as the Song dynasty have been recovered at appropriate levels in modern Somalia.