International African Institute

Aspects of the Ashanti Northern Trade in the Nineteenth Century

Author(s): Kwame Arhin
Source: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct., 1970),
pp. 363-373
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1159472
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 [363]

ASPECTS OF THE ASHANTI NORTHERN TRADE

IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY'

KWAME ARHIN

I MEAN by the Ashanti northern trade Ashanti2 market exchanges

Mande, and Mossi caravan traders at the town of Bonduku (easter
Salaga (northern Ghana) before I874, and at Kintampo (Brong-A
Ghana) 1874-92. The main facts relating to this trade are well known
Ashanti. This paper attempts (i) to establish the basis of the Ashanti t
ship with the northern peoples; (ii) to make distinctions between ty
traders, the scale and results of their operations, and to describe the
distribution of kola from Ashanti; and (iii) finally to draw attention t
of the nineteenth-century trade which contribute towards the unders
Tordoff(I965: 187) has called ' the emergence and phenomenal growt
industry' in the early years of this century.

THE BASIS OF ASHANTI TRADE WITH THE NORTH

From accounts by Bowdich (1819: 330-6), Lonsdale (i882), Binger (1892, ii:
o05-6), and the recollections of former participants in the trade at Kintampo3 the
following were the trading groups and their goods of exchange in the northern
markets:

Traders Goods

Ashanti Kola, European trade goods-salt, rum, iron tools

Hausa Slaves, nnonkofo, leather goods such as cushion, ate, sandals, mpaboa, bags,
apretwaa, locks, krado
Moorish traders ' or Dyula Coarse thick scarves, silks, serekye and beads, nhwenee, ivory (in the Bonduku
market)
Mossi Slaves, cattle, sheep, goats, fowls, coarse cotton cloths, kyekye, coarse
blankets, bommo, shea-butter, donkeys
Ligbi and Nafana Gold dust (from the Banda hills and the Lobi district)
Agni and Baule Guns and gunpowder,4 dyed cloths

The essential basis of trade in the north was the exchange of kola for savannah
natural and craft products. Kola is produced in the humid forests of the Guinea coast
but consumed mostly in the drier regions of the Sudan. The Ashanti, for example,
I I wish to thank Professor Daryll Forde for eluded in what was known in the nineteenth century
criticisms of earlier drafts of this paper and for the as the Ashanti empire.
opportunity to attend the International African 3 I did field-work at Kintampo in I965, I966,
Institute Seminar at Freetown in December I969. and I967, with funds provided by the Institute of
Some of the problems discussed in the paper were African Studies, Legon.
raised in the course of the discussions at that Seminar. 4 Arms and ammunition became available in the
2 The Ashanti Kingdom is now the Ashanti northern markets after I874, when Ashanti authority
Region of Central Ghana. Parts of the Brong-Ahafo, in her hinterland broke down as a result of British
Northern, Eastern, and Southern Region were in- invasion of Kumasi in that year.

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 364 ASPECTS OF THE ASHANTI NORTHERN
themselves chew very little of their kola. Austin Freeman, an English su
Gold Coast in the late nineteenth century, who thought the kola trade
importance commented ( 898 : 354) on it: ' It is very curious that this n
an article almost of necessity to people living hundreds of miles from
and yet be practically unused by those in whose midst it grows.' And
writing ( 962: 286) of the exchange of kola for iron in Guroland noted
sumption of kola by the Sudanese peoples was quite high, enough to ind
external trade. '
The exchange of kola for savannah products and crafts was the basis f
secondary exchanges. The Ashanti added to their kola some items
trade goods obtained from trade establishments on the Gold Coast: Elm
Coast, and Accra. The Hausa and Mossi caravans, described by Lonsd
'moving market(s)' added to their craftworks and natural products, a m
of commodities obtained from the markets situated along the caravan
miscellany of goods included slaves, which the Ashanti ranked highly
northern goods of exchange.
Wilks (I962) has shown that at the beginning of exchanges, which
the establishment of the Ashanti Union of States (about I699-1700), be
Mande Colonies and the Akan of Bono-Manso and Tafo, present Kumas
was the staple, kola being of secondary importance. Delafosse (I93 I: 52
kola as much as gold. In the nineteenth century, as the result of Asha
control of the Gyaman (Bonduku) area, Takyiman and the Banda distri
of European trade activities, gold from those districts moved south as m
north. Bowdich (op. cit.) stated that the Ashanti increased their hoard
trade in the north. L. G. Binger, the French traveller in the Ashanti hinterla
late i88os, who made detailed observation on Salaga and Kintampo (I
speaks of gold dust in the markets but does not specify the directions in wh
being taken. Clearly the trade in gold was not as significant as it had be
centuries, and did not match the kola trade in importance: Good
written:

The trade in kola appears to have had an importance equal to that in gold, perhaps a
greater one if we think in terms of the social organization of the countries south of the
Niger. Indeed a wide variety of goods and services entered into this complex network of
short- and long-distance trading.

That kola was the staple of the northern markets was shown by the northern traders'
accounts of their own trade given to Clapperton, Barth, and Lonsdale and also by
shifts in market location with variations in kola supplies. Clapperton (I829: 69)
writes: ' The principal part of the cargo of these Hausa merchants consists in gold
or kola nuts which they receive in exchange for red glass beads, and a few slaves. '
Barth (I859, iv: 28) was told that the functioning of the Salaga market depended on
these conditions, namely, that the Mossi traders brought their asses; that the Ashanti
brought the kola nuts in sufficient quantities; and that the state of the roads was such
as not to prevent the Hausa from arriving in the market-towns. Lonsdale (op. cit.)
reported that kola was the ' lodestone ' that drew the caravans over miles of insecure
road.

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 TRADE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 365

Therefore, if kola was unavailable in a market the caravans moved

for supplies. Thus, as Gouldsbury (1876) and Lonsdale (op. cit.) repor
market collapsed in the period I875-8i owing to Ashanti inabilit
there, and Kintampo took its place.' Atebubu, a non-producer of
market-town because the Atebubuhene was able to impose a b
supplies going to Salaga from parts of Ashanti and force suppliers an
to do business at Atebubu. The result was what I call a 'transit' market: a market
for which the exchangeable goods came from, and were also intended for consump-
tion, outside the localities of the market.
To sum up this section, Ashanti trade with the north was an example of exchange
based on regional and ethnic specialization in natural and craft production.

TYPES OF ASHANTI TRADERS

I distinguish between types of Ashanti traders because the use to which the goods
obtained from the caravan traders were put depended on the type of trader who
brought them into Ashanti. First all Ashanti distinguished between the long-distance
trader whom they called batani (pl. batafo) and the internal trader, dwadini (pl. adwa-
difo). The batani went outside Ashanti's political frontiers, the dwadini operated within
them. Batadi, long-distance trading, was organizationally different from dwadi,
internal trading. The former, but not the latter, required protective measures. These
were to some extent collectively ensured by Ashanti's military and political control
over the peoples commanding the trade routes to Salaga and by Ashanti official
supervisory activities in the localities of the markets. But Ashanti traders had to
travel in groups and stay with friends, or landlords along the routes.
It appears from both written and oral information that there were three groups of
batafo. These were, first, kola producers who decided to take their own kola for the
purpose of exchanging it for a specific goods. An elder of Takyimantiaz in the Ahafo
district (west-central Ghana) stated: 'In the olden days the abusua [in this context a
minor matrilineage] would decide to help themselves by donating [the equivalents
of] Ci or f2 to one member from the sale of kola in order to buy 4 to 6 slaves. In
the following year they did the same to another member. As a result there are some
mmusua (pl. of abusua) who had more than 20 slaves. These slaves had children and
made their master wealthy. ' Bowdich (i 8 19: 33 I) reported that kente weavers' gener-
ally sent a trusty servant to the foreign markets' to purchase the silk cloths from
which the threads were taken for making the kente cloths. I describe such visitors
to external markets as target traders. Their trading was discontinuous, rather like the
activities of a modern ' target' marketeer (Bohannan and Dalton, 962: 7) who sells
food crops in order to obtain cash for specific purposes.
A second group of Ashanti traders were stool, oman (state), traders. According to
Rattray (I929: o19-iI) trading for the stool was conducted by the followingfekuo
(groups) who were generally subjects of Gyase, the King's household: the Akyere-
madefo (drummers), the Asokwafo (horn blowers), the Asoamfo (hammock-carriers),

See B. Kirby, 1884, Report on Mission to Kumasi was gathered from Takyimantia and the neighbour-
and the Interior Provinces of Ashanti January 3rd to ing towns of Bechem, Tanoso, and Teppa, all in the
April 2nd, 1884 in Parliamentary Papers (C-), 4477. Ahafo district.
2 Most of my data on kola production and trade

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366 ASPECTS OF THE ASHANTI NORTHERN

and the Agwarefo (bathroom attendants). About the month of Nov

year, the Omanhene sent these subjects in charge of Ankobea (a un
buy (kola) which was then taken to the market-towns and sold. Carri
were unpaid but carried extra bundles for themselves. They were a
heralds with mfona, swords, to show that the carriers were royal tr
paths were closed during the period in which the state traders dispo
kola, so that the state was accorded temporary monopoly of the k
temporary closure of the paths also facilitated the collection of export d
five nuts per load (2,000 nuts), on private traders' kola by the tempo
the passage of private from state kola. Mfaso, profits, from trading wer
state treasury, sanaa, if they were in gold dust. Chiefs could buy bu
According to Rattray's informant,' A chief who bought slaves and
on the coast would have been destooled for chief's slaves were a
looms).'
A third group of traders consisted of individuals engaged in continuous trading
between either the coast and the northern markets or between the kola-production
areas and the northern markets. Robertson (i818: 178-8I) reported that Adu
Gyasi, an Ashanti trader lived at Cape Coast and traded to Bonduku. The Princes
Owusu Ansah, cousins of the Asantehene, Karikari (1867-74), lived at Cape Coast
and traded to Bonduku through agents and hired carriers.' One Appiah operated
from a base in the Ahafo district to Kintampo and in the last decade of the century
sent kola by ships to Nigeria.2 In the last quarter of the century the father of Opanyin
Awudu, my elderly informant at Kintampo, traded kola for slaves at Salaga and
resold the slaves at Kintampo. At the close of the century he switched to trade in
rubber: he collected rubber from the Nkoranza district (of which Kintampo formed
a part), took it to Lome in German Togoland, and after disposing of it used the
proceeds in purchasing European goods at Cape Coast which he resold at Kintampo
in order to purchase rubber for another round of itinerant trading.
This type of trader differed from both the target and state traders. From the first
in the scale and organization of his operations, which were much larger and continu-
ous, and from the second also in continuity and the type of labour used. Adu Gyasi,
the Owusu Ansah brothers, and Opanyin Awudu's father left their homes and took
up residence at the base of their trading operations. A professional trader was
continuously engaged in trading: during the wet season the kola trader, for example,
was engaged in getting together and preserving kola, and assemblingpaadifo, carriers,
for trading journeys in the dry season. State trading was interrupted by participation
in rituals of chiefship by the various Gyase groups. Professional traders, boo paa,
used hired labour, but state traders used state functionaries whose services were given
in the discharge of traditional duties; target traders employed their conjugal family
for porterage.
The trading activities of the professional trader represented a point of departure
from traditional economic organization which was based on kin or voluntary groups:
those of target and state traders were embedded in that organization. Wilks (I970)
I See J. Owusu-Ansah, Letter to Administrator Letter to Ag. Governor Hodgson 17.9.1893,
Moloney, 4.8.81 in PROCO 879/191. PROCO 879/39.
2 See H. M. Hull (Travelling Commissioner)

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 TRADE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 367
has argued that the organization of state trading was part of bu
differentiation of administrative function in Kumasi: he believes that this bureau-
cratization began in the reign of the Ashantihene, Osei Kwadwo (I75o-64) and
gathered momentum in the reign of Osei Tutu Kwame (c. 1801-24). There are two
objections to this. First, state trading by members of the King's household preceded
Osei Kwadwo: guns, powder and shot, salt and drinks were purchased in the reigns
of the two previous kings of Ashanti by officials bearing insignia of office. Secondly,
a general criterion of bureaucratization is the specification of functions to persons or
groups whose recruitment could be hereditary or appointive. In Ashanti admini-
strative functions were assigned to specific groups. This was marked by specific
terms for both the group and its appointed head. Thus there were nkonguasoafo and
nkonguasofohene, head of the stool carriers, asoamfo, hammock-carriers, and asoamfohene,
head of the hammock-carriers. But there was no specific group with an appointed
head whose duty was to engage in, and supervise, trading, respectively. Apparently
the state trading group was an ad hoc body appointed from among other household
personnel. Trading was not regarded as a regular enough activity to require con-
tinuous and specific organization.
Regular and continuous traders were those already called ' professional '. Bowdich
(1819: 336) suggested that the chiefs, particularly in Kumasi, deliberately inhibited
growth in the number of professional traders for reasons of state. He wrote:
Were [the chiefs] to encourage commerce, pomp [to which they are much inclined] would
soon cease to be their prerogative because it would be attainable by others; the traders
growing wealthy, would vie with them; and for their own security, stimulated by reflections
they now have too little at risk to originate, they would unite to repress the arbitrary power
of the Aristocracy; and even if they did not, inevitably [as the chiefs conceive] divert the
people's genius for war.

Bowdich's assertion concerning political obstacles to the growth of private trading

was what may be regarded as a reasonable inference from his insights into the prob-
able consequences of large-scale private trading on the socio-political order of
Ashanti and on her value-systems. The socio-political order was closely related to a
ranking system (discussed below) of which most of the material symbols were derived
from external trade. The diffusion of these symbols among commoners through trade
would throw the ranking system into confusion with adverse consequences for the
socio-political order. Also, as the Kumasi chiefs told Bowdich (1819: 249), they
considered that' war alone affords an exertion or display of ability ' and they esteemed
'the ambition of their king as his greatest virtue '. The chiefs apparently believed
that trading would destroy inclination to warfare. To encourage the former was to
let in influences corrosive of the militaristic virtues. Professional traders, as Bowdich
pointed out (1819: 335), might even sell arms to Ashanti's enemies to the north and
so inadvertently help to destroy the Ashanti empire.
State regulations inhibiting the growth of private trade were not directly related
to trade. There were, first, fiscal rules which prevented the large-scale accumulation
of capital in private hands.' The Ashantihene and the amanhene (chiefs of the divisions)
had rights to two-thirds shares of treasure troves of gold dust and the entire findings

I See K. Arhin, 'The Financing of the Ashanti Expansion 1700-1820 ', Africa, July 1967, 283-91.

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368 ASPECTS OF THE ASHANTI NORTHERN

of gold nuggets; they also claimed the gold hoardings of deceased an

subjects. Secondly, one is often told of the past practice of chiefs to trump
against apparently wealthy commoners who were then fined and depr
gold hoardings. Thirdly, the location of external markets outside wh
where (1967) called Greater or Central Ashanti, that is, beyond undisp
boundaries and away from the principal Ashanti towns increased the
risks involved in long-distance trading and kept down the number o
significant that before colonial rule began the real professionals wer
resident in the market-towns outside central Ashanti. The effect of these measures
generally was to prevent the emergence of a large body of wealthy trading commoners
who might have been centres of dissent against chiefs.
As has already been stated, one reason for grouping Ashanti traders is to facilitate
the classification of the goods brought into Ashanti on the basis of the use that the
various groups made of them. Most of the goods obtained by the occasional or target
trader are considered here as ' consumer ' goods. They were not for re-exchange and
were not in large enough quantities to constitute ' conspicuous ' or prestige accumu-
lation. Slaves were acquired to replenish, by incorporation through marriage or
adoption, depleted lineages. But in cases where they were put to wealth-yielding
uses, they are considered here to have constituted a 'working ' capital.' Also the
silks purchased by the slaves of a kente weaver, regarded here as a target trader, fall
into the class of a 'working' capital. It was a small-scale variant of the modern
manufacturer's raw materials which are normally distinguished from 'consumer'
goods.
State traders resold ivory from the north on the coast. They also expended that
part of the gold dust and nuggets (obtained by exchange) not used in the making of
regalia or added to the statefotoo, treasury, in purchasing arms and ammunition on the
coast. As noted by Rattray (op. cit.) slaves sold on the coast did not include those
obtained by purchase: the former were acquired in war or as tribute. Slaves obtained
through trade were regarded as agyapade, inheritable property, or fixed assets. Slaves
not used in further trading by chiefs were employed both as retinue and in the collec-
tion of fruits (kola) and on farms near Kumasi: used in the latter way they are here
considered to have constituted a ' working ' capital; used as retinue, they fell into the
category of prestige acquisition.
Professional traders resold all the goods obtained from both the northern markets
and from the European trade posts. Slaves were either sold outright or added to the
trader's personnel. The trusted slave took charge of other slaves in trading between
Ashanti, the north and the coast. Or a relative was put in charge of the slaves for
the purposes of long-distance trading. If re-sold outright or employed as trading
agents, slaves are considered here to have constituted a trading or working capital.
Professional traders used gold dust for trading purposes or hoarded it as a convertible
asset. Bowdich (1819: 33I) shows from the table below the profitability of long-
distance trading and retailing in Kumasi:

I R. Firth, p. I8, in Capital Saving and Credit in consumption but operated to increase the volume
Peasant Societies, eds. R. Firth and B. S. Yanney of consumption in future periods, either directly or
(London, 1964); writes: 'Capital represents a stock indirectly.'
of goods and services not devoted to immediate

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 TRADE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 369

Cape Coast Coomassie Sallagha and Yanndi

Articles ? s. d. Quantity ? s. d. Quantity Profit ? s. d. Quantity Profit

per cent

Silk, India 4 o o Per piece 5 o x span 175 - - -

Fezzan - - - .. 2 fathom xoo I o a i fathom
Dagwumba white cotton - - - .. 5 o Sq. yard o00 2 6 Sq. yard
Rum o o Gallon 7* Dram 400 - - -
Tobacco, Portuguese 6 o o Roll 10 0 0 Roll 75 - - -
Inta - - - .. 7 Span .. - - -
Inta - .. 2 6 Pound I5O - - - Pound
Gunpowder 4 o 0 i barrel 7* i charge 40 - - -
Iron I 0 o Bar x5 o Bar 75 3 o o Bar 200
Lead 0o 0 .. 71t inch 75 - .
Flints 5 o Ioo t Each 600 - - -
Spanish Dollar 5 o Each 5 .. - - - ..
Sandals - - - .. 10 0 Pair oo00 5 Pair
Cushions - - - .. I Each Ioo o0 o Each
Marrowa locks -- .. 0 .. loo 2 6

It ought to be added that

that profits were measura
If, then, the goods listed
traders and their use of t
goods, prestige goods, tra
equivalent terms for these
second, ahonya dee, the thi
translates sikatan in his D
This classification is not
(I955) asserts from the ba
a matter of the type of t
that goods were arranged
prestige, or capital value.
than cloths and cloths than shea-butter if for no other reason than their relative
durability. State traders ranked slaves or gold dust above cushions or leather sandals.
Professional traders ranked their acquisitions according to their re-sale price (bo)
or of their relative profitability (mfaso).
But besides the acquisitors' own evaluations, these goods may be ranked in terms
of other criteria such as their relative significance as symbols of social and political
status and as forms of capital accumulation. It was slaves and gold dust which were
significant for Ashanti economic development in the early twentieth century.
It has often been pointed out that in traditional Africa chiefs generally were not
distinguishable from their subjects by any elaborate differences in styles of life and
that this was due to low technological development and the consequent simplicity
of material culture.2 However, where local crafts and external trading occurred on
impressive scales, it was possible for regalia, regarded as symbols of high social and
political status and as indices of power, to be highly elaborated, so that at least in
ceremonial dress the chiefs stood apart from their subjects.
I Professor J. H. Nketia of the Institute of African (op. cit. 257) writes: ' Interest of money is 33* per
Studies, Legon, points out that tan means fruitful, cent for every forty days which is accompanied by
so that a sum of money sikatan (sika = a sum of a dash of liquor.'
money) means invested sum. He also gives syno- 2 M. Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard, eds.
nyms of sikatan: sika boten or sika daho. Bowdich African Political Systems, Oxford, 1940, p. 8.
CC

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370 ASPECTS OF THE ASHANTI NORTHERN

The northern markets were important to Ashanti as sources of mater

of social and political differentiation: these symbols were indices not
tinctions between chiefs and commoners but also of the ranking of chie
and Kuhne, for four years (i869-73) prisoners at Kumasi, discerned (I875
iii) four ranks of chiefs under the Ashantihene. Chiefs of the first rank
amanhene, were noted for their large silk umbrellas topped with gold, a
elephant-tusk blowers, and several drums; those of the second ran
amanhene, for their silk umbrellas topped with carved wood, a very n
arm-chair ornamented on each side with brass nails, preceded by a part
boys carrying elephant tails, and horn-blowers and drummers; those o
rank, sub-chiefs with recognizable position in the armies of the division
arm-chairs, servants carrying elephant tails, and umbrellas made of cott
the fourth rank had the same symbols but in place of elephant had hor
chiefs of the fifth rank had 'large portly umbrellas' but with commo
ornamented arm-chairs. The frameworks of stools, chairs, and umbrella
of local material by local craftsmen but their ornamentation was done w
obtained from the northern markets.
In sum, before the end of the nineteenth century, Ashanti were used to productive
efforts directed towards the acquisition of capital, prestige, or consumer goods
depending on the type of trader and his resources for financing and organization. But
the scale of operation was limited by a simple technology and also by socio-political
restraints inherent generally in a traditional order.' As stated in the introductory
note, the final section of the paper will be concerned with showing the various ways
in which this nineteenth-century background is relevant to the development of cocoa
production early in this century.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE KOLA TRADE FOR COCOA PRODUCTION

There are three ways in which one can see the significance of nineteenth-century
kola production and trade for cocoa production early in this century. First, the
capitalistic outlook and methods engendered by the kola trade were adapted to
cocoa production and marketing. Secondly, equipment and tools used in kola pro-
duction were brought over into cocoa production. Thirdly, resources, capital or
dwetire and labour, nnonkofo, acquired through the kola trade were switched to cocoa
production. These points will be discussed in turn.
For a discussion of the first point, a short description of the financing and organiza-
tion of the distribution of kola from the producing areas to the northern markets is
necessary. According to Nana Fosu Gyeabuor II, former chief of Bechem, in the
Ahafo district, the starting-point of large-scale trading in kola was the acquisition
of gold dust or nuggets. This enabled the prospective trader to hire labour, bo paa,
for porterage, or alternatively to acquire pawns, nnwowa, by giving out loans, mmosea,
and to acquire slaves. Slaves were not purchased with gold dust, but by selling kola
for cowries, sedee, and then using the cowries for purchasing slaves; or as Binger
I For example, D. Forde and Mary Douglas dis- a chief and another lower one right for a commoner.'
cussing disincentives to surplus production say: 'Primitive Economics' H. L. Shapiro, ed. Man,
'A rank system may have a deterrent effect if a Culture andSociety, 330-44, Galaxy, New York, I960.
certain standard of living is considered suitable for

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 TRADE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 371

(op. cit.) pointed out, the values of both the slaves and the kola
units of cowries to facilitate direct exchange between the two c
paid off the loans, for which they had been pledged, through produci
kola in the north. Slaves, as already noted, were employed as tra
for porterage.
Experience gained in the organization of kola distribution was
production. Before Ashanti was covered with a network of r
decade of this century, traders used to organizing the distribution
on others in planning the conveyance of cocoa to the scattered a
buying centres. The prior existence of a skeletal organization wh
in the distribution of cocoa before the lorry became ubiquitous
condition for a successful marketing of the crop.
Generally, the social framework for kola production was adapt
duction. It is significant that the basic labour unit used early in this c
production consisted of the conjugal family, which had been the ta
unit: this is remarkable since the major returns from the kola tra
are regarded as the most valuable of matrilineally inheritable pro
to harvest and split large collections of kola pods, the villager had
nnoboa, self-help group, so early in this century villagers used the nn
for the harvesting, splitting, and conveying (of the fermented co
drying) stages of cocoa production.
Equipment and tools used in cocoa production were brough
production. Among the equipment and tools were:
asrcnne: large mat on which kola nuts were spread for examination in
those infected with insects; was or is also used for drying coco
kenten: basket for carrying kola is also used for carrying cocoa;
konno: a large basket in which kola was fermented in order to facilita
the skins is similarly used in cocoa production;
kotohro: a long pole with either an iron or a wooden hook is used for
and cocoa pods;
kotokro: a small knife used in removing the skins of the kola nut is us
pods;
sekan: cutlass, used in clearing the food farms in which clusters of kola trees were
situated (and thus claimed from the bush) is the major tool in cocoa cultivation.

Non-iron equipment and tools were made by the owner himself or purchased from
local specialists; iron ones were made in the nineteenth century by Ashanti black-
smiths. However obtained, they were within easy reach of any cocoa cultivator. One
possible reason why, in spite of its high potential for making wealth, cocoa production
has remained a peasant, and not become a plantation, industry is the communal
ownership of cocoa farm lands which made it possible for all and sundry to cultivate
cocoa, as it had been to sell kola, coupled with the easy acquisition of the tools of
production.
Finally, it was pointed out by Nana Fosu Gyeabuor and the elders of Takyimantia
that the most successful of cocoa cultivators were the big traders of the nineteenth
century and the chiefs who before the turn of the century were in control of nnonkofo,
slaves, readily employable in all stages of cocoa production and in command of

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372 ASPECTS OF THE ASHANTI NORTHERN

dwetire, in the form of gold dust and other fixed assets, which were con
the Gold Coast currency introduced into Ashanti at the inception of colo
the employment of northern labour.
What has been said in this section amounts to this: in the nineteenth
Ashanti society was not capitalistic but was used to types of capitalist
organization, some sections of the people possessing resources that can b
as capitalistic accumulation in a form determined by Ashanti's cultura
those modes of capitalistic organization and resources were switched o
production; and that together with the equipment and tools brought ov
to cocoa production, they account for the rapid development of the latt
in Ashanti. Polly Hill says (1963: 204) of the development of cocoa
Ghana that:

The early and rapid development of Gold Coast cocoa growing was entirely due to the
two types [patrilineal and matrilineal stranger-farmers] of stranger-farmer who were
astonishingly quick to realize the potentialities of the new tree. Had it not been for their
perspicacity, enterprise and persistence, development of cocoa growing would have been
much delayed and might even have been as slow as in the neighbouring Ivory Coast.

iIiss Hill is apparently speaking here of the peoples of the immediate eastern hinter-
land of the Gold Coast. As far as the rapid development of cocoa growing in Ashanti
is concerned, I should find its explanation in the nineteenth-century background of
the kola trade. There was already a capacity to invest. From this the conclusion
appears justified that the role of the British colonial administration in the economic
development of Ashanti was not to induce a capitalistic spirit into the Ashanti but
to increase opportunities for investment and enterprise by drawing the people into
a world market; and also to break down traditional political restraints on enterprise.

SUMMARY

Nineteenth-century Ashanti trade with Hausa, Mande, and Mossi caravans at

'transit' markets in the Ashanti hinterland was based on the exchange of kola, a
forest product, for savannah, natural, and craft products. This forest vs. savannah
exchange was the centre of secondary exchanges involving European trade goods
entering the trade system from the Gold Coast and the entrep6ts of the middle Niger
and other goods, including slaves, from the regions traversed by the northern cara-
vans. Ashanti traders consisted of three groups: 'target', state, and professional
traders. These differed in the scale and continuity of their operations and in the types
of labour used. The goods brought by these traders into Ashanti can be classified on
the basis of the groups of traders and the use they made of their acquisitions into
consumer, prestige, and capital goods: the third is further classifiable into trading
or working capital. An explanation of the successful development of cocoa growing
in Ashanti must take into account the capitalistic outlook and methods and resources
developed through the trade in kola.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ARHIN, K. 1967. ' The Structure of Greater Ashanti ', Jornal of African History, viii, I, 65-
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BOHANNAN, P. I955. ' Some Principles of Exchange and Investment among the Tiv',
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Resume

CARACT1fRISTIQUES DU COMMERCE DES ASHANTI D

NORD AU 19mE SIiSCLE

CET article traite des echanges realises dans les marches Ashanti avec les commergants d
caravanes Hausa, Mande et Mossi dans les villes de Bonduku (Est de la C6te d'Ivoir
Salaga (Nord du Ghana) avant I874, et a Kintampo (region Brong-Ahafo du Ghana) ent
1874 et I892. I1 tente egalement d'etablir la base des relations commerciales des Ashanti
avec les gens du Nord; de distinguer diffdrents types de commercants Ashanti, le volume
les resultats de leurs operations; de decrire la production et la distribution de la cola prove
nant du pays Ashanti, et finalement d'attirer l'attention sur les particularites du commerc
du i9gme siecle qui contribuent a expliquer l'apparition et la croissance du commerce du
cacao au debut du 20ome siecle.
Au I9eme siecle, le commerce Ashanti avec les caravanes Hausa, Mande et Mossi dans les
marches ' de transit' de l'arriere-pays Ashanti etait fonde sur l'echange de la cola, produit
de foret, contre des produits de savane, bruts ou travailles. Cet echange foret-savane fut
l'occasion d'echanges secondaires comportant des marchandises europeennes venues de
Gold Coast et des entrepots du Moyen Niger, et d'autres marchandises, y compris les
esclaves, venues des regions qui traversaient les caravanes du nord. Les commercants
Ashanti formaient trois groupes: les'commis voyageurs' qui visitaient les marches exterieurs,
les commerjants d'Etat, et les commercants professionnels. Ils diffdraient par le volume et
la continuite de leurs operations et par le genre des transactions realisees. Pour expliquer le
succes de la culture du cacao chez les Ashanti, il faut prendre en considdration la perspective
capitaliste Ashanti ainsi que les methodes et ressources developpees par le commerce de
la cola.

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