Sofala

The Buzi River connected Sofala to the internal market town of Manica, and from there to the gold fields of Great Zimbabwe.

[3] Merchants from the Sultanate of Mogadishu had long kept Sofala a secret from their Kilwan rivals, who up until then rarely sailed beyond Cape Delgado.

[4] The Swahili strengthened its trading capacity by having, among other things, rivergoing dhows ply the Buzi and Save rivers to ferry the gold extracted in the hinterlands to the coast.

Although the revenues from Sofala's gold trade proved a windfall for the sultans of Kilwa and allowed them to finance the expansion of the Swahili commercial empire all along the East African coast, Sofala was not a mere subsidiary or outpost of Kilwa, but a leading town in its own right, with its own internal elite, merchant communities, trade connections and settlements as far south as Cape Correntes (and some across the channel in Madagascar).

Formally, Sofala continued to belong to the Kingdom of Mwenemutapa, the Swahili community paying tribute for permission to reside and trade there.

Portuguese explorer and spy Pêro da Covilhã, travelling overland disguised as an Arab merchant, was the first European known to have visited Sofala in 1489.

At any rate, the elderly sheikh Isuf realized it would be better to make allies rather than enemies out of them, and agreed to a commercial and alliance treaty with the Kingdom of Portugal.

This was followed upon in 1505 when Pêro de Anaia (part of the 7th Armada) was granted permission by sheikh Isuf to erect a factory and fortress near the city.

The entrance to Sofala estuary was blocked by a long moving sand bank, which was followed by hazardous shoals, allowing boats to approach safely only at high tide.

The Sofalese also had a satellite settlement to the north at the mouth of the Pungwe River called Rio de São Vicente in old maps.