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The Political Organization of Traditional Gold Mining: the Western Loby, c. 1850 to c. 1910*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Marie Perinbam
Marie Perinbam
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
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Extract

Gold production in the Loby region to the west of the Black Volta in the precolonial period was exclusively in the hands of lineages grouped in largely autonomous little towns, 118 in the area under study, of which Jebugu was the largest. The various peoples were a mixture of Voltaïc language speakers, who formed the majority, with Mande speakers linked to the wider Mande world. Government was not centralized, but operated at three levels of lineage organization. At the first, Level I, sukula or units of residence for each self-governing kin group joined together as the wards of each town, under a resident chief. At Level II, each kin group in each sukula came under the authority of the head of its lineage, who lived in one of the larger, ‘chiefly’ towns perhaps several days' journey away. At Level III, this lineage organization for the Mande speakers was linked to the Mande-Jula capitals outside the Loby region, at Kong, Bonduku, Bobojulasso and Buna. So far as gold was concerned, this three-layered political system was a commercial organization which brought producers and distributors together in response to market demands. Voltaïc-speaking producers at Level I were linked through the lineages to Voltaïc and Mande-speaking distributors at Level II; while both producers and distributors on these levels were collectively linked to the Mande-speaking distributors on Level III, who connected the region with the outside world. The control of distributors over producers was indirect, and exercised solely through the market. This picture from the nineteenth century of fiercely independent gold miners, with traditional skills, beliefs and rights, operating only in the absence of central government, confirms accounts of gold production in the western Sudan dating from the Middle Ages, and offers a valuable case for study.

The picture is supplemented and enhanced by what happened after the arrival of the French in the last decade of the nineteenth century, and the changes they introduced in the political organization of the Loby region in 1898. The evidence shows that, until the end of World War I, Loby gold production remained largely in the hands of traditional miners, who retained their links with the old commercial-political lineage system, which continued to market the bulk of the Loby gold. The influence of the colonial state, which for all practical purposes must have been perceived as none other than a fourth political level imposed above the existing three, was itself indirect, and of a familiar kind. In response to an increased demand for gold on the coast, Loby producers raised both their output and their sales, demonstrating the effectiveness of their traditional organization.

Type
West Africa: Islam and the French
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , November 1988 , pp. 437 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

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31 Ibid.

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41 ANMKB 3Q—7, ‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby’ (28 Feb., 1901). This form of prospecting is similar to that recounted by Mansa Musa to his interlocutor Ibn Ami¯r Ha¯ib in Cairo in 1324–1325: al-‘Umari¯, Masa¯lik a1-absa¯r fi mamalik al-arnsar in Corpus, 267.Google Scholar

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49 Personal communication, Eugenia W. Herbert (28 Dec. 1985).Google Scholar

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60 ANMKB 3Q—7, ‘Rapport du Capitaine Ruby’ (Bobo-Dioulasso, 22 May, 1902).Google Scholar

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62 Mauny, Tableau géographique, 330, 376–7.Google ScholarIn the mines of Tonkalo (about 100 altogether), one cubit metre of earth yielded about four grams of gold: ANMKB 3 Q—7, ‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby’ (28 Feb. 1901). In 1923, Labouret estimated that in the cercle of Gaou (part of which is included in this discussion), 52kg of gold was produced by 6,050 workers.Google ScholarLabouret, H., L'or du Lobi (Paris, 1925), 69–73.Google ScholarSagatzky, J. estimated a total production quantity of 25 kg per year for the entire Haute-Volta for 1940–1. Cited in Mauny, Tableau géographique, 297, and n. 5.Google Scholar

63 ANMKB 3Q—13, ‘Rapport sur l'industrie minière du Haut-Sénégal-Niger 1910’. Another source, however, suggested 350 tO 500 kg (value 800,000 tO 1,250,000 francs) for 1905 for the whole Haut-Sénégal-Niger including the Bambuhu-Buré mines, which seems to call the figures in the text into question. ANMKB 3Q—19, ‘Mines 1905’.Google Scholar

64 ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseigement sur les villages de la circonscription de Diébougou, Cercle du Lobi’.Google Scholar

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66 ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de la circonscription de Diebougou.’Google Scholar

67 Ibid.

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72 Delafosse, Haut-Sénégal-Niger, II, 312–18.Google Scholar

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74 Wilks, ‘The matter of Bitu’, esp. 346, nn. 66, 67 and 68. Mande oral accounts coincide with Wilks' findings. According to these, Bighu (Bitu), a ‘gold’ town in the Black Volta region, was settled about the eleventh century by a Muslim Mandingspeaker whose followers, including the Numu, settled among autochthonous hunters. ANMKB I D 169, ‘Notice sur la ville de Bondougou’. In 1951, Meyerowitz advanced a similar view: Meyerowitz, Akan traditions and origins, 45 and n. 2.Google Scholar J. D. Fage warns that this early settlement should not automatically be associated with trade: Fage, J. D., ‘Upper and Lower Guinea’, in Oliver, Roland (ed.), Cambridge History of Africa, III (Cambridge, 1977), 491.Google Scholar According to Delafosse, the Bobojula of Bobojulasso were the result of intermarriage between the Sya and the Mande-Jula: Delafosse, Vocabulaires comparatifs de plus de 60 langues, 147; see also 165–8.Google Scholar

75 Dincuff, Antoine, ‘Kong et Bobo-dioulasso: capitales Dyulas’, Thèse de doctorat de troisième cycle, sous Ia direction du Prof. Yves Person (Paris, n.d.), 29–42.Google ScholarIt is believed that some Mande-Jula had been in the Kong region from as early as the fourteenth century: Victor Tiègbe Diabaté, ‘La region de Kong d'après les fouilles archéologiques: prospection, premiers sondages, directions de recherches’, These de doctorat de troisième cycle sous Ia direction du Prof. Jean Devisse (Paris, 1979), 22. The Bobojula also developed routes coming from the west from Kénédugu, Segu, Sikasso, the Macma, from Togo, Guinea and northern Benin, as well as from Mossi, Loby country and Asante: ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, historique, topographique et statistique’.Google Scholar

76 By the latter part of the nineteenth century, many Bobojula and Bobofing had assimilated into Wattara clans of Kong and Bobojulasso: ANSD I G 302, Le Lieutenant Nouri, Commandant le Cercle, ‘Notice sur le Cercre de Bobo Dioulasso (1903–1904)’; ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, topographique et statistique’.Google Scholar

77 Person, Yves, ‘The Dyula and the Manding world’, 11–13. Others lost their religion, especially in the district of Bobojulasso, by the nineteenth century: ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, històrique, topographique et statistique’.Google Scholar

78 ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de la circonscription de Diébougou’; ANSD I C 302, Lieutenant Noun, ‘Notices sur le Cercie de Bobo-Dioulasso’.Google Scholar

79 Even today descendants of these Mande-speaking clans in the Côte d'Ivoire are called dyula: cf. Perinbam, ‘Notes on Dyula origins’, 767–89; ‘The Julas in western Sudanese history’, 458–70; ‘Perceptions of Bonduku's contribution to the western Sudanese gold trade’, 295–310,Google Scholar and idem, ‘Islam in the Banamba region of the eastern Bélédugu, c. 1800 to c. 1900’, Int. J. Aft. Hist. Studies, xix, 4 (1986), 637–57. See above, n. 29.Google Scholar

80 ANMKB 3Q—7, Rapports du Capitaine A. Ruby sur les gisements aurifères.Google Scholar

81 ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de la circonscription de Diébougou’.Google Scholar

82 Ibid. See also ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etudes générales: notices générales sur le Soudan: notice sur la région sud’ (1895–1899). This and the next two paragraphs are based on these documents.

83 Delafosse, M., Les frontières de la Côte d'Ivoire, de Ia Côte d'Or et du Soudan (Paris, 1908), 168, 170.Google Scholar See also: ‘Relations de Bambouc (1729) par Claude Boucard’, with an introduction and annotations by Curtin, Philip D. with Boulègue, Jean, Bull. de l'I.F.A.N., vol. 36, sér. B., no. 2 (1974), 274;Google ScholarCaillié, , Journal d'un voyage, 1, 414–18;Google ScholarMage, Eugene, Voyage dans le Soudan occidental (Paris, 1968), 682–3;Google ScholarCissoko, Sékéné Mody, ‘Contributions a l'histoire politique des royaumes du Khasso dans le Haut-Sénégal, des origines à la conquête français (XVIIe siècle à 1980)’, Thèse de doctorat d'etat (Paris, 1979), 88;Google ScholarGuillard, Xavier, ‘Commerce et production de l'or du Bambouk, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (d'après les sources françaises)’, Mémoire de mâitrise, sous la direction du Prof. Jean Devisse (Paris, 1982), 176–83.Google Scholar See also ANMKB 3Q—12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans Ia colonie du Haut-Sénégal-Niger 1901’; ANMKB 3 Q—3, ‘Mines: renseignement sur les regions aurifères du Bambouk, 1896’.Google Scholar

84 ANSOM, Sénégal et Dépendances, xiii, dossier 55, ‘Agriculture, commerce, industrie, 1856–1860: mines du Bambouk, exploitation, 1856–1857’; ANMKB 3Q—3, ‘Mines: renseignement sur les régions aurifères du Bambouk, 1896’; ANMKB 3Q—12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans le Haut-Sénégal-Niger’; ANMKB 3Q—13, ‘Rapport sur l'industrie minière du Haut-Sénégal-Niger 1910’; ANSOM, Sénégal et Dépendances, xiii, dossier ‘Agriculture, commerce, industrie, 1815–1856: mines du Bambouk. Marine extrait: Direction des colonies, Bureau d'administration, Sénégal. Mémoire par M. Bellard sur les mines du Bambouk’ (1 April 1817).Google Scholar

85 ANSOM, Sénégal et Dépendances, xiii, dossier 55, ‘Agriculture, commerce, industrie, 1856–1860: mines du Bambouk, exploitation, 1856–1857’.Google Scholar

86 ANMKB I D 45 ‘Renseignement sur les villages de la circonscription de Diébougou’; ANMKB I D 5, ‘Notices générales sur le Soudan’.Google Scholar

87 ANMKB 3Q—12, ‘Rapport sur le mouvement minier dans le colonie du Haut Sénégal-Niger’.Google Scholar

88 ANMKB I D 46, ‘Renseignement sur les villages de Ia circonscription de Diébougou’; ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etudes générales: notices générales sur la Soudan. Notice sur la région sud’.Google Scholar

89 Person, Y., ‘The Dyula in the Manding World’, 3. For a study of Manding (marka) influence in the Bélédugu (western Mali), see Perinbam, ‘Islam in the Banamba region’.Google Scholar

90 McCall, ‘Probing Lo Bir history’, 366.Google Scholar

91 Diabaté, ‘La région de Kong d'après les fouilles archéologiques’, 21–2. According to Binger, Julas at Kong migrated from two directions: (1) the Wattara, Dao, Barou, Kérou and Touré were from the region of Jenné and Ségu; (2) the Sissé, Sohko, Kamaté Daniokho, Kulubali, Timité, Tarawiri (Traore) and a branch of the Wattara came from Tengréla-Ngokho. Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guineé, 1, 323–4. For a full discussion of the development of the Kong state and its expansion, see Green, ‘The foundations of Kong’, esp. 306–404.Google ScholarSee also Bernus, E., ‘Kong et sa région’, Etudes Eburéennes, VIII (Direction de la Recherche scientifique, Ministère de l'Education nationale de la République de Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan, 1960), 242–3, 9;Google ScholarInstitut d'histoire d'art et d'archéologie africaines, Actes de la table ronde sur les origines de Kong, Kong, 1–3 novembre 1975, Annales de l'Université d'Abidjan (sér. J), vol. 1, Traditions orales (Abidjan, 1977).Google Scholar

92 Green, K. L. questions whether the Wattara Kong used firearms. See Green, ‘Foundation of Kong’, 201–17.Google Scholar

93 Dincuff, ‘Kong et Bobo-Dioulasso’, 21.Google Scholar

94 According to Savonnet, it was Bakari Wattara who first made contact with the Dyan sometime between 1800 and 1820: Savonnet, ‘Quelques notes sur l'histoire des Dyan’, 532. According to Green, it was Daouda Wattara, surnamed Gboliba, whom Bakari sent presumably to Kong: Green, ‘Foundation of Kong’, 349–52.Google Scholar

95 Savonnet, ‘Quelques notes sur l'histoire des Dyan’, 367, 632–3;Google ScholarBernus, ‘Kong et sa région’, 262.Google Scholar

96 Ibid., 639; ANSD I G 302, Lieutenant Noun, ‘Notice sur le Cercle de Bobo Dioulasso (1903–1904)’;Google ScholarANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, historique, topographique et statistique’ (Bobo-dioulasso, 1902). ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etudes générales: notices sur le Soudan’ (1895–1899);Google ScholarDincuff, ‘Kong et Bobo-Dioulasso’, 6–26, 30, 59, 71.Google Scholar

97 Savonnet, ‘Quelques notes sur l'histoire des Dyan’, 639. For a variation of this account see Bernus, ‘Kong et sa région’, 256–8, 260–5.Google Scholar

98 ANMKB I D 5, ‘Etude générale: notice sur le Soudan, 1895–1899’; ANSD I G 302, Lieutenant Noun, ‘Notice sur le Cercle de Bobo-Dioulasso’.Google Scholar

99 Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guineé, 1, 327;Google Scholaridem, Esciavage, islamisme et christianisme (Paris, 1891), 57–60;Google ScholarBernus, ‘Kong et sa région’, 268–9;Google ScholarGreen, ‘Foundation of Kong’, 359.Google Scholar

100 ANMKB I D 46, ‘Monographie du Cercie du Lobi’.Google Scholar

101 Savonnet, ‘Quelques notes sur l'histoire des Dyan’, 369–40.Google Scholar See also Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée, 1, 327, 356–7, 369, 390.Google Scholar

102 Diabaté, ‘La région de Kong d'après les fouilles archéologiques’, 68: Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée, 1, 325.Google Scholar

103 ANMAE, Mémoires et Documents. Afrique: Sénégal et Dépendances, XVIII, 1890–1894, tome 123.Google Scholar

104 Person, Yves, ‘The Atlantic coast and the southern savannahs 1800 to 1880’, in Ajayi, J. F. A. and Crowder, M. (eds.), A History of West Africa, 11 (Harlow, 1974), 280.Google Scholar

105 Diabaté, ‘La Région de Kong d'après les fouilles archéologiques’, 66.Google Scholar

106 Green, ‘Foundation of Kong’, 43.Google Scholar

107 Ibid.

108 ANMKB Q—7, Rapports du Capitain A. Ruby, sur les gisements aurifères du Lobi.Google Scholar

109 Green, ‘Foundation of Kong’, 43.Google Scholar

110 Diabaté, ‘La région de Kong d'après les fouilles archéologiques’, 24;Google ScholarPerson, Yves, Samori: une révolution dyula, 11, 301.Google ScholarA similar situation prevailed in Buna where the state was described as a ‘Jula fief’. ANMKB I D i68, Lieutenant Greigert, ‘Notice géographique et historique sur Ia circonscription de Bouna’ (Bouna, 1902).Google Scholar

111 Delafosse, Les frontières de la Côte d'Ivoire, 139.Google Scholar

112 al-‘Umari¯, Masa¯lik al-absa¯r fi¯ mama¯lik al-amsa¯r, in Corpus, 262, 267.Google Scholar

113 Fernandes, Valentim, Description de la Côte d'Afrique de Ceuta au Sénégal (1506–1507) (Paris, 1938), 89.Google Scholar

114 Mosta, Ca' Da, Relation des voyages à la côte occidentale d'Afrique (Paris, 1974), 61–2.Google Scholar

115 Pereira, Esmeraldo de situ orbis, 89.Google Scholar

116 Jobson, Richard, The Golden Trade (London, 1968), 115, 128–32.Google ScholarSee also ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, historique, topographique et statistique’; Binger, Du Niger aud Golfe de Guinée, 1, 403.Google Scholar

117 Delafosse, Les frontières, 139.Google ScholarSee also ANMKB 3 Q—7, ‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby’ (28 Feb. 1901); ANMKB 3Q—19, ‘Rapport sur le fonctionnement du Service des Mines pendant l'année’.Google Scholar

118 See notes 4 to 6 above.Google Scholar

119 Interview with Thiémoko Kanté, Institut des Sciences Humaines (Barnako, 1/4/83). In 1824, Dupuis similarly pointed out that gold in Gyaman and Asante was also associated with the occult: Dupuis, Journal of a Residence in Ashantee, lvii. See also ANMKB 3 Q—13, ‘Rapport sur l'industrie minière du Haut-Sénégal-Niger’.Google Scholar

120 Interview with Kanté (Bamako, 1/4/83); interview with Sylla Diara, metal worker and former miner (Bamako, 5/15/83).Google Scholar

121 Interview with Kanté (Bamako, 1/4/83). Notice that these traditions make no mention of gold being placed in the burial site. It was given instead to families of the deceased. According to Eugenia Herbert, copper, iron and store beads were the characteristic West African grave goods until northern influence and Islamic attitudes came to associate gold with chiefly burial sites (Herbert, Red Gold, 121–2). Labouret found undated copper objects in Loby burial sites. H. Labouret, ‘Le mystère des ruines du Lobi’, 178, et seq. Finally, interview with Massa Makar Diabaté, traditionalist and scholar (Bamako, 2/13/83).Google Scholar

122 Kiéthéga, L'or de la Volta noire, 135.Google Scholar

123 al-‘Umari¯, Masa¯lik al-absa¯r fi¯ mama¯lik al-amsa¯r, in Corpus, 262, 267. With all this alleged isolation, small wonder that Leo Africanus (c. 1515) was misled into believing that the Loby ‘have no traffic with foreign nations’.Google ScholarAfricanus, Leo, The History and Description of Africa, 3 vols. (New York, n.d.), III, 832.Google Scholar

124 Person, Y., Samori.Google Scholar

125 ANSD I G 302, Lieutenant Noun, ‘Notices sur le Cercle de Bobo Dioulasso 1903–1904’; ANMKB I D 168, Lieutenant Greigert, ‘Notice géographique et historique sur la circonscription de Bouna, Cercie de Bondoukou’ (Bouna, 1902). Both Delafosse and Labouret have apparently given erroneous dates for the destruction of Kong: Bernus, ‘Kong et sa région’, 272.Google Scholar

126 Bernus, ‘Kong et sa region’, 272. In 1891 Samory had announced his intention to conquer Bobojulasso just as soon as he was master of Kong: Savonnet, ‘Quelques notes sur l'histoire des Dyan’, 643, n. 2.Google Scholar

127 ANSD I G 302, Lieutenant Noun, ‘Notice sun le Cercle de Bobo Dioulasso 1903–1904’; ANMKB I D 101, ‘Notice géographique, historique et topographique et statistique’. This was Binger's first mission. His second was 1890–2, during which the 1889 treaty was renewed in 1892.Google Scholar

128 ANMAE, Mémoires et Documents. Afrique: Sénégal et Dépendances, XVII, 1886–1889, tome 122, 292–3:Google Scholar‘Traité conclu avec les Etats de Kong’ (10 Jan. 1889);Google ScholarANMAE, Mémoires et Documents: Sénégal et Dépendances, XVIII, 1890–1894, tome 123, 68–9: le Sous-Secrétaire d'Etat des colonies à M. le Ministre des Affaires étrangères' (29 May 1890).Google Scholar

129 ANSD 15 G I, ‘Traités 1821–1899:Google ScholarTraité entre la France et le Lobi (July 1897);Google ScholarTraité de protectorat entre la France et le pays lobi et tiekari (1897);Google ScholarTraité de protectorat entre la France et le pays lobi de Bourac (1897);Google ScholarTraité de protectorat entre la France et le pays galgoula (Lobi) (1897)’.Google Scholar

130 It was Binger who concluded the treaties of protection with the chiefs of Kong and Bonduku. The French favoured Bonduku as it was a staging-point between the Gold Coast and the Niger.Google ScholarANMAE, Mémoires et Documents. Afrique: Etablissements français du Golfe de Guinée, 1888–1890, tome 125, 261–75: ‘Incident de Bondoukou. Note pour le Ministre. Direction politique protectorat’ (28 June 1889):Google ScholarIbid., 1891–1894, tome 127, 68–73: ‘Mission Binger 1892. Rapport politique’.Google Scholar

131 This type of African policy (sometimes referred to as ‘collaboration’) was widespread throughout West Africa during the last decades of the nineteenth century. The earliest examples come from the Senegal and Niger regions, where ‘collaborative’ policies had operated since the seventeenth century. Among the earliest ‘collaborators’ were the Wolof. In the nineteenth century, some Wolof and Tukulor rulers from the Futa Toro, as well as subject Mande chiefs of the Segu Tukulor state, continued these policies in one form or another, usually soliciting French aid against their enemies. When some later rulers sought to change to anti-French policies, many Wolof, Mande and Futa Toro Tukulor proved either unwilling or unable to do so. In the 1880s, ‘collaborative’ policies were also followed by peoples on the upper Niger. See Faidherbe, Louis, Le Sénégal: la France dans I'Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1869), 235–6 et passim;Google ScholarMarty, Paul, Etude sur l'Islam au Sénégal, 2 vols. (Paris, 1917), I, 83 et passim;Google ScholarRambaud, Alfred, La France coloniale: histoire, géographie, commerce (Paris, 1895), 213;Google ScholarIdem., ‘Le Capitaine Gallixéni à la Société de Géographie de Bordeaux’, Bull. Soc. de Géographie de Bordeaux (1881), 362;Google ScholarMage, Eugene, Voyage dans le Soudan occidental, 1863–1866 (Paris, 1868), 230, 225, 275–6, 411, 456.Google Scholar

132 ANSD I G 302, Lieut. Noun, ‘Notice sur le Cercle de Bobo Dioulasso, 1903–1904’;Google ScholarANMKB I D 169, Benquey, Capitaine, ‘Notice sur la yule de Bondougou: ses origines, son commerce, son avenir’ (Bonduku, 1902).Google Scholar

133 French troops, led by Capitaine Cazemajou, had arrived at Jebugu on 4 May 1896.Google Scholar

134 ANMKB 3 Q–g, ‘Mines. Relevés des concessions miniàres du Bambouk. Mission topographique 1903’. (This document also deals with concessions granted in the Black Volta region.)Google ScholarANSOM I G 302, ‘Notice sur le Cercle de Bobo Dioulasso (1903–1904) par le Lieutenant Nouri, Commandant le Cercle, 4e section: renseignement géographique’;Google ScholarANMKB I D 168, ‘Notice géographique de Bouna, Cercle de Bondoukou, par Lieut. Greigert’.Google Scholar

135 ANMKB 3 Q–19, ‘Mines 1905’ (sic).Google Scholar

136 ANMKB 3 Q–7, ‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby’ (28 Feb. 1901);Google Scholar‘Rapport du Capitaine A. Ruby’ (22 May 1902).Google Scholar

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139 ANMKB I Q–zi, ‘Affaires économiques: correspondance commerciale, Cercle du Lobi (Gaoua), 1889–1906’;Google ScholarANMKB I Q–18, ‘Affaires économiques: correspondance commerciale, Territoire de Kong, Circonscription de Dabakalo (1899)’.Google Scholar

140 ANMKB 3 Q–18, ‘Arrêté du Lieutenant Gouverneur réglementant le commerce et la circulation de l'or extrait de la Colonie, 1918’.Google Scholar