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Position:Home>History> I was having a debate with someone about African exports?Question: I was having a debate with someone about African exports!? They had said that the Africans did not export anything other than slaves!. I said that they exported (traded) gold, palm oil, ivory etc!.!.
However, the demand for slaves grew, so for African tribal leaders this became a more lucrative option, to the detriment of other goods, that were less cost effective (so to speak)!. I thought African societies had a long tradition of trade or am I wrong!?Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Well there was always trade to and from sub Saharan(ie Black) Africa with other parts of the world!. The Ancient Egyptians traded with black African tribes over 4000 years ago!. Later on, Africans were trading with Sheba,Ubar and Magan on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula!. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans also traded with black African tribes in Ancient Times!. Most of this trade was in things such as Ivory, Animal Skins, Exotic Animals(particularly for Assyrian Zoos), Fruit, Gold and even in those times, Slaves!. The problem for Africa in the Ancient World is that there were few if any pure African nations, apart from the Kingdom of Punt(in modern Somalia) there were none!. Ethiopia, Nubia, Napata and Meroe were Afro-Asiatic kingdoms, actually founded by invaders from the mid east, who in time intermingled with Africans!. However, they never really spread their influence beyond their own borders!. So Africa never actually had the advantage, if you can call it that, of being either conquored by or conquoring a more civilised peole and advancing from there!. In the middle ages things pretty much continued as they had in ancient times, the main trade was with the Arabs and Berbers of North Africa, but eventually the Arabs took to raiding and simply stealing slaves!. However, in the middle ages more advanced kingdoms such as Benin began to spread in West Africa, sadly even then part of their wealth was built on slavery!. Kingdoms such as the Ashanti in West Africa gained their wealth almost exclusively by selling other Africans as slaves to the Arabs and Europeans, as did other kingdoms that existed in what is now Niger, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Mauritania!. The trade in Ivory, Fruits and Animals and their skins continued throughout the millenia, and at some point gems began to be traded also!. However, Sub Saharan Africa was ALWAYS less advanced than the societies that traded with them in Europe, North Africa, The Middle East, Arabian Peninsula!.!.!.this is true in the Ancient World, Greco-Roman World, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Renaissance Era, and the gap has widened further still since the Industrial Revolution!. The point i am making is that these other peoples always had the advantage over black africa, they were always more technologically, militarily, politically and economically advanced, therefore trade was always on their terms, they were pulling the strings, and still do to this day!. Tribalism, corruption, nepotism, inefficency, political instability, lack of democracy, and govornmental laziness and complacency are what is holding Africa back today!. In the past, it was partly because they were geographically cut off from the great civilisations of the Near East, Asia Minor, Greece, Rome,North Africa, and were unable to learn from them!.Www@QuestionHome@Com African countries mostly export raw materials ,agricultural and forest produce only!.This is because industrialisation is yet to take place!.There is no capital formation or infrastructure in most of the countries!.Still South Africa exports some manufatured goods to other poor countries!.However ,the slave trade has diminished considerably due to increasing mechanisation and lower demand for manual labour!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com in south africa we export fruit, wine, vegetables and lots of other things!!Www@QuestionHome@Com they have a long tradition of slavery and tribalism xWww@QuestionHome@Com For centuries - possibly millennia - Africa (mainly the W, coast) has exported gold and ivory to the Mediterranean nations!. Herodotus tells us that the Phoenician traders used to barter manufactured goods for these commodities, even without a common language to trade in - they laid down what they thought a fair price alongside the offered goods, altering the amount from time to time, until the other party accepted the deal!. Alongside this, African nations have for a long time driven a prosperous trade in their own surplus population, selling these unfortunates off to Arab traders, then to W!. Europeans as slaves!. The ivory trade did not stop because the slave trade was so profitable; right down to the 19thC ivory was being traded, both by native kings and by colonists, out of areas where there are now few or no elephants - they were wiped out by the greed for ivory!. Africa, apart from Egypt and N!. Africa in Roman times, has never been a net exporter of agricultural products!. The amazing fertility of the inhabitants not only assured the local rulers an unending supply of people to sell; it also produced an overflowing population which consumed the whole produce of the land!. Until the white man came, African farming was subsistence farming at a low technical level, and there was no surplus to sell!. Since then, in Kenya and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe (among others) things altered and there was in colonial times an export trade in food items!. Since decolonisation the local tradition of subsistence farming seems to be reestablishing itself!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |