Page 35 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

E m p i r E s o f m E d i E v a l w E s t a f r i c a

CONNECTIONS

Money Cowries

in sub-saharan west africa, cowries were the
most popular currency for many centuries.
these so-called “money cowries” are the shells
of small snail-like creatures that live in the tropi-
cal waters of the indian and pacific oceans.
as early as the 13th century, arab trad-
ers were carrying cowries from the maldive
islands in the indian ocean to Egypt, then
across the desert to the markets of sub-saha-
ran west africa. Europeans were interested
to find that africans usually preferred cowries
to gold when doing business. By the 16th
century, the shells were being imported in
the ships of dutch and English traders to the
Guinea coast of west africa.
as the atlantic slave trade grew, cowries
were among the items Europeans exchanged
with coastal west african groups for slaves. Cowrie shells were originally used as cur-
By the early 18th century, cowrie shells were rency. Today they are used for decoration,
becoming the bubble wrap of their day. tons such as on clothing or on this Bamana
of them were exported from south asia to Ntomo mask.
Europe to cushion porcelain and other fragile
items, and then exported again from Europe from the 1770s to the 1790s. a hole and small
to africa. grooves on the cowrie indicate that it was
in 2003, evidence of their use in the slave worn as jewelry. people who have examined
trade was found in Yorktown, an important it think it was probably carried to virginia
18th-century virginia port. on property once attached to the clothing of an african slave.
owned by a slave trader named phillip light- in west africa, cowries are still used for
foot, archaeologists found hundreds of cow- many things, including decorating clothing,
ries in a trash dump dating to about 1760. drums, and headdresses, and on sculptures
also in virginia, a single cowrie was found at used in rituals, such as masks and statuettes.
monticello, the home of president thomas they are also used to predict the future. for-
Jefferson (1743–1826). the shell was found tune-tellers toss handfuls of them to make
during the excavation of a storage cellar predictions that are based on whether the
beneath a slave house that was occupied shells land with the open side up or down.

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