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Materials Relating to the Cowry Currency of the Western Sudan—II1

Reflections on the Provenance and Diffusion of the Cowry in the Sahara and the Sudan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

M. Hiskett
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Extract

The cowry

‘Parmi tant de coquilles que le flot des mers rejette sur les plages, il n'en est pas que les homines aient recherchÉes, recueillies, portÉes plus que les cauris.’

The purpose of this study is to investigate the cowry in the Western Sudan. But it is impossible to study any aspect of cowry diffusion and use in isolation, and some understanding of the complex and fascinating global history of the shell is essential to our knowledge of its history in this area.

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Articles
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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 1966 , pp. 339 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1966

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References

2 Gobert, E. G., ‘Le pudendum magique’, Revue Africaine, XCV, 426–7, 1951, 5.Google Scholar

3 Quiggin, A. Hingston, A survey of primitive money, London, 1949, 26.Google Scholar

4 Jackson, J. Wilfred, Shells as evidence of the migrations of early culture, Manchester, 1917, 137.Google Scholar

5 ibid., 128.

6 ibid., 129–30.

7 ibid., 139.

8 ibid., 139.

9 Quiggin, , op. cit., 26; Man, XLI, 37, 1941, 48.Google Scholar

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11 Jackson, op. cit., 126.

12 Quiggin, op. cit., 30.

13 Jackson, op. cit., 131.

14 Gobert, op. cit., 5.

15 op. cit.

16 op. cit., 28–9, but it is difficult to understand why they came overland across Afghanistan. One would expect them to come by sea directly from India to Persia.

17 op. cit.

18 op. cit., introduction, pp. xix–xx. He suggests that they were first given as bridal dowries, and that this practice may have given rise to their use as currency.

19 Abu 'Abdullāh b. 'Abd al-'Azīz al-Bakrī.

20 s.v. wadce'.

21 ‘Al Mostatraf, trad. fr. Rat, G., Leroux, 1899, 1902, II, p. 169.’Google Scholar

22 ‘Al-Amālfī of al-Qā1ī, , second ed., Cairo, 1926, II, 300.Google Scholar

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24 Silsilat Paris, 1811, 6.

25 Murūj , ed. Barbier de Meynard, Paris, 1861, I, 337–8.

26 Travels in Nubia, London, 1819, 465; second ed., London, 1822, 420.Google Scholar

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31 ibid., 260.

32 An account of the empire of Morocco. Third ed., London, 1814, 24.Google Scholar

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35 I am indebted for this information to Mr. B. E. B. Fagg of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. Mr. Fagg writes ‘The smelted tin objects do resemble cowry shells but there can be no certainty that they represent them; if anything, I think it rather improbable’. Mr. Fagg adds that since the resemblance is superficial it should be completely ignored as a factor in dating the introduction of cowry shells.

36 op. cit., 6.

37 In an article ‘The diffusion of cowries and Egyptian culture in Africa’, American Anthropologist, L, 1948, 45–53.Google Scholar

38 Description de l'Afrique septentrionale, translated by Slane, de, Paris, 1913. Arabic text, Paris, 1911, second ed. For example, 300/158; 325/173; 327/174; 330–1/176; 331/177; 333/177–8; 339/181.Google Scholar

39 ibid., 335/179. The medieval capital of Songhay, present Gao.

40 Abulfedae historia anteislamica, ed. Fleischer, H. L., Leipzig, 1831, 175–6.Google Scholar

41 It is not the purpose of this study to discuss the precious metal currency of the Sahara and Western Sudan, except in so far as it related to the cowry. It must be said, however, that the whole question of such a coinage poses an enigma. References to the mithcqāl need not refer to a coin, but to an equivalent weight of gold dust or bullion. Al-Bakrī, however, refers to dīnārs and then he makes specific mention of an unstamped gold coin called ṣula' . Therefore according to his testimony there were both dīnārs and certain pre-coins circulating in the eleventh century.

This is followed by the evidence of Ibn Sa'īd. But we are bound to ask why, when the whole trend of the trade was to pick up raw gold in the Sudan for processing in the mints of Sijilmasa and North Africa, the Ghanaians should mint gold coins for export ? This appears to be ‘coals to Newcastle’, and we cannot do other than regard the word al-'ayn with extreme suspicion, as a very probable corruption. It is altogether more reasonable to suppose that ancient Ghana exported dust and bullion. But then, in the sixteenth century we meet again this insistence on the existence of an unstamped pre-currency in the testimony of Leo Africanus (infra, p. 347). Finally there is the statement of Dupuis (Journal of a residence in Ashantee, London, 1824, Pt. II, p. viiiGoogle Scholar) that ‘ducats (mitskal)’ were minted in Nikki, the capital of Borgou. Yet despite the persistent asseverations of our sources, as Manny points out (‘Ateliers monetaires Guest-Africains’, Notes Africaines, No. 78, 1958), no specimen of these gold coins has ever been recovered. Since gold coinage which has been circulating in significant quantities simply does not disappear, the whole thing is a puzzle. One is reluctant to do the observant Leo the possible injustice of assuming that he is merely echoing what may be an initial error of al-Bakrī, but we are bound to observe that such things did happen, and it is a possibility. We shall of course most humbly exonerate Leo should a specimen of this mysterious unstamped coinage come to light !Google Scholar

42 Paris, 1927, French translation (Gaudefroy-Demombynes, vol. I) 75–6, Arabic text, 202.Google Scholar

43 Gibb, H. A. R. (tr.), Ibn Battuta. Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354 (Broadway Travellers), fifth impr., London, 1963, 334, Gao, al-Bakrī's Kougha.Google Scholar

44 Tarikh al-fattāsh, Paris, 1913, 107–8/56. In fact Maḥmūd Kātī began to write his work early in the sixteenth century, but the conditions which he describes apply to the fifteenth century.Google Scholar

45 The history and description of Africa…of Leo Africanus, translated by Pory, , ed. Brown, Robert, III (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, No. 94), London, 1896, 825Google Scholar

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49 op. cit., IV, 428.

50 supra, p. 346, n. 45.

51 supra, p. 339.

52 Shells, 123.

53 supra, p. 340, n. 16.

54 American Anthropologist, L, 1948, 51.Google Scholar

55 ibid., 47.

56 Pereira's bozy, infra, p. 351.

57 Jeffreys, op. cit., 50.

58 op. cit., 382.

59 If a trans-continental route did exist, it is easier to visualize it running across the grass savannah belt well north of the Congo forest, and in this case, of course, its eastern terminus could not have been Sofala. We do not believe in the existence of such a route during the Middle Ages for the good reason that there is no mention of it in the Arab historians from Ibn ḥawkal onwards, and we are convinced that they could not have been ignorant, nor have maintained a conspiracy of silence about such a route. That it may have been in existence in pre-Islamic times and been blocked after Islam by the Christian Nubian kingdom is possible. Certainly Oliver and Fage (A short history of Africa, London, 1962, 42) have noted the discoveries of Arkell, which suggest that the remnants of the Kushitic dynasty lived out their day in the area between the Nile and Lake Chad and we have here a possible channel for the introduction of ancient Egyptian culture, including the cowry, into the Sudan. But if this were so how are we to explain the known absence of the cowry in Bornu and Kanem, for it is hard to believe that it went on leap-frogging this area for nearly two millennia, whatever the prowess of a rival currency? And how also do we explain the statement of a document which external evidence has shown to be remarkably truthful in other respects, that the cowry did not appear in Hausaland until the eighteenth century? As we shall argue below, it is simply not acceptable that the decks should be cleared for the trans-continental theory by stating baldly that the Kano Chronicle is wrong.Google Scholar

60 Shells, 143.

61 Occasional Papers of the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum, No. 5, 1949, 15. Even if it could be shown that it was cowries which the Greeks carried, it does not follow that the shells were value objects to the East African natives of the day. There have been many instances of precious materials being garnered from natives who attached no worth to them.

62 Gibb, op. cit., 112 f.

63 ibid., 243.

64 ibid., 248.

65 ‘Trade routes’, 5–8.

66 The Baganda, London, 1911, 456.Google Scholar

67 Shells, 125.

68 The Oxford atlas, revised repr., London, 1963, vi–vii.Google Scholar

69 I am indebted to Jones, op. cit., 43, for this reference, and for other references to the early accounts of the Coast traders, all of which are given in his article.

70 ibid., 43.

71 ibid., 44.

72 ibid., 44.

73 Primitive money, 30.

74 ibid., 30.

75 Barth, op. cit., III, 382.

76 ibid., 382.

77 Barth, op. cit., 242, 297.

78 ibid., 446, chede.

79 I am indebted to Professor P. F. Lacroix for information concerning this Songhay word. I am also indebted to a number of my colleagues at the School of Oriental and African Studies for information and suggestions concerning these West African words.

80 Monteil, Vincent, ‘Sur le vocabulaire Franco-Maure’, Notes Africaines, No. 42, 1949, 55.Google Scholar

81 Man, XLI, 36, 1941, 48.Google Scholar

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84 ibid., p. cxi.

85 Denham, nd Clapperton>, , Travels, London, 1831, III, 248.Google Scholar

86 supra, p. 346, n. 47.

87 op. cit., 47.

88 Primitive money, 9.

89 Hiskett, ‘The Kano Chronicle’, JRAS, 04 1957, MS (C). A photostat copy of this MS is in my possession and another from the same negative is housed in the Library of Ibadan University. The passage in question appears on sheet 104 of my copy.Google Scholar

90 Palmer, op. cit., III, 123.

91 For instance at points corresponding to Palmer, op. cit., in, p. 102, 11. 13 and 37; p. 103, 1. 20, and passim.

92 ibid., p. 109, 1. 8, ‘guns’.

93 ibid., p. 109, 1. 29, ‘kolas’. The chronicler also uses the Hausa plural (babanni) for ‘eunuchs’ in the same line.

94 op. cit., II, 310.

95 Palmer, op. cit., III, 124.

96 ibid., 109. But the statement must be received with considerable scepticism. If fire-arms came to Kano at this early date, they must have derived ultimately from either Egypt or North Africa. But the Burjī Mamluks, although they did not entirely reject gunpowder, had a conservative prejudice against it. As a result, in 1517, they were heavily defeated by the Ottomans, who had whole-heartedly adopted the new weapon, and used it intelligently. In 1591 the Moroccan musketeers routed the Songhay army which was still armed with bows and arrows. It is therefore difficult to credit that either Bornu or Kano possessed fire-arms as early as 1438.

97 Jones, op. cit., 51.

98 Travels, London, 1799, 25.Google Scholar

99 op. cit., Pt. II, p. xvi.

100 op. cit., III, 386.

101 supra, p. 356, n. 94.

102 op. cit., IV, 61.

103 Hiskett, , ‘The “Song of Bagauda”: a Hausa king list and homily in verse—II’, BSOAS, XXVIII, 1, 1965, 112–35, at A19/37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

104 Barth, op. cit., II, 310, mentions the tradition that the ancient currency standard of Bonin was the pound of copper—‘rotl’. There is also evidence of an iron currency, for Denham records such a currency in Loggun (Denham and Clapperton, op. cit., III, 23), but Barth observes that in his day it had been replaced by the cotton currency (op. cit., III, 309).

105 Shells, 125.

106 op cit., but as we have observed above (p. 346, n. 41) references in the Arab geographers may equally well refer to the equivalent weight in gold dust or bullion. It is also possible that when the Arab travellers use the term dīnār they may be using it merely as money of account, and that the actual transaction took place in gold dust or bullion.

107 History of the Arabs, London, 1943, p. 171, n.Google Scholar

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109 supra, p. 346, n. 45.

110 Pauly-Wissowa, , Real-Encyclopaedie, IX, A, 1, col. 620, s.v. uncia.Google Scholar

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112 ibid., 157/95, 243/158–9.

113 supra, p. 346, n. 44.

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116 ibid., 199.

117 op. cit., Pt. II, p. cxiv.

118 op. cit., II, 142.

119 Shells, 143.

120 Denham and Clapperton, op. cit., IV, 31.

121 Denham and Clapperton, op. cit., IV, 46.

122 op. cit., II, 163, and passim.

123 op. cit., IV, 102–3.

124 supra, f. 7.

125 supra, f. 16.

126 supra, f. 17.

127 op. cit., II, 142.

128 Reckoning 3, 500 to the mithqal.

129 op. cit., 300/158.

130 op. cit., 306.

131 op. cit., 300/158.

132 Gibb, op. cit., 317.

133 ibid., 335.

134 Gibb, op. cit., 331.

135 op. cit., III, 827.

136 op. cit., 306.

137 op. cit., it, 315.

138 supra, f. 5.

139 op. cit., 300/158.

140 supra, p. 359, n. 114.

141 op. cit., III, 827.

142 supra, p. 346, n. 44.

143 op. cit., 305.

144 ibid., 26.

145 Denham and Clapperton, op. cit., III, 108.

146 op. cit., III, 420.

147 op. cit., II, 502.

148 Monteil, P. L., De Saint-Louis à Tripoli par le lac Tchad, Paris, 1895, 252.Google Scholar

149 supra, f. 1. Dr. Bivar has kindly drawn my attention to the following letter from a Sultan of Sokoto, drafted apparently by the Waziri Buhari in the late nineteenth century, to the Emir of Maradi making proposals for the ransom of ‘the woman Jimma’.

‘To the Emir of (Katsina) (Masalaci), son of the Emir of and Ma'ādi (Maradi), greetings etc. As for what follows, know that a woman called Jimma is in ḥasaw at the house of Sarkin Noma. We desire that you hand her over to the bearer of the letter, that he may deliver her to us and we will hand over to him your youth in order that the free may ransom the free, as has requested from us. Let this be in lieu of his ransom of 400, 000 (cowries). This and peace’.

Baba (Smith, Mary, Baba of Karo. Second impression, London, 1964, 69 and passim) mentions 400, 000 cowries as a ransom price. It would therefore seem that this figure was a standard one for a ransom as opposed to a sale.Google Scholar

150 supra, f. 2.

151 supra, f. 4.

152 Denham and Clapperton, op. cit., IV, 46.

153 op. cit., II, 142.

154 op. cit., IV, 290.

155 op. cit., II, 64.

156 ibid., 106.

157 op. cit., IV, 439.

158 supra, f. 12.

159 op. cit., II, 125.

160 ibid., 128.

161 supra, f. 10.

162 supra, f. 17.

163 supra, f. 11.

164 op. cit., III, 112.

165 op. cit., IV, 200.

166 supra, f. 6.

167 op. cit., II, 61.

168 ‘Kitāb al-farq: a work on the Habe kingdoms attributed to dan Fodio’, BSOAS, XXIII, 3, 1960, 574 f.

169 op. cit., II, 83.

170 supra, f. 5.

171 Barth, op. cit., II, 144.

172 supra, f. 16.

173 Hiskett, , ‘Kitāb al-farq’, 575.Google Scholar

174 supra, f. 16.

175 supra, f. 14.

176 op. cit., II, 28.