David C Tambo - The Sokoto Caliphate Slave Trade in The Nineteenth Century

Board of Trustees, Boston University
The Sokoto Caliphate Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century

Author(s): David C. Tambo
Source: The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2 (1976), pp. 187-
217
Published by: Boston University African Studies Center
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THE SOKOTO CALIPHATE
SLAVE TRADE IN THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY
David C. Tambo
Recent research on the African slave trade
suggests
that the Sokoto
Caliphate may
have been a
major
source of
exports during
the
nineteenth
century. Philip
Curtin's work on Atlantic commerce shows
that
processes
of
expansion
and consolidation within the
caliphate
during
the first half of the
century
contributed to increased
quantities
of
captives,
a number of which
subsequently
were traded south to the
coast.1 Paul
Lovejoy similarly
has contended that favorable
exchange
rates for cowries in areas nearer the coast
may
have
provided
an
impetus
for merchants to
export
slaves south. He
notes, however,
that
many
of
these
probably
were absorbed into other African
societies,
and never
entered the Atlantic trade.2 Adu Boahen's research also demonstrates
that the
caliphate
was an
important
source of slaves
entering
the trans-
Saharan trade. Some traveled
through
Borno to North
Africa,
but the
main slave route for much of the nineteenth
century
led
straight
north
from Kano to
Tripoli,
and most of those
exported along
that road
apparently
came from areas within the
caliphate.3
Additional studies have focused on
quantitative problems,
for
example
the volume and value of the slave trade in the internal and
export sectors,
but
they
often couch their conclusions in relative terms.
Lucie
Colvin,
for
instance,
has noted the
pervasiveness
of slave labor in
precolonial
West African
societies, including
those of Northern
Nigeria,
and
argues
that domestic use of slave recruits in the
caliphate
therefore
1Philip
D.
Curtin,
The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census
(Madison, 1969),
258-260.
2Paul E.
Lovejoy, "Interregional Monetary
Flows in the Precolonial Trade of
Nigeria,"
Journal
of African
History, XV,
4
(1974), 565,
573-578.
3A. Adu
Boahen, Britain,
the
Sahara,
and the Western
Sudan,
1788-1861
(London,
1964),
127-128.
The International Journal
of African
Historical Studies, IX,
2
(1976)
187
188 DAVID C. TAMBO
^
^??^
Qairawan ^
' e e,
Tri oll
Ghat
'
M_urzuk
I I
\ \
Agadaes t.-""
Z r
/\
\ I /
I
I
I
I
I I
/I\
^\
I
'~'
/~K:atcina! / I
Lake
Fig.
1.
Major
slave trade routes in the nineteenth
century.
THE SOKOTO CALIPHATE SLAVE TRADE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
must have exceeded
exports.4
E.A.
Ayandele
concurs with this assess-
ment, adding
that the slaves
exported generally
were the least
productive
in economic
terms,
and hence the most
expendable.
Furthermore,
he states that the value of slave
exports
in such emirates
as Kano and Sokoto was
relatively
small
compared
to that of
products
like
textiles, despite
their
reputation
as "the most notorious slave
exporters."5
The
present study
focuses on the economic
aspects
of the
caliphate
slave
trade, specifically
on
problems
of
price
structure and
commodity
flow.
By looking
at the value of different
types
of slaves and their
propensity
to be
exported
or retained within the domestic
economy, by
examining price
differentials between various areas and their
possible
correlation to direction and volume of trade
flow,
and
by seeking
to
assess the
importance
of the slave trade in
comparison
to other
aspects
of
commerce,
I
hope
to test
existing hypotheses
on this
important
subject.
The Structure of Slave Prices
In an
Appendix
to this article I have listed
price
data
concerning
the
internal and
export
sectors of the
caliphate
slave trade. The
figures
have
been extracted
primarily
from travelers' accounts and are
susceptible
to
several statistical
shortcomings.
No
long
runs over
succeeding years
exist for
prices
in
any given area,
and in some cases the
quality
of the
data
may
be somewhat
suspect.
Travelers often
spent relatively
little
time in the
places
about which
they wrote,
and
frequently
failed to check
the
reliability
or
representativeness
of the information made available to
them.
Occasionally
(see
nos. 9 and 19 in the
Appendix) they
relied on
second-hand
reports garnered
from fellow travelers or other informants.
Figures
which
present-day
researchers have obtained from interviews
(see nos. 41-45 and 47 in the
appendix)
suffer the same
disadvantage.
In
addition, they usually
are undated and refer
only
to broad
temporal
spans,
such as the late nineteenth
century,
which are difficult to use
analytically.
Unless otherwise
noted,
the stated
figures
are
prices
for slaves sold in
marketplaces,
a
highly
visible
aspect
of the trade. Sheds of slaves
4Lucie G.
Colvin,
"The Commerce of Hausaland 1780-1833," in D. McCall and N.
Bennett, eds.,
Aspects of
West
Afiican
Islam. Boston
University Papers
on
Afiica
Volume V
(Boston, 1971),
114.
5E.A.
Ayandele,
"Observations on Some Social and Economic
Aspects
of
Slavery
in
Pre-Colonial Northern
Nigeria," Nigerian
Journal
of
Economic and Social
Studies, IX,
3
(1967),
331.
189
190 DAVID C. TAMBO
exposed
for sale in the various markets of the
caliphate readily
attracted
the attention of travelers. Price data was
easily
obtained in a market
situation,
and as a result
many
travelers relied
heavily
on it for their
accounts. Slaves
possessing special
skills or unusual
beauty
seldom were
exchanged
in the
market,
however. Instead
they
were taken to
private
houses, frequently bordering
the
marketplace,
where the landlords
acted as brokers between the
prospective buyers
and sellers. Here the
price
fluctuated
sharply according
to the attributes of each
individual,
but in
general
it was much
higher
than for those sold in the sheds. The
importance
of house
exchanges
in the total slave trade remains
unclear,
however,
since we have no indication of the volume
they might
have
accommodated.6
The
prices
in the
Appendix
are
expressed
in a number of different
units,
the most
prevalent being
cowrie shells and silver dollars.
By
the
early
nineteenth
century,
with the
exception
of Adamawa the
caliphate
was an
integral part
of a common cowrie
currency
zone which extended
north to
Agades,
south to the
coast,
and west
nearly
to
Senegambia.
The zone
gradually expanded
eastward
during
the course of the
century;
cowries were introduced into Borno around 1848 and into
Adamawa between 1860 and 1880.7
6C.H. Robinson, Nigeria, Our Latest Protectorate
(London, 1900), 164; A. Neil
Skinner,
"Alhaji
Mahmudu Kori: Kano Malam" (unpublished manuscript in the author's
possession, 1971), 15-16; Polly Hill, Rural Hausa: A
Village and a Setting (London, 1972),
319; Polly
Hill,
"Two Types of West African House Trade," in Claude
Meillassoux, ed.,
The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa (London, 1971), 314; E.W.
Bovill, ed., Missions to the Niger Volumes II-IV: The Bornu Mission, 1822-25 (1826,
reprinted London, 1964-1966), II, 279. Dixon Denham reported the sale of the
"youngest and handsomest of the women" in houses at Murzuk. Heinrich Barth, Travels
and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (3 vols., New York, 1857-1859), II, 513-514,
notes that all slaves in
Bagirmi were sold in houses; James
Richardson, Travels in the Great
Desert
of
Sahara, in the Years
of
1845 and 1846 (2
vols., London, 1848), II, 148-149,
mentions the house trade in slaves at Ghat. Gerhardt
Rohlfs, Quer durch Afrika. Reise von
Mittelmeer nach dem Tschad See und zum
Golf
von Guinea (2 vols., Leipzig, 1874-1875), I,
176. By the time of Rohlf's exploration, all slaves at Murzuk were sold in houses, since
the trade officially had been suppressed. William Allen and T.R.H.
Thomson, A Narrative
of
the Expedition Sent
by
Her
Majesty's
Government to the River Niger in 1841 under the
Command of Captain H.D.
Trotter-(2 vols., 1848, reprinted London, 1968), I, 401, note the
house trade in
young females and horses at Rabba. C. Snouck
Hurgronje,
Mekka in the
Latter Part of the 19th Centuly: Daily
Life,
Customs and Learning. The Moslims
of
the East-
Indian-Archipelago (Leyden, 1931), finds that a house trade also existed at Mecca around
1884 and 1885, especially for Circassian slaves, who were considered the most valuable.
7Marion Johnson, "The Cowrie Currencies of West
Africa," Journal
of African
Histoty, XI,
1 and 3 (1970), 33-34, 335;
Lovejoy, "Interregional Monetary Flows," 563-
565; PE Lacroix, "Materiaux pour servir a l'histoire des Peul de
l'Adamawa," Etudes
Camerounaises, V, 37-38 (1952), 37; A.H.M.
Kirk-Greene, "The Major Currencies in
Nigerian
History,"
Journal of the Historical
Society
of
Nigeria, II,
1
(1960), 136-139; Ronald
Cohen,
"Some Aspects of Institutionalized Exchange: A Kanuri Example," Cahiers
d'Etudes
Africaines,
V, 19 (1965), 358.
Silver dollars also served as
currency
in Hausa and
perhaps
other
parts
of the
caliphate
in the
early
nineteenth
century,
and their use extended
north across the Sahara to the
Barbary ports. Although
some Mexican
and
Spanish
dollars were in
circulation,
the vast
majority
were Maria
Theresa
thalers,
minted in
Europe
as
early
as 1780 and
exported
to
Africa. The dollar zone
spread
south as far as
Lagos
and
Whydah during
century,
and
apparently expanded
into Borno and
Adamawa at
roughly
the same time as cowries.8
Comparative analysis
of slave
prices
necessitates the conversion of
figures
into common units when
possible.
Bracketed
figures
in the
Appendix, therefore, represent
dollar or cowrie
equivalencies
of the
quoted price. By
about
1820,
an established
exchange
rate of 2000
cowries
(K)
to the silver dollar was in effect from the
caliphate
to the
coast,
and I have used this as the base rate. Since the
period
from around
1820 to around 1845 was one of relative
stability,
with the
exchange
rate
remaining constant,
all converted
prices falling
within that time
span
have been
computed
at 2000K
per
dollar. In the latter 1840s cowries in
the
caliphate
suffered a 25
percent
devaluation in relation to
dollars,
and
2500K
per
dollar became the new rate of
exchange.
This
figure
has been
used in
price
conversion from
approximately
1848 to the mid-1850s.
By
the late 1850s the value of cowries in
comparison
to silver dollars once
again
had
dropped.
At Zaria in 1862 the rate was 4500K to the
dollar,
a
figure
which is reflected in the converted
prices.
Cowrie devaluation in
the
caliphate
reached its final level of 5000K
per
dollar
by
the mid-1860s
and then remained stable. Converted
prices
have been
figured
at this
rate for the
period
from 1862 to the end of the
century.9
Slave values in the
caliphate
were assessed
primarily according
to sex
and
age
distinctions. The number of
age categories
for each sex was not
standardized,
but
apparently
varied with each emirate. At
Katsina,
for
instance,
three
major
divisions existed for males and females in the
1830s.
8Johnson,
"Cowrie
Currencies," 335-337; Kirk-Greene, "Major Currencies,"
146-
147; Colvin,
"Commerce of
Hausaland," 117;
A.E
Mockler-Ferryman,
British West
Africa:
Its Rise and
Progress (London, 1900),
375.
9W.B.
Baikie,
"Notes of a
Journey
from Bida in
Nupe
to Kano in
Haussa,
Performed
in
1862," Journal
of
the
Royal Geographical Society,
XXXVII
(1867), 96;
Roberta Ann
Dunbar, "Damagaram (Zinder, Niger),
1812-1906: The
History
of an Ancient Sudanic
Kingdom" (unpublished
Ph.D.
dissertation, University
of
California,
Los
Angeles,
1970), 214-216;
Paul E.
Lovejoy,
"The Hausa Kola Trade (1700-1900):
A Commercial
System
in the Continental
Exchange
of West Africa"
(unpublished
Ph.D.
dissertation,
University
of
Wisconsin, Madison, 1973), 202; Lovejoy, "Interregional Monetary
Flows," 573,
577-578, 584-585; Johnson,
"Cowrie
Currencies,"
335-337.
191
192 DAVID C. TAMBO
TABLE 1
Slave
Categories
at
Katsina,
1830s
Type
Price
Type
Price
(male) (dollars) (female) (dollars)
Bearded male 5.0-7.5 Older woman 5.0-7.5
Adolescent
boy
15 Adolescent
girl
25-30
Young
male child 22.5
Young girl
17.5-20.0
Source: E. Daumas and A. de
Chancel,
Grand
Desert,
204-205.
On the other
hand,
merchants in Kano in the 1850s divided males
into five
categories
and females into six. The
system
of differentiation
by
that time had become so institutionalized that each classification was
designated
by
a
special
term.
Interestingly,
these terms were not Hausa
but of Arabic
derivation,
which
suggests
a well-established North
African influence on the Kano slave trade. Similar distinctions existed
elsewhere in the
caliphate,
as well as in North Africa and in Borno. At
Kuka,
the
capital
of
Borno,
seven divisions for males and four for
females were used in the 1870s.
TABLE 2
Slave
Categories
at
Kano,
1850s
Type
Price
Type
Price
Garzab: male with 4-6
Ajouza:
old woman 4 and under
beard Shamalia: woman with 8 and under
breasts
hanging
down
Morhag:
male with 12 Dabukia: female with 32 and under
beard
beginning plump
breasts
Sabaai: male 14 Farkhah: female with 40 and under
without beard small breasts
Sadasi:
grown
male 12 Sadasia: smaller
girl
16 and under
child
Hhamsi: male child 8 Hhamasiah: female 12 and under
child
Source:
Richardson, Narrative, II,
202-203.
TABLE 3
Slave
Categories
at
Kuku,
1870s
Type
Price
Type
Price
Old man 4-5 Old woman 6-10
Strong
adult 12-14
Middle-aged
woman 10-15
Young
adult 15-18
Young girl
or woman 40-100
Seven-span youth,
16-22
aged
fifteen to
twenty
Six-span youth, aged
20-25
twelve to fifteen
Five-span youth, aged
16-20
Five-span girl
20-25
ten to thirteen
Boy
eunuch 50-80
Source:
Nachtigal,
Sahara
undSudan, I,
692.
The
classificatory system
outlined in Tables
1, 2,
and 3 relied
upon
easily
discernible
physical
characteristics as the
principal
criteria. Stated
prices
were
ideal,
and
provided
a
rough guideline
for individual
transactions. The actual
price
at which a slave was sold tended to fall
within the ideal
price range,
but varied
according
to
supply
and demand
conditions as well as to the
particular
attributes of the
person
involved.
However,
not all slaves could be
placed neatly
into the
existing
classifications. In those cases where a
person's
saleable
qualities
fit two
categories,
the actual
price
also tended to be somewhere between the
two ideal
figures.
Table 4 lists some selected
prices
for
young
females
(adolescents and
young
adults)
in the
caliphate.
10
The
average price
for such slaves was
25.8 dollars from 1826 to 1849. In the
period
between 1850 and
1896,
however,
it rose to
35.1,
an increase of 36.0
percent.
The
average price
for the whole
century
is 30.0
dollars,
but this can be broken down
further into
figures
for Hausa and non-Hausa areas. In
Hausaland,
the
average paid
for a
young
female was 32.3
dollars,
but in non-Hausa
regions
of the
caliphate
the
average
was
only
28.5 dollars.
The
figures
in Table 5 indicate the much lower
prices paid
for
young
males. The
average
from about 1826 to 1849 was 13.9
dollars,
or 54
l0To
provide
a wider
sample,
actual and ideal
prices
have been included in tables 4
through
9.
193
194 DAVID C. TAMBO
TABLE4
Select Slave Prices in the
Caliphate, Young
Females
Price Mean
by
time
period
Place Date
(dollars) (dollars)
Sokotoa c. 1826-1827 15-25
Rabbab c. 1830-1831 c.25
Katsinac mid-1830s 25-30
Rabbad 1841 30-60
Eggae
1841 20
Kanof c.1845 15-20 25.8
(1826-1849)
Kanog c. 1850 32-40
Zariah 1862 20
Bidai 1862 30
BauchiJ c.1866 15-30
Katsinak late nineteenth
up
to 60
century
Katsinal 1891-1900 20
Zariam 1896 47-67 35.1
(1850-1896)
Mean entire nineteenth
century:
30.0
a.
Clapperton,
Second
Expedition,
222.
b. Lander and
Lander, Niger Journal, 193.
c. Daumas and de
Chancel,
Grand
Desert,
204-205.
d. Allen and
Thomson, Narrative, I,
401.
e. Allen and
Thomson, Narrative, II,
101.
f.
Richardson, "Report,"
154-155.
g. Richardson, Narrative, 11,
202-203.
h.
Baikie, "Notes,"
95.
i. Ibid.
j. Rohlfs, Quer
durch
Afiika, II, 158.
k.
Hill,
"Two
Types
of House
Trade,"
311.
1. M.E
Smith,
Baba
ofKaro,
73.
m.
Robinson, Hausaland,
131.
percent
of the value of
young
females
during
the same
period.
It
increased 38.8
percent
in the second half of the
century
to 19.3 dollars.
Still,
this continued to
represent only slightly
over half (55
percent)
of
the
average price
for
young
females. 11
l
Possible distortions in the individual
figures
contained in tables 4 and 5 cause the
average prices
to be
subject
to rather
large degrees
of error. The 1896
figures
for
Zaria,
in
particular,
seem to be
very high.
If
they
are
excluded,
the
average price
for
young
females
in the
period
between 1850 and 1896 becomes 31.4
dollars,
or a 21.7
percent
increase
over the
period
from 1826 to 1849. In the case of
young
males the
average
becomes 12.3
dollars,
or an 11.5
percent
decrease in relation to the 1826-1846
period.
TABLE 5
Caliphate, Young
Males
Price
Place Date (dollars)
Sokotoa c. 1826-1827 5-10
Zariab c.1827 7
Rabbac c. 1830-1831 20
Katsinad mid-1830s 15
Rabbae 1841 15-25
Kanof c.1850 12-14
Sokotog 1853 13
Bauchih c.1866 7-15
Zariai 1896 40
century:
16.3
a.
Clapperton,
Second
Expedition,
222.
b. Richard Lander in
ibid.,
305.
c. Lander and
Lander, Niger Journal,
193.
d. Daumas and de
Chancel,
Grand
Desert,
204-205.
e. Allen and
Thomson, Narrative, 1,
401.
Mean
by
time
period
(dollars)
13.9
(1826-1849)
19.3 (1850-1896)
f.
202-203.
g. Barth, Travels, III,
132.
h.
Rohlfs, Quer
durch
Afiika, II,
158.
i.
131.
Over the entire
century
the
average
for
young
males was 16.3 dollars. In
contrast to the breakdown for
young females, however,
it was lower in
Hausaland
(15.9 dollars)
than in non-Hausa areas
(17.0 dollars).
As
might
be
expected, prices
for
categories
of older slaves were
substantially
less than for
young
adults. The
sparse
data available
suggests
that older males
brought
about one-third
(34 percent)
of what
young
males
did,
while the value of older females was
only
about one-
sixth
(17 percent)
that of
young
females. Unlike
young adults, however,
the
price
difference between older males and older females was almost
negligible.
TABLE 6
Caliphate,
Older Females
Place Date Price
(dollars)
Katsinaa mid-1830s 5.0-7.5
Kanob c. 1850 4 and under
Average:
5.1
a. Daumas and de
Chancel,
Grand Desert,
204-205.
b.
202-203.
195
196 DAVID C. TAMBO
The
average age-specific prices
for both sexes have been
plotted
on the
graph
in
Fig.
2. A
comparison
of the two curves indicates that the value of
females increased much more
sharply
between childhood and adoles-
cence,
and decreased much more
sharply
between
young
adulthood and
later
life,
than did the value of males. If
throughout
their lives both sexes
were
required primarily
for
labor,
the different rates of increase and
decrease would be hard to
explain.
The
answer, however, may
lie in an
additional
sexually-oriented
demand for
young
females as concubines and
child-bearers.
Within the
caliphate,
almost all
persons
sold were
first-generation
slaves.12
Generally,
the
first-generation
male slaves were restricted to
agricultural
work. Some
first-generation
female slaves also worked in
the
fields,
but others served as the household servants or concubines of
their masters. Under Muslim law free males could take
only
four wives
but
might
have as
many
concubines as
they
could
support.
The
offspring
of such unions were free members of the father's
family,
with
the same
rights
of inheritance and succession as children
by legally
recognized
wives.
Concubinage
therefore offered an almost unlimited
means of
increasing
the number of
dependents
in a
family
or descent
line. In an area such as the
caliphate,
where
family
size and
importance
were
key
indices of
political influence,
this was
particularly significant.
13
Clearly,
concubines were drawn almost
exclusively
from the ranks of
young
female slaves of
child-bearing age,
14
and the demand was further
increased
by
the
preference
of North African traders for females of the
same
age categories.
These combined factors seem to account for the
sharp
rise in
prices
between childhood and adolescence.
Conversely,
when females
passed child-bearing age
and were needed
mainly
to
satisfy
a labor
demand,
their value
dropped rapidly
and tended to
approach
a level close to that of older
males,
for whom the demand was
similar.
12Hill,
Rural
Hausa, 42;
M.G.
Smith, "Slavery
and
Emancipation
in Two
Societies,"
Social and Economic Studies,
III
(1954), 250-253, 266;
M.G.
Smith,
Government in
Zazzau,
1800-1950
(London, 1960), 86; Irmgard Sellnow,
"Die
Stellung
der Sklaven in der
Hausa-Gesellschaft,"
Akademie der
Wissenschaifen, Berlin,
Institut
fier Orientforschung,
Mitteilungen, X,
1
(1964),
91.
Second-generation
slaves
usually
were not sold unless
they
proved
to be
extremely
recalcitrant. In such cases
they usually
were not retained within
the
society
but were
exported,
often south toward the coast.
13Hill,
Rural Hausa, 42; Smith,
Government in Zazzau, 83, 86; Smith, "Slavery
and
Emancipation," 250-258, 264-265; Sellnow, "Stellung
der Sklaven," 89,
95.
Offspring
of
slave unions became
second-generation
slaves (in Hausa, dimajaior cucanawa). Children
of male slaves and free females also would have been
slaves,
but
widespread proscriptions
against
such unions existed.
14A few adolescent females
approaching child-bearing age may
have been
purchased
to become concubines in the near future.
TABLE 7
Caliphate,
Older Males
Place Date Price
(dollars)
Kanob c. 1850 4-6
Average:
5.6
a. Daumas and de
Chancel,
Grand Desert,
204-205.
b.
202-203.
Average prices
for
children,
as shown in tables 8 and
9,
also were
lower than for
young
adults of the same sex. Female children were
worth 55
percent
as much as
young females,
while male children' were
worth 80
percent
as much as
young
males. Male children
brought only
80
percent
of the value of female
children,
but the
average price
difference between the two sexes still was
considerably
less than that
between
young
adults.
TABLE 8
Caliphate,
Female Children
Place Date Price (dollars)
Kanob c.1850 12-16
Average:
16.4
a. Daumas and de
Chancel,
Grand Desert, 204-205.
b.
202-203.
TABLE 9
Caliphate,
Male Children
Place Date Price
(dollars)
Katsinaa mid-1830s 22.5
Rabbab 1841 5-15
Eggac
1841 10
Kanod c.1850 8-12
Average:
13.1
a. Daumas and de
Chancel,
Grand Disert, 204-205.
b. Allen and
Thomson, Narrative, I,
401.
c. Allen and
Thomson, Narrative, II,
101.
d.
202-203.
197
198 DAVID C. TAMBO
Enslavement
Slaves in the
caliphate
were
acquired by
various
means, including
wars, kidnapping,
sale
by
relatives or
superiors,
sale to
repay debts,
and
punishment
for
legal
offenses.
Although
an estimate of the total
number of
persons
recruited is
impossible,
we can draw some tentative
conclusions about the relative
importance
of each method of enslave-
ment. In the mid-nineteenth
century
S.W.
Koelle,
a
linguist,
inter-
viewed
people
that members of the British
Squadron
had taken from
slave
ships
and resettled in Sierra Leone.
Forty-four
of his 210
informants came from areas within the
caliphate.
In
thirty-six
cases
they
mentioned the manner in which
they
had been enslaved.
15
Over 80
percent
were
captives
who had been
kidnapped
or taken in wars.
Non-captive
methods were far less
important,
none
accounting
for more
than about
eight percent
of the
sample.
Judicial enslavement in
particular played
a small
role, producing only
one
person,
an adulterer. 16
The data
extrapolated
from Koelle's
study applies directly only
to
those slaves who entered the Atlantic trade
during
nineteenth
century,
and the
degree
to which
they
are
representative
of
all
persons
recruited in Sokoto
throughout
the 1800s remains uncertain.
There is some
indication,
for
instance,
that as the
century progressed
the relative
importance
of
kidnapping
increased while that of warfare
decreased, primarily
because unsettled conditions led
many groups
to
move to more
inaccessible, easily
defended locations.17 We know that
all of Koelle's informants from the
caliphate
were male. Table
10,
15Sigismund
Wilhelm
Koelle, Polyglotta Afiicana:
Or a
Comparative Vocabulaly of
Nearly
Three Hundred Words and Phrases in More than One Hundred Distinct
Afiican
Languages (London, 1854),
1-21. The list also
appears
in
Curtin,
Atlantic Slave Trade, 291-
298. The relevant
informants,
as listed in Atlantic Slave Trade,
are numbers
57, 59, 60,
61(a and
b), 62, 63, 64, 68, 69, 70(a, b,
and
c), 75, 76, 81(a and
b), 82-89, 133(a and
b),
134(c and
d), 137-139, 142, 144, 150, 155-159.
16Table 10 is an
unweighted sample.
See PE.H.
Hair,
"The Enslavement of Koelle's
Informants,"
Journal
of Afiican History, VI,
2
(1965), 193-203,
for an
analysis
of the
modes of enslavement of all Koelle's informants. Hair's results show that.48 were taken
in war
(34 percent),
43 were
kidnapped
(30
percent),
10 were sold
by
relatives or
superiors (7 percent),
10 were sold to
repay
debts (7 percent),
and 16 were sold
following
a
judicial process
(11 percent).
A total of 127
people
became slaves
through
these
means,
or 89
percent
of Hair's informants. The information Hair
gives
make it
impossible
to tell
how the other 11
percent
of his
sample
were enslaved.
17R.M.
East, ed.,
"Labarin Asalin
Bauchi,"
in Labarun Hausawa da Makwabtansu:
Littafi
na
farko (Zaria, 1971), 47, 51;
M.E
Smith,
Baba
of
Karo: A Woman
of
the Moslem
Hausa
(London, 1954),
72.
TABLE 10
Enslavement of Koelle's Informants
Mode Number
Percentage
Wars 21 58.4
Kidnapping
8 22.2
Sold
by
relatives or
superiors
3 8.3
Sold to
repay
debts 3 8.3
Judicial
processes
1 2.8
36 100.0
therefore, may
illustrate the relative
importance
of the various
ways
of
enslaving
males. Whether it is
equally
valid for females18 awaits further
research.
Redistribution
Slaves taken in warfare
theoretically
were
apportioned
in accordance
with Maliki
law,
one-fifth
going
to the leader of the state
(the
emir) and
the rest
kept by
individual warriors. In
practice, however,
emirs often
took a much
higher percentage,
and additional slaves were
given
to
high-ranking military personnel
and other
government
officials. On the
average,
warriors
probably
retained
only
about one-half of all slaves
captured.
On the other
hand, kidnappers,
who were
engaged
in
extralegal activities,
did not
give up any
of their slaves to the state.
Although
a few
captives
were held for
ransom,
the vast
majority
were
sold at local markets.19 Near the
point
of
capture prices
were
relatively
18Kidnappers
seem to have taken
mostly young females,
no doubt because
they
brought
the
highest prices
at the market.
Quite possibly, then, kidnapping
accounted for a
higher percentage
of women enslaved than it did men. See
East,
"Labarin Asalin
Bauchi," 47, 51; Barth, Travels, I, 529;
M.E Smith,
Baba of Karo,
72.
"9M.G.
Smith,
"A Hausa
Kingdom:
Maradi under Dan
Baskore, 1854-75,"
in
Daryll
Forde and PM.
Kaberry, eds.,
West
African Kingdoms (London, 1967), 113-114;
M.G.
Smith,
The
Economy of
flausa Communities of Zaria: A
Report
to the Colonial Social Science
Research Council
(London, 1955), 81, 102, 106;
Parfait Louis
Monteil,
De Saint-Louis i
Tripoli pat
Ie lac
Tchad; voyage
au travers du Soudan et du Sahara, accompli pendant
les annees
1890-91-92
(Paris, 1895), 288-289;
James
Richardson,
Narrative
of
a Mission to Central
Africa, Performed
in the Years 1850-51 (2 vols., London, 1853), II, 270-271;
M.E Smith,
Baba of Karo, 69, 73; Barth, Travels, I, 529;
M.G. Smith,
Government in Zazzau, 82. The
advantage
of
holding captives
for ransom
lay
in the amount that could be obtained for
prominent persons,
which was several times their market
price
as slaves. Baba
of Karo,
73,
tells of a woman who was sold for
100,000K,
and
subsequently
ransomed for
400,000K.
199
200 DAVID C. TAMBO
low since the risk of
escape
was
great,
but as
captives
were
transported
farther from their homeland their value increased.
Consequently, many
did not reach their final destination until
they
had traveled hundreds of
miles and
changed
hands several times. 20
Non-captive types
of enslavement
generally
were restricted to various
non-Islamic
groups
of
people, many
of whom were
politically
subordi-
nate to the nearest emirate. The
largest
share of
non-captives apparently
was traded
away,
but some were delivered to the
respective
emirate
governments
as tribute
payment.21
A
portion
of these were
retained,
and the rest forwarded to Sokoto.22
Internal Flow
During
the first half of the nineteenth
century
the consolidation of
caliphate authority
dissolved
many preexisting political boundaries;
as a
result,
merchants could travel more
freely
to
expand
their
range
of
operations.23
An
enlarged
network of trade routes linked the
emirates,
thus
facilitating
the
regular
flow of slaves from one area of the
caliphate
to another.
Although
a certain number of slaves no doubt were
transported along virtually every
route in either
direction,
in
general
trade flowed from the emirates on the
periphery
of the
caliphate
to the
central
polities
in Hausaland.
Adamawa and to a lesser extent Bauchi and Gombe were the
major
sources of slaves
shipped
to the Hausa emirates. What
categories
of
20M.G.
Smith,
"Historical and Cultural Conditions of Political
Corruption among
the
Hausa," Comparative
Studies in
Society
and
History,
VI
(1963-1964), 185;
E.J.
Arnett,
Gazetteer of'Zaria
Province
(London, 1920), 16;
A.H.M.
Kirk-Greene,
Adamawa Past and
Present
(London, 1958), 102; Alhaji
Hassan and Mallan Shu'aibu
Na'ibi,
A Chronicle of
Abuja (Ibadan, 1952), 79;
R.M.
East,
Stories
of
Old Adamawa
(Lagos
and
London, 1934),
21, 115;
C.H.
Robinson,
"The Slave Trade in the West African
Hinterland,"
Contemporaty Review,
LXXIII
(May, 1898), 700; Mockler-Ferryman,
British West
Afiica,
370.
21H.
Clapperton,
Journal
of
'a Second
Expedition
into the Interior
of'Africa fiom
the
Bight
of
Benin to Soccatoo
(1829, reprinted London, 1960), 215-216; Rohlfs,
Quer durch
Afiika,
II, 249;
C.H.
or
Fifteen
Hundred Miles through the Central Sudan
(London, 1899),
105. Tribute was not levied in slaves alone.
Robinson, H-ausaland, 105,
reports
that Adamawa in the
early
1890s
paid
an annual tribute of two thousand slaves to
Sokoto,
while Bauchi sent five hundred. Katsina's annual assessment was a hundred
slaves,
in addition to an undetermined amount of cowries and
horses,
and Kano's was
fifteen thousand
gowns (tobes),
ten thousand
turbans,
one hundred
horses,
and other
miscellaneous
goods.
22See informants
83, 147,
and 154 in
Koelle, Polyglotta, 11,
19-20.
23Samuel
Adjai Crowther,
Journal
of
an
Expedition up
the Niger and Tshadda Rivers:
Undertaken
by Macgregor
Laird in Connection with the British Government in 1854
(1855,
reprinted London, 1970); Lovejoy,
"Interregional
Monetary Flows," 571-572.
slaves most
frequently
were
transported
is
unclear,
but
young
females
probably brought
the
highest
rate of return.24 The mid-nineteenth-
century figures
of the German
explorer
Heinrich Barth
give
some idea
of the
degree
of
markup
between Adamawa and Kano.
According
to
Barth,
at
Yola,
the
capital
of
Adamawa,
a slave was
priced
at four cloths
(turkedi).
Such cloths cost 1800 to 2000K each in
Kano,
or a total of
7200 to 8000K.25 Once in
Kano, however,
the slave
might bring 25,000
to 30,000K
if a
good male,
and 80,000K
if a
good
female.26
Thus, gross
profits
on the round
trip
could exceed 1000
percent.27
Nupe
also
supplied
Hausaland with
slaves,
but for the most
part
this
was a
specialized
trade in
persons
skilled in
weaving
and other crafts.28
A
parallel
trade in non-skilled slaves was
small, mainly
because
prices
in
Nupe
tended to be
higher
than in Hausaland.29
Imports
Slaves
imported
from outside the
caliphate
also flowed toward the
Hausa emirates. One
major
area of
supply by
the mid-nineteenth
century
was the lower Benue River
region,
where
merchants, mainly
from
Kano, Katsina,
and
Bauchi,
traded iron for slaves with the
Tiv,
24R.A.
Adeleye,
Power and
Diplomacy
in Northern
Nigeria,
1804-1906: The Sokoto
Caliphate
and its Enemies
(London, 1971), 33, 91; Hugh Anthony Stephens Johnston,
The
Fulani
Empire of Sokoto
(London, 1967), 161; Lacroix, "Mat6riaux," 34;
Hans Joachim
Dominik,
Kamerun: Sechs
Kriegs
und
Friedens-jahre
in deutschen
Tropen (Berlin, 1901), 76;
E.W.
Bovill,
The Golden Trade of
the Moors
(London, 1958), 235; Siegfried Passarge,
"The
German
Expedition
to
Adamawa," Geographical Journal,
V
(1895), 53; Siegfried
Passarge,
Adamaua: Bericht liber
die
Expedition
des Deutschen Kamerun-Komitees in den
Jahren 1893-94
(Berlin, 1895), 261-262;
C.WJ.
Orr,
The Making of
Northern Nigeria
(London, 1911), 58-59, 107;
Paul
Staudinger,
Im Herzen der Haussalander
(Berlin, 1889),
572;
Heinz
Solken,
"Afrikanische Dokumente zur
Frage
der
Entstehug
der
Hausanischen
Diaspora
in
Oberguinea," Aftikanische Studien,
XLII
(1939),
104. See A.
Neil
Skinner,
"The Men of
Sokoto,"
Hausa Tales and Traditions: An English
Translation
of
'Tatsuniyoyi
na
Hausa'; Originally Compiled by
Frank Edgar (London, 1969), 102-104,
for
specific
mention of Sokoto merchants
going
to Adamawa to
buy
female slaves who
subsequently
were to become concubines or farm laborers
depending upon
their
appearance.
25Barth, Travels, II,
190.
26Richardson, Narrative, II,
204.
27No information on costs
exists,
so
calculating
net
profits
is
impossible.
28H.S.
Goldsmith, "Nupe History,"
in J.A.
Burdon, comp.,
Historical Notes on Certain
Emirates and Tribes in Northern Nigeria (London, 1909), 55; Adeleye,
Power and
Diplomacy,
335; Clapperton,
Second
Expedition, 54,
112-113.
29See tables 4 and 5.
201
Older adults
Adolescents
-
and
young
adults
Children
i
O
L) L)
C
C)
o
tO
r-4
r--4 r-4)
0
Ca
a
a
(-
Ln
C('
I
LO)
r-4
I
r-4
I
1-0
Dollars
ob
LZ
I
I
Idoma,
and Jukun.30 The area
just
north of Hausaland was another
important
source.
Zinder,
for
example, appears
to have
exported
most
of its slaves south to Kano rather than north across the Sahara.31
Although average
slave
prices
were
roughly
the same at both
points,
persons captured
near Zinder
actually
were worth more in Kano since
they
were farther from their homes.
In the latter half of the
century,
merchants
began
to
import
slaves
from areas east of the
caliphate.
Those
traveling
to
Bagirmi
carried
cowries,
which around 1851 and 1852
they exchanged
at the rate of
3000
larger
shells
(keme-keme)
for older male children or
sedasi,
and
2000 for
younger slaves,
called khomasi.32 In Kano sedasi
brought
as
much as
30,000K,
or 1000
percent
of the
Bagirmi price.33
Other slaves
came from areas such as Wadai. On the Wadai-to-Kano
segment
of the
journey,
merchants needed all their slaves as
porters.
The
goods
carried
on the return
trip
were less
bulky, however,
and fewer
porters
were
required. Although prices
were lower at Kano than in
Wadai,
some of
the slaves were
sold,
since losses taken from the sale were not as
great
as
costs for
upkeep during
the return.34
Exports
Southbound
exports
from the
caliphate
either entered the Atlantic
trade or were absorbed
by
local African societies. Lack of
quantitative
data makes it
impossible
to estimate where most slaves went
during
the
early part
of the
century,
but
by
the 1850s the Atlantic trade from the
30W.B.
Baikie,
Narrative
of
an
Exploring Voyage up
the Rivers Kwo'ra and Bi'nue
(Commonly
Known as the Niger and Tsadda) in 1854
(London, 1856), 114-115; Crowther,
Journal
of
an
Expedition 1854, 84, 128, 150; Kirk-Greene, "Major
Currencies,"
144;
Barth, Travels, I,
621. The iron the merchants carried
apparently
was manufactured in
Hausaland.
Along
the Benue it served as
currency, although
whether it was a
special-
purpose
or an
all-purpose currency
is not clear at this
point.
Iron in the
shape
of small
hoes circulated
among
the Idoma and
Jukun,
who called them
akika,
and
among
the
Tiv,
who termed them ibia.
Kantai,
iron
objects pointed
at each end and thicker in the
middle,
were another form of
currency recognized
from Jukun
territory
to
Hamaruwa,
farther
up-river. According
to
Barth, ibid.,
the
average
rate of
exchange
around 1851 was
forty
akika
per
slave at
Wukari,
while
according
to
Crowther,
Journal
of
an
Expedition 1854, 128,
each slave cost
thirty-six
akika or one hundred kantai.
31Richardson, Narrative, II, 204, 273,
287.
511-512. Cowries were not
recognized
as
currency
in
Bagirmi
at
this
time,
but were
highly
valued for ornamental
purposes.
202-203.
34John Arthur
Works, "Pilgrims
in a
Strange
Land: The Hausa Communities in
Chad,
1890-1970"
(unpublished
Ph.D. dissertation, University
of
Wisconsin, Madison,
1971),
93. No further information is
given
on the assortment of
goods
carried in either
direction.
203
204 DAVID C. TAMBO
bights
of Benin and Biafra
clearly
was in the midst of its final decline.35
Conversely,
the
expansion
of commerce in
palm produce
in
Yoruba,
Ibo,
and Efik
(Old Calabar) areas created labor-intensive economies
which relied on increased numbers of slaves.36 An
enlarged
domestic
demand, in those areas
consequently may
have more than offset the loss
of
caliphate exports
into the Atlantic trade.
Although
the
price
of
palm
products dropped sharply
between the
early
1860s and
1880s,
evidence
suggests
that
producers
tended to increase
exports
to maintain their
incomes,37
thus
sustaining
or even
increasing
the demand for slaves.
Throughout
the nineteenth
century young
males
comprised
the vast
majority
of southbound
exports.38 Nearly every region
of the
caliphate
seems to have contributed to the trade. Slaves from Adamawa and
Bauchi were
transported primarily
to Old
Calabar, Iboland,
and the
Niger
Delta.39 Most of those from the Hausa
emirates, however,
traveled the Kano-Zaria-Rabba route. From Rabba
they
and additional
Nupe
slaves either continued on to Yorubaland and the coastal
ports
of
Badagry,
Porto
Novo,
and
Lagos,
or were
shipped
down the
Niger
to
35Curtin,
Atlantic Slave
Trade, 258, 269;
A.J.H.
Latham,
Old Calaba,;
1600-1891: The
Impact of
the International
Economy upon
a Traditional
Society (London, 1973),
22. In some
areas,
such as Old
Calabar,
the
export
of slaves came to an end as
early
as the 1840s.
36A.G.
Hopkins,
An Economic
History of
West
Africa (New York, 1973),
143. The
slaves were needed both to harvest
palm
trees and to
carry
the
produce
to the markets.
37Ibid., 133-134; Latham,
Old Calabar,
151-152. Palm oil
prices
declined from an
average
of ?37
per
ton between 1861 and 1865 to ?20
per
ton from 1886 to 1890. The
following figures
are taken from
Latham,
Old Calabat; 151-152.
Palm Produce
Exports
from Old Calabar
Oil Kernels
Year (Tons) Year (Tons)
1855 4090
1864 4500
1869 1000
1871 6000 1871 2000
1875 5085 1875 947
1883 7365
1887 7000 1887 10,000
38H.
Clapperton
in
Bovill,
Missions to the
Nigel; IV, 774; Richardson, Narrative, II,
202-
203.
According
to
Richardson,
the males most
commonly exported
south were
morhag,
those with beards
beginning; sabaai,
those without
beards;
and
sadasi, grown
children.
39E.M.
Chilver, "Nineteenth-Century
Trade in the Bamenda
Grassfields,
Southern
Cameroons," Afiika
und Ubersee, XLV,
4
(1961), 239-240;
M.Z.
Njeuma,
"The Rise and
Fall of Fulani Rule in
Adamawa,
1809-1901"
(unpublished
Ph.D. dissertation, University
of
London, 1969), 304-305; Koelle, Polyglotta,
informants
83-86, 150, 153, 158; Passarge,
Adamaua, appendix
"Die
Haupthandelswege
der Haussa."
Iboland and delta
ports
such as
Bonny
and Brass.40 Sokoto
exports
followed a different
path.
Government
surpluses,
accumulated
mainly
from wars and tribute exactions,
were taken to
Jega,
a
politically
neutral
frontier market some
eighty
miles to the
southwest,
where
they
were
sold. Most of these
subsequently
were
transported
south to Yorubaland,
but a limited number also were
shipped
southwest to
Gonja
and
Ashanti.41
Slaves exported
north from the
caliphate
followed two main
paths
across the Sahara-the Kano-Ghat-Ghadames and the Bornu-Fezzan-
Tripoli
routes. In the first half of the nineteenth
century Nupe, Bauchi,
and Adamawa were the source of some exports
to
Borno,
but an
examination of the origins
of slave caravans
suggests
that the
largest
number came from the Hausa
emirates, particularly
Kano.42
Apparently
few of the
caliphate
slaves were retained within Borno
society.
Instead
they
were taken to Kuka and sold primarily
to North African traders.43
Exports
from Hausaland to Borno were
mainly young females,
together
with a few
young
males. Data
extrapolated
from tables 4 and 5
indicate that the
average price
for
young
females in Hausaland during
roughly
century
was 21.7
dollars, compared
to 33.3
dollars in Borno. Based on these
figures, average markup
between the
two
points
was 53
percent. Conversely,
the
average price
for
young
males in Hausaland
during
century
was 9.8 dollars.
This was
only slightly
less than the 10.0-dollar Borno
price,
which
probably
is
why relatively
few
young
males entered the trade.
40Samuel Crowther and John Christopher Taylor, The Gospel on the Banks of the Niger.
Journal and Notices
of
the Native Missionaries
accompanying the Niger Expedition of 1857-59
(1859, reprinted London, 1968), 149;
Great
Britain, Foreign Office 541, Slave Trade-
Class B
Papers (1 April
1858 to 31 March
1859),
enc. 1 in no. 8, Mr. Davies, medical
officer attached to the
Niger expedition, to Consul Campbell, 31 Jan. 1858, p. 12, Public
Record
Office, London; S.E
Nadel, A Black Byzantium: The Kingdom of Nupe
in Nigeria
(London, 1942), 85-86;
J.E Schon and Samuel Crowther, Journals
of
the ...
Expedition up
the Niger in 1841 (1842, reprinted London, 1970), 231-233; Richard and John Lander,
The Niger Journal of Richard and John Lander (London, 1965), 193; Allen and Thomson,
Narrative, II, 118; Barth, Travels, I, 515; Colvin, "Commerce of
Hausaland,"
122-124.
41E.W. Bovill,
"Jega
Market" Journal
of
the
African Society, XXII
(Oct., 1922), 57-58;
M.G. Smith, "Exchange
and
Marketing among the Hausa," in Paul Bohannan and
George Dalton, eds., Markets in Africa (Evanston, III., 1962), 304-305; Lovejoy,
"Hausa
Kola
Trade,"
48.
42Dixon
Denham, Hugh Clapperton, and Dr. Oudney, Narrative
of
Travels and
Discoveries in North and Central Africa, in the Years 1822, 1823, 1824 (London, 1826),
Clapperton, 45;
Gustav
Nachtigal,
Sahara und Sudan: Ergebnisse sechsjahriger
Reisen in
Afrika (3 vols., 1889, reprinted Graz, Austria, 1967), 1, 701; Oudney to Wilmot, 14 July
1823,
in Bovill, Missions to the
Nige,; III, 568; Rohlfs, Quer
Durch Afrika,
I, 150-151,
344.
43Oudney
to
Wilmot,
14
July 1823,
in
Bovill, Missions to the
Nigel; III, 568.
205
206 DAVID C. TAMBO
TABLE 11
Select Slave Prices in
Borno, Young
Females
Price Mean
by
time
period
Place Date
(dollars) (dollars)
Kukaa 1823 50
Bornob c.1845 15-18 33.3
(1823-1845)
Kukac c.1866 30-60
Kukad 1872-1873 40-100 57.5
(1866-1873)
century:
45.4
a.
Oudney
in
Bovill,
Missions to the Niger; III,
568.
b.
154.
c.
Rohlfs, Quer
durch
Af/ika, I,
344.
d.
Nachtigal,
Sahara und
Sudan, I, 692.
TABLE 12
Select Slave Prices in
Borno, Young
Males
Price Mean
by
time
period
Place Date (dollars)
(dollars)
Bornoa c.1845 10 10.0
(c.1845)
Bornob c. 1851-1853 15
Kukac c.1866 15-30
Kukad c. 1872-1873 15-25 19.2
(c. 1851-1873)
century:
16.9
a.
154.
b. Kirk-Greene and
Newman,
West African
Travels, 4,
49.
c.
Rohlfs, Quer
durch
Afirika, I,
344.
d.
Nachtigal,
Sahara und
Sudan, I,
692.
Evidence
suggests
that the volume of
exports
to North Africa
by way
of Borno fluctuated
sharply
in the nineteenth
century.
Intermittent
warfare between the
caliphate
and Borno in the first three
decades,
revolutions in
Tripoli
between 1830 and
1842,
and the
increasing
frequency
of raids on caravans
traveling
the Borno-Murzuk
segment
of
the route after 1830 all tended to inhibit trade to
varying degrees.44
In
relatively peaceful
times such as the
early
1820s and latter
1840s,
however,
the
magnitude
of
exports
to Borno from the Hausa emirates
44Boahen, Britain, 107-108; Colvin,
"Commerce of
Hausaland,"
126-127.
alone
probably
was on the order of 1000 slaves a
year.45
Continued raids
during
the 1850s rendered the
Borno-Fezzan-Tripoli
route
increasingly
unsafe and caused
many
merchants to shift their
operations
to other
routes across the Sahara.
Consequently,
the volume of northbound
exports
from Borno
by
the 1860s
may
have been
only
about one-third of
that
during
the
peak periods
in the first half of the
century.46
The
importance
of the road
leading
from Kano
through
Ghat and
Ghadames and on to
Tripoli
or Tunis increased as the Borno-Fezzan-
Tripoli
route declined. Estimates from the
early
1850s
suggest
that the
volume of
exports
carried
along
the Kano-Ghat-Ghadames route at that
time
may
have reached
nearly
2500 slaves a
year.47 Although
little more
can be said in
quantitative terms,
as
early
as the mid-nineteenth century
most northbound slaves from the
caliphate evidently
were
shipped
directly
to North Africa rather than to Borno.
The-majority
of slaves
exported
north on the Kano-Ghat-Ghadames
route also were
young females, although
some
young
males were sent
that
way.48
Table 13 indicates that the
markup
for
good (young)
females
around 1845 was on the order of 100-167
percent
between Kano and
Ghat,
and 250-433
percent
between Kano and
Tripoli.
When
computed
in terms of
distance, markup
between Kano and Ghat was
only
2.22-
2.78 dollars
per
hundred
miles,
but 6.00-6.67 dollars
per
hundred miles
on the
Ghat-to-Tripoli segment
of the route. As table 14
shows,
however, transport
costs also were
greatest
between Ghat and
Tripoli.49
Additional data on
prices
for northbound slaves around 1850 indicate
that the
markup
for males
actually
was
higher
than for females. Between
Kano and
Murzuk,
for
instance,
it was between 233 and 300
percent,
45Denham et
al., Narrative, 189; Richardson, Travels, II,
115. Richardson estimated
around 1845 that about a thousand slaves a
year
were
being exported
from Soudan
(Hausa)
to Borno.
Barth, Travels, II, 135,
calculated around 1850 that a maximum of five
thousand slaves left Kano each
year,
with a
greater
number
being
carried to Borno and
Nupe
than to North Africa via the Kano-Ghat route.
46Rohlfs, Quer
dutch
Afiika, I, 150-151; Boahen, Britain, 107-108; Nachtigal,
Sahara
und
Sudan, I, 133,
claims that five thousand to
eight
thousand slaves had
formerly passed
through
Fezzan each
year,
but
by
1869 the trade had been cut to one-third this
figure.
135.
Boahen, Britain, 128,
has estimated that the route handled an
annual
average
of 4500 slaves
during
the nineteenth
century.
This is best viewed as a
capacity
estimate rather than a statistical
average, however,
and it is unclear which
years
were used to arrive at this
figure.
48Karl
Kumm,
The Sudan: A Short
Compendium of
Facts and
Figures
about the Land
of
Darkness
(London, 1907[?]), 126-127;
G.E
Lyon,
A Narrative of Travels in Northern
Afiica
in the Years 1818,
19 and 20
(1821, reprinted London, 1966), 135;
Denham et
al.,
Narrative, xvii; Clapperton,
"Additional
Documents,'"
in
Bovill,
Missions to the
Nigel; IV,
774; Barth, Travels, I,
167.
49The main
transport
costs were food and customs duties.
207
208 DAVID C. TAMBO
TABLE 13
Price
Markup
between Kano and
Tripoli,
c.
1845,
Good Females
Markup Markup per Markup
between 100 miles from
Price points between
points
Kano
Place
(dollars) (dollars) (dollars)
(percentage)
Kano 15-20
-
-
Ghat 40 20-25 2.22-2.78 100-167
Tripoli
70-80 30-40 6.00-6.67 250-433
Source:
154-155.
TABLE 14
Transport
Costs between Kano and
Tripoli,
c. 1845
Costs
per
100 miles
Distance between
points
between
points
Place (miles) (dollars)
Kano
Ghat 900 .89-1.11
Tripoli
600 2.50-2.67
Source:
154-155.
TABLE 15
Price
Markup
between Kano and
Constantinople,
c.
1850,
Good Females
Markup Markup per Markup
points
Kano
Place
(dollars) (dollars) (dollars)
(percentage)
Kano 32
- - -
Murzuk 85 53 4.82 167
Tripoli
100 15 2.88 213
Constantinople
130 30 2.50 306
Source:
204.
TABLE 16
Price
Markup
between Kano and
Constantinople,
c.
1850,
Good Males
Markup Markup per
Markup
points
Kano
Place (dollars) (dollars) (dollars)
(percentage)
Kano 10-12
-
-
Murzuk 40 28-30 2.55-2.73 233-300
Tripoli
60-65 20-25 3.87-4.81 400-550
Constantinople
90-100 25-40 2.08-3.33 650-900
Source:
204.
compared
to
only
167
percent
for females.
Although
one
might expect
this to favor
export
of
males,
it
may
be that cost factors
produced
a
profit
margin
which was similar for trade in either sex.50
Conclusion
The data on the
caliphate
slave trade are much more informative on
price
structure than on volume. In the final
analysis,
little can be said
quantitatively
about the
magnitude
and value of the
trade,
either in the
internal or
export
sectors.51
Many
of the
problems posed
at the
beginning
of the
article, therefore,
must remain unsolved.
However,
the
argument
that the least
economically productive
slaves tended to be
exported clearly
cannot be sustained.
Young
females
comprised
the
bulk of the northbound
exports
while southbound
exports
were
mainly
young
males. The least
economically productive age categories,
children
and older
adults,
did not
figure significantly
into the
export
trade
during
any period
of the nineteenth
century.
50For
example,
a merchant
might pay
32 dollars for a female slave at
Kano,
whom he
subsequently
could sell at Murzuk for 85 dollars. If
transport
costs were 10 dollars,
his
net
profit
would be 43 dollars.
Alternatively,
he
might buy
two male slaves at 10 dollars
each and sell them for a total of 80 dollars.
Transport costs, being roughly
the same for
either
sex,
would amount to 20
dollars, leaving
a net
profit
of 40 dollars. In such a
hypothetical case, profit margins
would therefore be
similar, although
the
markup might
be
greater
for males.
5'Barth, Travels, I, 511-518, provides
the
only comparative
estimate of value for the
trade in slaves and other
goods. According
to
Barth,
the value of slave
exports
from Kano
around 1850
averaged
150 million to 200 million cowries
per year.
Cotton cloth,
at 300
million K or
more,
was the most
important export. Conversely,
the most
important
imports
were
kola,
which was valued at 80 million to 100 million
K,
salt at 50 million to
80 million
K,
and silk at 70 million K. All
export
and
import
values
apparently
were
calculated at current Kano market
prices.
209
APPENDIX
Price Schedule for Slaves in the Nineteenth
Century
Place Date
Type
of Slave Price
Murzuk52 c. 1818-1820 female from Soudan 1 tobe
(large shirt)
Murzuk53 c. 1818-1820 girl from Mandara 32 dollars
Barbary ports54
c. 1818-1820 female 80-150 dollars
Kuka
(Borno)
1823
female-good appearance
50 dollars
Tripoli55 female-good appearance
80-90 dollars
Katunga (Oyo)56
1826 prime slave
40,000-60,000K (20-30 dollars)
Sokoto57 c. 1826-1827
young
male--13-20
years
old
10,000-20,000K (5-10 dollars)
female-handsome
40,000-50,000K
(20-25 dollars)
virgin-
14-15
years
old c.
30,000K (c.
15
dollars)
Zegzeg
(Zaria)58
c. 1827 male slave 7 dollars
(14,000 K)
Rabba59 c. 1830-1831
strong, healthy
lad
40,600K (20 dollars)
girl
c.
50,000K (c.
25
dollars)
Katsina60 mid-1830s bearded male
10,000-15,000K (5.0-7.5 dollars)
older woman 10,000-15,OOOK (5.0-7.5 dollars)
adolescent
boy
30,000K
(15 dollars)
adolescent
girl,
varying according
to
beauty
young
male child
young girl
n3
2t
?
50,000-60,000K (25-30 dollars)
45,000K (22.5 dollars)
35,000-40,000K
(17.5-20.0 dollars)
Rabba61
1841
young
female
60,000-120,000K (30-60 dollars)
strong, well-grown young
man
30,000-50,000K (15-25 dollars)
boy
10,000-30,000K (5-15 dollars)
common
working
slave
10,000-30,000K (5-15 dollars)
Egga62
1841 woman
young boy 20,000K (10 dollars)
Borno63
c. 1845
young
male 10 dollars in
goods
or 6 dollars in
coin
female slave
15-18 dollars
Kano64 c. 1845 female 15-20 dollars
(30,000-40,000K)
Ghat65 c. 1845 slave
30 dollars
average
good
female
40 dollars
(C
(Continued)
52Lyon, Narrative,
155.
53
bid.,
182.
54Ibid.,
121.
55Oudney
to
Wilmot, Kuka,
14
July 1823,
in
Bovill,
Missions to the
Niger,
III, 568.
56Clapperton,
Second
Expedition,
59.
571bid.,
222.
58
bid., "Report
of R.
Lander," 305. Lander
bought
a male slave at Zaria
for seven dollars.
59Lander and
Lander, Niger Journal, 193. The Landers noted that the
price
of other men and women varied
according
to
age
and abilities.
60E. Daumas and A. de
Chancel,
Le Grand
Desert, ou Itineraire d'une
Caravane du Sahara au
Pays
des
Negres (Royaume
de
Haoussa)
(Paris, 1856),
204-205. The dates for these
figures
are not
given,
but Paul
Lovejoy,
"Hausa Kola
Trade," 126, notes that "the information was obtained from a
Tuareg, Chegguen,
who was in Katsina in 1835 or slightly earlier."
61Allen and
Thomson, Narrative, I, 401. Allen and Thomson com-
mented that a female slave must be beautiful to command the highest price.
62Allen and
Thomson, Narrative, II, 101. These were prices asked by an
Egga
slave
dealer, although they are not the prices necessarily offered. The
boys
were seven or
eight years old.
63James
Richardson, "Report on the Slave-Trade of the Great Desert,"
Anti-Slavery Reporter
and Aborigines' Friend, Series I/, I (1 Oct. 1846), 154.
Richardson
gathered
this data at Murzuk. He reports that prices were
slightly higher in Soudan (Hausa) than Borno because of the greater beauty
of the women from that
region.
64
Ibid.
65Ibid.
--3
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0
r,
0
H
rn
r!
CA)
tr!
H
0
m
z
z
z
H
0
z
H
3b
0
Place
Tripoli66
Ghat
Tripoli67
Ghat68
Soudan
(Hausa)
Ghadames69
Kano70
Date
c. 1845
c. 1845-1846
c. 1845-1846
c.1845-1846
c. 1845-1846
c. 1845-1846
c. 1850
APPENDIX (Cont.)
Type
of Slave
slave
good
female
slave
slave
slave
good
slave
good
slave
garzab
(male
with
beard)
morhag (male
with beard
beginning)
sabaai
(male
without beard)
sadasi
(grown
male
child)
hhamsi
(male child)
ajouza
(old woman)
shamalia
(woman
with breasts
hanging
down)
dabukia
(female
with
plump breasts)
Price
50 dollars
average
70-80 dollars
40 mahboubs
60 mahboubs
40-100 dollars
30,000-40,000K (15-20 dollars)
40 mahboubs
10,000-15,000K (4-6 dollars)
30,000K
and under
(12 dollars and
under)
35,000K
and under
(14
dollars and
under)
30,000K
and under (12 dollars
and
under)
20,000K
and under
(8
dollars and
under)
10,OOOK
and under
(4
dollars and
under)
20,000K
and under
(8
dollars and
under)
80,000K
and under
(32
dollars and
under)
C)
a3
v
m
5)
farkhah (female
with small
breasts)
sadasia
(smaller
girl)
hhamasiah (female child)
Kano
Zinder
Murzuk
Tripoli
Smyrna
Constantinople71
Kano
Zinder
Murzuk
Tripoli
Smyrna
r . ,- . I 7X
c. 1850
c. 1850
c. 1850
c. 1850
c. 1850
c. 1850
c. 1850
c. 1850
c. 1850
c. 1850
c. 1850
good
male
good
male
good
male
good
male
good
male
good
male
good
female
good
female
good
female
good
female
good
female
100,OOOK
and under
(40
dollars
and
under)
40,000K and under
(16
dollars and
under)
30,000K
and under (12 dollars and
under)
10-12 dollars
(25,000-30,000K)
10-12 dollars
(25,000-30,000K)
40 dollars
60-65 dollars
90-100 dollars
90-100 dollars
85 dollars
100 dollars
130 dollars
r3
0o
o
o
n
r
.-
3:
r-
3
rI>
-o
m
z
m
m
z
H
a
H
Constantinople'
c. 1850 good female 130 dollars
(Continued)
66Ibid.,
155. Richardson notes that two-thirds of the slaves involved in
202-203. Richardson notes a 5000-to-
the trans-Saharan trade were female.
10,OOOK
fluctuation within the
categories
mentioned. His information on
67Richardson, Travels, II,
18. Kano
prices
was
gathered
at Zinder.
681bid.,
41. Richardson comments on the extreme variation in
prices 71Ibid.,
204.
which was caused
by sharply fluctuating
levels of
supply
and demand. 7 Ibid.
69Ibid., I,
254.
APPENDIX (Cont.)
Place Date
Type
of Slave
Price
Zinder73 c. 1850 old woman
6000K
(2.4 dollars)
Zinder74 c. 1850 old woman
4000K (1.6
dollars)
Wukari
(Jukun)75 c. 1851 slave
40 akika
(iron hoes)
Yola76 c. 1851 slave
4 turkedi
(cloths)
Ngaundere77
c. 1851 female
1
goat
Bagirmi78
1851-1852 khomasi
(young
slave) 2000 keme-keme
(shells)
sedasi
3000 keme-keme
(shells)
Borno79
c. 1851-1853
boy 15 dollars
Sokoto80 1853 lad of indifferent
appearance 33,000K (c. 13
dollars)
Idoma81
1854
ordinary
slave
36 akika
(iron hoes)
Hamaruwa to Wukari82 1854
average
male
100 kantai
(iron rods) or
1 horse
per
5 slaves
Zaria 1862
young
woman
Bida83
1862
young
woman
135,000K (30 dollars)
Fezzan84
c. 1865-1866
young
male
50 dollars and
up
Fezzan
(Murzuk)85 c. 1865-1866
boy,
7-8
years
old
70 real
(80 dollars and
up)
Kuka
(Borno)86 c. 1866
young boy 15-30 dollars
young girl 30-60 dollars
older man or woman
3-10 dollars
small child
3-10 dollars
Egypt87
c. 1866 male or female
200-300 dollars
Bauchi88
c. 1866 slave
half the
price
at Kuka
Borno89 c. 1866 girl or adult male 25 dollars
small
girl 25 dollars
->
-t.
0
ab
Borno90 c. 1866
male,
20
years
old 25 dollars
girl,
12-13
years
old 50 dollars
Kuka (Borno)91 c. 1872-1873 old man 4-5 dollars
old woman 6-10 dollars
strong
adult male 12-14 dollars
middle-aged
woman 10-15 dollars
young
adult male 15-18 dollars
7-span youth,
15-20
years
old 16-22 dollars
6-span boy,
12-15
years
old 20-25 dollars
5-span girl,
10-13
years
old 20-25 dollars
5-span boy,
10-13
years
old 16-20 dollars
young girl
or woman 40-100 dollars
boy
eunuch 50-80 dollars
(Continued)
3
Ibid.,
230.
741bid., 258.
75Barth, Travels, I, 621.
76
bid., II,
190. The turkedi
(cloths) could be obtained in Kano for 1800
to 2000 cowries each.
77Ibid.,
193. Barth notes that the cause of this
price
for slaves was a meat
scarcity
in
Ngaundere.
78Ibid.,
511-512.
79A.H.M. Kirk-Greene and Paul
Newman,
West
Afiican
Travels and
Adventures: Two
Autobiographical
Narratives
froth
Northern
Nigeria (New
Haven and
London, 1971), 4,
49. The
boy
was
Dorugu,
sold to
Overweg,
a
companion
of Barth.
80Barth, Travels,
III,
132. Barth comments that the
prices actually
were
higher
than
might
be
supposed, given
the
large
numbers of slaves
arriving
at Sokoto in the form of tribute.
81Baikie, Exploring Voyage,
114-115.
82Ibid.,
220. The source of information was a Bauchi trader
dealing
in
ivory
and slaves who was
traveling
on the Benue in the Kororofa area.
Samuel
Crowther,
Journal
of
an
Expedition 1854, 127-128, 150,
offers an
independent
account of this
meeting.
83Baikie,
"Notes," 95. Baikie
purchased
a
young
woman in the Zaria
market for
90,000
cowries and notes that this was one-third less than the
price
at Bida.
84Rohlfs, Quer
durch
Afrika, I,
173.
85Ibid., 173-174.
86
Ibid., 344.
87Ibid.,
348.
88Ibid., II, 158.
89Ibid.,
59.
90Ibid.,
60.
91Nachtigal,
Sahara und
Sudan, I,
692.
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APPENDIX
(Cont.)
Place Date
Type
of Slave Price
Abuja92
late nineteenth
century
good
boy
or
girl up
to
200,000K (up
to 40
dollars)
Ashanti
(Salaga)
93 late nineteenth
century
good male
250,000K
girl,
12-13
years
old c.
500,000K
boy,
12-13
years
old c.
400,000K
Damagaram
(Zinder)
94 late nineteenth
century
slave
up
to
100,000K (up
to 20
dollars)
Katsina95 late nineteenth
century comely
female
up
to
300,000K (up
to 60 dollars)
Wadai96 late nineteenth
century
porters
higher
at Wadai than at Kano
Keffi97 c. 1888
strong young
lad 10-15 sacks of cowries
(200,000-300,000K
or 40-60
dollars)
strong young girl
higher
Katsina98 c. 1890-1900 woman 100,000K (20 dollars)
Yola99 c. 1891-1892 slave
100,000K
(20 dollars)
Tafilet
(Morocco)100
c. 1893
young girl
100-120 dollars
boy
30-40 dollars
t:t
n
v
0
Zaria10l
c. 1896 slave sold in the market
100,000-300,000K (20-60 dollars)
slave sold
privately higher
Zaria102 c. 1896
girl,
14
years
old ?7-10
(233,000-333,000K
or c. 47-67
dollars)
young man,
18
years
old ?6
(c. 200,000K or c. 40
dollars)
man,
30
years
old ?4
(c. 133,000K or c. 27
dollars)
Hausa103 c. 1914
young
man 2-3 horses
92Hassan and
Na'ibi,
Chronicle
of Abuja,
79.
93M.J.
Herskovits,
"The
Significance
of West Africa for
Negro
Research," Journal
of Negro History,
XXI
(1936),
20. Herskovits's source of
information was four old men whom he interviewed around 1936 about
events in their lifetimes.
94Polly Hill,
Studies in Rural
Capitalism
in West
Africa (London, 1970),
145.
95Hill,
"Two
Types
of House
Trade,"
311. Hill's data was drawn from
oral information
supplied by
a
Hausa,
Abubakar
Labo,
from Kaukai south
of Katsina
City.
96Works, "Pilgrims
in a
Strange
Land," 93.
97Staudinger,
Im Herzen der
Haussaldnder,
572.
Computations
are based
upon 20,000
cowries
per
sack.
98M.E
Smith,
Baba
of Karo,
73.
99Monteil,
Saint-Louis a
Tripoli,
252.
I?W.B. Harris, Tafilet:
The Narrative
of i
Journey of Exploration
in the
Atlas Mountains and the Oases
of
the North- West Sahara
(Edinburgh, 1895),
297. Harris
specifically
mentions that the slaves were from Hausaland.
101
88.
102
Ibid.,
131. Robinson
gives
the rate of
100,000
cowries to ?3
sterling.
103John R.
Raphael, Through
Unknown
Nigeria (London, 1914[?]),
262-
263.
H
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71,
0
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The Sokoto Caliphate Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century

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