ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses developments in western Africa during the c. 1500–c. 1630 wet period. This was a generally prosperous time for western African societies, with abundant harvests for cultivators and excellent pasturage for herders. The growth of competition was significantly to the advantage of African traders and elites, and landlord-stranger reciprocities ensured that Europeans, Cabo Verdeans, Eur-Africans, and the grumetes they employed continued to be controlled and subordinated to African interests. Mande trading groups systematically excluded European and Eur-African strangers from interior routes. During the sixteenth century there was reduced trade along the Malaguetta Coast due to the northward retreat of Mande traders and to the fact that peppercorns from South Asia supplanted malaguetta pepper in European markets. Viewed in the large perspective the activities of European and Cabo Verdean mariners gradually substituted a north-south navigational regime for one that was previously south-north.
