Effects of Trade on West African Society
The steady growth of trans-Saharan trade had three important effects on West African society. First, trade stimulated gold mining. Parts of modern-day Senegal, Nigeria, and Ghana contained rich veins of gold, and scholars estimate that by the eleventh century nine tons of gold were exported to the Mediterranean coast and Europe annually. Some of this metal went to Egypt. From there it was transported down the Red Sea and eventually to India (see Map 9.2) to pay for the spices and silks demanded by Mediterranean commerce. In this way, African gold linked the entire world, exclusive of the Western Hemisphere.
| Years |
Annual Average of Slaves Traded |
Total |
| 650–800 |
1,000 |
150,000 |
| 800–900 |
3,000 |
300,000 |
| 900–1100 |
8,700 |
1,740,000 |
| 1100–1400 |
5,500 |
1,650,000 |
| 1400–1500 |
4,300 |
430,000 |
Source: R. A. Austen, “The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade: A Tentative Census,” in The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, ed. H. A. Gemery and J. S. Hogendorn (New York: Academic Press, 1979). Used with permission. |
Table 10.2: TABLE 10.1 Estimated Magnitude of Trans-Saharan Slave Trade, 650–1500
Second, trade in gold and other goods created a desire for slaves. Slaves were West Africa’s second-most valuable export (after gold). Slaves worked the gold and salt mines, and in Muslim North Africa, southern Europe, and southwestern Asia there was a high demand for household slaves among the elite. African slaves, like their early European and Asian counterparts, seem to have been peoples captured in war. Recent research suggests, moreover, that large numbers of black slaves were also recruited for Muslim military service through the trans-Saharan trade. Table 10.1 shows the scope of the trans-Saharan slave trade. The total number of blacks enslaved over an 850-year period may be tentatively estimated at more than 4 million.3
Major Effects of Trade on West African Society:
- Stimulation of gold mining
- Increased demand for slaves
- Development of urban centers
The third important effect of trans-Saharan trade on West African society was its role in stimulating the development of urban centers. Scholars date the growth of African cities from around the early ninth century. Families that had profited from trade tended to congregate in the border zones between the savanna and the Sahara. They acted as middlemen between the miners to the south and the Muslim merchants from the north. By the early thirteenth century these families had become powerful merchant dynasties. Muslim traders from the Mediterranean settled permanently in the trading depots, from which they organized the trans-Saharan caravans. The concentration of people stimulated agriculture and the craft industries. Gradually cities of sizable population emerged, including Jenne, Gao, and Timbuktu, Sijilmasa, and Koumbi Saleh. Between 1100 and 1400 these cities played a dynamic role in West Africa’s commercial life and became centers of intellectual creativity.