Written by an unknown Greek sailor of the Roman empire before 300 AD, the Periplus, a kind of travel guide to the Indian Ocean, mentions the port of Rapta on the south-eastern coast of Africa, possibly the modern city of Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania. The Periplus mentions that the city was controlled by the ruler of the Arabian state of Mapharitis (modern Yemen), which shows Arabic trade routes throughout the Indian Ocean were already well developed.

Bantu peoples continue their slow migration to south. They were mostly stock herders, but also grew some crops. First settlements are made at what would become the site of Great Zimbabwe by the Gokomere people around 320 AD.

By this time, the Bantu had a complex social structure based on herding, crop growing, the mining and working of iron and other metals and pottery making. Dwellings were made out of poles and daga, a kind of cement made from mixing clay and gravel.