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⁵ Boutillier, J. L., ‘La cité marchande de Bouna dans l'ensemble économique Ouest-Africain pré-colonial’Google Scholar, in Meillassoux, , Trade and Markets;Google ScholarBernus, E., ‘Kong et sa région’, Etudes Eburnéennes, viii (1960).Google Scholar

⁶ Izard, M., ‘Les Yarse et le commerce dans le Yatenga pré-colonial’Google Scholar, in Meillassoux, , Trade and MarketsGoogle Scholar; Izard, M., Introduction à l'histoire de Royaumes Mossi (Paris, 1970)Google Scholar

⁷ Lovejoy, P., Caravans of Kola: Hausa Trade with Asante, 1700–1900Google Scholar (London and Kano, forthcoming); Lovejoy, P., ‘The Kambarin-Beriberi: the formation of a specialized group of Hausa Kola merchants in the nineteenth century’, J. Afr. Hist. xv (1973)Google Scholar; Arhin, K., ‘Atebubu markets: ca. 1884–1930’, in Meillassoux, Trade and Markets.Google Scholar

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⁹ On the tradition of dispersion see Delafosse, M., Haut-Sénégal-Niger (Paris, reprinted 1972), 1, 255–68Google Scholar. See also Levtzion, N., ‘Western Maghrib and the Soudan’, Cambridge History of Africa (London, 1972), IIIGoogle Scholar; Niané, D., Le Soudan occidental au temps du grands empires (Paris, 1975), 52.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Curtin, , Senegambia, 75Google Scholar; Curtin, , ‘Diakhanké’, 228Google Scholar; Sanneh, L. O., ‘Islam and the Jahanke people of West Africa’, Africa, xliv, i (1976)Google Scholar; Monteil, , Djénné, 31–2Google Scholar; Perinbaum, B. M., ‘Notes on Dyula origins and nomenclature’, Bull. IFAN, series B, xxxvi, iv (1974)Google Scholar. The Ja origin of the Jahaanke is questioned in Person, Samori, i, 97.Google Scholar

¹¹ Traditions adhering to the first settlement of Sinsani by the Kuma appear in numerous interviews which include Sisé, A., 1 February 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Sisé, Mulaye (session 1), 22 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani; Jané, Seydu (session 2), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Kuma, Baba (sessions 1 and 2), 28 December 1976Google Scholar, Segu, and 18 March 1977Google Scholar, Segu, respectively; Binké Baba Kuma (session 1 and 2), 19 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani, and 21 March 1977Google Scholar; Sinsani respectively; Sako, Baba, 9 January 1977Google Scholar, Segu; Sanogo, Amadu, 8 January 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Sy, Majuma, 10 March 1977Google Scholar, Kirango; Traoré, Dahou, 11 February 1977Google Scholar, Sibila. All interviews were taped and have been deposited in the Archives for Traditional Music, Indiana University. Written versions of Sinsani's foundation appear in Captain Bellat, , ‘Renseignements historiques sur le pays de Sansanding et Macina’ (1893)Google Scholar, Archives Nationales, République du Sénégal (hereafter ASAOF), 1 G 184Google Scholar: Mage, M. E., Voyage dans le Soudan occidental (Paris, 1868), 525Google Scholar; Mademba, Abd-el Kader, Au Sénégal et au Soudan français (Paris, 1931), 68Google Scholar. On the foundation of Nyamina following the fall of Wagadu see Rougier, , ‘Enquête sur l'islam dans le cercle de Bamako, région de Banamba’ (May 1914)Google Scholar, Archives Nationales, République du Mali (hereafter AM), 1 D 33, no. 3Google Scholar; Moreau, Lt, ‘Notice sur le Soudan’, 2nd part, Notice éthnologique (1896), AM 1 D 19.Google Scholar

¹² ben, Abderrahmenben, Adullahben, ImramSa'di, Amir es, Tarikh es-Soudan, translated by Housas, O. (Paris, 1900), 418Google Scholar. The Tarikh el Fettach records a tradition suggesting an even earlier date: Kati, Mahmoud, Tarikh el Fettach, translated by Houdas, O. and Delafosse, Maurice (Paris, 1964), 64Google Scholar. This particular tradition was recounted by Ismail Fané, 15 March 1977Google Scholar, Tesserela, , and serves as the basis for Sinsani's clerical reputation in Niané, Grands Empires, 98–9.Google Scholar

¹³ There are two uses of the term Maraka, which are often not adequately differentiated in the traditions and common speech. Maraka je (white Maraka) refers to those Muslim immigrants from Wagadu, and Maraka fin (black Maraka) refers to recently converted animists. See the discussion in Lewis, John, ‘Descendants and crops: two poles in a Malian peasant village’, (Ph.D. thesis, Yale University, 1979).Google Scholar

¹⁴ On the relationship between the Maraka and the Segu state, see Roberts, R., ‘Production and reproduction of warrior states: Segu Bambara and Segu Tokolor’, Inter. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, forthcoming.Google Scholar

¹⁵ In c. 1753 Sinsani participated in a revolt against the Kulubali state, which suggests that Sinsani was not playing a significant role in the Segu state at that time. See Marty, P., translator, ‘Chroniques d'Oulata et de Nema’, Revue des Etudes Islamiques, i (1929), 568Google Scholar; Bellat, , ‘Renseignements historiques’, ASAOF 1 G 184Google Scholar; Brown, W. A., ‘The caliphate of Hamdullahi, c. 1816–1864: a study in African history and tradition’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1972), 19.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Caillié, R., Journal d'un Voyage à Tembouctou et à Jenne (Paris, 1830), ii, 214–15Google Scholar; Brown, , ‘The caliphate of Hamdullahi’, 17–18Google Scholar, 36, 38 ff.

¹⁷ Curtin has drawn attention to the desert-side trade as a world-wide phenomenon, Senegambia, 5Google Scholar. See also Lovejoy, P. and Baier, S., ‘The desert-side economy of the Central Sudan’, Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies vii, iv (1975).Google Scholar

¹⁸ Baier, S., ‘Trans-Saharan trade and the Sahel, Damergu, 1870–1930’, J. Afr. Hist. xviii (1977), 53.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Battuta, Ibn, Voyage dans le Soudan, translated by Slane, MacGuckin de (Paris, 1843), 47Google Scholar; Meillassoux, C., ‘Commerce précolonial à Gumbu’, in Meillassoux, Trade and Markets, 185Google Scholar; interviews with Sisé, Mulaye (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Jawara, Alamamy, 23 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu, ; al hajj Moktar Mangané, 19 February 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani.

²⁰ Mage, , Voyage, 276Google Scholar; interview with Fane, Ismail, 15 March 1977Google Scholar, Tesserela. In 1887 Kuma, Kami, then chief of Sinsani, noted that ‘previously, each household head had between 1,000 and 2,000 slaves working for him’Google Scholar, Caron, E., De Saint Louis au port de Tombouctou: voyage d'une canonnière (Paris, 1892), 120Google Scholar. The intimate relationship between long-distance trade and commercial investment in plantations had already been established for the Central Sudan; see Lovejoy, , ‘Plantations in the economy of the Sokoto caliphate’, J. Afr. Hist. xix, iii (1978)Google Scholar; Lovejoy, P., ‘Characteristics of plantations in the nineteenth century Sokoto caliphate (Islamic West Africa)’, Am. Hist. Rev.Google Scholar, forthcoming; Klein, M. and Lovejoy, P., ‘Slavery in West Africa’, in The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, Gemery, H. and Hogendorn, J. S. (eds), (New York, 1979).Google Scholar

²¹ This is similar to the pattern described by Curtin, , Senegambia, 170Google Scholar, and certainly widespread throughout the Western Sudanese slave markets.

²² Interview, Sukulé, Binké, 21 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani. Only one suraka jaatigi of the early nineteenth century, Mamadi Sukulé, had blood relations with one of the Moor commercial groups. For a similar pattern in Gumbu see Meillassoux, , ‘Commerce précolonial’, 189.Google Scholar

²³ Capitain Lartigue, , ‘Notice historique sur la region du Sahel’, annex 2, 1896Google Scholar, AM I D 9.

²⁴ Information on the suraka jaatigi is found in the interviews with Sisé, Mulaye (sessions 1 and 3), 22 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani, and 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani respectively; Jawara, Almamy, 23 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu; Sukulé, Binké, 21 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Traoré, Dahou, II February 1977Google Scholar, Sibila; Traoré, Mama, 10 February 1977Google Scholar, Niaro.

²⁵ Interview with Traoré, Ibrahim, 9 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

²⁶ Mauny, R., Tableau géographique de l'Ouest africain au moyen age d'après les écrits, la tradition et l'archéologie (Dakar, 1961), 358Google Scholar; Curtin, , Senegambia, 226Google Scholar; Lartigue, , ‘Notice historique’, 1896Google Scholar, AM ID9. Our understanding of the salt trade during the nineteenth century should be greatly improved by the research of Ann MacDougall, C.W.A.S., University of Birmingham.

²⁷ Interview with Sisé, Mulaye (session I), 22 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani. Another Bambara term for black salt is kogo fin.

²⁸ Lartigue, , ‘Notice historique’, 1896Google Scholar, AM 1 D9.

²⁹ Caillié, , Journal, ii, 376.Google Scholar

³⁰ Barth, H., Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa (London, 1858), v, 26.Google Scholar

³¹ Raffenel, A., Nouveau voyage au pays des Nègres (Paris, 1856), ii, 206Google Scholar; interview with Jawara, Almamy, 23 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

³² On the history of Bamako see Meillassoux, C., ‘Histoire et institutions de kafo de Bamako d'après la tradition des Niaré’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, xiv (1968)Google Scholar; Delafosse, M., ‘Monographe historique du cercle de Bamako’, Renseignements coloniaux (1910)Google Scholar; Gallieni, , letters, 3 July 1880 and 7 July 1880Google Scholar, Nango, Archives Nationales, Paris, Section Outre-Mer France (hereafter ANSOM), Sénégal et Dépendances iii 10Google Scholar; Bayol, Dr, ‘Rapport sur le voyage au pays de Bamako’, 5 July 1880Google Scholar, Saint Louis, ASAOF 1 G 52.

³³ Roberts, , ‘Production and Reproduction’.Google Scholar

³⁴ Curtin, , Senegambia, 271, 274.Google Scholar

³⁵ Curtin, , Senegambia, 272.Google Scholar

³⁶ Caillié, , Journal, ii, 103, 115–16.Google Scholar

³⁷ Hopkins, A. G., An Economic History of West Africa (London, 1973), 63.Google Scholar

³⁸ The Maraka certainly did not have a monopoly on small caravans nor on wholesale trade. Yarse caravans ranged in size from twenty to fifty with twice the number of donkeys. Izard, , ‘Yarse’, 222Google Scholar. caravans, Hausa were either ‘slow-moving markets’Google Scholar or small groups comparable with the Maraka, and the Yarse, see especially Lovejoy, Caravans of KolaGoogle Scholar. The data on size variability are not sufficient to ascertain whether Yarse and Hausa caravan size responded to danger or wholesale-retail functions. For a discussion on the role of wholesale and retail functions and juula typology see Roberts, R., ‘The Maraka and the Economy of the Middle Niger Valley, 1792–1908’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 1978), chapter iv.Google Scholar

³⁹ Gallieni, J. S., Voyage au Soudan français: Haut-Niger et pays de Ségou (Paris, 1885), chapter XII.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Caillié, , Journal, i, 425.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Interview with Sisé, Mulaye (session 1), 22 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani, . This is also stated in ‘Rapport commercial’, third quarter 1903Google Scholar, Segu, AM I Q 83.

⁴² Interview with Dukuré, Bakary, 30 January 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁴³ Interview with Haidara, Yahaya, 30 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani; Kuma, Binké Baba (session 1), 19 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani; Suragassi, Demba, 18 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁴⁴ See Caillié's, discussion of food costs, Journal, ii, 115–16Google Scholar. Apparently trader self-sufficiency was not uncommon. In 1818 Mollien described a caravan of Soninké traders from Futa Toro or the Upper Senegal who carried food in addition to trade goods; Mollien, G. T., Travels in the Interior of Africa to the Sources of the Senegal and Gambia Performed by the Command of the French Goverment in the year 1818 (London, reprinted 1967), 308.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Interview with Turé, Cémoko, 5 March 1977Google Scholar, Segu, : ’If you find someone en route to buy, you sell.‘Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Interview with Haidara, Yahaya, 30 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani, : ’very selective selling along the route, but not like the juula‘.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Caillié, , Journal, ii, 68–9.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Interview with Turé, Cémoko, 5 March 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁴⁹ Interview with Koné, Malamine, 7 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁵⁰ Curtin, , Senegambia, 283.Google Scholar

⁵¹ This section is based on Mauny, , Tableau, 394–6Google Scholar, and Curtin, , Senegambia, 280.Google Scholar

⁵² See for instance, Lovejoy, , Caravans of Kola.Google Scholar

⁵³ Interview with Dukuré, Bakary, 30 January 1977Google Scholar, Segu. The Middle Niger valley was conducive to donkey raising; an active trade in donkeys existed between Sinsani and the neighbouring Bambara villages. Interview with Yahaya Haidara, 30 December 1976, Sinsani; Sako, Baba, 9 January 1977Google Scholar, Segu; Suragassi, Demba, 18 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu, who suggested that donkeys could be rented for a voyage, but gave no details of this arrangement. Curtin has suggested that camels cost five times as much as donkeys; Curtin, , Senegambia, 280Google Scholar. In the Middle Niger valley the cost difference was probably much greater.

⁵⁴ Caillié, , Journal, ii, 178Google Scholar; Gallieni, , Voyage, 437Google Scholar; see also Johnson, Marion, ‘Cowrie Currencies of West Africa, Part I’, F. Afr. Hist., xi (1970), 30–1Google Scholar; Lovejoy, , Caravans of Kola.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Curtin, , Senegambia, 279–80.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Bulletins commerciaux et agricoles, Bamako Cercle, 1890–1Google Scholar, AM 1 R 31.

⁵⁷ Interview with Haidara, Yahaya, 30 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁵⁸ Interview with Haidara, Yahaya, 30 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani; Kuma, Binké Baba (session I), 19 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁵⁹ Interview with Koné, Malamine, 7 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁶⁰ Interview with Turé, Cémoko, 5 March 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁶¹ Interview with Koné, Malamine, 7 February, 1977Google Scholar, Segu; Sako, Baba, 9 January 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁶² Interview with Sisé, Mulaye (session 1), 22 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁶³ Interview with Koné, Malamine, 7 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁶⁴ Interview with Sisé, Mulaye (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁶⁵ Cohen, A., ‘Cultural strategies in the organization of trading diasporas’, in Meillassoux, , Trade and Markets, 266–78Google Scholar; Curtin, , Senegambia, 81Google Scholar, 84, 274.

⁶⁶ Interview with Suragassi, Demba, 18 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁶⁷ Caillié, , Journal, ii, 87–8Google Scholar gives an example of this. Interviews with Turé, Cémoko, 5 March 1977Google Scholar. Segu, and Sisé, Mulaye (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁶⁸ Cohen, , ‘Cultural Strategies’, 267Google Scholar and fn. 1, 267; see also Cohen, A., Custom and Politics in Urban Africa: a Study of Hausa Migrants in Yoruba Towns (London, 1969)Google Scholar and Lovejoy, , ‘The Kambarin Beriberi’.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Cohen, , ‘Cultural strategies’, 271–2.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Interview with Kuma, Binké Baba (session 2), 21 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Sisé, Mulay (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Haidara, Yahaya, 30 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani; Sukulé, Binké, 21 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Suragassi, Demba, 18 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu. Personal communication Amselle, Jean-Loup, January 1978.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Curtin, , Senegambia, 74, 83Google Scholar; Lovejoy, , ‘The Kambarin Beriberi’.Google Scholar

⁷² Interview with Sisé, Mulay (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Dukuré, Bakary, 30 January 1977Google Scholar, Segu; Danyogo, Sanussi, 1 February 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Babajé Traoré (session 1), on tape with Sisé, Mulaye (session 1), 22 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani; Sako, Baba, 9 January 1977Google Scholar. Segu.

⁷³ Interview with Sisé, Mulaye (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Kuma, Binké Baba (session 1), 19 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani; Curtin, Senegambia, 298.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Interview with Turé, Cémoko, 5 March 1977Google Scholar, Segu; Haidara, Yahaya, 30 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁷⁵ Interview with Sisé, Mulay (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁷⁶ Interview with Haidara, Yahaya, 30 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani; Sisé, Mulaye (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani. Commissions and payments were never fixed, but functioned within a concept of a ‘just payment’.

⁷⁷ Interview with Sisé, Mulaye (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁷⁸ Interview with Sisé, Mulaye (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Turé, Cémoko, 5 March 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁷⁹ See for instance Commandant, fort of Bamako, letter, 1 July 1885Google Scholar, AM 1 E 18; Commandant, cercle of Bamako, letter, 1 May 1886Google Scholar, AM 1 E 18; interview with Haidara, Yahaya, 30 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁸⁰ For a similar perspective for Time merchants see Caillié, , Journal, i, 466Google Scholar; ii, 5–6, 16–18.

⁸¹ Interview with Danyogo, Sanussi, 1 February 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁸² Interview with Suragassi, Demba, 18 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁸³ Interview with Turé, Cémoko, 5 March 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁸⁴ Interview with Kouyaté, Musa, 26 January 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁸⁵ Interview with Haidara, Yahaya, 30 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁸⁶ Curtin, , Senegambia, 290.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ For example, the Nomi on the mouth of the Gambia, Curtin, , Senegambia, 122–3.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Curtin, , ‘Diahanké’, 237Google Scholar. The Darbo clan diaspora along the Gambia served in part to reduce tolls through preferential treatment: Wright, ‘Darbo Jula’.

⁸⁹ Curtin, , Senegambia, 140–1.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Curtin, , ‘Diahanké’, 237.Google Scholar

⁹¹ For a short history of the wusuru see Captain Payn, , ‘Oussourou, droits de pacage, Mission Captain Payn’, 1906Google Scholar, AM 1 D 288. See also Monteil, , Djénné, 110Google Scholar; Johnson, Marion, ‘Economic foundations of an Islamic theocracy: the case of Masina’, J. Afr. Hist. xviii, iv (1976).Google Scholar

⁹² Baillaud, , Sur les routes, 270Google Scholar. As Captain Lartigue, notes, often caravans were at the whim of Futanké chiefs and sofawGoogle Scholar who confiscated whatever they wanted. Captain Lartigue, ‘Notice sur la région du Sahel’, 1896Google Scholar, AM 1 D9.

⁹³ Mollien, , Travels, 308Google Scholar. Emphasis added.

⁹⁴ Interview, Sisé, Mulaye (session 1), 22 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁹⁵ Interview, Yahaya, Haidara, 30 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani.

⁹⁶ Interview, Suragassi, Demba, 18 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu.

⁹⁷ Interviews with Sisé, Mulay (session 1), 22 December 1976Google Scholar, Sinsani; Sanogo, Amadu, 8 January 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Suragassi, Demba, 18 February 1977Google Scholar, Segu; Turé, Cémoko, 5 March 1977Google Scholar, Segu. See also Penel, Julien, Coutumes soudanaises: les coutumes des Malinkés, Sarakollés ou Soninkés, Khassonkés (2 vols, typewritten copy: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1895), 1, 116Google Scholar; Wright, ‘Darbo Jula’.

⁹⁸ Wilks, I., ‘The Mossi and Akan States, 1500–1900’Google Scholar, in Ajayi, J. F. A. and Crowder, M. (eds), History of West Africa (New York, 1972), 1Google Scholar; Terray, E., ‘Long distance trade and the formation of the state: the case of the Abron kingdom of Gyaman’, Economy and Society, iii, iii (1974)Google Scholar; Lovejoy, , Caravans of Kola.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ For example, see the issue of traders avoiding French tax stations, Payn, Captain, ‘Oussourou’, 1906Google Scholar, AM 1 D288.

¹⁰⁰ A similar kind of argument on the heavy role of taxation in financing the state is in the older literature on the medieval states; see for instance Trimingham, J. S., A History of Islam in West Africa (London, 1962), 80Google Scholar. Caillié, however, also notes that traders were taxed at a rate of twenty kola per load. This is less than 1 per cent, but certainly adds up if assessed at every village. Caillié, , Journal, ii, 70.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Africanus, Leo, Description de l'Afrique, translation Epallard, A. (Paris, 1956), 465.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Park, M., Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa in 1805 (London, 1815), 281.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁶ Jaime, , Koulikoro, 219–20Google Scholar. The added expense of transhipping goods, renting another canoe and having new sailors probably increased the costs and decreased the mobility of transport southward using canoes. This may account for the greater frequency of donkey caravans in that direction.

¹⁰⁷ Binger, , Du Niger, i, 12–13.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Caillié, , Journal, ii, 240–1Google Scholar. ‘There are many canoes which had close to 80 ton capacity ’, Journal, ii, 266.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Jaime, , Koulikoro, 229Google Scholar; Dubois, , Tombouctou, 191.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁷ Caillié, , Journal, ii, 203Google Scholar; Dubois, , Tombouctou, 192Google Scholar; interviews with Danyogo, Sanussi, 1 February 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Sisé, Mulaye (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani.

¹¹⁸ Dubois, , Tombouctou, 192Google Scholar. It is not clear whether this includes thecostsof subsistence for the journey, Caillié noted in 1828 that feeding alone cost 300 cowries between Jenne and Timbuktu. Mulaye Sisé estimated that subsistence cost approximated 5,000 cowries on the round trip from Sinsani, , interview Mulaye Sisé (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Jaime estimated food costs at 200 cowries per day for three crew, or 70 cowries a day. A 3-to 4-month voyage would cost between 6,300 and 8,400 cowries each, or slightly more than 5,000 cowries, Sisé estimated.

¹¹⁹ Jaime, , Koulikoro, 221.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ Interviews with Sisé, Mulaye (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani; Danyogo, Sanussi, 1 February 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani.

¹²¹ If we assume a salt bar cost between 8,000 and 15,000 cowries in Sinsani, these figures are not far off.

¹²² Refigured from Jaime, , Koulikoro, 221–6.Google Scholar

¹²³ Jaime, , Koulikoro, 223Google Scholar; Soleillet, , Voyage, 308.Google Scholar

¹²⁴ Gallieni, , Voyage, 80–1Google Scholar; Soleillet, , ‘Rapport 1, Voyage de Paul Soleillet’, 15 October 1878Google Scholar, Segu-Sikoro, ASAOF 1 G 46, notes that ‘one hundred‘ equals eighty, ’two hundred’ equals one hundred and sixty, yet ninety-nine equals ninety-nine. See also Johnson, , ‘Cowrie Currencies’, i, 38–40.Google Scholar

¹²⁵ Interview with Sisé, Mulaye (session 3), 8 March 1977Google Scholar, Sinsani. It is not clear whether these figures were for one way or for the round trip.

¹²⁶ Jaime, , Koulikoro, 199, 206Google Scholar, As early as 1828 Caillié noted that large freight canoes often formed convoys at Sa to avoid the danger of pillage in the area. Caillié, , Journal, ii, 266.Google Scholar

¹²⁷ I have discussed the operation of the Bamako grain market in ‘The emergence of a grain market in Bamako, 1883–1908’Google Scholar, Canadian J. of Afr. Studies, forthcoming.

¹²⁸ Lenfant, Eugène, Le Niger, voie ouvert à nôtre empire African (Paris, 1903), 211.Google Scholar