ABSTRACT
THIS ARTICLE ATTEMPTS AN EXPLORATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP between different systems of military technology and different patterns of political organization in pre-colonial West Africa. It is, no doubt, somewhat artificial thus to isolate the factor of military technology, without taking into account other possible determinants of political structures, such as the nature of the geographical environment (with its effect on the ease of communications) and the character of the economy. 1 The military factor cannot, indeed, even be considered an independent variable, since the availability and utility of different systems of military technology evidently depend upon economic and environmental conditions. It seems nevertheless a potentially useful exercise to explore the degree to which differences in the political structures of West African societies can be related to differences in their military organization. There are, moreover, grounds for suggesting that warfare was an especially important activity in pre-colonial West Africa, since it has to be considered not only as a subordinate instrument of national policy but also as an industry in its own right. The importance of slaves, both in the internal economies of West African societies and as a commodity for export, 2 contributed to the institutionalization of warfare: for the procuring of slaves depended upon organized violence. 3 War, therefore, was an economic activity, by which both the labour needed for domestic purposes and the purchasing power needed to acquire foreign imports was mobilized. 4 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315053080/1bde881c-bc29-41d8-bfeb-cf52f2546f94/content/figu4_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
