Gold and Salt Trade of West Africa
Because of the various geographic regions of West Africa and the variety of resources that each one had, each region depended on goods from the other regions. In the Sahara Desert salt was abundant but there was little else in the way of resources, without trade the miners and nomads who lived there would not be able to survive.
In the forest regions the weather was hot which meant that people would perspire a great deal. When the body sweats we lose some of our salt that our bodies need to survive. That salt can be replaced in your diet, it is also useful to preserve meat and season food.
Since the salt was coming from the north and the gold from the south the trade for these goods occurred in the kingdom of Ghana which was in between the two. Ghana became wealthy by taxing the goods that were traded there. The trade was done in a method called silent barter. Since the tribe of people (Wangarans) who had the gold wanted to keep their gold mines a secret they never met face to face to trade. If people wanted to trade with them they would meet along the banks of a specific river, leave what they were willing to trade, beat on a drum then leave the vicinity. Upon hearing the drum the Wangarans would come and see what was being traded, leave a fair amount of gold and beat on the drum and leave. The other tribe would return and if they thought the deal was fair they would take the gold and beat on the drum and leave. This meant the 2 groups never met face to face and even though they didn't speak the same language they could still trade.
Because of the various geographic regions of West Africa and the variety of resources that each one had, each region depended on goods from the other regions. In the Sahara Desert salt was abundant but there was little else in the way of resources, without trade the miners and nomads who lived there would not be able to survive.
In the forest regions the weather was hot which meant that people would perspire a great deal. When the body sweats we lose some of our salt that our bodies need to survive. That salt can be replaced in your diet, it is also useful to preserve meat and season food.
Since the salt was coming from the north and the gold from the south the trade for these goods occurred in the kingdom of Ghana which was in between the two. Ghana became wealthy by taxing the goods that were traded there. The trade was done in a method called silent barter. Since the tribe of people (Wangarans) who had the gold wanted to keep their gold mines a secret they never met face to face to trade. If people wanted to trade with them they would meet along the banks of a specific river, leave what they were willing to trade, beat on a drum then leave the vicinity. Upon hearing the drum the Wangarans would come and see what was being traded, leave a fair amount of gold and beat on the drum and leave. The other tribe would return and if they thought the deal was fair they would take the gold and beat on the drum and leave. This meant the 2 groups never met face to face and even though they didn't speak the same language they could still trade.