Trade centres · traded from at least the 14th century
Kola nut
The forest stimulant that paid for the northern trade: currency, medicine, sacrament and diplomatic gift.
Biography
Cola nitida grows in the forest belt and not in the savanna, which made it the single most valuable thing the Liberian interior could send north. In Muslim Sudanic society, where alcohol was forbidden, kola was the permitted stimulant; it also functioned as bride-price, oath-token and the opening courtesy of any serious negotiation.
Kola travelled north in head-loads packed in damp leaves; salt, cloth, horses and iron came south in exchange. The whole apparatus of the Musardu road existed to move it.
Historical significance
The forest's export staple long before slaves or palm oil, and the economic reason the interior was never isolated.
Timeline
- 14th c.Kola trade documented in the western Sudan
- c. 1600–1800Forest–savanna kola circuit at its height
- 1868Anderson observes kola caravans on the Musardu road
Related entries
References
- Lovejoy, Paul E. (1980). Caravans of Kola.
- Anderson, Benjamin (1870). Narrative of a Journey to Musardu.
Suggested reading
- Lovejoy (1980).