ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the organization of the supply of horses in West Africa, both through local breeding and through trade. To the east of the Niger, the horse-breeding area in recent times has not extended much to the south of the old Sokoto Province of Nigeria. Within the horse-breeding area of West Africa, certain more restricted regions were noted for breeding horses on an especially large scale, or for producing horses of especially high quality. The breeding of horses in West Africa is normally done in villages in the rural areas. In addition to the supply of horses yielded by local breeding, West Africa was during much of the pre-colonial period an importer of horses from outside. The most important branch of this external horse trade, both in duration and in scale, was the importation of horses from northern Africa across the Sahara.