History · Lesson 3

Trans-Saharan trade and the spread and impact of Islam

JAMBWAECNECO

What the syllabus asks

JAMB: Section A 5a External influences: North Africa/Trans-Saharan trade, introduction, spread and impact of Islam

WAEC: The trans-Saharan trade; Islam in West Africa; Paper 2: Islam in Borno and Hausaland

NECO: The trans-Saharan trade; Islam in West Africa; Paper 2: Islam in Borno and Hausaland

What you will learn

Explain why the trans-Saharan trade developed.
Describe the routes, centres, goods and organisation of the trade.
Assess the effects of the trade on West Africa.
Account for the decline of the trade.
Explain how and why Islam spread in West Africa.
Describe Islam in Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Borno and Hausaland.
Analyse the political, social, educational and economic impact of Islam.
Link the spread of Islam to the reform movements of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Key points

Trade between North Africa and the Sudan savanna, made possible by the camel.
Salt and horses went south; gold, enslaved people, ivory and kola went north.
Three groups of routes: western, central and eastern (to Borno).
Organisation: caravans, guides, brokers, credit, Islamic law, rulers’ taxes.
Effects: states, cities, wealth, cavalry, Islam, literacy, architecture, slave trade.
Decline: Tondibi 1591, Atlantic trade, insecurity, abolition, railways.
Islam spread mainly by traders, scholars, rulers, schools, pilgrimage and Sufi orders.
Ghana: Muslim officials; Almoravid conquest of 1076 is disputed.
Mali: Mansa Musa’s hajj 1324–25. Songhai: Askia Muhammad’s hajj 1496–97.
Borno: Hume first Muslim Mai; Idris Alooma’s Islamic reforms.
Kano: Yaji and the Wangara; Rumfa and al-Maghili (c.1493).
Impact: Sharia, literacy, ajami, administration, dress, architecture; tensions led to jihads.

Start here: The Sahara and the rise of trans-Saharan trade

The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert, stretching from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. It was never a total barrier. People crossed it for thousands of years, and rock art shows that the Sahara was once wetter, with cattle herders and even horse-drawn chariots. The trade that matters for our syllabus, the trans-Saharan trade, linked North Africa (the Maghrib and Egypt) with the Bilad al-Sudan ("land of the black peoples"), the savanna belt of West Africa. It grew from small-scale exchange into a major international trade between about the eighth and sixteenth centuries, and parts of it continued into the twentieth century.

Why the trade developed

The camel. Camels became widespread in North Africa in the third and fourth centuries AD, under late Roman rule. A camel can carry heavy loads (often given as 150–200 kg) and go many days without water, which made regular caravans possible.
Complementary resources. North Africa and the desert had salt, horses, cloth and manufactured goods; West Africa had gold, ivory, kola and labour. Each side wanted what the other had. Salt was vital in the hot savanna for diet and preserving food, and the savanna had little of it.
The rise of Islam and the Arab conquest of North Africa (seventh and eighth centuries) created a large, connected Muslim trading world with shared law, credit and the Arabic language.
Desert peoples such as the Berber Sanhaja and the Tuareg knew the routes, wells and oases and acted as guides, carriers and protectors.
Strong states in the savanna (Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Borno and the Hausa cities) kept order, built markets and taxed the trade, which in turn made them richer.

A desert journey

A crossing could take about two months. Caravans travelled in the cooler months, moved from well to well and rested in oases. Dangers included sandstorms, thirst, getting lost and raids. Guides (often Tuareg) were paid well, and travellers paid tolls for protection. The famous traveller Ibn Battuta crossed the Sahara to Mali in 1352 and described the salt town of Taghaza, where houses were built of salt blocks.

Worked example 3.1 (WAEC Paper 1)

Which animal made regular trans-Saharan trade possible? (A) horse (B) donkey (C) camel (D) ox. Answer: C. Horses were traded southward but could not cross the desert reliably on their own.

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Practice questions

1. The animal that made trans-Saharan trade possible was the

camel
horse
donkey
elephant

Show answer

A: camel
Introduced to the Sahara around the early centuries AD.

2. The main good exchanged for gold in the western Sudan was

cocoa
palm oil
rubber
salt

Show answer

D: salt
From Taghaza and Taoudenni.

3. Silent trade (dumb barter) refers to

trade on credit
trade in slaves only
trade without spoken contact between traders
trade by letters

Show answer

C: trade without spoken contact between traders
Described for gold traders.

4. Which was a northern terminus of trans-Saharan routes?

Calabar
Sijilmasa
Kano
Lagos

Show answer

B: Sijilmasa
In Morocco.

5. A major southern trading town in the western Sudan was

Timbuktu
Tripoli
Cairo
Fez

Show answer

A: Timbuktu
Also Gao, Jenne, Kano.

Key words

Trans-Saharan trade: Long-distance trade across the Sahara between North and West Africa.
Caravan: A large group of traders travelling together with pack animals.
Oasis: A fertile spot in the desert with water.
Bilad al-Sudan: Arabic for "land of the black peoples", the West African savanna.
Wangara: Mande-speaking Muslim traders (also Dyula).
Tuareg: Berber-speaking desert nomads who guided and protected caravans.
Taghaza: Saharan salt mine on the western route; taken by Morocco in 1585.
Bilma: Salt source in Kawar on the eastern route.
Ulama: Muslim scholars.
Mallam: Hausa term for a learned Muslim teacher.
Sharia: Islamic law.
Qadi / Alkali: Muslim judge.

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