ABSTRACT
The herders acted as intermediaries in the intra- and trans-Saharan trade that brought salt and copper from the desert and North African and European manufactures such as cloth, swords, and paper in exchange for gold, ivory, malaguetta pepper, and other western African products, as well as captives. Landlord-stranger reciprocities, the ancient western African patterns of hospitality and responsibility toward travelers, promoted commercial exchanges. Most of the salt traded was derived from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean by solar evaporation, but there are a few inland salt deposits in western Africa, and certain plants also yield vegetable salts. Smiths fabricated tools and implements for their own use; bartered with local groups for foodstuffs, local products, and trade goods; and produced the iron bars and worked iron that were staples of commerce in western Africa. Once established in western Africa, cotton cultivation, textile manufacture, dyeing, and concomitant commercial exchanges were among the chief components of intra- and interregional commerce.
