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Some Remarks on Beads and Trade in Lower Guinea in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

J. D. Fage
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Extract

Two recent articles by Dr Mauny, inconclusive in themselves, since in the second he withdrew his earlier claim that the material of aggrey beads might be the coral-like marine growth Allopara subviolacea, inspired some independent inquiry into the question of aggrey beads. This inquiry followed three lines: (1) a re-examination of the published sources from the beginning of the sixteenth century into the nineteenth century; (2) local inquiries in Southern Ghana and, indirectly, in Western Nigeria; (3) an examination of actual beads, notably in collections in Ghana and in the British Museum. While a great deal more remains to be done, especially in following up the second and third lines of inquiry, some tentative observations may be of value, since it already appears possible to add something to the authoritative statements by Krieger and Naber on the subject.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , July 1962 , pp. 343 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962

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References

1 Mauny, R., ‘Que faut-il appeler “pierres” d'aigris?’, Notes Africaines (1949), XLII,Google Scholar and ‘Akori beads’, Jour. Hist. Soc. Nigeria (1958), I, 3.Google ScholarPubMed

2 Krieger, Kurt, ‘Studien über Afrikanische Kunstperlen’, Baessler-Archiv (1943), XXV, 2; L'Honoré Naber, S. P., Bijlage 2 in edition of De Marees cited in note 3 below.Google Scholar

3 The following were the principal sources consulted: Blake, J. W. (ed.), Europeans in West Africa, 1450–1580 (1942), Hakluyt Society.Google ScholarPacheco, Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis (c. 1505), ed. Kimble, G. T. Hakluyt Society, and by R. Mauny (Bissau, 1956).Google ScholarHakluyt, Richard, The Principal Navigations … of the English Nations (1598–1600), Maclehose (Glasgow, 1903–1905).Google ScholarPurchas, Samuel, Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625), Maclehose (Glasgow, 1905–1907).Google ScholarMarees, P. de, Beschrijvinge ende Historische Verhael van het Gout Koninckrijck van Gunea (1602), ed. L'Honoré, Naber S. P. (1912), Linschoten Vereeniging.Google ScholarSamuel Brun's Schiffarten (1624), ed. Naber, (1913), Linschoten Vereeniging.Google ScholarToortse der Zee-vaert der Dierick Ruiters (1623), ed. Naber, (1913), Linschoten Vereeniging.Google ScholarDapper, O., Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaenische Gewesten (1668)–both the Dutch edition of 1676 and the French edition of 1686 were used.Google ScholarBosman, W., A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea (London, 1705).Google ScholarBarbot, J., Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea (London, 1732).Google ScholarLabat, J. B., Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais en Guinée (Paris, 1730).Google ScholarBowdich, T. E., A Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee (London, 1819).Google ScholarLeyden, J., Historical account of Discoveries and Travels in Africa. The edition of 1818 by Hugh Murray was used.CrossRefGoogle ScholarForbes, R. E., Dahomey and the Dahomeyans (London, 1851).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 In this context, it was extremely interesting to find Dr J. R. Gray reporting to the Conference that he had found in the Vatican Archives an apparently well-authenticated reference to an established overland trade between Benin and Morocco at the end of the seventeenth century. See also the paper by Ivor Wilks reprinted on pp. 337–41 of this number.Google Scholar

5 An Axim inventory of 1508, in Blake, I, 98.Google Scholar

6 Misleadingly mistranslated by Kimble in one instance as ‘shell’. Kimble, Esmeraldo, 129.Google Scholar

7 Naber's edition, 80.Google Scholar

8 In another passage (119), Bosman compares aggrey beads with another kind, ‘a sort of Coral called Conte de Terra’. This, of course, is Portuguese for ‘beads of earth’.Google Scholar

9 All these may be conveniently found in Blake, I, 98 and 153, and II, 343.Google Scholar

10 It might also be remarked that coral beads seem unlikely to have been recovered from West African graves (and so to have become ‘ground-beads’), since the acid content of West African soils is generally too high to allow of their preservation for any length of time. On the other hand, soil acids might give glass or stone beads the roughish surface texture spoken of by Bowdich and characteristic of bota.Google Scholar

11 It would be an attractive fancy to suggest that here might be the origin of the name akori!Google Scholar