ABSTRACT
Metals have been worked in sub-Saharan Africa for more than two millennia. Those who produced these metals and the objects they fashioned have played dominant roles in the history of the subcontinent. In many cultures, myths of origin refer to the revolutionary impact of metalworking. Objects of iron, copper and gold have long been central to political, economic, social and religious life. So abundantly was Africa endowed with deposits of gold that it
was for centuries synonymous with the glittering metal, first to the Arab and Indian Ocean worlds, then to Europeans. However, in Africa itself iron has been the primary metal in all spheres of life, from utilitarian to ritual. Furthermore, in many societies copper was traditionally more highly esteemed than gold. In this chapter I will focus on the organization of mining labor in precolonial subSaharan Africa as a whole, with particular attention to the ways in which it may or may not have differed from the organization of agricultural and domestic labor, and to the ways in which it reveals underlying patterns of belief.
