The Economic Context of Population and Social Class

Sources

Population Growth in Ghana. Evidence from excavations, written texts, and oral histories indicates that the population of ancient Ghana increased from 300 through 1000. Growth rates differed from year to year—sometimes coming in major spurts, sometimes incrementally—based on territorial conquests, migration, and indigenous births. By the end of the tenth century, Ghana probably had more than two million residents living in a territory that covered more than 250,000 square miles. This empire was organized into a confederation of semi-autonomous chieftaincies and clan-based states that recognized the authority of the ruler (or tunka) and paid him tribute and/or taxes.

Feeding the Empire of Ghana. In order to feed this expanding populace and produce the surpluses needed for intraregional and interregional exchange, Ghana grew millet, sorghum, and rice for its starches, and used animal meat (mainly beef and guinea fowl), fish, stewed groundnuts, or palm oil for protein. It imported salt, an important component of diet in its hot climate. The division of farm labor generally involved the men clearing the land and tilling and hoeing it with iron tools, while women and children weeded and cropped with similar implements. Everyone took part in the harvest.

Social Stratification in Ghana. By the eighth and ninth centuries, social differentiation and stratification in Ghana was apparent in food, clothing, and occupation. Excavations in Audaghost have uncovered evidence that the merchant and administrative classes, including the northern expatriate communities, generally ate imported wheat, dates, raisins, dried and locally grown figs, grapes, other fruits, beef, and mutton. By contrast, the common people usually ate millet durra, often mixed into griddle cakes, and dried camel meat. In other parts of ancient Ghana, the regular diet of the indigenous population was millet durra, rice, fresh and smoked fish, and cattle meat. The well-to-do often wore cotton and woven clothes, some finely decorated, while the lower classes wore woolens and animal skins. The well-to-do owned imported glazed oil lamps, cups, vases, decorated and glazed perfume holders, glass beads, glass goblets, silver, and jewelry set with amazonite and garnet. Occupational categories in Ghana included the ruler and his officials (such as provincial heads and advisers), artisans and craftsmen, builders and architects, hunters and herdsmen, merchants, smiths (iron, copper, and gold), potters, and agricultural laborers, many of whom were war-captive slaves. Blacksmiths and metallurgists (and to a somewhat lesser extent hunters and archers) had high status in Ghanaian society.

Food Production in Mali. According to al-Umari and Ibn Battuta, both of whom visited Mali in the mid fourteenth century, Mali regularly produced food surpluses, so incoming travelers were not required to bring their own provisions. Estimated at more than five million people, the Malian population comprised mostly agriculturalists and animal herders. Millet was grown in the drier terrain— which got only two to three months of rain annually— again with men doing the ground clearance and hoeing and women and children the cropping and weeding. Rice was grown in the Niger Valley floodplains, in Sankarani, in the Senegal River valley, and in the Karabu region. Some vegetables and beans were also grown, along with sorghum. Each year, according to Maude tradition, the first crop of millet, sorghum, rice, vegetables, and (particularly from the forest areas) yams was dedicated to the ruler (or mansa) of Mali. Not to do so was commonly recognized as an act of disrespect and rebellion against the ruler. Fishing and raising cattle, sheep, and goats were specialties of individual

MALI IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

In 1513-1515 a North African traveler who later became known as Leo Africanus visited Mali, which was then part of the Songhai Empire, and described the enterprises and religious activities he observed there:

In this kingdome there is a large and ample village containing to the number of sixe thousand or mo families, and called Melli, whereof the whole kingdome is so named. And here the king hath his place of residence. The region it selfe yeeldeth great abundance of corne, flesh, and cotton. Here are many artificers and merchants in all places and yet the king honourably entertaineth all strangers. The inhabitants are rich, and haue plenty of wares. Here are great store of temples, priests, and professours, which professours read their lectures onely in the temples, because they haue no colleges at all. The people of this region excel all other Negros in witte, ciuilitie, and industry, and were the first that embraced the law of Mahumet.

Source; Robert O. Collins, Western African History (Princeton: Wiener, 1990).

clans or peoples. For example, the Fulani raised cattle, while the Somono of the upper Niger and the Bozo and the Soninke near Gao were fishing experts who usually smoked and dried fish to preserve it. Mali also used slaves for work on farms controlled by career soldiers, administrative authorities, or the mansa himself. Virtually all these slaves were war captives. In the markets that existed in nearly all villages, towns, and trading cities, smoked and dried fish were regular commodities, as were raw cotton and woven cotton cloth.

Social Stratification in Mali. As with metallurgy, craft production such as indigo dyeing and leatherworking was limited to specific clans. Those not in particular occupational clans were restricted by law from engaging in such work. This practice created divisions that resemble social classes. There was a hierarchy of occupational clan status, with a clan specifically for the ruling mansa and clan associations specifically for elite soldiers (sometimes called the “nobility of the quiver”), horse breeders, cavalrymen, weavers, carpenters and mud-clay masons, urban and rural traders (the Dyula), priests, metalsmiths and smelters, and many others. Each clan had distinct privileges, rights, and leverage within the society. This hierarchy was essentially a more complex version of the social structure of Ghana and other Sudan-Sahel states. The clans were not class divisions but rather social-economic relationships approximating caste groups based on Maude custom and tradition. Because of their monopolies on specific commodities, the craft clans often became quite wealthy. A wealthy clan or lineage sometimes absorbed other clans into a larger kafu.

Expatriates and Slaves. In two particular instances, social classes were a distinct part of Malian society. The first was the class of expatriate traders residing in the northern trading towns of the Mali empire, especially Taghaza, Djenné, and Niani, the Malian administrative capital. As they had in ancient Ghana, these merchants lived as a discernible, interest-pursuing class of Muslim clerics, teachers, bankers, and businessmen. They had a strong influence on Malian government economic and religious policies, but little leverage or clout outside urban areas or within the ranks of indigenous Malians. The second was the slave class. In Mali, slaves made up a great proportion of the standing military, particularly the infantry. Slaves were porters, laborers accompanying the Dyula donkey caravans into the forest areas, and agricultural workers on large farms. One slave-soldier, Sakura, who had served as a military officer under Sundiata, seized the rulership of Mali in the late thirteenth century during a period of leadership instability and expanded the borders of Mali to their greatest historical limits. During his reign, he increased the ability of the government to protect caravan routes and resident merchants and completed the empire-building design of Sundiata.

Food Production in Songhai. In Songhai, the typical Sudanic pattern of population synthesis and differentiation of Ghana and Mali continued, with some significant additions and on a much larger scale. The consistent production of millet, rice, sorghum, lentils, fish, cattle, and goats was carried on generally through the same customs and clan occupations. Food surpluses were frequent, and

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periods of famine were exceedingly rare during the twohundred-year history of Songhai. With access to an extensive array of iron tools and implements from an expanded metallurgical population, local farmers, fishermen, andcattle raisers generally sold extra foodstuffs in village and urban markets and bought salt, cloth, iron tools, glassware, footwear, copper products, and sometimes jewelry.

Social Stratification in Songhai. The utilization of slaves increased; hierarchical distinctions among social groups became less amorphous; and a more organized standing army provided better protection of lives and property. Large groups of agricultural slaves grew millet, sorghum, and rice on estates owned or controlled by rulers, rich merchants, officials, and Muslim clerics. The military included thousands of slaves. The elite suna guards of the askia (ruler) were nearly always slaves. Slaves were also messengers, mosque builders, porters, movers, domestic help, and wet nurses. Songhai society was divided into rulers and administrators; military leaders and career soldiers; resident foreign traders; Muslim clerics, learned men, and judges; mobile traders; clan craft guilds and secret societies, especially metallurgists; clan chief’s and headmen; and indigenous farmers, fishermen, and animal husbandmen. Subject clans and peoples paid tribute. The government levied taxes on slave produce, imported and exported trade goods, agricultural harvests, fishing bounties, and herds of animals. In addition, clan heads had to provide warriors for yearly military campaigns.

Urban and Rural Society in Songhai. There was a discernible difference between urban society and rural society in Songhai. They were interdependent but virtually autonomous from one another. There were at least thirty-five cities in Songhai, the largest being Timbuktu (approximately eighty thousand people), Djenné (approximately forty thousand people), and Gao toward the east (approximately one hundred thousand people). Timbuktu was the economic and intellectual center of Songhai, while Djenné was the headquarters for commercial contact between the forest and savanna areas, and Gao was the political capital with links to the Hausa city-states and Egypt. Songhai’s urban areas imported luxury goods, woven and tailored clothing, fine jewelry and glassware, exotic perfumes and spices, books, rare silver items, and many horses. They often paid for horses with slaves, generally eleven to fifteen slaves for one horse. The cities were highly diverse in population, with Berbers, Dyula-Wangara (Mande-speaking traders), Soninke, Fulani, Hausa, Mossi, and other groups regularly engaging in daily transactions and activities and speaking to each other primarily in Songhai, Mande, and Arabic languages. The rural areas, which included hundreds of villages and towns, maintained their Mande-based matrilineal traditions, most frequently administered their own tribunals of justice, elected and supported their own clan chief’s, grew their own foodstuffs, paid homage to whatever askia happened to be in charge, and traded with the Dyula-Wangara. They generally rejected Islam and did not agree to give up any of their traditional sovereignty in spite of demands and dictates from the city dwellers.

Sources

S. M. Cissoko, “The Songhay from the 12th to the 16th Century,” in Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century, edited by D. T. Niane, volume 4 of General History of Africa (London: Heinemann / Berkeley: University of California Press / Paris: UNESCO, 1984), pp. 187-210.

I. Hrbek, “The Emergence of the Fatimids,” in Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century, edited by M. El Fasi and Hrbek, volume 3 of General History of Africa (London: Heinemann / Berkeley: University of California Press / Paris: UNESCO, 1988), pp. 314-335.

John Iliffe, Africans: The History of a Continent (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Nehemia Levtzion, “The Early States of the Western Sudan to 1500,” in History of West Africa, edited by J. F. A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder, second edition, volume 1 (London: Longman, 1976), pp. 114-151.