Trans Saharan Trade

Trans Saharan Trade: Before the Romans came to North Africa, trade went across the Sahara between North Africa and the West African Sudan. The camel was the only animal suitable for regular, large-scale trade in the Sahara during the first few hundred years. When the Arabs took over North Africa in the seventh and eighth centuries, the trans-Saharan caravan trade grew. This was a big reason why there were governments south of the Sahara. 

Going north, the main goods were gold, slaves, spices, leather, and later ostrich feathers. Going south, the main goods were guns, horses, textiles, and paper. From the eighth century on, North African Arabic writers get more specific about kingdoms in the Western Sudan that were on the edges of the Sahel and Sahara: Takrur in the far west, on the Senegal; Ghana in the open Sahel farther east; and Gao on the Niger bend, which became the center of the Songhay empire. 

The Malinke people were reportedly building a kingdom further south on the upper Niger and its branches in the eleventh century. This kingdom was a likely ancestor of the Mali empire. Until the 1590s, these states were the foundation of the political and business powers in western Sudan (Curtin et al., 1984). 

Permanent towns in Saharan pastoral nomad areas were also very important, such as Aoudaghost in Mauritania, Tadamakkat-Es-Suk in Mali, and Takadda-Azelik in Niger. These places were important for trade, religious learning, and the arts. Islamic learning took place in places like Timbuktu, Jenne, Takedda, and Gazargamu from the 1400s to the 1600s. From these places, Islamic scholars rose to power as officials, scribes, envoys, and peacemakers.

Scholars and mystics who lived in the Mali Adrar and the Air Mountains built cells and monasteries there. Many of the Shaharans were descendants of Arab and Berber families who had lived in these areas for hundreds of years. One of them was Massufa Sahhaja. They regarded the Inessufa Icherifan as their ancestors. These people, who now live mostly around the town of In Gall in Niger, around Takadda (Azelik), and in Agadez itself, were in charge of the copper and salt complex of Takadda in the Middle Ages. 

In addition, they resided in Anu Samman, the “town of scholars,” whose ruins are located west of Agadez. Before Agadez gained fame, Takadda established itself as a hub for commerce and the teaching of Islamic studies (Norris 1990). Political groups, sometimes at odds with each other, could conduct business thanks to the infrastructure of these settled centers and the setup of the caravan trade.

At the edge of the desert, trans-Saharan trade came together. A state that didn’t move around much and was close to the desert would want to control the desert ports and as much of the border between the desert and the grassland as possible. Because there were only a few buyers and sellers, there was no need to set a market price when trading gold for salt.

The few salt sources in the Sahara made it easy to control who got the salt. In the same way, one state could rule all of gold, but no country south of the Sahara has ever taken over the three main gold fields in West Africa. The people who lived in the oases and across the Sahara gained from this trade by setting up markets there or by getting tolls and protection money from foreign traders. 

The group controlling the trade route could also exert control over the local population, thereby converting these profits into political wealth. Farmers could use the money to cultivate crops in areas near deserts. In local and regional trade, salt has been the most important good. People in the south have traded salt for rice or other foods.

The deserts of Mauritania and Mali, the Saharan Tenere in eastern Niger near Fachi, and the Kawar region at Bilma all contain significant amounts of it. The first known rock salt mine was in Idjil, which is now Mauritania. From the 10th century to the 15th, workers dug up the reserves. 

During the 1400s, Taghaza, which is now Mali, was also fully operational. Taodeni (Taghaza al Ghizlan) replaced Taghaza after its destruction in the 1600s. By the mid-1900s, it was still making several thousand tons of salt every year. 

The Tuareg participated in the salt trade, and they used the money they made from selling salt and dates to buy things like indigo cloth, spices, household items, and tools. Large yearly caravans of several thousand camels each brought salt and dates to markets in cities on the Sahel’s edge. 

Tuareg traders made most of the money from the salt trade, though, compared to other trans-Saharan trades. At first, there were three trans-Saharan travel routes used for this trade. Over time, only two routes remained important: the route east to Bilma and the route to Fachi for salt and dates. In October or November, men from the Air region go on leave. They trade millet for salt and dates in that place, then go back to the air for a short time before going south to Kano to trade millet, salt, and dates there. 

Five to seven months out of the year, caravanners stay in the Hausa Southlands and bring back millet, tools, pots, cloth, spices, and other things. They used camel pastures to the west to feed them before they left.

One camel carried three sacks of millet from Hausaland. When trucks started crossing the Sahara, they didn’t replace camel caravans, but they did make them less important because one truck can carry as much as twenty camels’ loads. There are camel caravanners who go themselves, as well as those who send family members or former slaves who are still working for the caravanner’s family. 

If a caravanner takes one camel, he gets to keep half a sack of millet. If he takes six camels, for example, he gets to keep three sacks, while the owner who sent him gets fifteen sacks, and so on. Nobles used to bring back one sack of millet for each family of a smith or craft client. 

Before, slaves went with the caravans to cook and take care of the horses. Tuareg noble women haven’t usually gone on caravan trade trips; in the past, only slave women went to cook and gather firewood. However, women can be indirectly involved in the caravan trade by sending camels with male relatives (Rasmussen 1998). 

The trans-Saharan trade mostly involved Tuareg people as guides, messengers, and hired security guards. They also held control over a significant amount of desert-edge goods intended for export across the Sahara. In the 1870s, Sudan’s exports of ostrich feathers grew quickly. They dropped again in the 1880s, but by the 1890s, they made up about half of the country’s total export value. 

North Africans who lived outside of North Africa, mostly from Ghadames, provided most of the money for the feather trade. There weren’t many nomads with the money to spend directly on trans-Saharan trade. Instead, camel owners received payment for each load they transported, allowing North Africans to manage the logistics due to their greater market knowledge and financial connections.

Trade was what kept the Mali and Songhay countries going. The discovery of trade routes in new areas, particularly in the Americas, led to a decrease in both the volume and value of trade. For instance, traders could buy and sell gold across the Atlantic. Ships could sail to the coast of West Africa and back to Europe by the middle of the 1400s, thanks to the development of the lateen sail and the stern-post rudder. 

People who wanted to trade with West Africans no longer had to cross the desert. As a result, long-distance trade moved away from the Sahel and toward the ports of Africa.

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The Great Empires

Great Empires: In the southwestern part of Zimbabwe, there were two strong states from the late 1400s to the early 1800s. The area is mostly farmland and borders the Kalahari Desert. Archaeology reveals that it was once home to people from the Toutswe State period (around 900–1200). 

The Leopard’s Kopje culture, associated with the towns of Mapela and Mapungubwe in the Limpopo Valley and Ntabazingwe near Bulawayo, defines the native people. Portuguese records from the 1600s and 1700s likely refer to this area as the Guruuswa (“tall grass”), also known as Butua.

Cow ranching, an ancient economic practice dating back over 400 years, currently occupies this land. Traditional drought-resistant crops like millet and sorghum can only grow in areas where there is little rain and frequent droughts. Besides these, there are also horses that eat mopane leaves during the dry seasons. 

According to Portuguese records, there is a rich gold belt, but the kings’ wealth and power came from their cattle. It was easy to take care of cattle, they grew quickly, and they could be traded for other things. Rulers used cattle to protect themselves in case crops failed and to express gratitude to the army, miners, metal workers, and traders.

Khami served as the capital of the first of these states, Torwa, which existed from around 1450 to 1660. Changamire Dombo (d. 1695) founded the Rozvi State, which took its place (between 1680 and 1830). Rebels or outsiders (vatorwa) from the Mutapa state are believed to have started the Torwa state in the second half of the 1500s.

A family known as the Torwa split off and established themselves in Guruuswa, located on the southwestern edge of the state, around 1494. It is linked to the Torwa, and there was a rebellion in Mutapa State from 1490 to 1547. From 1547 onwards, they remained silent until a civil war destroyed their city in the middle of the 1600s.

In the early 1640s, there was a political dispute in the area that the Torwa controlled. During a power battle, one of the Torwa rulers lost and had to leave. The Portuguese sent a small army under the leadership of Sismundo Dias Bayao to help end the fighting. This event has something to do with Khami’s fall. The center moved about 150 kilometers to the east, and the Torwa ruled there until the early 1680s. 

In reaction to the growing threat of Portuguese traders and people holding prazos from the northeast, the military changed a lot between the 1640s and 1680s. People were worried about how shaky the government was in Mutapa State and how many more Portuguese were on the Zimbabwe Plateau. In 1684, the Dombo Changamire-led Karanga took control from the Torwa family.

The group was known as the Rozvi. Dombo Changamire started a strong state that had an impact on places like Mukaranga, Mbire, and Manyika, which were once part of the Mutapa State. Not much is known about Dombo Changamire, but history sources say he was related to one of the Torwa leaders and became a politician by getting rich from cattle. 

His name is also tied to Mutapa State, where Portuguese records say he worked as a herder for the king. Stories about him say that he had special powers, like the ability to make it rain. He was also known for his other magical abilities and bravery. 

The Portuguese thought he was a wizard, most likely because of how well he did in battle. He appears to have made his army so strong that it defeated the Portuguese and drove them off the Zimbabwe Plateau in the 1680s. 

Archeological methods have found stone buildings from at least the 1400s in the southwest of Zimbabwe. These buildings feature protective walls composed of well-shaped rectangular blocks, topped by platforms supporting circular houses.

There are many checkered, herringbone, dentelle, and other linear designs on the walls. Khami, near Bulawayo, is where most of the people live. In the area that the Torwa used to rule, there are stone houses of different sizes. The Rozvi continued to build with stone and made pottery with bands, panels, and incised designs in various colors. 

Their main city was Danangombe, and Naletale, Zinjanja, and Manyanga were also important towns. This similarity in culture between Torwa and Rozvi makes it seem like they were the same person. The southwest’s stone building design shows how the culture that used to be based in Great Zimbabwe grew. 

After Dombo Changamire died, there were disagreements about who should take over as king. These arguments weakened the power of the state. A lot of Rozvi people moved to new places, and some of them set up chiefdoms where they lived. One of Dombo Changamire’s sons went to Hwange in the northwest and set up a government with the Nambya and the Tonga. 

Another son crossed the Limpopo River and took over the Venda’s land, establishing a city called Dzata in the Zoutpansberg. Around 1730, Dutch traders who lived in Delagoa Bay talked about Thovhela State. The Zimbabwean culture system has been found in both the Nambya and the Venda, which shows that the culture is still alive and growing. 

The Torwa-Rozvi ruled in southwest Zimbabwe for almost 400 years. The number of Rozvi people decreased when the Mfecane groups from the south of Limpopo arrived. Direct attacks from the Sotho and Nguni, along with the later Ndebele settlement, wiped out the Rozvi in the 1850s.

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Nubian Kingdoms

Nubian kingdoms: When the Kushite state fell apart in the fourth century CE, the Nubians took over as new rulers. They divided into three states by the sixth century: ‘Alwa, Nobadia, and Makurra. Faras, the capital of Nobadia, had been a significant city for thousands of years. This was different from Soba (Soba East) and Dongola (now called Old Dongola to differentiate it from the current city 120 kilometers to the north), which were the capitals of ‘Alwa and Makurra. 

At Dongola, a bark stand with the name Taharqo (690–664 BCE) was discovered. At Soba, researchers discovered a granite statue base, a capital featuring the head of Hathor, and two criosphinxes, one adorned with Meroitic hieroglyphs. However, it looks like the foundations of both of these towns are relatively new and don’t go back to the early days of the Nubian kingdoms. 

The first building to prove that people lived in Dongola is the huge defense wall that was built on the hill with a view of the Nile. Pottery found nearby indicates that this wall dates to the early sixth century. We can date the remains of round wooden huts from around the same time at Soba.

Since neither site has pottery or other ancient artifacts, we must assume that the Kushite monumental sculptures and inscribed blocks originated elsewhere. Dongola is well-positioned to defend itself because it has a great view of the Nile and can easily control river traffic. It’s also where trade lines from Darfur in the west and Kordofan in the southwest meet the Nile.

An ancient Nile route forms a fertile basin known as Letti, directly next to the town to the north. Determining the reason behind the selection of Soba is a challenging task. It is located on the right side of the Blue Nile, 22 kilometers upstream from where the Blue and White Niles meet in what is now Khartoum. The plains around Soba don’t seem to favor this site over others nearby, and the Wadi Soba, which is right next to it, isn’t a big part of the scenery either. 

Wallace Budge said he found evidence of a defensive wall and gate when he dug on the site in 1903, but more research has not shown this to be true. Arab sources, which frequently discuss attacks on the town, and the extensive and ongoing excavations at the site, started in 1964 by the Polish Mediterranean Research Center, give a general idea of Dongola’s history.

On the other hand, Arab sources rarely mention Soba because it is much farther to the south. The excavations have also been much less extensive. The early inhabitants of Dongola likely prioritized defense, but by the late sixth century, they had constructed large buildings outside the walls in the plain to the north. When an Arab army attacked the town in 652 and burned at least one of these churches, it broke the false sense of security that this gave people.

But after the war was over, the town grew to the north and finally covered an area 2.8 kilometers long and 0.9 kilometers wide, though not all of it may have been densely populated. Churches and temples were the most important buildings in the town. The town and the kingdom it was the center of were very active, as shown by the large churches that were often torn down and rebuilt on a bigger and bigger scale. 

The throne hall of the kings is an impressive two-story building that is about 10 meters tall and dates from the height of its use in the Classic Christian period (85–1100). Other fine homes also date from this era. When Ibn Selim el Aswani went to ‘Alwa around 970, he said that it had “fine buildings and large monasteries, churches rich with gold, and gardens.” 

Within the town, Abu Salih wrote in the 1100s that there was “a very large and spacious church, skillfully planned and constructed. They dubbed it the Church of Manbali. In the 1980s, the British Institute in Eastern Africa dug up the remains of three of these churches. Two of them are about the same size and style as the best churches known to exist in Dongola. 

Both towns clearly shared similar art traditions, but it’s unclear whether one directly influenced the other or which was the more significant participant in this cultural exchange. Researchers have found five churches at Soba, as well as a big palace. The palace was probably the home of the archbishop of Soba, or the king, since it was so close to the three churches. David was king of ‘Alwa and possibly ruled from 99 to 1015. The building housed his marble tombstone.

In the early Middle Ages, when it covered 2.75 square kilometers, Soba seems to have been at its biggest. Later, it became less nucleated, but the population may have stayed the same. 
The fall of Dongola happened at the same time that Makurra became generally poor. This was because of constant attacks from the north that started in the late 1100s and destroyed many of the important buildings, possibly made worse by earthquake damage. In 1317, the throne hall underwent a transformation into a mosque, and the first Muslim ruler assumed the throne in 1323.

Before the end of that century, the city stopped being the capital of Makurra because the royal court moved to Derr, a town in the north. Our understanding of the disintegration of ‘Alwa and the destruction of Soba remains significantly limited.

However, excavations inside one of the main churches revealed that squatters had already occupied it in the 1100s, stealing valuable Christian graves at that time. David Reubeni, a tourist, went through the town in 1523. He reported that the people lived in simple huts, with the nice buildings long gone.

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