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A Free Market And Free Trade Tradition in pre-colonial African Societiey
by George Ayittey,Washington, DC



Market Types And Organization

Part of the goods produced by Africans were consumed, the rest traded or sold in markets. Much has been written about trade and markets in indigenous Africa, but dismissingly. For a variety of reasons, it has been argued that trade and markets could not have developed in Africa. For one thing, household subsistence agriculture was assumed to be the norm. Surplus agricultural produce therefore was unavailable to trade. For another, climatic conditions posed grave problems of storage, and technical difficulties seriously hampered bulk transportation of goods. And "those who do not believe that traditional African societies had market systems suggest that evidence of such systems is a reflection of colonial and Western contact, especially in the last hundred years" (Schneider, 1986; p.186). Yet, trade and markets there were.

The development of markets was inevitable even if self-sufficiency was assumed to be strictly operative. It was physically impossible for a homestead to produce all its needs on the farm. By necessity, a surplus over its needs was required to exchange for what it could not produce. In earlier times, such exchanges were done by canvassing from hut to hut, a time-consuming process. A market was simply a place where these exchanges could be made more easily. Where exchanges occurred regularly, a marketplace would developed. The institution of a marketplace, then, was a natural evolution. "Though people like the Hausa have adopted new types of currency, there were indigenous currencies consisting of cowrie shells, livestock, copper bars, and iron goods which made indigenous markets possible" (Schneider, 1986; p.186).

Markets were ubiquitous in West Africa. There were a few regions where
aboriginal markets were absent - in parts of Liberia, southwestern Ivory Coast, and in certain portions of the plateau regions of Nigeria. Nevertheless, even here people engaged in trade, and benefited from the markets of contiguous areas. The markets served as local exchange points or nodes, and trade was the vascular system unifying all of West Africa, moving products to and from local markets, larger market centers, and still larger centers (Skinner, 1964).

There were two types of markets and trade: the small village market and the
large markets which served as long-distance, inter-regional trade centers. Most markets tended to be situated on the border between different geographical zones - forest and savanna, coastal belt and interior - or between different ethnic groups - Gikuyu (cultivators) and Masai (pastoralists), and on inter-regional trade routes, providing travelling merchants with food and shelter, as well as facilities for exchange (Wickins, 1981).

Rural markets were often sited at bush clearings or at the intersection of
caravan routes. As Hill (1987) asserted: "Rural periodic markets are such
ancient institutions in many parts of West Africa and the literature on African markets is vast" (p.54). Skinner (1964) concurred:

"The first Europeans to arrive at the lower Niger River in the eastern coast of West Africa reported that they saw Igbo traders from inland bringing yams, cows, goats and sheep for trading with such coastal peoples as the Ijaw in exchange for salt...Markets of the societies in the middle zone between the eastern coast of West Africa and the Hausa states in the north were important centers of exchange in the period prior to European incursion."

Though indigenous markets in southern Africa were not as well developed as in west Africa, they were not entirely absent either (Bohannan, 1964; p.206). It is only in South Africa that historical accounts seem to indicate the introduction of organized markets by the colonialists. "Unorganized" markets however existed before the arrival of the colonists in South Africa. The difference between the two resided in the use of paper currency introduced by the Europeans. This distinction is important since there were numerous places where the people of South Africa exchanged or bartered goods. The absence of paper currency did not mean "unorganized" markets did not exist in much the same as the absence of paper currency did not mean the institution of money was unknown to Africans.

Wickins (1981) also supported this view: "The African peoples of the southern part of the continent traded among themselves both before and after the advent of European settlement, sometimes apparently over considerable distances. Some were more active traders than others, the Tsonga, for example, a coastal people living between Kosi Bay and the Save (Sabi) River. There were accustomed to travelling hundreds of
kilometers by canoe on the Limpopo."

The great bulk of African internal trade was in foodstuffs and livestock
(Newbury, 1971). Traded commodities included plantain, maize, kola nuts, salt, palm oil, dried or smoked fish, goats and cattle. In East Africa, however, a few commodities dominated local trade.

The staples of internal trade were salt, copper and gold. Salt was the basis of trade at Ingombe Ilede, an iron-using agricultural settlement near the
confluence of the Zambezi and Kafue Rivers, occupied during the last two or three centuries of the 1st millenium A.D. and reoccupied, according to
archaelogical evidence, in the 14th and 15th centuries. It commanded large salt deposits. Another salt trading center was Ivuna, near Lake Rukwe in modern Tanzania. Artifacts of copper, gold and iron excavated at Ingombe Ilede and Sanga indicate the existence of a trade in these materials, since there were no local sources (Wickins, 1981: 177).

Many of the pre-colonial rural markets of West Africa provided for the needs of local producers, consumers and traders as well as serving as foci forlong-distance traders. Some rural markets operated daily, depending upon the volume of trade. In Nigeria, Every village and town had markets which were attended in the morning or evening and in some cases, throughout the day. These markets were held either daily or periodically. The daily markets were local exchange points where producers, traders and consumers met to sell and buy. The periodic markets were organized on a cyclical basis of every three, four, five and sixteen days to feed the daily markets. Every community had a market cycle which enabled traders and buyers to attend different markets on different days (Falola, 1985:105).

The local markets had two important characteristics. The first was their
cyclical periodicity (Skinner, 1964). Market days were rotated among a cluster of villages. Yoruba, Dahomey and Guro markets operated on 5-day cycles. Igbo rural markets were on a 4-day or multiple of 4-day cycle while Mossi markets ran on a 3-day or 21-day cycle. The cycling served a dual purpose. It was an adaptation to a situation where the volume of goods to be exchanged was too small to carry out on a daily basis. It also promoted intercourse between villages and further served to stabilize prices in neighboring markets and redistribute supplies among them.

The second characteristic of rural markets was the segregation of vendors or merchants according to the products sold. Tomato sellers were seated at one section of the market. The object was to promote competition. "It (segregation) made it convenient for buyers to locate the regular section of each commodity, to choose from a wide variety of goods and to buy at a fair price since the traders had to compete with one another at the same time" (Falola, 1985; p.106).

In Mossi markets of Ghana, there was a further segregation by reference to the trader's place of origin (Skinner, 1962). For example, a large number of sellers of one type of product, say tomatoes, formed an open circle in which each trader sat facing the point of origin. Inside this circle, separated by a few feet, was another circle of traders of another produce with their backs toward the general direction from which they came. This configuration performed a social function by making it easier to find one's friends, to converse, to drink with them, to find someone through whom to send messages to specific villages, to find help needed in the event of a fight and to find an escape route by which one could leave in the event of trouble.

The markets were well organized and structured. Some specialized completely in certain product lines (agricultural produce versus handicrafts) while others carried general wares. Each market had its own rules and customs regarding settlement of disputes and the quality of the products being offered for sale. Disputes inevitably arose in market places and violence and fights occurred. For these reasons, the Guro of Ivory Coast located markets outside the village.

Generally, most African markets had market chiefs, often appointed by a
political chief or elected from among the traders, to maintain law and order at the marketplace. Among the Kuba of Zaire, the market chief "saw to it that no armed persons were allowed on the market place, and that the dealers in similar products were grouped together. His policemen repressed any uproar and settled on the spot any dispute about transactions" (Vansina, 1962).

Many other ethnic societies established courts at the market place to handle disputes (Bohannan, 1964; p.214). For example, the 19th century explorer Clapperton found that in the Hausa markets of Nigeria, "if a purchase was later found to be defective, the broker or seller was obliged by the laws of the market to refund the price paid for it" (Skinner, 1964).

Each Hausa market, kasuwa, had a headman (the Sarkin Kasuwa or Magajin Kasuwa) who was responsible to the village or town chief. He had a number of deputies: the Sarkin Awo (chief of the grainsellers, often a woman), the Sarkin Pawa (chief butcher), the Sarkin Dillalai (chief broker), and so on. Each craft leader was chosen by the group he/she represented. The Sarkin Pawa was responsible for the market meat supplies and also controlled the rotation of killings among the butchers.

The chief of the grain sellers was responsible for maintenance of fair measures and prices. Since grain used to be sold in various measures there was the potential for cheating. The Sarkin Awo enforced the use of standard measures such as the mudu, a metal bowl of standard capacity.

Generally, each craft headman remained with his/her various group to settle minor disputes about payment or quality of goods, price and the like, before they became serious, or brought them to the market chief, who could refer them to higher authority. Perhaps for this reason "quarreling and blows were very rare at these markets" (Gibbs, 1965; p.128). In other tribal systems, "a committee of elders took it as one of their most serious civic duties to maintain a market place so that their part of the world would be `kept on the map' and prosperity would reign" (Bohannan, 1964; p.213).

In the Guro markets of Ivory Coast, fines were imposed in cases of fights or
insults and there were men responsible for maintaining peace. Palm wine drinking was not allowed at Guro markets, except on very special occasions. Among the Igbo, the youngest age-grade, the ekpe uke isi (society-grade six) acted as the market police. They settled minor disputes, referring the serious ones to the ekpe uke esa court (grade seven). In the Konso markets of southern Ethiopia, petty complaints and disputes were taken up by the pokwalla (head man) and judges selected from the ranks of the Orshata (group of elders). The market area was patrolled by members of the local Xella (an age-grade), whose function it was to maintain order under the direction of other members of the Orshata
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They didn't practice the much maligned "laissez-faire" capitalism, but if this ain't capitalist, I don't know what is.

peace
k. orr