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The wealth of many ancient
and medieval African kingdoms far surpassed anything in Europe.
One 10th century Arab writer, Ibn Hawkal, described the ruler of Ghana
as the, "wealthiest sovereign on Earth."1
The empire of Mali, Ghana's
successor in the region, was likely the wealthiest nation in the world in
the 14th century. Regarding the Middle Ages, Basil Davidson writes,
"Compared to the poverty of Europe…the wealth of the Indies
(Known from The Adventures of Marco Polo) did seem infinite and
wonderful; and if the Indies, then why not Africa
as well."2
Arabs and Europeans were
consistently impressed and sometimes amazed with the wealth of the black
African cities and kingdoms. Mahmud Ka'ti, a medieval Arab scholar, wrote
that Mali,
"has some 400 towns and its soil is most fertile. Among the kingdoms
of the rulers of the world, only Syria is more beautiful.
Its inhabitants are rich and live comfortably."3
An Italian merchant, Ramusio, wrote that Mali,
"being…so much civilized and so desirous of the merchandise of Europe."4
Idrisi recorded that the Uangara,
a West African people, have "flourishing cities and renowned
fortresses, its inhabitants are wealthy; they possess gold in
abundance, and receive the products brought to them from the other
remotest portions of the earth….they are altogether black."5
Ibn Battuta, an Arab world traveler, recorded that, "Kilwa is one of
the most beautiful and well-constructed towns in the world. The whole of
it is elegantly built."6
Heinrich Barth, a 19th century German traveler wrote that the Nigerian
town of Kano:
"How great this national wealth is," he proclaimed.
"…a whole family may live in that country with ease, including
every expense, even that of clothing."7
All too familiar with the terrible conditions of the Victorian sweatshops
in Europe, Barth continued: "If we consider that this industry
(textile manufacturing) is not carried on here as in Europe, in immense
establishment degrading man to the meanest condition of life, but that it
gives employment and support to families without compelling them to
sacrifice their domestic habits, we must presume that Kano ought to be
one of the happiest countries in the world; and so it is so long as its
governor, too often lazy and indolent, is able to defend its inhabitants
from the cupidity of their neighbors, which of course is certainly
stimulated by the very wealth of this country."8
Concerning the East African
coast, V.V Matveiev wrote: "The Portuguese were impressed by the
towns, the appearance and architecture of which did not fall short of
anything they had at home, and by the wealth of the inhabitants
who came to meet them and were elegantly dressed in rich, gold-adorned
clothes and in silk and cotton cloth. The woman wore chains and bangles
of gold and silver on their arms and legs, and earrings set with precious
stones."8
Davidson reasoned, "In the matter of wealth and knowledge of a
wider world it must have seemed a great deal more civilized."9
De Gama, regarding the East African Coastal city Quilimane, recorded how
the East Africans looked down upon the Portuguese and their
inferior material wealth: "When we had been two or three days at
this place two senhores of the country came to see us. They were very
haughty; and valued nothing which we gave them…A young man in their company--so we understood from their signs--had
come from a distant country, and had already seen big ships like ours."
The East Africans had actually seen much greater ships used to sail the Indian Ocean.11
The Chinese ships, for instance, dwarfed Portugal's. The Chinese were
actually using ship technology that wouldn't be duplicated until the
infamous Titanic.
Some cities were also more
populous than those in Western Europe.
The cities in Mali and
Songhay, such as Niani and Gao had around 100,000 people, Timbuktu had around
80,000, Jenne had 40,000, and the Azanians in Keyna had a city
population, estimated by Leakey, as, "between thirty and forty
thousand." Medieval Florence,
in comparison, had around 60,000 inhabitants.
The wealth didn't just
happen either; if that were the case Africans would still be wealthy.
There needed to be complex systems of trade, industry, and agriculture.
The wealthiest nations in medieval and ancient Africa
had complex markets, often directly or indirectly encouraged, regulated,
and/or organized by the government. Government involvement included
taxes, tariffs, quotas, controlling the output of currency, banks, the
establishment of stock markets, and other common government interaction.
Cambridge historian John Iliffe gave this
example of a West African market: "Western Africa had highly
organized market systems, where within towns and villages, as in Igbo
country, or on neutral ground between them, as in the Kongo Kingdom.
Often they rotated among neighboring villages on successive days, forming
complex 'market weeks'…Most market-sellers appear to have been women
although the itinerant professional traders attending markets were men.
Many political authorities levied tolls on traders and supervised
markets."13
Most wealthy African
kingdoms had a complex system of taxation, currency--which they allocated
to control inflation14
--some had banks, and we know of at least one West African stock market.
J. Devisse and S. Labib for example, record that, "Mali and Songhay organized a
careful system of controlling exports and taxing imports."16
Compared to Western, Northern, and Eastern Europe,
the African economy was considerably more complex and efficient. For
instance, as Henri Pirenne pointed out, "from every point of view, Western
Europe, from the ninth century onwards, appears in the light of an essentially
rural society, in which exchange and the movement of goods had
sunk to the lowest possible ebb…"17
The efficient African
economy resulted in new agricultural technology and methods. Subsequently
there was a surplus that left room for people to specialize in certain
areas, such as an artisan, metalworker, leather maker, clothes maker,
glassmaker, doctor, and so on. Life in the wealthy regions of ancient and
medieval Africa would have been the envy
of the average European.
The wealth of the black
African kingdoms in ancient times dwarfed the white clans of Europe. Nubia,
Kush, Meroe, and Axum
all enjoyed prominent economic status in the Mediterranean world.
"The position held by the Aksum
kingdom in world commerce," wrote University of Pennsylvania State
historian Y.M. Kobishanov, "was that of a first-rate trading
power."
Meroe's "royal city" had buildings with
"palaces, audience chambers, stores, and domestic quarters for the
palace staff." They also had a bath, which, "consisted of a
large brick-lined tank with water channels leading into it from a nearby
well."19
According to Yale and
Harvard historians, "Kush appears
to be a wealthy and prosperous kingdom by any standards."20
Compared to the
pre-Romanized Germans, who did not even practice agriculture,21
or pre-Christian Ireland in the 5th century that was a completely
illiterate, and semi nomadic,22
where crimes, even murder, were frequent and of no consequence,23
which had no towns, just isolated farms and scattered huts,24
and where clan feuds made inter clan trade impossible, the ancient
Africans were abundantly more wealthy than the ancient white Europeans.
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1Davidson,
Basil. The Lost Cities of Africa. Boston: Little
Brown, 1959, 76
2Africa
from the twelfth to the sixteenth century/ editor, D.T. Niane (London;
Heinemann Educational Books; Berkeley: University of California Press,
1984), 156
3Davidson,
Basil. The Lost Cities of Africa. Boston: Little
Brown, 1959, 76
4Diop,
Cheikh Anta. Precolonial Black Africa. Brooklyn, N.Y.:
Lawrence Hill Books, 1987, 134
5Davidson,
Basil. The Lost Cities of Africa. Boston: Little
Brown, 1959, 209
6Ibid,
172
7Ibid,
124
8Africa
from the twelfth to the sixteenth century/ editor, D.T. Niane (London;
Heinemann Educational Books; Berkeley: University of California Press,
1984), 472
9Davidson,
Basil. The Lost Cities of Africa. Boston: Little
Brown, 1959, 196
10Ibid,
196
11Ibid,
196
12Iliffe,
81
13Africa
from the twelfth to the sixteenth century/ editor, D.T. Niane (London;
Heinemann Educational Books; Berkeley: University of California Press,
1984), 575
14Diop,
135
15Africa
from the twelfth to the sixteenth century/ editor, D.T. Niane (London; Heinemann
Educational Books; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 642
16Davidson,
Basil. The Lost Cities of Africa. Boston: Little
Brown, 1959, 285
17Ancient
civilizations of Africa/ UNESCO International Scientific Committee for
the Drafting of a General History of Africa;
editor, G. Mokhtar (London; Heinemann Educational Books; Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1981), 386
18Connah,
42
19The
Heritage of World Civilizations: Volume One: To 1650, 4th ed. Editor,
Owen, Cralyce. Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall Simon & Shuster, 1997, 185
20Ibid,
17
21Cahill,
81
22Ibid,114
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