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Decline or Survival? Iron Production in West Africa from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

L. M. Pole
L. M. Pole
Affiliation:
Saffron Walden Museum
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Extract

In the sixteenth century most iron used in west Africa was produced within the region. Extra demand may have been met from the newly established European factors on the coast. By the end of the nineteenth century, in contrast, it was the residue in demand that was satisfied from local sources, the main bulk of iron being imported via the coast and transported inland. For the larger part of this 400-year period imported iron was cheaper than locally-produced iron. What was remarkable, then, was not that iron smelting eventually died out, but that it survived for so long and could be studied in detail in the second half of the twentieth century.

It is argued that, although the decline can be related to production constraints, such as the availability of charcoal, influences originating from the rest of the community can be seen to have prolonged the survival of local iron. The organization of labour of both the iron-smelting and blacksmithing processes, together with the way in which iron was marketed, are central to the analysis. In addition, consumption factors are of the utmost importance. Apart from the prejudice against innovation, the fact that imported iron was plainly not as suitable as local iron for the purposes to which it was put, weakened its impact. Also the ritual attitude to local iron has to be taken into consideration. The present universality of non-local sources has resulted in a change in the regard paid to the metal, but it is argued that the position of the smith is unlikely to alter significantly, since it is more related to his crucial role as supplier of tools for other essential activities such as farming, than to the production of iron itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , October 1982 , pp. 503 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

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2 This field-work was carried out while I was Assistant Keeper at the National Museum of Ghana, Accra. Quantification was made more difficult by the fact that the activities they related to had not been regularly performed for 25 years. Every effort was made by the smiths to repeat exactly what they used to do, but some variation was inevitable. This has been allowed for in the figures.

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