¹ Archives nationales maliennes à Koulouba, Bamako (hereafter ANMKB) I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de la circonscription de Dibougou, Cercle du Lobi’(20 Aug. 1903); ANMKB I D 46, ‘Etudes générales. Quelques notes sur les Oulés, Cercie du Lobi, par le Lieutenant Quégneaux’ (Loby, 1911). We assume a margin of error in these population figures, but unfortunately have no current means of addressing possible demographic inaccuracies.Google Scholar

² In his Kita¯b al-Zi¯j and his Qasi¯da, al-Faza¯ri¯ (second part of the eighth century) was the first to associate the West African gold trade with the state of Ghana. See Cuoq, Joseph, Recueil des sources arabes concernant l'Afrique occidentale du VIII^e siécle (Paris, 1975), 40.Google Scholar The second to mention gold in relation to the state of Ghana was al-Mas‘u¯di¯ (d. 956–7) in his Muru¯j al-dhahab or Fields of Gold. The third was Ibn Hawqal (d. 988) in his Kita¯b su¯rat al-ard. See Nehemia Levtzion and Hopkins, J. F. P. (eds.), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History (Cambridge, 1981), 32, 49.Google Scholar

³ ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de la circonscription de Diébougou’; ANMKB I D 46, ‘Etudes générales. Quelques notes sur les Oulés’.Google Scholar

⁴ For example it is now common knowledge that the Bambuhu and Buré mines were for all practical purposes beyond the political control of Islamized western Sudanese administrators, and that mining populations were subject to local animist Mandingspeaking chiefs. See for example, Ly Tall, Madina, Contribution a l'histoire de l'Empire du Mali (XII^e à XVI^e siècles) (Dakar, 1972), 103.Google Scholar See also Curtin, Philip D., Economic Change in Precolonial Africa: Senegambia in the Era of the Slave Trade (Madison, Wisc., 1975), 198;Google Scholar‘The lure of Bambuk gold’, J. Afr. Hist., XIV, 4 (1973), 629–30;Google ScholarKiéthéga, Jean Baptiste, L'or de la Volta noire (Paris, 1983), 39–48. See also France, Archives nationales, Ministére des Affaires etrangéres (hereafter ANMAE), Afrique et colonies françaises, 1780–1822, tome II, 23–7: ‘Mémoires servant a donner le renseignement sur le pays des mines que nous appelons Bambouk’.Google Scholar

⁵ France, Archives nationales, Section outre-mer (hereafter ANSOM), Sénégal et Dépendances, XIII, Dossier 55, ‘Agriculture, commerce, industrie 1856–1860: mines du Bambouk, exploitation, 1856–1857’.Google Scholar

⁶ For a breakdown of the decision-making hierarchy in the more westerly Bambuhu mines, see Curtin, ‘The lure of Bambuk gold’, 629; Economic Change in Precolonial Africa, 204.Google Scholar

⁷ For a study of gold production in the near-by Pura mines, see Kiéthéga, L'or de la Volta noire, chs. I, 3, 4, and 5. For the trade see ibid., ch. 6.

⁸ Binger, Louis, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée par le pays de Kong et le Mossi, 2 vols. (Paris, 1892), 1, 316, 317, 320, 325, 328, 344, 357, 359, 373, 375, 388, 415, 430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹ Labouret, Henri, Les tribus du rameau lobi (Paris, 1931).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Tauxier, Louis, Le Noir de Bonduku (Paris, 1921);Google Scholar‘Un dernier chapitre de l'histoire de Bonduku’, Revue d'ethnographie et des traditions populaires, VIII, nos 31–2 (1927), 213–26.Google Scholar

¹¹ Delafosse, Maurice, Vocabulaires comparatifs de plus de 60 langues ou dialects parlés à la Côte d'Ivoire et dans les régions limitrophes (Paris, 1904).Google Scholar

¹² Kita¯b Ghunja was written in Buipe, a town and division of Gonja, tributary to the Asante kingdom, near the forest fringes, by two Muslim scholars: Goody, J. R., ‘The Mande and the Akan hinterland’, in Vansina, J., Mauny, R., Thomas, L. V. (eds.), The Historian in Tropical Africa (London, 1969), 197–8;Google ScholarGoody, J. R., The Ethnography of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast west of the White Volta (Colonial Office: London, 1954), 10–12.Google Scholar Cited in Wilks, Ivor, ‘The Northern factor in Ashanti history: Begho and the Mande’, J. Afr. Hist., 11, 1(1961), 25–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹³ For example see the following by Wilks, I., ‘A medieval trade-route from the Niger to the Gulf of Guinea’, J. Afr. Hist., 111, 2 (1960), 337–41;Google Scholar ‘Wangara, Akan and Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries’, Part I, ‘The matter of Bitu’, Part 2, ‘The struggle for trade’, J. Afr. Hist., XXIII, 3 and 4 (1982), 333–49, 463–72;Google Scholar‘A note on the chronology and origins of the Gonja kings’, Ghana Notes and Queries, 8 (Oct. 1966), 26–8;Google Scholar‘A note on the early spread of Islam in Dagomba’, Trans. Hist. Soc. Ghana, VIII (1965), 87–98;Google Scholar‘The growth of Islamic learning in Ghana’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, II (12. 1963), 409–17;Google Scholar‘The transmission of Islamic learning in the western Sudan’, in Goody, J. R. (ed), Literacy in Traditional Societies (Cambridge, 1968), 161–97;Google ScholarThe Northern Factor in Ashanti History (Legon: Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, 1961) esp. 25–34;Google Scholar‘The Mande loan element in Twi’, Ghana Notes and Queries, 4 (Jan.-Dec. 1962), 26–8;Google Scholar‘The Mossi and Akan states, 1500–1800’, in Ajayi, J. F. A. and Crowder, Michael (eds.), A History of West Africa, 2nd ed. (London, 1976), 1, 413–55;Google Scholar ‘The Mossi and Akan states, 1400–1800’, ibid., 3rd ed. (Harlow and New York, 1985), 465–502; ‘The early Dyula towns’ (unpublished paper, Centre for African Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, n.d.).

¹⁴ Levtzion, Nehemia, Muslims and Chiefs in West Africa: A Study of Islam in the Middle Volta Basin in the Pre-colonial Period (Oxford, 1968);Google Scholar‘Commerce et Islam chez les Dagomba du nord Ghana’, Annales economies, sociétés, civilisations, XXIII (07–08 1968), 723–42.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Meyerowitz, Eva, Akan Traditions of Origin (London, 1952).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Goody, ‘The Mande and the Akan hinterland’;Google ScholarBoutillier, J. C., ‘Politique et commerce: linsertion des communauts mande-dyula dans le royaume de Bouna a l'époque précoloniale’, paper presented to Conference on Manding Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1972, 1–18; ‘Notes préliminaires a l'étude de la yule de Bouna’, in Les petites villes de la Côte d'Ivoire: essais monographiques, Collection ‘Sciences humaines’ du Centre ORSTOM de Petit Bassam, 1, I (Paris, 1968), 89–119.Google Scholar See also Hiskett, Mervyn, The Development of Islam in West Africa (Harlow and New York, 1984), 120–37.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Person, Yves, Samori: une révolution dyula, Mémoire de l'Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire (I.F.A.N.), no. 80, 2 vols. (Dakar, 1968–1970).Google Scholar

¹⁸ Kiéthéga, L'or de Ia Volta noire.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Savonnet, G., ‘Habitations souterraines bobo ou anciens puits de mines en pays wile?’, Bulletin de l'I.F.A.N., 36, sér. B. (1974) 227–45.Google Scholar

²⁰ ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etudes générales: notice général sur le Soudan: notice sur la region sud, 1895–1899’; ANMKB I D 46, ‘Monographie du Cercie de Lobi: deux notices 1903–1911 ’; ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique-historique, topographique et statistique, Poste de Bobo-Dioulasso, 1902’.Google Scholar

²¹ Other members of the 1895 mission included Capitaine Edgar Louis de Trentinian, Capitaine Destenave, who was Chef de Bataillon, and Lieutenant Chanoine.Google Scholar

²² ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etudes générales: notice général sur le Soudan’; ANMKB I D 46, ‘Monographie du Cercle de Lobi: deux notices 1903–1911’; ANMKB ID 68, ‘Notice géographique et historique sur la circonscription de Bouna’, by Lieutenant Greigert (Cercle de Bondoukou) (Buna, 1902); ANMKB I D 169, ‘Notice sur la ville de Bondougou — ses origines, son commerce, son avenir. Par le Capitaine Benquey de l'Infanterie coloniale, l^e partie’ (Bonduku, 30 Dec. 1902);Google ScholarANMKB I D 169, ‘Notice sur la ville de Bonduku: ses origins, son commerce, son avenir: II^e partie: commerce’ (Bonduku, 1903); ANMKB I D 169, ‘Notice sur la yule de Bondoukou: tile partie: avenir de Bondoukou’ (Bonduku, 1903); Archives nationales sénegales à Dakar (hereafter ANSD), I G 302, ‘Notices sur le Cercle de Bobo Dioulasso (1903–1904) par le Lieutenant Nouri, Commandant le Cercle, IV^e Section: renseignements géographiques’.Google Scholar

²³ ANMKB 3Q–3, ‘Mines: Renseignement sur les regions aurifres du Bambouk,1896’; ANMKB 3Q—7, ‘Mines: rapport sur les gisements aurif'eres du Lobi 1901. Rapport du Capitaine Ruby, A., Commandant le Cercle du Lobi, sur les gisements auriféres du Lobi “proprement dit” et leur exploitation par les habitants’ (Jebugu, 28 Feb. 1901);Google Scholar‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby, Commandant le Cercle du Lobi, sur la question des gisements auriferes du Lobi “proprement dit”, sur les observations faites a ce sujet au cours des operations de la campagne 1901 à1902 et sur les travaux de Ia mission envoyée par Ia Société du Haut-Niger’ (Bobojulasso, 22 May, 1902); ANMKB 3Q–12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans la Colonie du Haut-Sénegal-Niger 1909: considérations générales: Bambouk et Lobi’; ANMKB 3 Q–13, ‘Rapport sur l'industrie miniére du Haut-Senegal-Niger 1910’; ANMKB 3Q–18, ‘Arrêtédu Lieutenant Gouverneur réglementant le commerce et Ia circulation de l'or extrait de la colonie, 1918’; ANMKB 3 Q–19, ‘Rapport sur le fonctionnement du Service des Mines pendant l'année 1908’ (I Jan. 1909).Google Scholar

²⁴ See for example Perinbam, B. Marie, ‘Perceptions of Bonduku's contribution to the western Sudanese gold trade: an assessment of the evidence’, History in Africa, XIII (1986), 295–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁵ It is not clear how these chiefs were appointed, as according to Labouret, chieftaincies did not exist in the pre-colonial Loby, except perhaps where their appointment was due to Jula pressures, presumably from Kong, Bobojulasso, or even from Jenne. Labouret, Les Tribus, p. vii;Google ScholarMcCall, Daniel F., ‘Probing Lo Bir history’, in Société Française d'Histoire d 'Outre-Mer, Le Sol, la parole et l'écrit: Mélanges en hommage a Raymond Mauny, 2 vols. (Paris, 1981), 361–73.Google Scholar

²⁶ ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de Ia circonscription de Diébougou’; ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etudes générales: notice générale sur Ic Soudan’.Google Scholar

²⁷ ANMKB I D 168, ‘Notice géographique et histoire sur Ia circonscription de Bouna’.Google Scholar

²⁸ ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etudes générales: notice générale sur le Soudan’.Google Scholar

²⁹ ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etudes générales: notice générale sur le Soudan’; ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de Ia circonscription de Diébougou’; ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique et historique, topographique et statistique’; ANSOM I G 302, ‘Notices sur le Cercie de Bobo-Dioulasso 1903–1904’; ANSOM, AOF Dossier 4, ‘Soudan français, région de Ia Volta occidentale: projet d'organisation de Ia région de IaVolta occidentale’, 17. Dafing is a term used in the Black Volta region by Jula or Islamized long-distance traders to identify themselves. Sometimes also called Marka (Marka, Malarhaka, Malarha), they are believed to be descendants of Islamized Mande-speaking (Bamana) agriculturalists and traders who began migrating into the Dafing region of the Black Volta sometime in the seventeenth century. Living in enclaves, or in their own wards in animist towns, they were closely associated with the eighteenth-century states of Kong and Bobojulasso. Although some Dafing were assimilated into host communities, most retained their language, which is very near to Dyula, a Manding language closely related to Bamana: Perinbam, B. Marie, ‘Notes on Dyula origins and nomenclature’, Bulletin de l'I.F.A.N. 36, sér. B., no. 4 (1974), 679–90;Google ScholarPerson, Yves, ‘The Dyula and the Manding world’, paper presented to Conference on Manding Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1972, 7–8.Google Scholar See Perinbam, B. Marie, ‘The Julas in western Sudanese history: long-distance traders and developers of resources’, in Swartz, B. K. and Dumett, R. E. (eds.), West African dynamics: archeological and historical perspectives (The Hague, 1980), 455–75;Google Scholar ‘Import-led trade in a Jula economic region: Gold and kola nuts’ (unpub. paper, 1981), 9–14. See also Lovejoy, Paul, ‘The role of the Wangarawa in the economic transformation of the Central Sudan in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries’, J. Afr. Hist., XIX, 2 (1978) 173–94;CrossRefGoogle ScholarIzard, Michel, ‘Les Yarse et le commerce dans le Yatenga pré-colonial’, in Claude Meillassoux (ed.), The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets (London, 1971), 214, and especially n. 2;Google Scholar Jean-Loup Amselle, ‘Parenté et commerce chez les Kooroko’, ibid., 253–65; Roberts, Richard, ‘The Maraka and the economy of the middle Niger: 1790–1908’ (Ph.D thesis, University of Toronto, 1978), 244–50.Google Scholar

³⁰ ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de Ia circonscription de Dié bougou’.Google Scholar

³¹ Ibid.

³² ANMKB 3 Q—3, ‘Mines: Renseignement sur les régions aurifres du Bambouk’; ANMKB 3Q—7, Rapports du Capitaine A. Ruby sur les gisements aurifères.Google Scholar

³³ ANSOM, AOF VII, Dossier 4, ‘Soudan français: région de Ia Volta occidentale’, 17; ANMKB 3Q—7, Rapports du Capitaine A. Ruby sur les gisements aurifères.Google Scholar

³⁴ ANSOM, Sénégal et Dépendances, XIII, Dossier 54, ‘Marine extrait: Direction des Colonies, Bureau d'Administration, Sénégal. Mémoire par M. Bellard sur les Mines du Bambouk’ (April, 1817).Google Scholar

³⁵ Perinbam, ‘Perceptions of Bonduku's contribution to the western Sudanese gold trade’, 298; ‘The Julas in western Sudanese history’, 460–1;Google ScholarWilks, ‘Wangara, Akan and Portuguese’, part i, ‘The matter of Bitu’, 346, nn. 66, 67, 68. According to Mauny, the Loby learned their gold mining skills from the Kulango who, in turn, learned them from the settlers from Bonduku (who may have been the proto-Jula), who may have learned them from the Asante.Google ScholarMauny, Raymond, Tableau géographique de l'ouest africain au moyen cage d'après les sources écrites, Ia tradition et l'archéologie, Mémoire de l'I.F.A.N., no. 61 (Dakar, 1961), 297.Google Scholar For a further discussion of Mande influences on Akan mining technology, see Herbert, Eugenia W., Red gold in Africa: copper in precolonial history and culture (Madison, Wisc., 1984), 299–300.Google Scholar

³⁶ ANMKB 3Q—13, ‘Rapport sur l'industrie minière du Haut-Sénégal-Niger’; ANMKB 3Q—12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans Ia Colonie du Haut-SénégalNiger’. For a discussion of traditional gold mining see Curtin, Economic Change in PrecolonialAfrica, 203–6;Google ScholarMeniaud, Jacques, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, 2 vols. (Paris, 1912), 11, 175–9;Google ScholarKiéthéga, L'or de Ia Volta noire, 89–98;Google ScholarSavonnet, ‘Habitations souterraines bobo’, 227–45.Google Scholar For Akan mining techniques, see Garrard, Timothy F., Akan Weights and the Gold Trade (London, 1980), 127–70.Google Scholar

³⁷ Wilks, ‘The matter of Bitu’, 339, 342 and n. 50;Google Scholar ‘Medieval trade route’, 339. J. D. Fage suggests that the Portuguese were attracted to the El Mina area in the first place because of the trading opportunities which already existed: Fage, J. D., ‘Some remarks on beads and trade in lower Guinea in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’, J. Afr. Hist., III, 2 (1962), 343–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁸ Wilks, ‘The early Dyula towns’, 5.Google Scholar

³⁹ Kiéthéga, L'or de Ia Volta noire, 159–62.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Ibid., 58–9, 234–5.

⁴¹ ANMKB 3Q—7, ‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby’ (28 Feb., 1901). This form of prospecting is similar to that recounted by Mansa Musa to his interlocutor Ibn Ami¯r Ha¯ib in Cairo in 1324–1325: al-‘Umari¯, Masa¯lik a1-absa¯r fi mamalik al-arnsar in Corpus, 267.Google Scholar

⁴² ANMKB 3Q—7, ‘Mines: rapport sur les gisements aurifères du Lobi; ANMKB 3Q—12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans Ia colonie du Haut-Senégal-Niger’.Google Scholar

⁴³ ANMKB 3Q—3, ‘Mines: renseignement sur les regions aurif'eres du Bambouk’; ANMKB 3Q—12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans la colonie du Haut-SenégalNiger’. Al-'Umart was one of the first to make this observation: Corpus, 262. For a discussion of the association of gold and other metals with the occult, see Herbert, Red Gold, 277–95, 297–9.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ For mining techniques in the Loby see Sagatzky, J., ‘La géologie et les ressources minières de Ia Haute-Volta méridionale’, Bulletin de Ia Direction des Mines, A.O.F., no. 13 (Dakar, 1954);Google ScholarKiéthéga, L'or de Ia Volta noire, 89–98.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ ANMKB 3 Q—7, Rapports du Capitaine A. Ruby sur les gisements aurifères du Lobi.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ ibid.; Meniaud, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, 11,297.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ ANMKB 3Q—7, Rapports du Capitaine A. Ruby. See also Kithéga, L'or de la Volta noire, 144.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Curtin, Economic change in precolonial Africa, 205. According to Garrard, ‘It was estimated that four day's work at Tarka [Akan mines] yielded three pennyweights of gold ( grams) to divide among four miners and four washers’. Garrard, Akan Weights and the Gold Trade, 132.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Personal communication, Eugenia W. Herbert (28 Dec. 1985).Google Scholar

⁵⁰ ANMKB 3Q—7, Rapports du Capitaine A. Ruby sur les gisements aurifères du Lobi.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée, II, 415.Google Scholar

⁵² ANMAE, ‘Rapport de Monsieur Binger in Le Temps’, Mémoires et Documents. Afrique: Sénégal et Dépendances, xviii (1890–1894), tome 123, 68–9.Google Scholar

⁵³ ANMKB 3Q—19, ‘Mines 1905’ (1907); ANMKB 3 Q—19, ‘Rapports sur le fonctionnement du service des mines pendant l'année 1908’.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ ANMKB 3Q—13, ‘Rapport sur l'industrie minière du Haut-Sénégal-Niger’.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Meniaud, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, II, 195.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ ANMKB 3 Q—12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans Ia Colonie du Haut Sénégal-Niger’;Google ScholarANMKB 3 Q—12, ‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby’ (28 Feb. 1901).Google Scholar See also Pereira, Pacheco, Esmeralda de situ orbis, ed. and trans. Kimble, George H. T., Hakluyt Society, 1937, reprint (Nendln/Liechtenstein, 1967), 80, n. 2;Google ScholarCaillié, René, Journal d'un voyage à Tombouctou et à Jenné dans l'Afrique centrale, vols. 3 (reprint, Paris, 1965), 1, 392;Google ScholarSavonnet, ‘Habitations souterrains bobo’, 228–31.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Meniaud, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, 11, 195–9.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Dupuis, Joseph, Journal of a Residence in Ashantee, 2nd ed., edited with notes by Ward, W. F. (London, 1966), lvii–lviii.Google ScholarSee also ANSD I G 302, ‘Notice sur le Cercie de Bobo-Dioulasso’ (15 Feb. 1903–1904);Google ScholarANSD I C 90, ‘Mission Binger et TreichLaplène à Kong, 1887–1888, 8 juillet 1888’; Commandant Supérieur, P.1. à Gouverneur (St Louis)’.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Dupuis, Journal of a Residence in Ashantee, lvii–lviii. Most of the gold was still being sold in Kong and Jenné. ANSD I G 302, ‘Notice sur le Cercle de Bobo-Dioulasso’; ANSD I G 90, ‘Mission Binger et Treich-Laplène a Kong’. The same was true of the Bambuhu/Buré gold in an earlier period. ANMAE, ‘Extrait d'un Mémoire ayant pour titre, nouveau système colonial pour civiliser l'Afrique; faire concourir les colonies au bien être et à la prosperité de la France, par des avantages réciproques, 1891’, Afrique et Colonies Françaises, 1780–1822, tome 11, 399.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ ANMKB 3Q—7, ‘Rapport du Capitaine Ruby’ (Bobo-Dioulasso, 22 May, 1902).Google Scholar

⁶¹ Meniaud, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, 11, 198. Mauny thinks this is too high. Mauny, Tableau géographique, 297, n. 5.Google Scholar

⁶² Mauny, Tableau géographique, 330, 376–7.Google ScholarIn the mines of Tonkalo (about 100 altogether), one cubit metre of earth yielded about four grams of gold: ANMKB 3 Q—7, ‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby’ (28 Feb. 1901). In 1923, Labouret estimated that in the cercle of Gaou (part of which is included in this discussion), 52kg of gold was produced by 6,050 workers.Google ScholarLabouret, H., L'or du Lobi (Paris, 1925), 69–73.Google ScholarSagatzky, J. estimated a total production quantity of 25 kg per year for the entire Haute-Volta for 1940–1. Cited in Mauny, Tableau géographique, 297, and n. 5.Google Scholar

⁶³ ANMKB 3Q—13, ‘Rapport sur l'industrie minière du Haut-Sénégal-Niger 1910’. Another source, however, suggested 350 tO 500 kg (value 800,000 tO 1,250,000 francs) for 1905 for the whole Haut-Sénégal-Niger including the Bambuhu-Buré mines, which seems to call the figures in the text into question. ANMKB 3Q—19, ‘Mines 1905’.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseigement sur les villages de la circonscription de Diébougou, Cercle du Lobi’.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ ANSOM I G 302, ‘Notice sur le Cercie de Bobo-Dioulasso’; ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique-historique-topographique et statistique’.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de la circonscription de Diebougou.’Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Ibid.

⁶⁸ Ibid.; ANSOM, ‘Reorganization du Soudan francais: region de Ia Volta occidentale’. The single hyphen after the language names indicates a link of general intelligibility.Google ScholarDalby, David, Language Map of Africa (Provisional edition) (International African Institute: London, 1979), 28–9, plus map of Upper Guinea Coast.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Tauxier, Le Noir de Bondoukou, 43;Google ScholarDelafosse, M., Haur-Sénégal-Niger, 3 vols. (Paris, 1912), 1, 316–18.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Labouret, , ‘Le mystère des mines du Lobi (Volta noire moyen, Afrique occidentale)’, Revue d'Ethnographie et des Traditions Populaires, no. 2 (1920), 177–96, esp. 190;Google ScholarLabouret, Les tribus du rameau lobi, 28.Google Scholar See also Hébert, Jean, Histoire de la Haute-Volta (Paris, 1976), 195;Google ScholarMcCall, ‘Probing Lo Bir’, 361–73.Google Scholar For a discussion of the Loby, see Green, Kathryn Lee, ‘The foundation of Kong: A study in Dyula and Sonongui ethnic identity’ Ph.D thesis (University of Indiana, 1984), 42, 351.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Savonnet, G., ‘Quelques notes sur l'histoire des Dyan (Cercles de Diébougou et de Leo, Haut-Volta)’, Bulletin de l'I.F.A.N., vol. 37, sér. B., no. 3 (07, 1975), 634–6.Google Scholar

⁷² Delafosse, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, II, 312–18.Google Scholar

⁷³ ANMKB I D 46, ‘Monographie du Cercie de Lobi: 2 notices 1903–1904. Etudes générales: quelques notes sur les Oulés, Cercle de Lobi’.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Wilks, ‘The matter of Bitu’, esp. 346, nn. 66, 67 and 68. Mande oral accounts coincide with Wilks' findings. According to these, Bighu (Bitu), a ‘gold’ town in the Black Volta region, was settled about the eleventh century by a Muslim Mandingspeaker whose followers, including the Numu, settled among autochthonous hunters. ANMKB I D 169, ‘Notice sur la ville de Bondougou’. In 1951, Meyerowitz advanced a similar view: Meyerowitz, Akan traditions and origins, 45 and n. 2.Google Scholar J. D. Fage warns that this early settlement should not automatically be associated with trade: Fage, J. D., ‘Upper and Lower Guinea’, in Oliver, Roland (ed.), Cambridge History of Africa, III (Cambridge, 1977), 491.Google Scholar According to Delafosse, the Bobojula of Bobojulasso were the result of intermarriage between the Sya and the Mande-Jula: Delafosse, Vocabulaires comparatifs de plus de 60 langues, 147; see also 165–8.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Dincuff, Antoine, ‘Kong et Bobo-dioulasso: capitales Dyulas’, Thèse de doctorat de troisième cycle, sous Ia direction du Prof. Yves Person (Paris, n.d.), 29–42.Google ScholarIt is believed that some Mande-Jula had been in the Kong region from as early as the fourteenth century: Victor Tiègbe Diabaté, ‘La region de Kong d'après les fouilles archéologiques: prospection, premiers sondages, directions de recherches’, These de doctorat de troisième cycle sous Ia direction du Prof. Jean Devisse (Paris, 1979), 22. The Bobojula also developed routes coming from the west from Kénédugu, Segu, Sikasso, the Macma, from Togo, Guinea and northern Benin, as well as from Mossi, Loby country and Asante: ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, historique, topographique et statistique’.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ By the latter part of the nineteenth century, many Bobojula and Bobofing had assimilated into Wattara clans of Kong and Bobojulasso: ANSD I G 302, Le Lieutenant Nouri, Commandant le Cercle, ‘Notice sur le Cercre de Bobo Dioulasso (1903–1904)’; ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, topographique et statistique’.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Person, Yves, ‘The Dyula and the Manding world’, 11–13. Others lost their religion, especially in the district of Bobojulasso, by the nineteenth century: ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, històrique, topographique et statistique’.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de la circonscription de Diébougou’; ANSD I C 302, Lieutenant Noun, ‘Notices sur le Cercie de Bobo-Dioulasso’.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Even today descendants of these Mande-speaking clans in the Côte d'Ivoire are called dyula: cf. Perinbam, ‘Notes on Dyula origins’, 767–89; ‘The Julas in western Sudanese history’, 458–70; ‘Perceptions of Bonduku's contribution to the western Sudanese gold trade’, 295–310,Google Scholar and idem, ‘Islam in the Banamba region of the eastern Bélédugu, c. 1800 to c. 1900’, Int. J. Aft. Hist. Studies, xix, 4 (1986), 637–57. See above, n. 29.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ ANMKB 3Q—7, Rapports du Capitaine A. Ruby sur les gisements aurifères.Google Scholar

⁸¹ ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de la circonscription de Diébougou’.Google Scholar

⁸² Ibid. See also ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etudes générales: notices générales sur le Soudan: notice sur la région sud’ (1895–1899). This and the next two paragraphs are based on these documents.

⁸³ Delafosse, M., Les frontières de la Côte d'Ivoire, de Ia Côte d'Or et du Soudan (Paris, 1908), 168, 170.Google Scholar See also: ‘Relations de Bambouc (1729) par Claude Boucard’, with an introduction and annotations by Curtin, Philip D. with Boulègue, Jean, Bull. de l'I.F.A.N., vol. 36, sér. B., no. 2 (1974), 274;Google ScholarCaillié, , Journal d'un voyage, 1, 414–18;Google ScholarMage, Eugene, Voyage dans le Soudan occidental (Paris, 1968), 682–3;Google ScholarCissoko, Sékéné Mody, ‘Contributions a l'histoire politique des royaumes du Khasso dans le Haut-Sénégal, des origines à la conquête français (XVII^e siècle à 1980)’, Thèse de doctorat d'etat (Paris, 1979), 88;Google ScholarGuillard, Xavier, ‘Commerce et production de l'or du Bambouk, XVII^e et XVIII^e siècles (d'après les sources françaises)’, Mémoire de mâitrise, sous la direction du Prof. Jean Devisse (Paris, 1982), 176–83.Google Scholar See also ANMKB 3Q—12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans Ia colonie du Haut-Sénégal-Niger 1901’; ANMKB 3 Q—3, ‘Mines: renseignement sur les regions aurifères du Bambouk, 1896’.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ ANSOM, Sénégal et Dépendances, xiii, dossier 55, ‘Agriculture, commerce, industrie, 1856–1860: mines du Bambouk, exploitation, 1856–1857’; ANMKB 3Q—3, ‘Mines: renseignement sur les régions aurifères du Bambouk, 1896’; ANMKB 3Q—12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans le Haut-Sénégal-Niger’; ANMKB 3Q—13, ‘Rapport sur l'industrie minière du Haut-Sénégal-Niger 1910’; ANSOM, Sénégal et Dépendances, xiii, dossier ‘Agriculture, commerce, industrie, 1815–1856: mines du Bambouk. Marine extrait: Direction des colonies, Bureau d'administration, Sénégal. Mémoire par M. Bellard sur les mines du Bambouk’ (1 April 1817).Google Scholar

⁸⁵ ANSOM, Sénégal et Dépendances, xiii, dossier 55, ‘Agriculture, commerce, industrie, 1856–1860: mines du Bambouk, exploitation, 1856–1857’.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ ANMKB I D 45 ‘Renseignement sur les villages de la circonscription de Diébougou’; ANMKB I D 5, ‘Notices générales sur le Soudan’.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ ANMKB 3Q—12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans le colonie du Haut Sénégal-Niger’.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de Ia circonscription de Diébougou’; ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etudes générales: notices générales sur la Soudan. Notice sur la région sud’.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Person, Y., ‘The Dyula in the Manding World’, 3. For a study of Manding (marka) influence in the Bélédugu (western Mali), see Perinbam, ‘Islam in the Banamba region’.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ McCall, ‘Probing Lo Bir history’, 366.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Diabaté, ‘La région de Kong d'après les fouilles archéologiques’, 21–2. According to Binger, Julas at Kong migrated from two directions: (1) the Wattara, Dao, Barou, Kérou and Touré were from the region of Jenné and Ségu; (2) the Sissé, Sohko, Kamaté Daniokho, Kulubali, Timité, Tarawiri (Traore) and a branch of the Wattara came from Tengréla-Ngokho. Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guineé, 1, 323–4. For a full discussion of the development of the Kong state and its expansion, see Green, ‘The foundations of Kong’, esp. 306–404.Google ScholarSee also Bernus, E., ‘Kong et sa région’, Etudes Eburéennes, VIII (Direction de la Recherche scientifique, Ministère de l'Education nationale de la République de Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan, 1960), 242–3, 9;Google ScholarInstitut d'histoire d'art et d'archéologie africaines, Actes de la table ronde sur les origines de Kong, Kong, 1–3 novembre 1975, Annales de l'Université d'Abidjan (sér. J), vol. 1, Traditions orales (Abidjan, 1977).Google Scholar

⁹² Green, K. L. questions whether the Wattara Kong used firearms. See Green, ‘Foundation of Kong’, 201–17.Google Scholar

⁹³ Dincuff, ‘Kong et Bobo-Dioulasso’, 21.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ According to Savonnet, it was Bakari Wattara who first made contact with the Dyan sometime between 1800 and 1820: Savonnet, ‘Quelques notes sur l'histoire des Dyan’, 532. According to Green, it was Daouda Wattara, surnamed Gboliba, whom Bakari sent presumably to Kong: Green, ‘Foundation of Kong’, 349–52.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Savonnet, ‘Quelques notes sur l'histoire des Dyan’, 367, 632–3;Google ScholarBernus, ‘Kong et sa région’, 262.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Ibid., 639; ANSD I G 302, Lieutenant Noun, ‘Notice sur le Cercle de Bobo Dioulasso (1903–1904)’;Google ScholarANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, historique, topographique et statistique’ (Bobo-dioulasso, 1902). ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etudes générales: notices sur le Soudan’ (1895–1899);Google ScholarDincuff, ‘Kong et Bobo-Dioulasso’, 6–26, 30, 59, 71.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Savonnet, ‘Quelques notes sur l'histoire des Dyan’, 639. For a variation of this account see Bernus, ‘Kong et sa région’, 256–8, 260–5.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etude générale: notice sur le Soudan, 1895–1899’; ANSD I G 302, Lieutenant Noun, ‘Notice sur le Cercle de Bobo-Dioulasso’.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guineé, 1, 327;Google Scholaridem, Esciavage, islamisme et christianisme (Paris, 1891), 57–60;Google ScholarBernus, ‘Kong et sa région’, 268–9;Google ScholarGreen, ‘Foundation of Kong’, 359.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ ANMKB I D 46, ‘Monographie du Cercie du Lobi’.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Savonnet, ‘Quelques notes sur l'histoire des Dyan’, 369–40.Google Scholar See also Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée, 1, 327, 356–7, 369, 390.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Diabaté, ‘La région de Kong d'après les fouilles archéologiques’, 68: Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée, 1, 325.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ ANMAE, Mémoires et Documents. Afrique: Sénégal et Dépendances, XVIII, 1890–1894, tome 123.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Person, Yves, ‘The Atlantic coast and the southern savannahs 1800 to 1880’, in Ajayi, J. F. A. and Crowder, M. (eds.), A History of West Africa, 11 (Harlow, 1974), 280.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Diabaté, ‘La Région de Kong d'après les fouilles archéologiques’, 66.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Green, ‘Foundation of Kong’, 43.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Ibid.

¹⁰⁸ ANMKB Q—7, Rapports du Capitain A. Ruby, sur les gisements aurifères du Lobi.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Green, ‘Foundation of Kong’, 43.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Diabaté, ‘La région de Kong d'après les fouilles archéologiques’, 24;Google ScholarPerson, Yves, Samori: une révolution dyula, 11, 301.Google ScholarA similar situation prevailed in Buna where the state was described as a ‘Jula fief’. ANMKB I D i68, Lieutenant Greigert, ‘Notice géographique et historique sur Ia circonscription de Bouna’ (Bouna, 1902).Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Delafosse, Les frontières de la Côte d'Ivoire, 139.Google Scholar

¹¹² al-‘Umari¯, Masa¯lik al-absa¯r fi¯ mama¯lik al-amsa¯r, in Corpus, 262, 267.Google Scholar

¹¹³ Fernandes, Valentim, Description de la Côte d'Afrique de Ceuta au Sénégal (1506–1507) (Paris, 1938), 89.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ Mosta, Ca' Da, Relation des voyages à la côte occidentale d'Afrique (Paris, 1974), 61–2.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ Pereira, Esmeraldo de situ orbis, 89.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Jobson, Richard, The Golden Trade (London, 1968), 115, 128–32.Google ScholarSee also ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, historique, topographique et statistique’; Binger, Du Niger aud Golfe de Guinée, 1, 403.Google Scholar

¹¹⁷ Delafosse, Les frontières, 139.Google ScholarSee also ANMKB 3 Q—7, ‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby’ (28 Feb. 1901); ANMKB 3Q—19, ‘Rapport sur le fonctionnement du Service des Mines pendant l'année’.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ See notes 4 to 6 above.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Interview with Thiémoko Kanté, Institut des Sciences Humaines (Barnako, 1/4/83). In 1824, Dupuis similarly pointed out that gold in Gyaman and Asante was also associated with the occult: Dupuis, Journal of a Residence in Ashantee, lvii. See also ANMKB 3 Q—13, ‘Rapport sur l'industrie minière du Haut-Sénégal-Niger’.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ Interview with Kanté (Bamako, 1/4/83); interview with Sylla Diara, metal worker and former miner (Bamako, 5/15/83).Google Scholar

¹²¹ Interview with Kanté (Bamako, 1/4/83). Notice that these traditions make no mention of gold being placed in the burial site. It was given instead to families of the deceased. According to Eugenia Herbert, copper, iron and store beads were the characteristic West African grave goods until northern influence and Islamic attitudes came to associate gold with chiefly burial sites (Herbert, Red Gold, 121–2). Labouret found undated copper objects in Loby burial sites. H. Labouret, ‘Le mystère des ruines du Lobi’, 178, et seq. Finally, interview with Massa Makar Diabaté, traditionalist and scholar (Bamako, 2/13/83).Google Scholar

¹²² Kiéthéga, L'or de la Volta noire, 135.Google Scholar

¹²³ al-‘Umari¯, Masa¯lik al-absa¯r fi¯ mama¯lik al-amsa¯r, in Corpus, 262, 267. With all this alleged isolation, small wonder that Leo Africanus (c. 1515) was misled into believing that the Loby ‘have no traffic with foreign nations’.Google ScholarAfricanus, Leo, The History and Description of Africa, 3 vols. (New York, n.d.), III, 832.Google Scholar

¹²⁴ Person, Y., Samori.Google Scholar

¹²⁵ ANSD I G 302, Lieutenant Noun, ‘Notices sur le Cercle de Bobo Dioulasso 1903–1904’; ANMKB I D 168, Lieutenant Greigert, ‘Notice géographique et historique sur la circonscription de Bouna, Cercie de Bondoukou’ (Bouna, 1902). Both Delafosse and Labouret have apparently given erroneous dates for the destruction of Kong: Bernus, ‘Kong et sa région’, 272.Google Scholar

¹²⁶ Bernus, ‘Kong et sa region’, 272. In 1891 Samory had announced his intention to conquer Bobojulasso just as soon as he was master of Kong: Savonnet, ‘Quelques notes sur l'histoire des Dyan’, 643, n. 2.Google Scholar

¹²⁷ ANSD I G 302, Lieutenant Noun, ‘Notice sun le Cercle de Bobo Dioulasso 1903–1904’; ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, historique et topographique et statistique’. This was Binger's first mission. His second was 1890–2, during which the 1889 treaty was renewed in 1892.Google Scholar

¹²⁸ ANMAE, Mémoires et Documents. Afrique: Sénégal et Dépendances, XVII, 1886–1889, tome 122, 292–3:Google Scholar‘Traité conclu avec les Etats de Kong’ (10 Jan. 1889);Google ScholarANMAE, Mémoires et Documents: Sénégal et Dépendances, XVIII, 1890–1894, tome 123, 68–9: le Sous-Secrétaire d'Etat des colonies à M. le Ministre des Affaires étrangères' (29 May 1890).Google Scholar

¹²⁹ ANSD 15 G I, ‘Traités 1821–1899:Google ScholarTraité entre la France et le Lobi (July 1897);Google ScholarTraité de protectorat entre la France et le pays lobi et tiekari (1897);Google ScholarTraité de protectorat entre la France et le pays lobi de Bourac (1897);Google ScholarTraité de protectorat entre la France et le pays galgoula (Lobi) (1897)’.Google Scholar

¹³⁰ It was Binger who concluded the treaties of protection with the chiefs of Kong and Bonduku. The French favoured Bonduku as it was a staging-point between the Gold Coast and the Niger.Google ScholarANMAE, Mémoires et Documents. Afrique: Etablissements français du Golfe de Guinée, 1888–1890, tome 125, 261–75: ‘Incident de Bondoukou. Note pour le Ministre. Direction politique protectorat’ (28 June 1889):Google ScholarIbid., 1891–1894, tome 127, 68–73: ‘Mission Binger 1892. Rapport politique’.Google Scholar

¹³¹ This type of African policy (sometimes referred to as ‘collaboration’) was widespread throughout West Africa during the last decades of the nineteenth century. The earliest examples come from the Senegal and Niger regions, where ‘collaborative’ policies had operated since the seventeenth century. Among the earliest ‘collaborators’ were the Wolof. In the nineteenth century, some Wolof and Tukulor rulers from the Futa Toro, as well as subject Mande chiefs of the Segu Tukulor state, continued these policies in one form or another, usually soliciting French aid against their enemies. When some later rulers sought to change to anti-French policies, many Wolof, Mande and Futa Toro Tukulor proved either unwilling or unable to do so. In the 1880s, ‘collaborative’ policies were also followed by peoples on the upper Niger. See Faidherbe, Louis, Le Sénégal: la France dans I'Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1869), 235–6 et passim;Google ScholarMarty, Paul, Etude sur l'Islam au Sénégal, 2 vols. (Paris, 1917), I, 83 et passim;Google ScholarRambaud, Alfred, La France coloniale: histoire, géographie, commerce (Paris, 1895), 213;Google ScholarIdem., ‘Le Capitaine Gallixéni à la Société de Géographie de Bordeaux’, Bull. Soc. de Géographie de Bordeaux (1881), 362;Google ScholarMage, Eugene, Voyage dans le Soudan occidental, 1863–1866 (Paris, 1868), 230, 225, 275–6, 411, 456.Google Scholar

¹³² ANSD I G 302, Lieut. Noun, ‘Notice sur le Cercle de Bobo Dioulasso, 1903–1904’;Google ScholarANMKB I D 169, Benquey, Capitaine, ‘Notice sur la yule de Bondougou: ses origines, son commerce, son avenir’ (Bonduku, 1902).Google Scholar

¹³³ French troops, led by Capitaine Cazemajou, had arrived at Jebugu on 4 May 1896.Google Scholar

¹³⁴ ANMKB 3 Q–g, ‘Mines. Relevés des concessions miniàres du Bambouk. Mission topographique 1903’. (This document also deals with concessions granted in the Black Volta region.)Google ScholarANSOM I G 302, ‘Notice sur le Cercle de Bobo Dioulasso (1903–1904) par le Lieutenant Nouri, Commandant le Cercle, 4^e section: renseignement géographique’;Google ScholarANMKB I D 168, ‘Notice géographique de Bouna, Cercle de Bondoukou, par Lieut. Greigert’.Google Scholar

¹³⁵ ANMKB 3 Q–19, ‘Mines 1905’ (sic).Google Scholar

¹³⁶ ANMKB 3 Q–7, ‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby’ (28 Feb. 1901);Google Scholar‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby’ (22 May 1902).Google Scholar

¹³⁷ ANMKB 3 Q–12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans la colonie du Haut Sénégal-Niger, 1909’;Google ScholarANMKB 3 Q–13, ‘Rapport sur l'industrie minière du Haut Séenégal-Niger, 1910’.Google Scholar

¹³⁸ ANMKB 3 Q–13, ‘Rapport sur l'industrie minière du Haut-Sénégal-Niger, 1910’;Google ScholarANMKB 3 Q–19, ‘Mines 1905’ (sic).Google Scholar

¹³⁹ ANMKB I Q–zi, ‘Affaires économiques: correspondance commerciale, Cercle du Lobi (Gaoua), 1889–1906’;Google ScholarANMKB I Q–18, ‘Affaires économiques: correspondance commerciale, Territoire de Kong, Circonscription de Dabakalo (1899)’.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁰ ANMKB 3 Q–18, ‘Arrêté du Lieutenant Gouverneur réglementant le commerce et la circulation de l'or extrait de la Colonie, 1918’.Google Scholar