IV.2. CYCLES OF GROWTH, VIOLENCE AND NEW AUTHORITY

MENU: 4.2. CYCLES OF GROWTH, VIOLENCE... 

ONLY LUXURY WARES COULD BEAR THE COST OF TRANSPORT AND COMMERCE STARTS BY ELITES EXCHANGING THEM

Beyond the pleasure of possession, authorities used them to strengthen their control.  

-- As the late anthropologist Claude Meillassoux explained.

Caravan Approaching a City in the Vast Desert of Sahara, "Stanley and the White Heroes of Africa" by H.B. Scammel, 1890 / zoom

The merchants and their entourage need supplies, animals, waterbags, ropes, sandals, etc. Agriculture and crafts develop. The original transactions become secondary. 

A new elite emerges, challenges the old one, violence breaks out and the new men win.  

The next pages concern those cycles 

in precolonial Africa. 

In brief

• The legendary empires of the medieval savannah

• Economic change and a sign of the future

• Another upheaval, kola nuts and routes to the forest

• Classless communities that elders lead 

• Traders and textiles come to Djimini

• A divisible currency brings upheaval

• Djimini gives a close-up of the struggle

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Next,

4.2.1.

 The legendary empires of the medieval savannah