Central Africa - Trade, Commerce, Exchange

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data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/central-Africa">Central Africa</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/place/central-Africa">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref40633"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Early-society-and-economy">Early society and economy</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40634"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Early-society-and-economy#ref40634">Early toolmakers</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40635"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/The-agricultural-revolution">The agricultural revolution</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40636"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/The-Iron-Age">The Iron Age</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40637"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Growth-of-trade">Growth of trade</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref40638"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Growth-of-trade#ref40638">Central Africa and the outer world</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40639"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Development-of-the-slave-trade">Development of the slave trade</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40640"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Exploitation-of-ivory">Exploitation of ivory</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref40641"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Colonialism">Colonialism</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40642"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Colonialism#ref40642">Establishment of European colonies</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40643"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Economic-organization">Economic organization</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref225766"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/The-end-of-the-colonial-period">The end of the colonial period</a></li></ul></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/central-Africa/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/central-Africa">Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30"> <a class="section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/central-Africa/images-videos">Images</a> <div class="slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 "> <div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex overflow-hidden text-nowrap ml-15"> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/81/7181-050-7ED6E076/dam-Inga-Falls-Congo-River-Matadi-Democratic.jpg" data-href="/media/1/102127/851" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/81/7181-004-AC3371AE/dam-Inga-Falls-Congo-River-Matadi-Democratic.jpg" alt="Congo River: hydroelectric dam at Inga Falls" height="50" /> </a> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/79/7179-050-80019BC7/farms-one-highlands-slopes-regions-Burundi-Africa.jpg" data-href="/media/1/102127/24333" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/79/7179-004-E7D6D49B/farms-one-highlands-slopes-regions-Burundi-Africa.jpg" alt="Small farms line the slopes in the highlands of Burundi, one of the most densely populated regions in central Africa." height="50" /> </a> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/57/131557-050-20BC23E4/Map-10th-edition-Central-Africa-Encyclopaedia-Britannica-1902.jpg" data-href="/media/1/102127/130052" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/57/131557-004-E28FB92A/Map-10th-edition-Central-Africa-Encyclopaedia-Britannica-1902.jpg" alt="Central Africa, c. 1902" height="50" /> </a> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/78/7178-050-19F2EB37/Central-Africa-map-elevation.jpg" data-href="/media/1/102127/62293" 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Author of <i>Trade and Conflict in Angola </i>and others.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> David Birmingham</span></div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-11-19T00:00:00CST" >Nov 19, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/central-Africa/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="bg-gray-50 p-15 rounded module-spacing recent-news d-flex flex-column float-false"> <div> <h2 class="font-weight-bold font-14 m-0 d-inline"> News <span class="text-gray-600">•</span> </h2> <div class="recent-news-item first-recent-news-item d-inline"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/africa/article/2001504002/un-says-over-5mln-people-in-west-central-africa-impacted-by-floods" rel="nofollow">UN says over 5mln people in West, Central Africa impacted by floods</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 17, 2024, 2:18 AM ET (The Standard) <button class="btn btn-link d-inline p-0 font-12 js-toggle-recent-news"> <span class="text-gray-500">...</span><span>(Show more)</span> </button> </span> </div> </div> <div class="rest-of-recent-news-items"> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.dw.com/en/equatorial-guinea-sex-scandal-sparks-debate-on-consent/a-70757531" rel="nofollow">Equatorial Guinea: Sex scandal sparks debate on consent</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 11, 2024, 9:10 PM ET (Deutsche Welle) </span> </div> <button class="js-toggle-recent-news d-flex btn btn-unstyled font-14 pr-10 rounded-sm mt-10" aria-label="Toggle additional news items"> Show less <em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_less"></em> </button> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1"><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="2" id="ref40637">  <span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The development of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/copper" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">copper</a> industry caused many of the peoples of Central Africa to look to their own resources for produce that could be sold in order to buy the prestigious new metal and other exotic goods. The <span id="ref467559"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/salt" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">salt</a> industry developed out of the needs of long-distance trade. The salt lagoons of the west coast became particularly important, and salt tracks ran far into the interior to agricultural <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="communities" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/communities" data-type="MW">communities</a> without salt of their own to season the cereal dishes that were their staple food. Away from the coast, communities that had access to salt mines, or to dried salt lakes, organized exploitation and marketing, sometimes going far afield to the salt mines of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/eastern-Africa" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">East Africa</a>. Where salt was not available, or where the costs of transport made it prohibitively expensive, people had to make do with salt substitutes such as the ash of marsh plants. Where real salt was produced, however, the industry became a focus for political power, and early states were formed, as on the Loango coast of modern Congo.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="comparable" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/comparable" data-type="EB">comparable</a> importance to copper and salt was the <span id="ref467560"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/textile" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">textile</a> industry. This also led to long-distance trade as specialized cloths were made for export to neighbouring regions. Like the salt industry, the textile industry sometimes was controlled by princes who dominated the markets and supplied protection to the caravanners who carried the bales of cloth. In western Central Africa the textile industry was based on fibre drawn from the <span id="ref754711"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/plant/raffia-palm" class="md-crosslink ">raffia palm</a>. The quality of the finished product, which sometimes had a velvetlike pile and a rich range of natural colours, was much admired by the first foreign visitors to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/region-geography" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">region</a>. Indeed, raffia squares became the basis of colonial <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="currency" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/currency" data-type="EB">currency</a> in the 17th century. Before that, raffia trading to and from the forest palm groves had become one of the sources of wealth among kings in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Kongo-historical-kingdom-Africa" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Kongo kingdom</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Textile <span id="ref754713"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/weaving" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">weaving</a> in Central Africa was important not only to kings and colonial governors but also to the regulation of social relations. Cloth provided one of the more durable and valuable possessions in every household. It therefore became the preferred item for social payments. In particular, bride wealth—which in other societies might be paid in gold or cattle—was commonly paid in cloth. The control of weaving was in the hands of old men. They no longer had the strength of young men to go hunting or to raid their neighbours, but they did control social wealth by monopolizing the weaving of raffia cloth. Young men had no access to the cloth and thus could not get married and set up a household; they remained dependent on the elders. The old men controlled cloth, and thus marriage, and could in the last years of their lives marry several young wives and ensure that their own line would be dominant in the next generation. In small and scattered societies across Central Africa, marriage was an important link between communities. Marrying within one’s own clan or <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="lineage" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/lineage" data-type="EB">lineage</a> was not always desirable, and maintaining contacts with neighbours in order to exchange brides was necessary. Permanent overarching political systems were not common, but the regular patterns of social communication went beyond merely commercial ones.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Another source of wealth that became important throughout the history of Central Africa was the trade in dried fish. The management of <span id="ref754715"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/fishing-food-production" class="md-crosslink ">fish</a> ponds became one way in which the scale of political power increased from village size to state size. The lakes of the eastern savanna provide one example of early state formation. The ancestors of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Luba-people" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Luba</a> became wealthy and powerful by controlling the <span id="ref467561"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/commercial-fishing" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">fishing industry</a>, building canoes and drying ovens, and setting up networks of trade paths along which <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="porters" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/porters" data-type="EB">porters</a> carried tightly packed headloads of dried fish. In tropical conditions many foods were perishable, but dried fish could be preserved for months and carried to regions deficient in protein, where it was sold for high prices. The fish trade of the great rivers remained important, and fishermen were among the wealthier of the river dwellers. In the 20th century they were able to motorize their canoes, refrigerate their catches, and use steamers for long-distance transport.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In most of Central Africa the scale of political management remained small; the power brokers were men who gained influence in local communities. Kingdoms were not the norm. In a few places, however, administration was organized on a scale that went beyond a single day’s march from the central homestead. The most striking of the early kingdoms was that of the <span id="ref467562"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Kuba-historical-kingdom-Africa" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Kuba</a> peoples, at the heart of the southern forest. Kuba kings controlled the resources of a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="diverse" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diverse" data-type="MW">diverse</a> ecological <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="environment" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/environment" data-type="MW">environment</a>. They built up trade networks that enabled them to obtain copper from far afield and, later, even to buy such valuable ornamental assets as cowrie shells from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Indian-Ocean" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Indian Ocean</a>, which were traded from <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="community" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community" data-type="MW">community</a> to community across Africa. The kings of the Kuba based their claim to power on a mystical exotic origin, far away down the rivers to the west, though such an alien pedigree bore no historical justification. Power had more to do with membership in influential local groups than with migration. Wealth, the ownership of livestock, the control of land, the mobilization of militias—these were the features of state formation in those rare areas where kingship could flourish. The Kuba knew government on a scale comparable to the early fish-trading states of the Luba and the raffia-weaving principalities of the Kongo kings.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> </section> </section> <span class="marker h3"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref40638"> <h2 class="h1">Central Africa and the outer world</h2> </section><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":5,"pagesTotal":10,"pageId":102127,"pageLength":934,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"B","adLeg":"B","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":5,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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