4.6.1. DESTRUCTION, SLAVERY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

 

ONCE MEANT TO MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO, SLAVE RAIDS NOW SEIZE AS MANY LANDS AND CAPTIVES AS THEY CAN

Rifles replace the deliberately poor trade guns.

 Muslim raid in the 1880's by Harry Johnston / zoom

Populations are massively displaced to provide labor for huge estates: Think of the transformation near Ségou.

Arab slavers in East Africa  / zoom

Second Journey to Discover the Sources of the Nile, 1861-1862, by John Speke (French ed.),  zoom

"He cultivates his vast estate by bands of slaves chained together..."

 

Speke, color added by Almamy

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Djimini production develops during the brief rule of raider Samory Ture (1894-98) —

• Kong and villages in small print are destroyed, but those in large spring up or grow.

Map from my doctoral thesis

 

• "Marabadiassa which replaced Kong after its destruction, is an important commercial center." 

 -- Abidjan archives, 1899

 

• Rice production expands, yams are introduced, markets grow from 2000 people to 5000 and the new center of Dabakala attracts 7000. 

-- Same source.

All interlocutors confirmed that expansion.

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Next,
4.6.2. 

Adapting Islam to commercial production