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TRADERS, SAINTS, AND IRRIGATION: REFLECTIONS ON SAHARAN CONNECTIVITY*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2011

JUDITH SCHEELE
JUDITH SCHEELE
Affiliation:
All Souls College, University of Oxford
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Abstract

Studies of trans-Saharan trade have recently been revitalized, mainly through an exploration of local archives. These archives offer a further possibility: to investigate the link between local settlement and wider patterns of exchange. Material from southern Algeria and northern Mali suggests that oases were not viable without outside investment, that pastoral economies needed storage space and agricultural produce, and that intra-Saharan and trans-Saharan trade relied on each other. Hence, regional mobility and outside connections were not subsidiary but constitutive of the local, and local patterns of production and trans-Saharan commerce were aspects of the same system.

Keywords

AlgeriaMaliSaharasocial organizationtrade
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , November 2010 , pp. 281 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

1 See especially G. Lydon, On Trans-Saharan Trails: Islamic Law, Trade Networks and Cross-cultural Exchange in Nineteenth-century Western Africa (Cambridge, 2009); R. Austen, The Trans-Saharan Africa in World History (Oxford, 2010); but also Haarmann, U., ‘The dead ostrich: life and trade in Ghadamès (Libya) in the nineteenth century’, Die Welt des Islams, 38:1 (1998), 9–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; D. Gutelius, ‘Between God and men: the Nasiriyya and economic life in Morocco, 1640–1830’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Johns Hopkins University, 2001); E. Grégoire and J. Schmitz, Afrique noire et monde arabe, a special issue of Autrepart 16 (2000); L. Marfaing and S. Wippel (eds.), Les relations transsahariennes à l'époque contemporaine: un espace en constante mutation (Paris, 2004); and J. Keenan (ed.), The Sahara: Past, Present and Future, a special issue of the Journal of North African Studies 10:3–4 (2005).

2 They thereby continue in many ways a long-standing historical tradition: see McDougall, E. A., ‘Conceptualizing the Sahara: the world of nineteenth-century Beyrouk commerce’, Journal of North African Studies 10:3–4 (2005), 369–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for a discussion of this tradition, and the broader implications of such an approach.

3 See for instance Baier, S. and Lovejoy, P., ‘The desert-side economy of Central Sudan’, International Journal of African Historical Studies 8:4 (1975), 551–81Google Scholar; S. Baier, An Economic History of Central Niger (Oxford, 1980); Bernus, S., ‘Relations entre nomades et sédentaires des confins sahariens méridionaux: essai d'interprétation dynamique’, Revue de l'Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranée 32 (1981), 23–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; A. Bourgeot, Les sociétés touarègues: nomadisme, identité, resistances (Paris, 1995); and, less subtly perhaps, J. L. A. Webb, Desert Frontier: Ecological and Economic Change Along the Western Sahel, 1600–1850 (Madison, 1995).

4 See E. Ho, The Graves of Tarim (Berkeley, 2006); D. Parkin and R. Barnes (eds.), Ships and the Development of Maritime Technology in the Indian Ocean (London, 2002); K. N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge, 1985); K. N. Chaudhuri, Asia before Europe: Economy and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge, 1990); M. N. Pearson, The Indian Ocean (London, 2003); U. Freitag and W. G. Clarence-Smith (eds.), Hadrami Scholars, Traders, and Statesmen in the Indian Ocean, 1750s–1960s (Leiden, 1997); and C. Markovits, The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750–1947 (Cambridge, 2000).

5 P. Horden and N. Purcell, The Corrupting Sea (Oxford, 2000).

6 On contemporary smuggling, see Gutelius, D., ‘War on terror and social networks in Mali’, ISIM Review, 17 (2006), 38–9Google Scholar; and Scheele, J., ‘Tribus, états et fraude: la région frontalière algéro-malienne’, Études Rurales, 184 (2009), 79–94Google Scholar.

7 A zâwiya (pl. zawâyâ) is a religious stronghold, school, and pilgrimage site, funded by endowments and donations. It is mostly constructed around the tomb of a founding saint, and managed by his descendants or followers. In many but not all cases, zawâyâ are affiliated to Sufi orders. In the Sahara, much emphasis is put on their functions as hostels, safe storehouses, and regular or seasonal markets. Larger zawâyâ, such as Iligh, further acted as financial institutions, extending loans to traders, leasing land to sharecroppers, and organizing and funding caravans.

8 P. Pascon, La maison d'Iligh (Rabat, 1984), 9. All translations from French and Arabic are my own.

9 The ‘greater Touat’ here refers to the Gourara, the Tidikelt, and the Touat proper. On fagâgîr more generally, see Cornet, A., ‘Essai sur l'hydrologie du Grand Erg Occidental et des régions limitrophes: les foggaras’, Travaux de l'Institut des Recherches Sahariennes, 8 (1952), 71–122Google Scholar; Lo, A., ‘Les foggara du Tidikelt’, Travaux de l'Institut des Recherches Sahariennes, 10 (1953), 139–79Google Scholar and 11 (1954), 49–77; Cressey, G. B., ‘Qanats, Karez and Foggaras’, Geographical Review, 48 (1958), 27–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Grandguillaume, G., ‘Régime économique et structure du pouvoir: le système des foggara du Touat’, Revue de l'Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 13–14 (1973), 437–57Google Scholar.

10 Capot-Rey, R. and Damade, W., ‘Irrigation et structure agraire à Tamentit’, Travaux de l'Institut des Recherches Sahariennes, 21 (1962), 99–119Google Scholar.

11 The first census established by the French administration records 10 per cent slaves, 43 per cent harâtîn (descendants of slaves), and 47 per cent ‘whites’ in the Touat. In certain qsÛr, especially those with extensive irrigation and gardens, the proportion of ‘blacks’ reached almost 70 per cent (Centre d'Archives d'Outre-mer (CAOM), Aix-en-Provence, box 23H91, ‘Population census of the Touat’, 1911). Unreliable as these figures are, they give an impression of scale. Although slavery was officially abolished in all French territories in 1848, on the ground it continued well into the twentieth century: see D. Cordell, ‘No liberty, not much equality, and very little fraternity: the mirage of manumission in the Algerian Sahara in the second half of the nineteenth century’, in S. Miers and M. A. Klein (eds.), Slavery and Colonial Rule in Africa (London, 1999), 38–56; Brower, B. C., ‘Rethinking abolition in Algeria: slavery and the “indigenous question”’, Cahiers d'Études Africaines, 195:3 (2009), 805–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and the selection of documents pertaining to slavery filed under CAOM 12H50.

12 I am here drawing on the registers of the fagâgîr Adjalloune and al-Hâjj in Timmi in the Touat, drawn up in the 1950s and 1960s (courtesy of Shaykh Belaïd). For a more detailed discussion of these documents and of the role of the local assemblies, see Scheele, J., ‘Councils without customs, qadis without states: property and community in the Algerian Touat’, Islamic Law and Society, 17:3 (2010), 350–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 On these ‘outside entrepreneurs’ brought in for necessary repairs, see also Grandguillaume, G., ‘Le droit de l'eau dans les foggara du Touat au XVIIIe siècle’, Revue des Études Islamiques, 43:2 (1975), 287–322Google Scholar; Grandguillaume, G., ‘De la coutume à la loi: droit de l'eau et statut des communautés locales dans le Touat précolonial’, Peuples Méditerranéens, 2 (1978), 119–33Google Scholar.

14 This is based on the notebook of the assembly of Tit (Sijill al-Jamâ‘a) that records municipal expenditure, income, and decisions from 1962 to 1977; courtesy of ‘Abd Allah b. ‘Abd al-Karîm.

15 A.-G.-P. Martin, À la frontière du Maroc: les oasis sahariennes (Gourara, Touat, Tidikelt) (Algiers, 1908), 306–8, 352, and 361. See also CAOM 23H91, ‘Population census of the Touat’, 1911 to 1950, and CAOM 10H86, ‘Census of the Touat’, 1933.

16 CAOM 23H91, ‘Annual report, Touat annex’, 1909.

17 Martin, À la frontière, 383.

18 CAOM 23H91, ‘Annual report, Touat annex’, 1907; and CAOM 10H86, Hardy, ‘The Touat: a dying land’, 30 Apr. 1933.

19 CAOM 23H102, ‘Annual reports, Tidikelt annex’, 1909–29.

20 CAOM 22H33, ‘Colonel Cauchemez, military commander of the Saharan oases, to the commanding General of the Laghouat subdivision’, 24 Nov. 1900.

21 ‘Annual reports, Tidikelt annex’, 1909–29. Values for the French franc are taken from the French Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques, ‘Pouvoir d'achat de l'euro et du franc’, http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/indicateur.asp?id=29&page=achatfranc.htm (consulted 7 January 2011). Between the early twentieth century and the 1960s, the value of the French franc dropped dramatically, until it was replaced by the new franc in 1960. This replacement took several years to take effect in local accounts in southern Algeria, hence the relatively low figures quoted above.

22 CAOM 23H102, ‘Annual reports, Tidikelt annex’, 1907, 1910, 1913, 1928, 1951, and 1952.

23 In 1906, half of all cereal supplies were ‘sold’ to the French army, reducing daily rations to 150 g per head (Martin, À la frontière, 308). At that time, there were 600 soldiers stationed in the Touat and Gourara, and 300 in the Tidikelt.

24 Horden and Purcell, Corrupting Sea, 272.

25 Sijill al-Qâdî (SQ). Sîdi ‘Abd al-Karîm b. ‘Abd al-Haqq al-Bakrawî was confirmed as the qâdî of Timmi by the French colonial administration, hence the register. Nonetheless, it was held in Arabic, kept by the family, and interference by the French in the matters recorded there – which were mainly concerned with property transactions – was clearly minimal. I have been able to access this register in Tamantit, courtesy of Mohamed Bakraoui.

26 SQ, 20–1.

27 SQ, 16–20 and 34.

28 Much of this might have been the result of strict observance of the Islamic law of inheritance, which grants shares to sons and daughters, whether they have married locally or not; when dealing with a qâdî's register, such observance is to be expected. Nonetheless, judging by the ethnographic and historical record, such strict observance in an agricultural and nominally locally bounded society in itself warrants explanation.

29 See e.g. M. Gast, Alimentation des populations de l'Ahaggar: étude ethnographique (Paris, 1968).

30 D. Jacques-Meunié, Greniers-citadelles au Maroc (Paris, 1951), 185, roughly following ideas developed by R. Montagne, Un magasin collectif de l'Anti-Atlas: l'agadir des Ikounka (Paris, 1930), suggests a continuity between Saharan qsÛr and collective storehouses found in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.

31 I am drawing here mainly on the Nawâzil al-Ghuniya (NG), a collection of legal cases brought before the qâdî AbÛ ‘Abd Allah Sîdi al-Hâjj Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Balbâlî (born 1155 ah/1742 ce, died 1244 ah/1828 ce) and his son Sîdi Muhammad ‘Abd al-‘Azîz (born 1199 ah/1776 ce). It was widely used as a reference work throughout the greater Touat, to the extent that, when the French colonial army arrived in the early twentieth century, they took it to constitute local ‘customary law’. The copy referred to here is the one held in the library of Shaykh Bilkabîr in Mtarfa (consulted courtesy of the shaykh).

32 CAOM 22H50, Chardenet, ‘Aoulef’, n.d. (early 1900s); and CAOM 22H13, ‘The General commanding the Algiers division to the sub-governor of Algeria’, 21 Jan. 1862. At that time, 4,500 palm trees in Ouargla and Metlili were owned by Bani Mzab from Melika.

33 CAOM 22H50, Simon, ‘Notes on the Tidikelt’, 20 June 1900.

34 M. Bugéja, ‘L'estivage des Larbaâ dans le Tell’, Bulletin de la Société de Géographie d'Alger (1930), 1–19.

35 Geoffroy, A., ‘Arabes pasteurs nomades de la tribu des Larbas’, Les Ouvriers des Deux Mondes, 1: 8 (1887), 409–64Google Scholar.

36 See Arnaud, , ‘Siège d'Ain Madhi par El-Hadj Abdelkader’, Revue Africaine, 16 (1861), 354–37Google Scholar and 453; the various reports on the zâwiya kept in CAOM 16H44–5 and 51–3; and CAOM 8X192, G. Hirtz, ‘Etude sur Laghouat, les Larbaâ, les Mekhalif, la zaouïa d'Aïn Mâdhî’, 1950.

37 On the Awlâd Sîdi Shaykh, see L. Leclerc, Les oasis de la province d'Oran, ou les Oulad Sidi Cheikh (Algiers, 1858); H. Boubakeur, Un soufi algérien, Sidi Cheikh (Paris, 1999); and M. Bahous, L'insurrection des Ouled Sidi Cheikh (Oran, 2001).

38 Simon, ‘Notes on the Tidikelt’.

39 CAOM 22H72, Lieutenant Voinot, ‘Reconnaissance of the upper basin of the Igharghar and visit of the south of the Ahaggar and the Ahnet’, winter 1905–6; CAOM 23H102, ‘Annual report, Tidikelt annex’, 1919; and CAOM 22H50, Simon, ‘Notes on the districts of the Tidikelt’, 21 May 1900.

40 Library of the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme, Aix-en-Provence, De Barrère, ‘Contribution à l’étude de l'évolution sociale du centre de cultures d'Idélès', unpublished typescript, n.d. (probably 1960s). While the Ahaggar's oldest villages were established no earlier than the second half of the nineteenth century, settlement elsewhere seems to go back further: in 1903, a French officer on tour in the Aïr in what is today northern Niger encountered several harâtîn from the Tidikelt at Agadès, who were keen to ‘return’ to the Ahaggar: CAOM 28H2, ‘Captain Métois, head of the annex of In Salah to the military commander of the oases’, 19 July 1903.

41 CAOM 22H70, Albert, ‘The zâwiya of Kerzaz’; CAOM 28H1, ‘Quarterly report on Muslim political matters’, by the political department of the AOF, 1950, 1st quarter.

42 SQ, p. 23. This echoes the French archival record: ‘The zawâyâ are private enterprises that own endowments and whose only aim is to relieve the poor and to host distinguished guests’ (CAOM 23H91, ‘Annual report, Touat District’, 1939).

43 See n. 32.

44 For the greater Touat, see J.-Chaintron, F., ‘Aoulef: problèmes économiques d'une oasis à foggaras’, Travaux de l'Institut des Recherches Sahariennes, 16 (1957), 101–30Google Scholar; for the Ahaggar, see CAOM 10H86, ‘Monograph of the military territory of the Saharan oases’, 1951/2.

45 ‘Monograph of the military territory’; Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Fontainebleau, Campens, ‘Les Chaamba du Gourara’, dissertation submitted to the CHEAM, 1962; CAOM 20X6, A. Reynaud, ‘Les commerçants transsahariens’, Mémoire du CHEAM no. 3018 (1957); and A. Cauneille, Les Chaanba (Paris, 1968).

46 Capot-Rey and Damade, ‘Irrigation’, 106.

47 As attested by his private family archives, which contain title deeds, inheritance records, and contracts established with share-croppers, as well as lists of religious taxes and donations paid on agricultural income (courtesy of Mekki Kalloum).

48 On the establishment of Kidal and Tessalit, see M. Cortier and R. Chudeau, Mission du transafricain: notice sur le Sahara soudanais, rapport géologique et hydrologique (Paris, 1924). On livestock owned by Algerian traders, see Archives du Cercle de Kidal, Kidal (ACK), unclassified document, ‘The matter of the she-camel owned by Sabba mint Abidine of the Kel Touat’, 14 Nov. 1961; and ACK, ‘Thomas, head of the Tidikelt annex, to the head of the Kidal subdivision’, 23 Apr. 1955, about an inheritance suit put forward by the first wife of an Algerian trader settled in Kidal, amounting to four female camels, six cows, three horses, seven goats, and various other beasts kept with the Tuareg Ifoghas, his in-laws.

49 See e.g. NG 139 and 142. For the large variety of currencies used, real or fictional, see CAOM 22H50, ‘Note on the commercial transactions that took place between In Salah and the country of the Tuareg in summer and autumn 1900’; CAOM 22H26, Colonieu, ‘Report on Saharan trade’, n.d. (early 1900s); and T. Chentouf, ‘Les monnaies dans le Gourara, le Touat et le Tidikelt dans la seconde moitié du 19e siècle’, in P.-R. Baduel (ed.), Enjeux sahariens (Paris, 1984), 79–94.

50 See, for instance, CAOM 23H102, ‘Annual reports, Tidikelt annex’, 1928, 1951, and 1952; or CAOM 23H91, ‘Annual reports, Touat annex’, 1907, 1910, 1912, and 1922. See also Martin, À la frontière, 383.

51 NG 142–3.

52 Should it correspond to the price of salt in Timbuktu or should the salt itself be delivered to the Touat? NG 206. For a similar case, see NG 146.

53 NG 138, 206, 212, 213, and 216–17.

54 NG 216. Lydon, On Trans-Saharan Trails, 233, similarly notes the frequent use of written contracts between family members.

55 See, for instance, NG 219–20.

56 NG 218.

57 Lydon, On Trans-Saharan Trails, 304–6, describes the iqâla as a sale with right of restitution. Although in the Ghuniya some such use is made of the term (such as the case concerning the sale of a ‘very fat’ camel that suddenly died a few days later, NG 147–8), most cases of iqâla clearly refer to hidden interest payments.

58 NG 139.

59 NG 139–40 and 141.

60 NG 139.

61 From the private archives of the Kalloum family (courtesy of Mekki Kalloum).

62 ACK, unsigned petition, 1962.

63 CAOM 22H36, ‘General Marmet commanding the subdivision of Médéah, to the commanding general of the Algiers division’, 25 June 1893.

64 CAOM 23H102, ‘Annual report, Tidikelt annex’, 1909.

65 CAOM AffPol 2178/6, ‘Report by the CHEAM about the Sahara’, 1958.

66 See CAOM 23H102, ‘Annual report, Tidikelt annex’, 1911; C. Amat, Le M'zab et les M'zabites (Paris, 1888). For individual cases, see CAOM 22H13, ‘The minister of war to the governor general’, 28 Apr. 1851; CAOM 22H68, ‘Rapport de tournée by Capitain Dinaux, head of the annex of In Salah. Ahnet, Adrar of the Niger, Ahaggar, northern Aïr, 3 May to 29 Oct. 1905’.

67 CAOM 23H102, ‘Annual report, Tidikelt annex’, 1906.

68 See CAOM 23H102, ‘Annual reports, Tidikelt annex’, 1906–29.

69 This was despite the fact that, from the 1900s onwards, the Ahaggar developed a flourishing salt against millet trade with Bilma. See the annual reports on trade for Tamanrasset and Bilma, kept in CAOM 23H102 and 28H1; and J. Keenan, The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar (London, 1977).

70 For a similar observation in northern Mali, see Clauzel, J., ‘Transports, automobiles, et caravanes dans le Sahara soudanais’, Travaux de l'Institut des Recherches Sahariennes, 19 (1960), 161–8Google Scholar.

71 Geoffroy, ‘Arabes pasteurs nomades’; Bugéja, ‘L'estivage’; and Y. Bonète, ‘Contribution à l’étude des pasteurs nomades Arbâ'a' (unpublished PhD thesis, 3e cycle, Paris, 1962).

72 For an overview of pastoral migrations and French attempts to regulate them, see the vast amount of paperwork kept in CAOM 24H117; for a more general discussion, see A. Bernard and N. Lacroix, L'évolution du nomadisme en Algérie (Algiers, 1906) and M. Boukhobza, L'agro-pastoralisme traditionnel en Algérie: de l'ordre tribal au désordre colonial (Algiers, 1982); for a case study, see A. Romey, Les Sa‘îd ‘Atbâ de N'Goussa: histoire et état actuel de leur nomadisme (Paris, 1983).

73 Hence, Intallah, the current ‘customary chief’ of Kidal, spent parts of his childhood studying the Qur'ân in the Touat (and speaks excellent classical and Algerian Arabic). This is based on interviews conducted in Kidal in January 2008. On caravans from the Adagh to the Touat, see also ACK, Mohammed Mahmoud, ‘Rapport de tournée’, 25 Jan. 1963. On early labour migration, see ACK, ‘Lieutenant Butaye to the captain commanding the CMTH, Oued Tahara’, 17 Dec. 1953; ACK, P. Chalmont to the commander of the cercle of Gao, 11 Dec. 1958; and ACK, ‘Declaration’ by Ekawel ag Ewana, 13 July 1961.

74 CAOM 22H50, Colonieu, ‘Note on the commercial transactions that took place between In Salah and the country of the Tuareg in summer and autumn 1900’; CAOM 12H50, ‘The governor general to the general commanding the Constantine division’, June 1893.

75 Geoffroy, ‘Arabes pasteurs nomades’.

76 As noted among others by Newbury, C. W., ‘North African and Western Sudan trade in the nineteenth century: a reevaluation’, Journal of African History, 7:2 (1966), 239CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Baier, Economic history, 237; R. A. Austen, ‘Marginalization, stagnation and growth: trans-Saharan caravan trade, 1500–1900’, in J. Tracy (ed.), The Rise of Merchant Empires: Long-distance Trade in the Early Modern World (Cambridge, 1990), 311–50; see also McDougall, ‘Conceptualizing’. The Tidikelt, the ‘greenest’ of the three regions that constitute the greater Touat, had barely enough pasture to feed 1,000 camels, not even a third of what was needed to supply it; and this number quite simply could not be increased, despite efforts made by the French administration to do so: for one such attempt, see CAOM 23H102, ‘Annual report, Tidikelt annex’, 1911.

77 CAOM 22H13, ‘Report about the negro men and women that were the objects of financial transactions in the Mzab and in Ouargla, by the superior commander of Ghardaïa’, 30 Nov. 1905; and CAOM 12H50, ‘The general commanding the Oran division to the governor general’, 29 Mar. 1880.

78 Chardenet, ‘Aoulef’.

79 Haarmann, ‘Dead ostrich’, 28.

80 CAOM 10H30, ‘Colonel Pont, superior commander of the cercle of Biskra to the commander of the Batna subdivision’, 30 May 1891.

81 The letters consulted are kept in the Centre de Documentation et de Recherche Ahmed Baba in Timbuktu; see especially MSS 2708–36, 2757–77, and 6092–4.

82 See his family archives, kept in Adrar, viewed courtesy of Mekki Kalloum. On the improvement of trans-Saharan roads under the Vichy government, sparked by fear of an Allied sea blockade, see the numerous reports kept in the Malian National Archives in Bamako, Fonds Recents 1Q217, ‘Trade relations with North Africa’, and 1Q128, ‘Trade relations with Algeria, 1940–1942’; see also Guitart, F., ‘Le rôle des frontières coloniales sur le commerce transsaharien central (région d'Agadez 1900–1970)’, Cahiers géographiques de Rouen, 32 (1989), 155–62Google Scholar.

83 Reynaud, ‘Commerçants’.