From the Golden Route to the Gold Coast: Civilizational Exchange Turns Colonial Plunder
Salt shipments from the Sahara were once one of the most important traded items in West Africa.
This salt can flow south and can also be exchanged for other goods such as ivory, leather, copper, iron, and grain. The most common exchange was salt for gold dust from mines in southern West Africa.
The Sahara Desert is an important natural resource for rock salts. These resources may come from the bottom of ancient lakes or from shallower mines, all natural products of rock salts.
The exact time when salt appeared as a commodity is not clear. However, people began to exchange salt for food as early as ancient times.
Relatively durable but bulky salt plates were loaded onto camels, each carrying two pieces of salt weighing 90 kg (200 lb).
A caravan of camels, which at its peak ranged from 500 to thousands. The practice dates back to the 3rd century, and even earlier, they had crossed Western Sahara.
It did not begin to appear until the 9th-12th centuries. Once the caravan arrived at the commercial center or large settlement of the Sudan, they would exchange salt for commodities and bring them back across the desert on the way back.
Goods generally include gold, leather, hides, ivory, etc. The salt can be used in the communities surrounding the trade center, while also being transported by boat along rivers such as the Niger, Senegal and their tributaries.
Salt is a precious daily commodity, not only because it is difficult for people in southern Sahara to obtain, but more importantly, due to the continuous consumption of salt, the supply has never been able to meet the overall demand.
In addition, the salt is too large and even more expensive if it is to be transported on a large scale.
As a result, salt was often exchanged for gold dust, and in remote places, a pound of salt could be exchanged for commodities.
In some rural areas, table salt was used as currency, and the kings of Ghana filled their magnificent royal treasury by putting table salt and gold together.
According to an anonymous Arab traveler in the 10th century, there were many transactions between salt and gold merchants, one of which was a secret form of trading known as the "silent transaction", in which the two parties did not actually meet face to face.
Ghana is home to Sudanese who draw a dividing line that no one can cross. When merchants arrived at the border, they threw their goods and cloth on the ground and left. Therefore, the sultans would come with gold, leave it next to the commodity and leave.
The owners of these items will come back again and can take them if they are happy with the items they find. If they are not satisfied, they will leave again, and the sultans will return and raise the price until the deal is completed.
Even table salt was a lucrative source of wealth for the ruler. 90kg of salt flakes travel down the river from Timbuktu to Jayne in the south, and its value will be doubled.
Jeni is the largest market for Muslim trading. There, salt merchants from the Taghaza mine met vendors carrying more gold than dudu.
With such a prosperous town, caravans would march towards Timbuktu from all directions. To this day, the salt trade continues.
bibliography
1.de Villiers, M. Timbuktu. Walker Press, 2007.
2. Fage, JD (edit). Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
3. Green, T. Golden Companion. Rosendale Publishing Ltd., 1992.
