Money, Slavery and Political Change in Precolonial West Africa

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This project brings together two vital aspects of precolonial West African history which hitherto have been analysed separately. It places new pan-Atlantic perspectives on the history of slavery and the African diaspora alongside new archival data on the currencies linking West Africa and the Atlantic world, to offer a new approach to the history of economic underdevelopment in African and world history: the core argument is that the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the currencies linking African and world economies from the 17th to the 19th centuries formed part of the same economic structure which led to underdevelopment in precolonial West Africa.Since the 1960s, historians have focussed on the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as a key factor in shaping the history of precolonial West Africa, with important discussions as to whether the slave trade expanded forms of slavery in West Africa itself (Rodney 1966; Fage 1969; Lovejoy 1983). Meanwhile, economic historians looked in some detail at the history of currencies in precolonial West Africa, and at how currency imports and currency-use reflected social and economic changes also linking Africa and the world economy (Adebayo 1994; Guyer 2004; Hogendorn/Johnson 1986; Inikori 2007; Lovejoy 1974). Yet until now, there has been no systematic analysis of the way in which the history of slavery and the history of currency were interdependent, reflecting key aspects of precolonial West African political change which created the indigenous economic and political structures which faced the rise of colonialism in the late 19th century.The PI's key hypothesis is therefore that the analysis of both the history of slavery and of the emergence of economic underdevelopment in West Africa emerges more clearly if slavery and currency histories are analysed together. Where enslaved Africans were used as forms of currency and credit in early Atlantic economies (cf Newson/Minchin 2007; Newson 2013), understanding the trans-Atlantic slave trade as part of the economic complex which contributed to underdevelopment can make a real contribution to understanding processes of economic change both in Africa and in the world; such a focus reveals also how economic patterns and cross-cultural exchange were connected. Meanwhile, new evidence on pan-Atlantic diasporas in the history of slavery (Barcia 2014; Candido 2013; Ferreira 2012; Green 2012) show how histories of slavery, racism, and histories of economic divergences offer close correlations: where racial stereotypes were not universal as late as the 1640s, as the portraits of Kongolese ambassadors by Albert Eckhout in Brazil make clear, the emergence of such stereotypes went with the rapid expansion of the Atlantic slave economy from West Africa after 1660 (Gikandi 2011).The new archival data found -- and theoretical advances made -- since African currency history was last debated in detail can build on new directions in the field. New institutional economics' focus on trust builds heavily on African examples (Cohen 1971; Greif 1993). In the Dutch Atlantic context, Nimako and Willemsen (2011) have indeed argued that the slave trade needs to be viewed partly through the lens of world economic history; meanwhile, work on slavery in precolonial northern Nigeria has shown that slaves were used as a form of currency in the 19th century (Hogendorn 1977). Bridging the histories of slavery and economic change in Africa therefore can produce leading contributions to core fields.The project thus allows the PI to enhance the leadership role which their publications (Green 2011; 2012; 2016) have developed. This leadership will be further consolidated through mentoring a postdoctoral researcher working on a specific case study that supports the hypothesis; staging public impact events alongside Ecobank and the OCR A Level examination board; and organising an academic colloquium in Brazil, and discussion panels in the USA and the UK.