Trade centres · pre-1822 and continuing
The coastal salt industry
Sea-salt boiled and evaporated in the lagoons of the Vai and Dei coast — the coast's chief export to the interior.
Biography
Salt was made by leaching saline mud and boiling the brine in clay pans over mangrove fires, or by trapping sea water in shallow lagoon evaporation beds during the dry season. It was pressed into cones or baskets for transport.
Because the interior had no salt of its own, coastal towns held a structural advantage in the exchange: salt bought rice, iron, cloth and kola, and salt-carrying determined the direction of the paths. The Vai salt road inland is one of the oldest routes in the region.
Historical significance
The commodity that made the coast necessary to the interior, and gave small coastal polities leverage over far larger inland ones.
Timeline
- pre-1500Lagoon salt-making established on the Vai and Dei coast
- c. 1700Salt-for-rice and salt-for-iron circuits at full extent
- 19th c.Imported European salt begins to compete
Related entries
References
- Holsoe, Svend E. (1967). The Cassava-Leaf People: An Ethnohistorical Study of the Vai People.
- Brooks, George E. (1993). Landlords and Strangers.
Suggested reading
- Holsoe (1967).