4 - European Contact with West Africa

European sailors first reached sub-Saharan Africa in 1442, when Portuguese ships reached
the Senegal river. The Portuguese had been sailing the coasts of Morocco and Western
Sahara since 1413, when they captured the Moroccan city of Ceuta [still a Spanish city
today]. Between 1413 and the 1440s, the Portuguese established several fortified
settlements along the Moroccan coast, especially at Arzila, Mogador (now Essaouira), Safi,
and Tangier; they retained a strong presence in Morocco until 1578, when the Portuguese
King Sebastião I and much of the Portuguese nobility were killed at the Battle of Alcácer-
Quibir. By 1471, West African leaders between the coasts of Senegal and Ghana had
established commercial and diplomatic connections with Portuguese traders [major early
sites of trade and settlement were on the Gambia river, Bugendo on the São Domingos river
in Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone].

For the next 150 years, West African rulers and traders came across the Portuguese more
than any other European nation. [There were also smaller trading missions led by the
English and the French, but these were less frequent]. In the beginning, the Portuguese
main motivations were: 1, an interest in the extensive gold production of Bono-Mansu and
the Akan states; 2, competition with the Ottoman Empire to access this gold [the Ottomans
had captured Constantinople in 1453, prompting a crisis in Christian Europe]; 3, the desire
to find a trade route to markets in India around the Cape of Good Hope; 4, ever increasingly,
the trade in enslaved persons.

By the 1590s, the Dutch began to rival the Portuguese as the major European trading nation
in Africa. Their ships were bigger and better, and the goods they traded with African political
leaders were of much higher quality. The Dutch had captured many of the main Portuguese
trading stations in West Africa by 1650, especially at Gorée in Senegal (in 1621), at Elmina in
Ghana (in 1637), and at Luanda in Angola (in 1641). Initially the Dutch were mainly
interested in textiles, animal hides [for the leather industry], and ivory, but by the middle of
the 17th century they too turned to slave trading. The Dutch interest in slave trading dates to
the 1620s and the capture of half of the Brazilian colonies from the Portuguese. From 1630
to 1654 the Dutch controlled the northern part of Brazil, and the associated sugar
plantations which used the labour of enslaved persons; their growing colonial interests
drove their interest in slave trading, which took over in the second half of the 18th century.

In the second half of the 17th century, other European nations would follow this pattern.
Danish, English, French, German, and Swedish traders established factories at various points
in West Africa, and this pattern of African-European trade and interaction deepened.

This chapter looks especially at the early period of African-European interaction, to 1650,
before the trade in enslaved persons came to predominate in trade. The chapter on the
trans-Atlantic slave trade then looks at that historical aspect in more detail.

I: Immediate Causes of Portuguese Sailings to Africa

Europe in the 14th century was in a bad way. It is estimated that the spread of Plague
between 1346 and 1353 led to the deaths of between 30 and 50% of the European
population. Some archaeologists also believe that this Plague had an impact in West African
populations [the evidence for this remains challenged, but it is an interesting hypothesis;
the archaeologist Gérard Chouin has been the strongest proponent of this idea].

With the population collapse, European nations such as Portugal faced many problems.
Their workforce had more than halved, which meant that much farming land was taken over
by forests and plants. Interestingly, one of the first sources available on the West African
presence in Portugal, from the Portuguese Cortes or parliament at Évora in 1471, says that
African labourers were vital for clearing wastelands in the country: this suggests a strong
labour shortage in Europe after the Plague, and the role of African labour in addressing this.
Many of the nobles had lost their labourers [known as serfs], and civil wars resulted in
Portugal in the 1380s. There was both a shortage of wheat to make bread, and very high
inflation of the Portuguese currency [known as the escudo]. Both of these factors prompted
the Portuguese interest in Morocco, since, 1, Morocco was a fertile country and a grower of
wheat; and 2, the Portuguese hoped that through sailing along the coast of West Africa,
they might find access to West African gold supplies and protect their currency.

By contrast to the situation in Europe, many states in West Africa in the 15th century were in
a process of expansion and growth. Mossi was established in the 15th century in Burkina
Faso, Kano became a major power, and Songhay rose to usurp the power of the Mali
Empire. Much of this growth came with increased gold production in the Akan states of
Ghana. So much gold was produced that the trans-Saharan trade did not bring enough
goods to exchange at Kano, and many gold traders left empty-handed [this is according to
the early 16th-century Muslim traveller from southern Spain known generally as Leo
Africanus].

The Portuguese were aware of this growth through a number of channels. The Catalan Atlas
of c.1375 was a map drawn by a Majorcan Jew called Abraham Cresques, which showed the
power of Mali and its gold production in detail.
 Catalan Atlas, by Cresques Abraham, Wikicommons; Mansa Musa at bottom - Unknown,
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=670189

The Atlas showed good trade connections between Spain and West Africa via the Sahara,
often undertaken by Jewish traders. These traders spread news about West Africa in Spain
and Portugal. There were Jewish communities in Saharan settlements such as Tuat, and
after riots against Spanish Jews in 1391 more settled in Morocco and worked in the carpet
and textile trade to and from the Mali Empire.

Knowing something of the conditions in Africa, therefore, Portuguese leaders were keen to
make connections with West African gold producers [Portugal also had a large Jewish
population]. They also hoped to meet with a Christian King who they called Prester John,
and who they believed lived somewhere in Africa. They wanted a Christian alliance against
the Islamic Ottoman Empire, which was growing in power; and to divert some of the gold
supply. Prester John probably referred to the Christian King of Ethiopia, but this was not
known at the time.

All of these factors shaped the Portuguese voyages to West Africa, and their arrival at the
Senegal river in 1442.

II: Portuguese voyages: key dates, patterns, and timelines

After reaching the Senegal river in 1442, the Portuguese voyages continued. By 1448, some
of their people had sailed up the Gambia river as far as the major trading town of Kantora,
not far east of what is today Basse Santa Su [in the far east of the country; Kantora was then
a major centre for the trans-Saharan trade]. By the mid-1450s, there was trade with the
Wolof state of Kajoor on the coast, and the Bijagós Islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau
had entered discussions with European traders. The initial language of communication was
probably Arabic: Arabic speakers were many in Portugal in the 15th century, where Granada
was still as Islamic kingdom in Spain, and of course was widely spoken in many parts of West
Africa. One sailor described in 1456 how the Bijagós was the last place where the African
peoples shared a language with the Portuguese sailors, and so this was also probably the
southernmost extent of Arab and Trans-Saharan trade at that time. The Cape Verde Islands
were first reached probably in 1456 [a lively discussion exists among Capeverdean historians
as to whether there was already a population; archaeological evidence is inconclusive, but
the islands may have been a salt depot for Saharan states], and the coastline of Ghana
followed in around 1471.

The coastline of Ghana was different because it was so close to the gold mines of the Akan
forests. Soon Akan traders sold gold informally to the Portuguese. The Portuguese state
wanted its share, and so the Portuguese sent a large fleet in 1481 and negotiated with
Kwamena Ansa, ruler at Edina [now called Elmina], to build a fortress. When the
negotiations were concluded [after a highly tense stand-off, which began when the
Portuguese tried to build their fort at the site of a holy shrine], the fortress at Elmina was
built, and still remains on what became known as the Gold Coast. It would later change
hands and become a Dutch fortress in the 17th century; and in time the Dutch and English
would be the main European nations trading in Ghana.

Because there was so much commerce on the Gold Coast, many different Akan rulers were
keen to expand their trading connections. The Portuguese built forts in other locations along
the Gold Coast, such as Axim and Komenda, many of which were completed by 1500. In
time there would be many more forts, almost every few miles along the Gold Coast; some
would be specialists in the gold trade, and others, such as Anishan, in exporting the corn
which was also in high demand from European ships. It would not be until the 18th century
that the slave trade would come to predominate on the Gold Coast.

Meantime, other rulers from West and West-Central Africa were making contact with the
Portuguese. Oba Ozolua of Benin received Portuguese visitors in 1485, and the Atlantic
trading post of Gwatón was founded around 1490. Benin initially sold malaguetta peppers
to the Portuguese, but after the sea route to India was established in 1499, Benin’s peppers
became less in demand in Europe. The Portuguese tried to establish a trade in enslaved
persons from Benin to the gold suppliers in Elmina, but the Oba refused. Over the 16th
century, Benin’s relations with the Portuguese declined, until in the early 17th century the
Obas renewed links with European traders given the Dutch demand for the cloth produced
in Benin. Throughout the 17th century cloth remained the main export of Benin, and the
ambassy cloths were traded regularly to Elmina, and as far afield as Brazil. However demand
fell in the late 17th century, as imports of luxury cloths from India grew. This meant that by
the 18th century Benin’s Obas had finally to turn to the trade in enslaved persons to
preserve and renew the power of Edo and the Benin state.

The Portuguese continued to voyage south after Benin, reaching the mouth of the Kongo
river and establishing relations with the manikongo at Mbanza Kongo [the capital of Kongo],
Nzika Nkuwu. The island of São Tomé was settled by 1485, and many BaKongo peoples were
taken there as enslaved persons to work on the sugar plantations. In 1491, Nzika Nkuwu
converted to Christianity and took the name Joao I. This led also to connections between
Kongo and Elmina through São Tomé, which traded with both. Indeed, by the 1510s, traders
from Benin were mentioned as present at the Kongolese port of Mpinda in a letter written
in Portuguese by the new manikongo Afonso I (1509-46).

By the 1510s, therefore, many different peoples of West Africa and their rulers had
established connections with the Portuguese. Some, such as those at Benin and Elmina had
connections further south, to Kongo. African rulers hoped to expand their trading contacts;
and at times to obtain military support against rivals, as was the case with both Benin (who
fought a major battle with Portuguese support against Nupe, in 1516) and in civil wars in
Jolof and Kongo.

III: Exchanges of ambassadors

Diplomacy and royal exchanges characterised the first decades of West African relationships
with Portugal. It was common for princes of Benin, Jolof and Kongo to spend time studying
in Portugal, or to be sent by their royal elders as ambassadors to the Portuguese court. This
continued into the 17th century, when Kongo sent ambassadors to the Dutch colonial court
in Brazil, to the home of the Catholic Church at the Vatican, as well as to Portugal. In the
1650s, Allada also sent ambassadors to the Spanish court. This pattern continued later,
when Dahomey sent ambassadors 5 times to the Portuguese in Brazil and Portugal between
1755 and the 1810s. Indeed, when Brazil declared independence from Portugal in 1811, it
was Dahomey which was the first state to recognise its independence.

The Portuguese also saw these relationships as diplomatic. Under the reign of João II (1481-
95), the Portuguese sent ambassadors to many royal courts in Africa: to Benin, Kongo, and
to the court of the Mandimansa, the emperor of Mali [one envoy was sent as far as
Timbuktu, but it is not certain that he arrived]. Letters sent by the Portuguese kings to West
African rulers conceived of them as fellow monarchs. In both Africa and Portugal, kingship
was a divine gift, creating some commonality.

Fortunately some portraits survive of these ambassadors. The most important were painted
in Brazil by a Dutch artist [probably Jasper Beckx], and were of Dom Miguel de Castro.
Miguel de Castro was the ambassador of the court of the manikongo, Garcia II Ncana a
Luquini nzenze atumba, who sent him as an envoy to the Dutch court in Brazil, probably in
1643:
 Dom Miguel de Castro, by Jaspar Beckx, sometimes attributed to Albert Eckhout, public
domain

The aims of these embassies were quite varied. They can be broadly summarised in three
categories:

1) The quest for a military alliance. Two good examples can be given of this.

:- The first dates from 1488, when the Jolof prince Bumi Jeléen came to Portugal. He claimed
rightful possession of the throne of Jolof, but had been unseated by his brothers/rivals, and
had come to Portugal for assistance. He was received at court by João II, who sent a military
fleet to support Bumi Jeléen on his return to the Senegal river. However, Bumi Jeléen was
treacherously murdered by the leader of the fleet when they reached West Africa [this
individual, Pero Vaz de Cunha, claimed that he suspected Bumi Jeléen of betraying them].
This was an ignominious episode; many of the leaders of this plot against the Jolof prince
were put to death by João II, and the followers and relatives of Bumi Jeléen moved to the
Cape Verde islands [which by then were under Portuguese control].

:- The second relates to this expedition by Dom Miguel de Castro. In the 1640s, the Kingdom
of Kongo had allied with the Dutch against the Portuguese. The Dutch seized Luanda in
1641, and then Kongo armies fought against Portuguese troops stationed at their forts
[Ambaca and Massangano] in the interior of Angola. In this embassy, Dom Miguel de Castro
had been sent by the manikongo to discuss military strategy and how to throw the
Portuguese out for good from West-Central Africa. However this alliance was finally
defeated in 1648.

2) Interest in Christianity
Another factor in these embassies was the interest which some African peoples had in
Christianity. Princes from Benin studied in Portuguese missions, as did those from Kongo.
While the interest in Christianity waned in Benin, in Kongo it did not, and ambassadors were
sent to the Vatican repeatedly asking for more priests and missionaries, long into the 17th
century. In the 1670s, over a dozen members of the Ndongo royal family spent many years
studying in a variety of monasteries and convents in Portugal [as new research by the
historian José Lingna Nafafé is showing]. Allada, too, sent requests to Spain for missionaries
in the middle of the 17th century; by this time the climate was becoming unpredictable, and
there were frequent floods, so the king of Allada hoped that the Christian priests might be
able to intercede with divinities and prevent these.

3) Commercial activity

Trade was often a motivation in the despatching of ambassadors by West African kings.
Access to Atlantic trade was an important way of expanding supplies of money. Just as
today there is the Cedi, Dalasi, Leone, and Naira, so in the past many types of money were
in use in different parts of West Africa, such as cowries, iron bars, and cloth strips. More
specifically, these were: 1, gold, especially on the Niger Bend and in the Akan kingdoms of
the Gold Coast; 2, cowries, in Benin, Oyò, on the Niger Bend, and later in Hueda and
Dahomey; 3, copper rods, on the Gold Coast and in Calabar; 4, iron bars, in Senegambia, and
on the Gold Coast; 5, strips of cloth, used widely in Senegambia, Sierra Leone, and in parts
of the Gold Coast and Oyò. These currencies had all been in use before the arrival of
European traders. The Atlantic trade then expanded the money supply that was available,
and thus also helped to grow market exchanges. By negotiating with European monarchs,
many West African rulers hoped to grow their access to currency, and thus the size of their
tax revenue, and the power of their state. In the 1620s, this saw smaller kingdoms along the
Gold Coast sending embassies to the Dutch; while this was also a clear motivation in the
embassies sent by Allada in the 1650s. Five embassies sent by Dahomey to Brazil and
Portugal in the later 18th and early 19th century all had commercial aims.

By this time, the royal family of Dahomey had become experts in fine living in the capitals of
Brazil and Portugal. The embassies sent in 1795 are a good case in point. Ttravelling first to
Salvador, in Brazil, the two ambassadors spent large sums on fine silk and damask clothing
and hats all of it paid for by the Portuguese crown. They then moved on to Lisbon late in the
year, and when they arrived they visited the theatre and the opera every night.

The diplomatic element of African-European relations shows that these took place on a
scale of grand politics, as well as at a local level. West African rulers’ interests were those of
many leaders anywhere: commercial and military success, and religious belief. Yet while the
Portuguese crown also despatched many embassies initially, by the 1530s the European
presence was becoming increasingly “informal”, as small-scale traders took over.

IV: European Trading Communities in West Africa

There were two main types of European trading community in West Africa: 1, informal
communities, where Europeans settled, married women from the area, and with them
formed African families who often became important in local trade networks; 2, more
formal communities which grew up in the fortified trading posts along the coast, or factories
[from the Portuguese word feitoria] that were especially found along the Gold Coast, in
Hueda, and also in the rivers around Gambia and Bissau [especially the Gambia, Casamance,
São Domingos, Corubal, Nunez and Pongo rivers].

The fortified factories were often modelled on Elmina, which was the first, oldest, and
biggest of these trading posts. This shows the importance of the gold trade to begin with,
dating to the 1480s, when Elmina was built. However apart from Elmina and other smaller
forts on the Gold Coast, in the 1500s the informal model of trade was more usual. Male
Portuguese traders came to areas such as Senegambia, the rivers of Guinea-Bissau, Sierra
Leone, and Benin. Here they married, and often acted as trading intermediaries with local
rulers, as they, their wives (and their children) were able to speak both African and
European languages.

One of these traders became quite famous in Senegambia in the 16th century. Known as
“Ganagoga”, this Portuguese man had originally been called João Ferreira. He married the
daughter of the ruler of Fùùta Tòòro [on the Senegal river]. His name “Ganagoga” meant
“he who speaks all the languages” in the Biafada language of Guinea-Bissau, which shows
how important this ability was.

It seems that relations with daughters of the ruling families was not unusual for these
traders. In another case in the early 17th century, one Dutch Jewish trader got into problems
after having had an affair with the daughter of the Buur of Kajoor in Senegal.

Some historians think that these early traders also often took on religious roles. The
Portuguese called those of their nation who settled in Africa “tangomãos” in the 1500s. This
word derived from the name of a shrine in Sierra Leone, tunguma. According to one writer
in 1506, one of the earliest Portuguese men to settle in Sierra Leone [in the 1480s] had
officiated at this shrine at the request of the Temni peoples there [though Sierra Leone’s
human communities changed a lot in the 16th century, with the arrival of a wave of Mande-
influenced warriors called the Manes, who defeated the warriors of existing communities
and then intermarried with them by 1600]. “Tangomão” therefore meant a European
person who both settled in West Africa, and adopted West African beliefs and practices.

In many of these communities, it was the African women married to these male traders who
ran the trading networks. Their male European spouses were often ill with malaria and
other diseases to which they had no physical resistance. These men looked awful, and spent
much of their time in bed before dying young. Female traders spoke African languages much
better, of course. They could form trading and human networks with their home
communities, and run the day to day aspects of the business while their male spouses
fought weakly with disease [some historians think that the strong role of women traders in
these areas influenced the powerful place that women took in some independence
movements against colonial rule in the 20th century, especially in Guinea-Bissau and parts of
Nigeria].

A good example of one of these cases comes from Guinea-Bissau in the middle of the 17th
century. In the factory of Cacheu, the most powerful traders in the 1660, 1670s, and 1680s
were two women called Bibiana Vaz and Crispina Peres. Peres was married to a Portuguese
trader, but he was so ill that she ran the couple’s business. She made so many enemies
through her business acumen that she was eventually captured by the Portuguese
Inquisition and deported to Lisbon, where she was tried in 1664 for “fetishism” as a crime
against Catholic Christianity. Vaz, meanwhile, was so powerful that she kept the Portuguese
Governor of Cacheu prisoner in the passageway of her house in Farim for 18 months in the
1690s.

These mixed communities were more influenced by African than by European practices and
behaviour. It was important to be able to speak European languages and to write to get the
best trade terms with Europeans, but marriage and inheritance was carried out according to
the local practice of wherever the European had settled. This encouraged the Portuguese to
settle where inheritance passed through the female line [matrilineal societies]. In these
places, such as Guinea-Bissau and on the Gold Coast, the children which a European had
with his African wife would inherit rights, social status, and property according to the laws
of that society. However, where inheritance passed through the male line [patrilineal
societies], the children of these marriages would inherit no social or property rights, since
their fathers had been born with none, being Europeans [a good example is in Senegambia,
where very few European men settled after the 1550s].

These informal communities concentrated on trade. They helped African rulers to expand
their trading connections. They could help to negotiate with European traders and ships
who stopped only for a while, and to get the best price. Some of these families retained the
connection to Europe, sending children to study in European countries into the 18th century,
and becoming rich merchants of the coastal towns. Most more or less shook off their
European past, and became fully integrated into the African societies, where their male
European forefathers had settled as stranger-guests of their African landlord kings.

As noted, these informal settlements were in the majority in the 16th century. However,
towards the end of that century and in the early 17th century fortified European trading
posts became common, especially on the Gold Coast and in Hueda. In Casamance and
Guinea-Bissau, they were formed in settlements such as Cacheu (1589), Ziguinchor (1645),
and Bissau (1687). The 17th century also saw the establishment of the fort at James Island
(1651), at the estuary of the Gambia river. Along the Gold Coast, the Dutch presence saw
increasing number of castles being established, the most famous being at Cape Corso (Cape
Coast, built in 1610 and expanded in 1652) and Sekondi (1642), as well as those already
mentioned at Axim and Elmina.

The huge expansion of the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century saw the growth of this
model of European settlement. European factories at Offra (1660, the port for Allada) and at
Hueda were fortified. By the middle of the 18th century, these communities of European
settlers had become more important than the informal ones noted above; by this time,
members of these informal communities had by and large settled and fully integrated into
their host African communities.

Although these communities were protected militarily, they relied very heavily on African
intermediaries in their trade. The military captains of these forts also often attended and
participated in royal ceremonies of the local African state (as often happened in Dahomey,
for instance), and also would send gifts for the funeral rites of any deceased person of
importance. In practice, this meant that they had to accept and participate in African
religious practices, associated with these funerals.

Nevertheless, the communities which grew up around these fortified trading posts were
quite different to the informal communities noted above. The military aspect was vital.
Although European traders rented the land for their posts, they were as much occupiers as
they were tenants. They had armed militias, and often allied with one local ruler or another,
which could create problems between them [it is important to remember that by the 18th
century, guns were one of the larges imports from the Atlantic trade to Africa; this had
changed a lot from previous centuries, where copper, iron, and cloth had also been
important]. They were accustomed to slavery, and brought with them the racial animus
which became especially bad in Europe from around 1650 onwards. They were therefore
used to having “castle slaves” [an idea imported from Europe, via the experience in the New
world plantation societies], something which influenced practices of service and
dependence in local communities.

Many of the European officials in these forts had families with African women, and their
children who grew up around these forts often became traders, as their dual heritage gave
them access to both the worlds of their African and European parents. Some of these
families became important figures in local politics. In this sense there was a continuity from
the more informal communities discussed above. However the military presence and the
growth of slavery meant that in many important respects these communities had become
very different by the 18th century.

V: The Nature of Trade

Europeans came to Africa mainly for trade, and this was the almost exclusive cause of their
coming. By and large they arrived hoping for a short stay and to become rich. Some then
realised the many riches to be found beyond material wealth, and stayed to form families
who became part of their host communities. But even then, the commercial aspect was
always important.

For African rulers, trade brought many opportunities. In the first two centuries, they
demanded especially currency materials. Cloth was one of the largest items imported, from
India and Europe; some cargoes of Dutch ships in the early 17th century consisted almost
entirely of cloth, shipped to Senegambia and the Gold Coast. Indeed, cloth remained
important through the 18th and 19th centuries; the so-called pièce de guinée, an indigo-dyed
blue cloth made near Pondichéry in India, was imported by the French to Senegambia and
used as a currency on the Upper Senegal River throughout this time. Cloth was used as
money in Senegambia, and also as a currency in parts of Angola and the Gold Coast. Copper
was also a major import, especially to Benin and the Gold Coast, and iron bars were also
significant [in both the Gold Coast and Senegambia, iron bars needed to be branded with
the mark of the European trading company, such as the OWIC (Dutch West Indian Company)
or RAC (English Royal African Company), otherwise African traders would give them less
value]. Cowries were imported from the Maldives to Benin from as early as 1505.
This period also saw the import of jewels, and some manufactured goods like mirrors and
basins. But the value of each imported cargo consisted mainly of goods which could be
converted into currency. Evidence suggests that the imported metals such as copper and
iron were brought in specific dimensions for trade: copper rings (or manillas) and iron bars
of a specified length [especially in Senegambia] which were used then as mediums of
exchange. The metals were then melted down by smiths for use in agricultural tools,
weapons, and artistic works (in the case of Benin, the Benin bronzes) [there was a large
increase in production of the bronzes in the 16th century, when copper imports grew; the
bronzes had been important from before, but their production expanded then].

Brass Plaque from Benin depicting Court Official Holding two Copper Manilla. Wikipedia.
Public domain.

It is important to recognise the shift that then happened in the second half of the 17th
century, when currency imports declined, and were replaced by especially luxury items of
consumption such as alcohol and tobacco (especially from Brazil), and also by guns and
gunpowder. The Nigerian historian Joseph Inikori sees this change as accompanying a
slowing down in African economic growth. The lack of currency imports was symptomatic of
a market which had stopped growing, and did not need so much money to function in
exchange.
One can say by contrast that until the second half of the 17th century, the trade between
Africa and Europe was quite balanced. Until then, while African rulers wanted increased
supplies of currency, Europeans did not only focus on the slave trade, as later became the
case. They also wanted to import gold and ivory. Places such as Allada, Benin, Cape Verde,
Loango, and the rivers of Cameroon and Gabon all exported cloth, and some of this was sold
as far afield as Brazil, Curação [a Caribbean island near the coast of Venezuela, belonging to
the Dutch] and the United States in the 17th century [indeed Oyò cloth was traded to Yorubà
communities in Brazil throughout the 18th and into the 19th century, and marketwomen of
Yorubà ancestry in Brazil worked as “cloth sellers” (vendedoras de panos) into the 19th
century in Salvador, Brazil]. When the Dutch invaded Portuguese colonies in Brazil in 1630,
the Portuguese colonists formed an army which included many Africans from the Gold Coast
and Angola; the Gold Coast contingent demanded particular cloths as part of their payment
and apparel, which was sent specially from the Dutch fortress at Elmina.

It was not just the West African textile industry which found markets overseas in the 16th
and 17th centuries. Basketwork made by Gold Coast communities was highly prized in
Holland in the early 17th century. Ivory carvings made by the Sape peoples of Sierra Leone
were found in different parts of Europe, turned into everyday items such as salt cellars and
candle holders which were part of the export trade from this part of West Africa [in the 20th
century colonial era, some European art historians assumed these ivories came from Benin;
however it has now been established by the American art historian Peter Mark that they
came from Sierra Leone].

Ivory Salt cellar from Sierra Leone, from the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (Lisbon), public
domain.

In sum, the Europeans who settled in Africa did so as part of a commercial enterprise. Their
trading presence in West Africa began as one which was more or less between equal trading
partners. As the diplomatic embassies show, each party saw the others as kings and rulers
of their lands by divine power. Each, too, imported money from the other (the Europeans
importing gold, the Africans importing copper, cowries, cloth, and iron). There was an
Atlantic slave trade, but it was not as important as it later became [the Atlantic slave trade
remained quite minor in West Africa until the 1640s; it had expanded a lot in Angola after
1580, with a trade to Brazil and the rest of Latin America, but this is in West-Central Africa: it
was only in Senegambia that the slave trade was at all important in West Africa until the
1640s, when it began to grow in Allada and Calabar].

However the later 17th century saw a change, and with that a different pattern in European
settlement and trade in West Africa. By this time, the slave trade was dominating, and
Europeans were settling in fortified trading positions, and not informally with their African
hosts. The economic terms of trade were in general less equal, and that remained the case
through the 18th century.

VI: Environmental Change, Competition and Changes in the European Presence

The first half of the 17th century saw many changes in these patterns, as we are seeing.
These changes were vital in West Africa. They were also part of changes that were taking
place around the world, which saw wars and revolutions in places as different as China and
Europe, as well as in Africa.

The main causes of these transformations were: (1), Environmental pressures brought on by
the “mini ice age” (reaching a peak in the 1640s); and (2), Political competition brought on
by the emergence of the capitalist world system.

(1), The environmental pressures were part of a big change in the world’s climate, generally
known as the “mini ice age”. From the 1570s onwards, there was a major cooling in the
world’s temperatures. This produced climatic difficulties. In Africa, there were droughts in
Angola (from around 1600) and Senegambia (from around 1640), and floods in Yorubà-
speaking areas of Nigeria and Benin (in the early 17th century). There were heavy snows in
Morocco. When the King of Allada sent ambassadors to Spain in the 1650s, he said that one
of the reasons was an attempt to stop the terrible storms which Allada had been
experiencing.

Major problems occurred in other parts of the world. The freezing temperatures made
harvests of wheat and other crops much worse than before, and food prices rose. Some of
the coolest temperatures of all occurred around 1640. This was also when the biggest
revolutions began. In China, a civil war began which saw the overthrow of the Ming dynasty.
In Europe, Portugal declared independence from Spain also in 1640 and a civil war began
which lasted until 1668; a civil war also began in England in 1641, when the King was
deposed and executed, and there was also civil conflict in France.

What caused this fall in temperatures, and the political crises? European historians
traditionally pointed to different patterns of the sun. A team of archaeologists based in
Colombia have a new explanation. The European conquest of the Americas in the 16th
century is usually thought to have caused a population collapse of indigenous Americans.
Latest estimates suggest 90% of the Native American population died from disease and war
– perhaps 10-15% of the entire world population. The fall in the indigenous American
population led to, (a), increasing areas of forest taking over settlements and farmland, and
(b), less deforestation and burning of fires; the growth of forest absorbed Carbon Dioxide
pollution, and there was also less Carbon Dioxide created through the burning of fires [in
keeping with today’s analysis of causes of global warming in the 21st century, which
understands this as a relationship of carbon emissions and carbon capture]. According to
the Colombian archaeologists, this led to the fall in temperatures.

(2), Political competition rose with growth in trade and the power of the states that could
control it. In West Africa, it was becoming important to develop trading relationships with
European partners. Those states which did so prospered, but there could also be a cost.
With larger kingdoms, such as Jolof and Kongo, their coastal provinces [Kajoor in Jolof and
Nsoyo in Kongo] became more powerful and broke away from central control [by the 1550s
in Kajoor, and in the early 17th century in Nsoyo]. Meantime rival rulers sought to open
trading stations, and struggled with one another for best access to international trade. This
created both conflict, and increased demand for European trade, and led to the huge
number of fortified trading posts built along the Gold Coast, and the coasts of Hueda and
Allada in the second half of the 17th century.

At the same time, there was competition among Europeans, who often struggled with one
another for the best access to African trade. It is worth noting that although there was fierce
competition between different European nations to trade, this never led to direct military
confrontations between them in Africa in this period. Wars fought by European nations
were fought in Europe itself, where in Africa European traders were competing as part of a
shared cooperative agenda and structure of trade. By the second half of the 17th century,
Danish, Dutch, English, French and German trading companies were all seeking to establish
a foothold in West Africa, bringing the best and most fashionable trading commodities and
negotiating with one another to exchange what they had to make up the best “assortment”.

The competition among European traders meant that African rulers could often strike better
bargains. They could play off one against another to get the best price. But it also meant
that they had to meet the demands of traders if these were not to move on elsewhere in
search of captives, ivory and gold. Mutual dependence of African rulers and European
traders grew; and the increasingly fragile environment, in Africa as elsewhere in the world,
created frequent problems of food and resources which could often lead to conflict.

Conclusion

In sum, factors of environmental change and economic competition created a difficult

situation in many parts of West Africa by the later 17th century. The terms of the European
presence changed decisively towards one of slave trading based from fortified castles and
trading posts, and away from mutual coexistence within African social structures. This was
part of the shift towards the rapid growth in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which will be
dealt with in the next chapter.

Factbox

1413: Portuguese troops capture Ceuta in Morocco; their sailors begin to sail down the
West African coast.

1442: Portuguese sailors first reach sub-Saharan Africa

1471: Portuguese reach the Gold Coast

1482: Elmina castle founded on the Gold Coast by the Portuguese

1485: Oba Ozolua of Benin received Portuguese visitors; the Portuguese trading post at
Gwatón is founded in the kingdom of Benin in 1490

1488: Bumi Jeléen, a Jolof prince, comes to Lisbon in search of a military alliance from the
Portuguese against his rivals to the Jolof crown

1491: Nzika Nkuwu, manikongo (ruler of Kongo) converts to Christianity

1589: Cacheu founded by the Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau, a fortified post; followed by

Ziguinchor (1645) and Bissau (1687).

1621: Gorée (Senegal/Dakar) captured from the Portuguese by the Dutch

1637: Elmina captured by the Dutch from the Portuguese

1641: Luanda and São Tomé captured by the Dutch from the Portuguese; re-taken by a
Brazilian army in 1648

1642: Sekondi castle founded by the English

1651: English found a fort at James Island, at the mouth of the Gambia river

1652: Cape Coast castle on the Gold Coast expanded by the English

Toby Green