West African Trade

This book, originally published in 1954, examines the key features of the economies of colonial Nigeria and the Gold Coast.

Winner of the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2019 Shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize and the Pius Adesanmi Memorial Award 'Astonishing, staggering' Ben Okri, Daily Telegraph A groundbreaking new history that will transform our view of West Africa By the time of the 'Scramble for Africa' in the late nineteenth century, Africa had already been globally connected for many centuries. Its gold had fuelled the economies of Europe and Islamic world since around 1000, and its sophisticated kingdoms had traded with Europeans along the coasts from Senegal down to Angola since the fifteenth century. Until at least 1650, this was a trade of equals, using a variety of currencies - most importantly shells: the cowrie shells imported from the Maldives, and the nzimbu shells imported from Brazil. Toby Green's groundbreaking new book transforms our view of West and West-Central Africa. It reconstructs the world of kingdoms whose existence (like those of Europe) revolved around warfare, taxation, trade, diplomacy, complex religious beliefs, royal display and extravagance, and the production of art. Over time, the relationship between Africa and Europe revolved ever more around the trade in slaves, damaging Africa's relative political and economic power as the terms of monetary exchange shifted drastically in Europe's favour. In spite of these growing capital imbalances, longstanding contacts ensured remarkable connections between the Age of Revolution in Europe and America and the birth of a revolutionary nineteenth century in Africa. A Fistful of Shells draws not just on written histories, but on archival research in nine countries, on art, praise-singers, oral history, archaeology, letters, and the author's personal experience to create a new perspective on the history of one of the world's most important regions.

An authoritative and comprehensive study of the palm oil trade.

Issued in conjunction with the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time, held January 26, 2019-July 21, 2019, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

This is the standard account of the economic history of the vast area conventionally known as West Africa. Ranging from prehistoric time to independence it covers the former French as well as British colonies.

Concerned with the history of scholarly production, book markets and trans-Saharan exchanges in Muslim African (primarily western and northern Africa), as well as the creation of manuscript libraries, this book consists of a collection of twelve essays that examine these issues from an interdisciplinary perspective.

West African trade unionism past and present / Craig Phelan -- The Confédération générale du travail (CGT) in West Africa: the difficulties of constructing trade union internationalism / Anne-Catherine Wagner -- The 1947-48 railway strike in West Africa / James Jones -- Trade unions and nationalism in French Guinea, 1945-58 / Elizabeth Schmidt -- Trade unions in The Gambia, 1929-2010 / David Perfect -- Trade unionism among teachers in Benin since 1945 / Azizou Chabi Imorou -- Trade unions, democratic transition and organisational challenge: the Ghana Trades Union Congress, 1989-2009 / Kwamina Panford -- Political pluralism and the trade union movement in Mali / Ousmane Oumarou Sidibe -- Trade unions and the informal economy in Ghana / Akua Britwum -- Trade unions and politics in Guinea since independence / Mohamed Saliou Camara -- On social partnership in West Africa / George Minet.