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Silent Trade: Myth and Historical Evidence*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

P.F. de Moraes Farias
P.F. de Moraes Farias*
Affiliation:
Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham
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Extract

Since it is related by so many we can accept it

Ca da Mosto

There have been several accounts of the practice known as ‘silent trade’ in west Africa during the last thousand years. The oldest known account, that of Herodotus, is almost twenty-five hundred years old–although it probably refers to northwest rather than west Africa. Such accounts purport to describe exchanges of imported goods for gold from sub-Saharan Africa. These exchanges are said to have been made according to very particularized rules: two (and only two) trading parties would transact business with one another. They would do this not only without the help of middlemen but also without speaking to one another, or coming face to face or even within sight of each other. Elaborate precautions would in fact be taken to prevent any kind of direct visual contact. Despite this mutual avoidance and the resulting impossibility of negotiating rates of exchange, agreement presented no serious difficulties. Bargaining was carried out through gradual adjustment of quantities, arrived at by alternate moves by the two parties. Though each of the two in turn would have to leave his goods unguarded in a place accessible to the other, neither would take advantage of this for dishonest purposes. A shared table of market and moral values, as well as (and in spite of) silence and mutual invisibility, were thus the trademarks of such exchanges.

The available accounts may conveniently be grouped into two categories. One category represents the exchanges as taking place between traders coming from what are assumed to be ‘more developed’ cultures (e.g., Carthage or medieval north Africa) and ‘less developed’ barely known cultures outside the sphere of direct influence of the greater sub-Saharan pre-colonial states. The other category refers to contacts between those barely known cultures of the hinterland and black Africans (e.g., Wangara, ‘Accanists’) playing the role of middlemen between the gold producers and the Arabs and Moors or Europeans. It is on the information provided by these middlemen that the second category of accounts depends.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 1 , 1974 , pp. 9 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1974

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Footnotes

*

This paper is part of a series devoted to the reconsideration of some west African historical sources, on which I have been working for some time. A paper entitled “Du nouveau sur les stèles de Gao: les épitaphes du prince Yama Kun et du roi F.n.da (XIIIeme siècle)” is to appear in BIFAN shortly. Othe contiibutions–on the Kisra legend in Nigeria and Dahomey, on the reinterpretation of the Gao epitaphs, on the methodology of medieval and early modern west African Muslim historians–will appear in due course.

References

Notes

1. Also referred to as ‘dumb barter,’ ‘stummer Tauschhandel,’ ‘commerce à la muette,’ ‘trafic muet,’ ‘échange muet,’ ‘commerce par dépôts,’ ‘commerce par échanges invisibles,’ etc. The best known early accounts of silent trade in Africa are mentioned by Grierson, P.J. Hamilton, The Silent Trade: A Contribution to the Early History of Human Intercourse (Edinburgh, 1903), pp. 43–68.Google Scholar See also Marquart, J., Die Benin-Sammlung des Reichmuseums für Volkerkunde in Leiden, beschrieben und mit ausführlichen Prolegomena zur Geschichte der Handelswege und Völkerbewegung in Nord Afrika (Leiden, 1913), pp. clxxxi-ii, cclxxxix-xci, cccxxxviiiGoogle Scholar; Roncière, C. de la, La décowerte de l'Afrique au Moyen Age: cartographes et explorateurs, 3 vols. (Cairo, 1925-1927), 1:97–9Google Scholar; Bovill, E.W., “The Silent Trade of Wangara,” Journal of the African Society, 29 (1929-1930), pp. 27–38Google Scholar; idem, The Golden Trade of the Moors, 2nd rev. ed. (London, 1968), pp. 23-4, 61, 82, 117,120,123-5,129-30,160, 204; Fage, J.D., “Ancient Ghana: A Review of the Evidence,” THSG, 3 (1957), pp. 78–9Google Scholar; Mauny, R., Tableau géographique de l'Ouest Africain au Moyen Age d'après les sources écrites, la tradition et l'arcéologie (Dakar, 1961), pp. 363–5Google Scholar; Sundström, L., The Trade of Guinea (Lund, 1965), pp. 22–31, esp. 29-30Google Scholar; Levtzion, N., Ancient Ghana and Mali (London, 1973), pp. 153–4, 244nn.Google Scholar A new edition of SundstrtSm's work is to be published this year or next under the title The Exchange Economy of Pre-Colonial Tropical Africa, with an introduction by A.G. Hopkins.

2. Mauny, , Tableau géographique, p. 363.Google Scholar

3. Sundström, , Trade of Guinea, pp. 22–31.Google Scholar

4. Hopkins, A.G., An Economic History of West Africa (London, 1973), p. 8n.Google Scholar, remarks that as a matter of fact the whole of Sundström's study “has hardly been noticed even by specialists.”

5. Scholars of different philosophical background, and working on different disciplines and continents, have converged on the acceptance of this evolutionary concept of silent trade. Cf. Levtzion, , Ancient Ghana and Mali, p. 120Google Scholar, and Mandel, E., Traité d'économie marxiste, 4 vols. (Paris, 1971), 1:53–55Google Scholar, contra Sundström, , Trade of Guinea, p. 31Google Scholar, and Hopkins, , Economic History of West Africa, p. 67.Google Scholar

6. Norris, H.T., Saharan Myth and Saga (Oxford, 1972).Google Scholar

7. See Miller, J.C., “Requiem for the ‘Jaga’,” Cahiers d'études africaines, 13 (1973), pp. 121–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Cf. Herodotus, , Histories, IV: 196Google Scholar, and Bovill, , Golden Trade of the Moors, pp. 20, 24.Google Scholar

9. Al-Mascüdï, , Murül al-Dhahab, ed. and trans. de Meynard, C. Barbier and de Courteille, P. under the title Les prairies d'or, 9 vols. (Paris, 1861-1877), 4:92–3.Google Scholar

10. Al-Mascüdï, , Akhbär al-Zamän, ed. al-Ḥanafi, Abd-al-Ḥamïd Aḥmad (Cairo, 1938), p. 65Google Scholar; French translation by de Vaux, Baron Carr under the title L'abrégé des merveilles (which he hesitated to attribute to al-Mascudï) (Paris, 1898), p. 103.Google Scholar

11. Yäqüt, , Kitäb Mucjam al-Buldän, 10 vols. (Cairo , 1906-1907), 2:361–2Google Scholar, s.v. al-tibr.

12. See Dozy, R., Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, 3rd ed., 2 vols. (Leiden, 1967), s.v. jihbidh or jahbadn.Google Scholar

13. Hill, P., “Two Types of West African House Trade,” in Meillassoux, C., ed., The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa (London, 1971), p. 311.Google Scholar The earliest evidence quoted by Hill dates only to the fourteenth century, and refers to east rather than west Africa.

14. Even after Ghana had become tributary to Mali its rulers were allowed, as late as the fourteenth century, to have special privileges. These included the use of the title of king. Apparently they were granted such privileges because of their persisting role as middlemen in the gold trade. See al-Umarï, , Al Tacrïf bi-'l-Mustalaḥ al-Sharïf (Cairo, 1894), p. 27.Google Scholar The Arabic text is quoted by Marquart, , Benin-Sammlung, p. ccxliv.Google Scholar See the French translation in M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes' partial translation (with valuable notes) of al-cUmari's other work, the Masälik al-Abär, published under the title L'Afrique moins l'Egypte (Paris, 1927), p. 71n2.Google Scholar The passage has been translated in Trimingham, J.S., A History of Islam in West Africa (London, 1962), pp. 59–60.Google Scholar

15. Sundström, , Trade of Guinea, pp. 28–9Google Scholar, remarks “that the exchange takes the form of silent trade [often is ascribed to] … lack of common understanding and/or language difficulties” but continues that “in other contexts the language problem has never seemed insurmountable. Sign language and a general eager desire to come to an understanding appear to have been sufficient.”

16. Ibid., p. 23.

17. Al-cUmarï, Masälik al-Absär. See the fragment of the Arabic text of this work in al-Dïn, Saläḥal-Munajjid, , comp., L'empire du Mali vu par les géographes musulmans: textes (Beirut, 1963), 1:41-70, esp. pp. 68–9.Google Scholar See also Gaudefroy-Demombynes' translation (cited above, note 14), p. 83.

18. On al-cUmarï's sources see Levtzion, N., “The Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Kings of Mali,” JAH, 4 (1963), p. 341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On mansa Múisä's pilgrimage see al-Naqar, Umar, The Pilgrimage Tradition in West Africa (Khartoum, 1972), pp. 11–16.Google Scholar

19. Stories explicitly said to have been told by mansa Müsä himself are recorded by al-Umarï, in the Masälik al-Absar, pp. 56–62, 66-7 (Arabic text), pp. 70-6, 80-1 (French translation).Google Scholar Information provided by Shaykh Abú cUthmäh Sacid al-Dukkäll, said to have lived 35 years in the capital of Mali, is also recorded, ibid., pp. 45, 50, 57, 66-7 (Arabic text), 58, 64, 72, 80-2 (French translation). Information on the salt trade, provided by a faqïh called Abü ar-Rüh cIsa al-Zawäwï on the strength of stories told to him, is recorded on p. 69 (Arabic), 83-4 (French). None of them mentions silent trade. Mansa Müsä gave his friends in Cairo some information on gold that seems to have been correct. He described accurately one of the techniques used in mining gold. Cf. al-Umarï, , Masälik al-Absär, p. 67 (Arabic), 81 (French)Google Scholar, with Curtin, P.D., “The Lure of Bambuk Gold,” JAH, 14 (1973), p. 628.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Even the mention of “gold plants,” Masälik al-Absär, p. 57 (Arabic), pp. 70-2 (French) may be a reference to the association of certain vegetation patterns with auriferous areas. See Summers, R., Ancient Mining in Rhodesia and Adjacent Areas (Salisbury, 1969), pp. 15-7, 162.Google Scholar See also Labouret, H., “L'échange et le commerce dans les archipels du Pacifique et en Afrique tropicale” in Lacour-Gayet, J., ed., Histoire du commerce, III, Le commerce extra-européen jusqu'aux temps modemes (Paris, 1953), pp. 55–6Google Scholar, Mauny, , Tableau géographique, pp. 303–4Google Scholar, and Sundström, , Trade of Guinea, p. 30.Google Scholar I am grateful to M. Jean Devisse of the Université de Paris for stimulating discussion on the subject of plants associated with gold.

20. Sundström, , Trade of Guinea, p. 25.Google Scholar

21. Baṭṭüta, Ibn, Tuḥfat al-Nuẓẓár, ed. and trans, into French by Defrémery, C. and Sanguinetti, B.R. as Voyages d'Ibn Battüta, 4 vols. (Paris, 1968)Google Scholar, with introduction and notes by V. Monteil. See 4:428-9.

22. da Ca da Mosto, A., Navigazioni in Ramusio, G.B., ed., Delle Navigationi et Viaggi, first ed., 3 vols. (Venice, 1550-1559), I:folio 108A.Google Scholar The Italian text of the relevant passage is partially quoted in Marquart, Benin-Sammlung, p. clxxxiin3. See also Crone, G.R., comp. and trans., The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century (London, 1937), pp. 21–6.Google Scholar Crone used the Italian text published in the collection Paesi novamente retrovati.Et Novo Mondo da Aberico Vesputio Florentino intitulato (Vicenza, 1507)Google Scholar but checked it against Ramusio's edition. For a more recent edition of the Italian text see “Delle navigazioni e viaggi di Messer Alvise Da Ca' da Mosto gentiluomo veneziano” in Caddeo, R., ed., Viagi e scoperte degli navigatori italiani, 2 vols. (Milan, 1929), vol. 1.Google Scholar Ca da Mosto seems to have written his work in Portugal between 1463 and 1468.

23. Levtzion, , Ancient Ghana and Mali, p. 154Google Scholar, states that Ca da Mosto secured his information from Wangara traders.

24. It must be remembered that the Portuguese made serious efforts to gather as much data as possible about the African coast and African trade. Information about the latter of Arab origin would not be difficult to obtain in the Iberian peninsula, and this may have been another way in which medieval Arab accounts of silent trade might have reached Ca da Mosto.

25. Al-Idrïsï, Kitäb Nuzhat al-Mushtäq (also known as Kitäb Rüjär), completed in 1154. See partial edition and translation into French by Dozy, R.P.A. and de Goeje, M.J. under the title Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne (Leiden, 1866), p. 8 (Arabic), 9 (translation).Google Scholar A complete edition and translation of al-Idrïsïs work is now in progress under the auspices of the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples and the Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente in Rome. The first three parts have already been published. Al-Idrïsï made no mention of silent trade in west Africa.

26. This would seem to suggest that Ca da Mosto's informants used the Arabic word baḥr, which can mean either ‘sea’ or ‘river’ but is more common in the former sense.

27. Pereira, D. Pacheco, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, trans, and ann. Mauny, R. (Bissau, 1956), p. 177n126Google Scholar: “Personne n'a pu encore identifier avec certitude à quel endroit se pratiquait ce commerce muet (frontières du pays lobi? du pays achanti?).”

28. Al-Umarï, , Masälik al-Abṣär, p. 45 (Arabic), pp. 58-9 (French)Google Scholar, and citations in note 21 above. It is not unlikely that services performed by animist priests or “masters of the gold” were deemed indispensable to the productivity of the mines in the same way as rituals performed by animist “masters of the land” (representing the first occupiers of the soil) were thought necessary for agricultural productivity, even in certain long-Islamicized areas. See, for instance, Trimingham, , History of Islam in West Africa, p. 35n2Google Scholar, and idem, Islam in West Africa (London, 1959), p. 144.

29. On all this see Khadduri, M., War and Peace in the Law of Islam (Baltimore, 1955).Google Scholar

30. For the Nubian treaty see ibid., pp. 144-5, 259-61, and Ḥasan, Yüsuf Faḍl, The Arabs and the Sudan from the Seventh to the Early Sixteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1967), pp. 20–8.Google Scholar Ḥasan argues that this agreement was not a treaty but only a hudna or ‘truce’. The term attributed to mansa Müsä regarding his relations with the gold-producing kuffär was nearly the same–muhädana, ‘agreed truce.’ Yet, as the Nubians were Christians, not kuffär, the policy followed by Mali was open to orthodox criticism. As a matter of expediency the ard al-macädin (‘land of the mines’) had to be treated as där al-mucähada (‘land of alliance’).

31. Though they had been ready enough to criticize his sexual mores–see al-Umarï, , Masälik al-Absär, p. 58 (Arabic), pp. 72–3 (French).Google Scholar

32. J. Devisse, “Une enquête a développer: le problème de la propriété des mines en Afrique de l'Ouest du VIIIème au XVIeme siècle,” forthcoming in Mélanges Charles Verlinden. To date this is the only study on the important question of the legal ownership of the west African mines. Devisse uses juridical evidence from al-Ansärï, Abü Yüsuf Yaqüb, Kitäb al-Kharäj, written in the ninth century (see Cairo edition, 1933-1934)Google Scholar; French translation as Le livre de l'impot fonder [Paris, 1921])Google Scholar, and perceptively argues that the Sudanese Muslim rulers, on becoming aware of the prescriptions contained in such works as the Kitäb al-Kharäj, which legitimize the appropriation by any Muslim of any mine he happens to find in the där al-ḥarb, resorted more and more to a policy of secrecy, and perhaps also to special agreements with the gold producers. I would suggest that, in the case of mansa Müsä, a more radical solution may have been found, viz., to exclude the lands of gold entirely from the där al-ḥarb. I am grateful to M. Devisse for allowing me to consult his paper in typescript.

33. The passage of al-cUmarï's Al-Tacrïf cited above suggests that behind Mali's mediation between north Africa and the gold mines lay the still older mediation of the king of Ghana, whose prestige may have survived on the basis of a priority of relationship with the soil. Furthermore, al-Dukkälï, told Umarï, (Masälik al-Absär, p. 57 [Arabic], 72 [French]) thatGoogle Scholar, contrary to mansa Müsä's statements, the ruler of Mali was not entitled to receive as tribute the totality of the annual production of gold, but only received part of it and that as a “favor”. This again suggests that the relationship between the gold producers and Mali was one of economic alliance rather than vassalage.

34. Khaldün, Ibn, Kitäb al-cIbar, partly ed. by De Slane, , 2 vols. (Algiers, 1847-1851)Google Scholar under the Arabic title Kitäb Tärïkh al-Duwal al-Islämïya and the French title Histoire des Berbères. See Arabic text, 1:261-8; French text, 2:105-16.

35. Valentim Fernandes, Descripçam de Cepta por sua costa de Mauritania e Ethiopia. This work was partially edited and translated by de Cenival, P. and Monod, T., Description de la côte d'Afrique de Ceuta au Sénégal (Paris, 1938), pp. 88–9.Google Scholar

36. Pereira, Pacheco, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, pp. 64–7.Google Scholar The fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Portuguese references to Sutucco or Sutuco should be compared to later references to Setico, e.g., Jobson, R., The Golden Trade, or a Discovery of the River Gambia (London, 1623), pp. 79-80, 102–3.Google Scholar Sutuko or Sutukho, in the Wuli region at the eastern tip of the Gambia, was from an early date an important center of the Diakhanké (Jakhankhe, Jaxanke) clerics and traders. However, the name ‘Sutuko’ has changed its position on the maps at least once. On the role of the town as a trading and/or clerical center see Curtin, P.D., “Pre-colonial Trading Networks and Traders: The Diakhanke,” in Meillassoux, , ed., Development of Indigenous Trade, p. 231Google Scholar, and Sannah, L.O., “The History of the Jakhanke People of Senegambia: A Study of a Clerical Tradition in West African Islam” (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1974), pp. 24,133-4, map at p. 249.Google Scholar

38. See Bunbury, E.H., A History of Ancient Geography, 2 vols. (London, 1879), 1:268Google Scholar; Kimble, G.H.T., Geography of the Middle Ages (London, 1938), p. 188Google Scholar; Wright, J.K., The Geographical Lore of the Time of the Crusades: A Study in the History of Medieval Science and Tradition in Western Europe (New York, 1925), pp. 274, 276, 304,468n113.Google Scholar

39. See Mercier P., “Histoire et légendes: la bataffle d'Ilorin,” Notes Africaines, No. 47 (July 1950), pp. 94–5

40. Wilks, I., “The Mossi and Akan States, 1500-1800” in Ajayi, J.F.A. and Crowder, M., eds., History of West Africa, Vol. 1 (London, 1971), p. 357 and map at p. 361.Google Scholar

41. Pereira, Pacheco, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, pp. 120–7Google Scholar, where reference is made to the coming of Mimdingua traders to the Mina.

42. See Boulègue, J., ed. and trans., “Relation de Francisco d'Andrade sur les lies du Cap-Vert et la cote occidentale d'Afrique,” BIFAN, 29B (1967), pp. 67-87, esp. pp. 80–3.Google Scholar Cofala seems to correspond to Sofala in Mozambique, from which gold was exported. Sixteenth-century authors were seldom fully aware of the distance between the western and eastern coasts of Africa and tended to believe that regions such as the Gambia and Angola were comparatively near the Indian Ocean. On this see da Mota, A. Teixeira, A cartografia antiga da Africa central e a travessia entre Angola e Moçambique, 1500-1860 (Lourenço Marques, 1964).Google Scholar

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44. de Almada, Álvares, Tratado breve, pp. 31–3.Google Scholar Those interested in comparing Álvares de Almada's information on gold weights and balances with that available on the ones used in the Akan areas may find it useful to consult Menzel, B., Goldgewichte aus Ghana (Berlin, 1968)Google Scholar; Abel, A., “Utilisation des poids à peser l'or en Côhe d'lvoire,” Journal de la Société Africanistes, 43 (1973), pp. 33–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The word bixirins may be a Portuguese transcription of a word related to the Arabic root bashara, from which Arabic words with the sense of ‘preachers’ or ‘missionaries’ are derived.

45. Dapper, O., Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten and Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Eylanden (Amsterdam, 1668)Google Scholar (I have used the German edition, Beschreibung von Afrika [Amsterdam, 1670], pp. 366, 461)Google Scholar; Barbot, J., A Description of the Coasts of North- and South-Guinea… in Churchill, A., ed., A Collection of Voyages and Travels …, 6 vols. (London, 1704-1732), 5:78-9, 229.Google Scholar

46. Jobson, , Golden Trade, p. 131Google Scholar; Winterbottom, T., An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighborhood of Serra Leone, 2 vols. (London, 1803), 1:178–9.Google Scholar

47. Lyon, G.F., A Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa in the Years 1818, 19, 20 (London, 1821), pp. 148–9.Google Scholar Lyon stated that “these traders in gold dust are by many supposed to be devils, who are very fond of red cloth, the favourite article of exchange.” Lyon traveled no further south than the Fezzan.

48. Brun, S., Schiffarten (Basel, 1624), p. 58.Google Scholar

49. Hemmersam, M., Reise nach Guinea und Brasilien, 1639-1645 (Nurnberg, 1663), pp. 55ff.Google Scholar I am grateful to my friend and colleague Marion Johnson for calling my attention to these passages in Brun and Hemmersam and for allowing me the use of her English translations. She also drew my attention to Allen and Thompson's account mentioned in the following footnote.

50. Allen, W. and Thompson, T.R.H., Narrative of an Expedition Sent by Her Majesty's Government to the River Niger in 1841 under the Command of Capt. H.D. Trotter, 2 vols. (London, 1848), 2:183.Google Scholar

51. See, for instance, Sundstrióm, , Trade of Guinea, pp. 23n4, 25.Google Scholar

52. On the ja tigi see Person, Y., Samori: une révolution Dyula, 2 vols. (Dakar, 1968), 1:105–6Google Scholar; Meillassoux, C., “Le commerce pré-colonial et le développement de l'esclavage à Gübu du Sahel (Mali)” in Meillassoux, , ed., Development of Indigenous Trade, p. 189.Google Scholar On the mai gida (in the sense of broker) see Cohen, A., Custom and Politics in Urban Africa (London, 1969), p. 83CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hill, P., “Landlords and Brokers: A West African Trading System,” Cahiers d'études africaines, 6 (1966), pp. 349–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “West African House Trade,” pp. 310-11.

53. Mouette, , Relation de la captivité du Sr. Mouette dans les Royaumes de Fez et Maroc, où il a demeuré pendant onze ans (Paris, 1683), pp. 315–8Google Scholar; Sundström, , Trade of Guinea, pp. 23–4.Google Scholar

54. Baṭṭüṭa, Ibn, Tuḥfat al-Nuẓẓär, 4:385–6.Google Scholar

54. Ibn Baṭṭüṭa, Tuḥfat al-Nuẓẓär, 4:385–6.