The Black Road – Trade and State-building in Medieval Sub-Saharan Africa

The Black Road – Trade and State-building in Medieval Sub-Saharan Africa

LUTTRELL, S R

Macquarie Journal of Business Law, Vol.3 (2006)

Abstract

The subject of this paper is trade in late medieval Africa, and more specifically the relationship of economic development to the process of state-building. The region of concern – present day Darfur and the states adjacent to it south of the Sahara – has recently come to the attention of the international community. It is alleged that the government of Sudan has used nomadic militiamen from the Sahara, now infamous as the Janjaweed, to commit grave Human Rights abuses against the people of Darfur. The struggle for power and resources on the desert edge is nothing new. This paper, though concerned with trade and state-building in a much earlier period, will put the present-day situation in its historical and economic context. The writer uses a multidisciplinary approach to show that long- distance trade was occurring in this region from a very early date, and that the absence of a commercial nexus with Europe has functioned to limit our historical understanding of sub-Saharan Africa

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