ABSTRACT
Over the last decade or so, a certain amount of work has been begun by social anthropologists, economists and geographers on the market institutions of Africa south of the Sahara. Markets, in the sense of public gatherings of buyers and sellers meeting at appointed places at regular intervals, have been found to be important elements of the social and economic landscape and their study essential to any real understanding of the life and work of many African communities. The study of markets, however, and in particular the description, understanding and explanation of their distributions and functions, raises a host of problems, most of which can be discussed in as yet only very tentative terms. The present paper focuses attention on one of the most difficult yet fundamental of such problems - the origins of markets in the region - and puts forward some suggestions as a basis for further d~scussion and field research. To simplify the present discussion, only traditional, indigenous markets, in existence before the arrival of the various European colonial administrations, will be considered.
