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The Inland Niger Delta before the Empire of Mali: Evidence from Jenne-Jeno*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Roderick J. McIntosh  and
Susan Keech McIntosh
Roderick J. McIntosh
Affiliation:
Rice University, Houston, Texas
Susan Keech McIntosh
Affiliation:
Rice University, Houston, Texas
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Extract

The dates and circumstances of early references to Jenne have led historians to conclude that the city originated relatively late in time. It is widely believed that the city developed simultaneously with Timbuktu in the mid-thirteenth century as an artifact of trans-Saharan trade. Persistent oral traditions of the foundation of Jenne in the eighth century are generally discounted.

Recent archaeological excavations at the ancestral site of Jenne-jeno have established that iron-using and manufacturing peoples were occupying the site in the third century B.C. The settlement proceeded to grow rapidly during the first millennium a.d., reaching its apogee between a.d. 750 and 1100, at which time the settlement exceeded 33 hectares (82 acres) in size. The archaeological data are supported by the results of site survey within a 1,100-square-kilometre region of Jenne's traditional hinterland. During the late first millennium a.d., several nearby settlements comparable in size to Jenne-jeno existed, and the density of rural settlements may have been as great as ten times the density of villages in the hinterland today.

Evidence from excavation and survey indicates that Jenne participated in inter-regional exchange relations far earlier than previously admitted. The stone and iron in the initial levels at Jenne-jeno were imported from outside the Inland Delta; levels dated to c.a.d. 400 yield copper, presumably from distant Saharan sources. The importance of the abundant staple products of Jenne's rural hinterland, including rice, fish and fish oil, is examined in a reassessment of the extent of inter-regional commerce and the emergence of urbanism during the first millennium a.d. Jenne-jeno may have been a principal participant in the founding of commercial centres on the Saharan contact zone of the Bend of the Niger, rather than a product of the luxury trade serviced by those centres.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , January 1981 , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

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11 The middle Niger is easily navigable only during the flood season (mid-July to December); as soon.as the floodwaters recede, sandbars lie very close to the water surface. Even pirogue traffic comes to a virtual standstill between Markala and Mopti from March to the end of June (Champaud, J., ‘La navigation fluvial dans le Moyen Niger’, Cahiers d'Outre-Mer, lv (1961), 255–92, esp. pages 259, 281, 287CrossRefGoogle Scholar). Ibn Battuta travelled from Mali to Timbuktu in late February/early March (Cuoq, Recueil, 289, footnote 1).

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22 This is an excellent illustration of the problem of toponymy in tracing the historical sources for Jenne. Medieval writers and cartographers used a bewildering number of spellings – Gyna, Gyni, Genni, Ghinea, Genehoa – which are sufficiently similar that it is often unclear whether reference is being made to a city (Jenne), a kingdom (possibly Jenne or ancient Ghana), or an entire region (Guinea – the Land of the Blacks). Flemish and Portuguese maps of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries show an area variously designated as Gine, Guinea, Genoia, and Genna. These apparently are all variants of a generic term for Black Africa. During the early seventeenth century the term Genehoa began to appear with the term Guinia on European maps, such as that by Jodicus Hondius in 1606. The former term refers to both a city and a kingdom or region, whereas the latter is apparently a more generic term for the whole of West Africa. By the end of the seventeenth century both the city and the kingdom of Genehoe (Jenne?) were always indicated in addition to the generic term Guinea. See Prussin, , Architecture, 76, 276.Google Scholar

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