ABSTRACT
In recent millennia the Sahara Desert has been one of the world’s most formidable barriers to human contact. Until about 1300 years ago it effectively formed the southern edge of the world known to Europe and the Mediterranean. Together with the navigational dangers of its Atlantic coast, the desert prevented or at least severely limited contact between that world and the West African savannas and forests. This situation changed with the arrival in North Africa of Arab people, many of whom came from a desert background and understood the value of the camel, an animal that had already been introduced into North Africa. Sustained by their Islamic faith and powerful commercial incentives, they and the indigenous Berber people developed a network of trade routes across the Sahara. They found that south of the desert there were commodities much in demand to its north, particularly gold and slaves, and that manufactures from the north and salt from the desert itself were amongst goods equally sought after in the south. The long-distance trade that developed, often despite great difficulties and dangers, persisted for over a thousand years, only declining with the development of European maritime trade along the West African coast in recent centuries. By then it had brought about major cultural changes in much of West Africa.
