4 entries
Trade centres · named 1461
Cape Mount
The great Vai headland and lagoon port at the northwestern corner of the coast.
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.
Trade centres · 15th–19th centuries
The ivory trade
Elephant tusks from the forest interior, and the carved ivories that made the Upper Guinea coast famous in Renaissance Europe.
Trade centres · devised c. 1832–33
The Vai script
An indigenous syllabary invented by Dualu Bukele and his associates — one of the few independently created writing systems in modern history.