THE TRANS-SAHARAN TRADE

The Origins of the Trans-Saharan Trade

Long distance trade across the Saharan had gone on for many centuries before the introduction of the
camel. Originally desert-dwellers sold Saharan salt in exchange for food grown by people living to north
or south of the desert. The earliest trade goods were probably carried strapped on the backs of cattle,
known as pack-oxen. Evidence for this is found in the Saharan rock paintings. Cattle acclimated to desert
conditions could travel several days without water as they moved from the grazing and water of one oasis
to another.

One should not, however, gain the impression that trade across the desert was anything other than small-
scale and sporadic before the introduction of the camel. Pack-oxen continued to be used by some traders
besides donkeys and horses. But with each of these animals the distance they could move without rest and
water was severely limited. Travel across the desert remained a risky business and most trade was passed
through the hands of several groups of desert dwellers before it reached its final destination. Small
amounts of gold dust and red precious stones known as carbuncles filtered northwards across the desert to
Roman North Africa. But the Romans did little to stimulate any regular or direct trade right across the
Sahara. Until about 300 AD most of the Roman imports of African ivory, ostrich feathers and furs came
from animals still to be found on the northern side of the desert. Trans-Saharan trade was mostly a local
affair; its main stimulus was still desert salt in exchange for food.

The Camel and the Expansion of Trans-Saharan Trade

During the third and fourth centuries AD the camel spread among most of the Berber nomads of the
northern Sahara. By the fifth century it had become the major form of transport in the desert. The
introduction of camel could be said to have revolutionised the scope and scale of Trans-Saharan Trade. It
had a number of distinct advantages over other transport animals.

Though a single camel could not carry much more in weight than a good pack-oxen, the camel
maintained a steady pace over much longer distances. A fully-laden camel, carrying about 130 kilos,
could maintain a steady regular pace of about 25 to 30 kilometres a day. The fat stored in its hump and
water stored in its gut enabled it to travel up to ten days without fresh water – twice the time and distance
of most pack-oxen and horses. It could withstand both the daytime heat and the night time cold of the
desert. And with its large splayed feet it could negotiate the soft sandy conditions often found away from
the desert tracks.
With the camel, desert nomads could reach more distant oases and so open up whole new routes across
the Sahara. Though never without risks, desert travel became more reliable. For the first time it was
possible for experienced desert travellers to seriously consider conducting large scale and regular, long-
distance trading caravans right across the Sahara.

Desert transport itself remained largely in the hands of Berber nomads. The principal Berber groups
involved were the Sanhaja in the west and the Tuareg in the central and southern Sahara. The latter were
distinguished from the northern, Zenata Berbers by their custom of wearing a veil to cover the lower part
of the face. The precise origin of the veil remains unclear, but presumable it offered protection from
desert winds and sandstorms.

Though the Saharan Berbers engaged in long-distance trade, it was seldom at this stage a full-time
occupation. They remained primarily nomadic pastoralists. At the Saharan oases they harvested date
palms and grazed their flocks of sheep and goats, camels and occasional cattle. Wealthy nomads also kept
horses. These were a sign of status and were particularly useful in warfare. In the hottest driest season of
the year, desert nomads moved their flocks and herds to the better grazing of the Maghrib in the north or
the Sahel to the south. This brought them into contact, and sometimes conflict with more settled
agricultural populations. (The Sahel is that region of Savannah grassland immediately to the south of the
desert proper. The word comes from the Arabic sahil meaning ‘shore’. The Arabs looked on the Sahara
desert as an ocean, the sahil marking the boundary of that ocean of sand with habitable grasslands
beyond).

Though the Sahara itself was mainly Barber territory, small groups of black Negroid peoples lived at
some of the central Saharan oases. They harvested dates and dug salt to exchange for food, but they were
often kept in a subordinate position by the Berber nomads who dominated most of the oases. One of the
principal salt mines of the desert was Taghaza in the centre of the Western Sahara. These salt deposits
were so thick that it was dug out in slabs which were then strapped to pack animals. With the expansion
of trade in later centuries the houses and mosques of Taghaza were even built out of blocks of salt and
roofed with camel skins.

Historically the West African Sahel is sometimes referred to as the Western Sudan and its black Negroid
inhabitants as Sudanese. The name comes from al-Sudan, the Arabic word for the black people of
Tropical Africa.
As the camel revolutionised desert transport, the products of Sub-Saharan Africa became more readily
available to the Mediterranean world. The trade in West African gold began to expand. At the same time
the wild game animals of northern Africa were finally wiped out by over-hunting. This led to an
increasing demand for Ivory, ostrich feathers and furs from the Sub-Saharan Savannah. With all this
expansion in cross desert traffic a number of important trading settlements developed north and south of
the Sahara. Here goods were exchanged and camel caravans off-loaded and re-loaded for transport across
the desert. Though the caravan traffic remained in the hands of desert nomads, the actual demand and
exchange of goods was largely controlled by the peoples of the settled societies to their north and south.

The Articles of the Trade

Throughout history, no nation has ever been entirely self-sufficient. There are products which are
accessible or can be produced in one country in large quantities, but for natural or other reasons, cannot
be easily obtained in another country. Trade helped one country to sell its surplus goods to another, in
return for goods which that country cannot easily obtain otherwise. A number of trade items were
exchanged on the Trans-Saharan trade.

Articles of the Western Sudan

The countries of the Western Sudan possessed a number of articles in abundance, which merchants from
beyond the Sahara needed. Some of these were the following;

1. Gold - Gold from the Western Sudan was highly valued by merchants from the north since it was
then, as now, regarded as a very precious metal. These merchants re-sold much of it to other merchants
across the Mediterranean and in what we call today the Middle East.

2. Ivory – People have always valued ivory as an exotic carving material. Both the Savannah and
the forest regions of Western Africa were inhabited by elephants. Middlemen from these areas could
therefore supply large quantities of ivory to the merchants from the north in the Sudanese markets.

3. Ostrich Feathers – Kings and noblemen in Northern Africa, Europe and the Middle East prized
ostrich feathers. They used them not only for personal ornamentation, but also to decorate rooms, and to
make gorgeous umbrellas.
4. Iron – The iron industry in the Western Sudan also provided ironware and weapons for the
markets.

Article from the Forest Region

Commodities reaching the Sudanese markets from the forest lands in the south included the following:

1. Kola-nuts – Kola nuts were, as they are today, very valuable articles of trade in the Sudan,
because people living in the thirsty deserts and semi-deserts need them for refreshment. But kola trees do
not grow in the Savannah; they are forest trees. Kola nuts were, therefore, a commodity for which there
was a good demand in the Western Sudan. In consequence, traders from the forest regions, to the south,
profited by supplying kola nuts to the markets of the Western Sudan.

2. Slaves – From ancient times slaves were bought at the Sudanese markets. Many of them
probably came from the forest areas, though some were obtained locally. The slaves were taken to North
Africa and beyond to Europe and the Middle East, to serve as domestic servants and as labourers.

3. Gum – Another product which was supplied by the forest regions was gum.

Articles from the North

Some of the articles which merchant brought from the North to the Sudanese markets were as follows:

1. Salt - The people of Western Sudan and the regions further south needed salt and other spices;
these were not obtainable locally. Fortunately salt was mined in large quantities in areas not too far away.
Chief among these places were Taghaza, to the north and Bilma, to the east of the savannah belt. So
valuable was salt in the Western Sudan that according to one Arab writer, at one stage, salt was worth its
weight in gold.

2. Crops – Among fruits which the northern merchants sold in the Western Sudan were dried figs
and dates.

3. Shells and Cowries - These were obtained from the coast of the Indian Ocean. As the Trans–
Saharan trade increased in volume, cowries began to be used as currency for commercial transactions.
Other shells were bought for decoration.
4. Perfumes and Beads – Sweet perfumes were brought down to the Sudan mainly from Arabia.
Precious beads from northern Africa and across the Mediterranean were also prized by women in Western
Africa.

5. Leather Work – Some of the hides merchants purchased in the Sudan were sent to northern
Africa. Moroccans specialized in leather work, which they re-exported to the Sudanese markets.

6. Cloth – This included cotton prints, silk, linen and wool.

7. Horses and Camels – Camels were greatly valued as beasts of burden. Kings and emperors built
up strong cavalry units with special breeds of horses which they obtained from the northern merchants.
Horses were also used for ceremonial purposes, and for travelling.

8. Metal good – Copper and other metal products from the north were also sold in the Western
Sudanese markets.

9. Books – When Islam took root in the Western Sudan, and Muslim education spread, Arabic
books especially the Koran, were in great demand. Leo Afrikanus wrote that ‘books are sold for money
than (other) merchandise’.

Conduct of the Trade

The Trans-Saharan trade was conducted through the following trade routes using below methods of
exchange.

Routes and Centres of Trade

From the accounts sometimes, one gets the impression that the Sahara has always been impassable. The
truth is that, as researches have shown, the Sahara was never a barrier but rather a stepping stone for trade
between the peoples on both sides of the desert. From the tenth century AD onwards, and even earlier,
there were several well-trodden caravan routes from northern Africa to the Western Sudanese trading
cites. These routes had stopping posts usually at the desert oases.

The most westerly route started at Algiers and continued to Fez, then to Marrakesh, down to Wadan in the
country of the Tekrur, and thence to the coastal regions of the Western Sudan in the Senegal area. Parallel
to this route was the next one from Ceuta to Fez, through Sijilmasa down to the rich salt mining cities of
Taghaza and Taodeni and on to Walata, Jenne and Timbuctu. From Tunis the third route passed through
Ghadames, Ghat, and the country of Air, down to Agades and Hausaland. Parallel to this, to the east, was
the fourth route from Tripoli to Marzuk in Fezzan, through Bilma and on the territories of Kanem and
Bornu in the lake Chad region. There was also another route from Cairo to Marzuk linking the Tripoli and
Tunis routes. The sixth route branched off the Cairo – Marzuk route at Aujila, continued southwards to
Kufra, and down to the territory of Darfur, lying to the east of Kanem and Bornu.

How the Trade was conducted

At first, as we read in the chronicles, the trade in the Sudanese markets took the form of barter: goods
were exchanged for goods. Initially also it was in the form of silent barter. This practice seems to have
continued for some time until the traders began to understand each other’s languages and began to trust
each other. In due course currency of sorts was used. As was noted earlier, cowries became the chief
medium of exchange.

The Berbers of North Africa owned the capital necessary for the trade. They owned and organised the
caravans. They also planned the routes along which the caravans travelled. There were middlemen or
agents posted at settlements oases. It would seem that many transactions took place at these intermediary
trading posts. The people known as the Tuaregs played a very important role in the trade in the following
ways: they served as guides; they looked after the beasts of burden, whether camels or horses; some of
these animals carried the articles of trade, others were offered for sale; and they kept the wells along the
trade routes in good repair, and maintained the growth of the vegetation in the oases.

At the Sudanese trading centres the foreign merchants often depended upon middlemen; who purchased
goods for retail from the forest areas in the south. The kings regulated the trade by making rigid laws
regulating conduct of the trade. For example, the kings of Ghana made elaborate rules about the sale and
purchase if gold. Both import and export taxes were collected on goods coming into the country and
those going out. There was also a form of what, in modern times, are known as production taxes.

Even though there were well-known trade routes, the caravans often encountered difficulties. There were
highway men who were a threat to the travellers; there was the danger of meeting ferocious animals;
merchants often passed through the territories of unfriendly people where they were liable to be attacked;
though at the beginning of their long and hazardous journeys the merchants provided themselves with
quantities of food, and replenished their supplies at different stages of the journey. There were occasions
when they ran short of food and water for themselves and for their camels and horses. Despite these
dangers and hardships, the merchants persevered for centuries because of the immense profits which they
gained from the Trans-Saharan Trade.
Effects of the Trade

 As might be expected, the Trans-Saharan Trade made a great impact on Sudanese society.
Where goods were exchanged, in time, great cities such as Gao or Timbuctu, developed and this
resulted in urbanization.
 As a result of trade, new classes of wealthy people emerged ,hese people cut themselves off from
their old agricultural way of life where they had grown enough food for their own needs. In the
cities these people now formed a new class, depending upon the sale of their labour, and sales
from crafts. They could also obtain food from the local people. Farmers and people living near
the cities had the incentive to produce more than their own subsistence economy required. They
now produced enough to meet the demands of the urban dwellers. As a result, they became more
affluent, and rose above their traditional way of living.
 As a result of the extensive trade, cites became very prosperous. This meant that there was more
money available for people to buy locally produced foods and this encouraged local industry; and
the town dwellers had more leisure for arts and crafts, and also had the time to participate in the
affairs of government.
 Also as a result of the trade rulers became prosperous from the different taxes they could collect.
Al-Bakri tells us about the empire of Ghana, for example, where trade brought to the royal
treasury huge revenues gained through import and export duties. The king of Ghana placed a tax
of one dinar of gold on each donkey load of salt that came into the country. Al-Bakri adds that
the king also ‘places a tax of two dinars of gold on each load of salt that goes out of the territory.
As well as imposing taxes as a source of revenue, the kings were able to control the production of
gold in their empires. The huge revenue accruing to the kings helped them in many ways, among
which we may mention the following: they were able to provide amenities for the benefit of their
people; they were able to maintain impressive courts; they were able to support strong armies for
wars of expansions; and some like Mansa Musa and Askia the Great, could undertake fabulous
pilgrimages to the Holy city or Mecca.
 Some of the foreign merchants also settled permanently, increasing the population and wealth off
the states of the Western Sudan. The trade, therefore,
 Led to the spread of the Islamic religion and culture in Western Sudan.