TRADERS AND TEXTILES COME TO DJIMINI

TRADERS FROM KONG (CALLED DYULA) TRAVELS OVER RELATIVELY SHORT DISTANCES WITH LITTLE CAPITAL OR ORGANIZATION AND THEIR GAINS ARE CORRESPONDINGLY SLIGHT  

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Dyula traders, 1905

Then come long-distance traders, from the Niger (the Soninke) whose networks, capital and profits are greater. So are their ambitions. Even wealthier are traders from what is now Northern Nigeria (the Hausa), whose city of Kano is a major center for trade and production:

Adapted from a Stock map

De Saint-Louis à Tripoli par le Chad by Lt.-Col. P.L. Monteil, 1895/ zoom

"Hausa traders transporting kola"

"Large sums are expended by the natives upon this luxury, which has become to them as necessary as coffee or tea to us. [... ] The import of this nut into Kanó, comprising certainly more than five hundred ass-loads every year, the load of each, if safely brought to the market—for it is a very delicate article, and very liable to spoil—being sold for about 200,000 kurdí, will amount to an average of from eighty to one hundred millions. Of this sum, I think we shall be correct in asserting about half to be paid for by the natives of the province, while the other half will be profit."

-- Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa by Heinrich Barth, 1855, II, p. 131.

Detour:

Heinrich Barth's account of his travels in the Sahara and Sahel (in 1849-1851) is an exceptionally detailed and thoughtful explorer's accounts. He was intellectual, engaged in long discussions with erudite Muslims; kindly, giving treats to a beloved camel; not racist, finding dark skin "almost essential to female beauty"). His exceptionally interesting account is readable on the web: Here is volume II.

Kano from Mount Dala, "this glorious panorama"

-- P. 102

 Barth gives an admiring account of its production of textiles:

Barth, p. 129

"The great advantage of Kanó  is that commerce and manufactures go hand in hand, and that almost every family has its share in them. There is really something grand in this kind of industry, which spreads to the north as far as Múrzuk, Ghát, and even Tripoli; to the west, not only to Timbúktu, but in some degree even as far as the shores of the Atlantic."

-- P. 126.

These photos of 1910 show textiles' importance:

Zoom / first picture of series

Zoom / 14th photo

They introduce weaving from their village of Marabadiassa: "Maraba" means "people of the east, that is, Hausa. 

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Textiles are easy to produce and transport, and the market for them is inexhaustible.* They lead to seeking dyes and dye stabilizers, beget new sources of capital and bring the emergence of weavers and dyers.

* For their role in a partly African neighborhood in Paris, please click. 

When textiles appear

 social transformation begins. 

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Next,

The cowrie currency meets violent resistance