Trade centres · c. 1500–1900
The Musardu road
The caravan route linking the Mande markets of the interior to the Atlantic at Cape Mesurado.
Biography
From Musardu in the Mande country the road ran south through Loma and Mandingo towns, into Bopolu, and down to the sea. Kola, cattle, horses, leather and captives moved south; salt, iron, cloth, tobacco and firearms moved north.
Passage required the ruler's peace at every stage, which is precisely what states like Condo sold.
Historical significance
The mechanism connecting the Liberian forest to the western Sudan — the trade system this book argues has been written out of Liberian history.
Timeline
- c. 1500Mande commercial expansion reaches the forest
- c. 1800Condo controls the southern stretch
- 1868Walked and described by Benjamin Anderson
Related entries
References
- Anderson (1870).
- Holsoe (1971).
Suggested reading
- Anderson (1870).