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African Cultures
By the time
Europeans arrived in the late fifteenth century,
there were firmly established states throughout
the coastal and inland regions of West Africa.
The states were well-formed socially and
politically, maintaining strong moral, cultural
and artistic traditions. Europeans met many
different ethnic groups: Africans were not one
people, but were as different from each other as
Italians are from the English people. They spoke
different languages, had varied taste in food
and clothing, and preferred different styles of
architecture and art.
The City of
Benin. In 1695 O. Dapper, a Dutch merchant,
visited the Kingdom of Benin. He was very much
impressed by this thriving metropolis and
compared it favorably with his home city,
Amsterdam.**
West Africa was
divided into states with different rulers
governing the different areas. Some African
ethnic groups read and wrote in Arabic in the
15th century, others had strong oral (speaking
and singing) traditions, and religious
practices.
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Ivory Salt
Cellar
West Africans were renowned
for their fine sculpture in both
ivory and bronze. This is one
of the many salt cellars commissioned by
the Portuguese for export.***
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A King and
his warriors
dressed for War.****
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Ivory Tusk
Several tusks like this one were found on the
wreck site of the
Henrietta Marie.*****
The Henrietta
Marie in Africa
The Henrietta
Marie traded in the area of New Calabar,
traveling up the Calabar River to the port where
she would have saluted the town with several
guns, as was the custom of the day. African
traders would often send canoes out to the
European ships arriving into slaving ports. Some
of these Africans, capable of communicating in
Dutch, Portuguese or English, would guide the
newly arrived ships into the rivers or harbors
or ports.
Trading in the
harbor of Cape Coast Castle.******
Slavery and
War
European guns
were a popular trade item with the Africans.
Many of the other imported goods were simply
different versions of the artifacts that the
Africans could produce themselves. Firearms,
however, were not made in Africa and were often
more deadly than spears and other native
weapons. The coastal rulers who had access to
the trade guns used them to control countries
further inland.
Blunderbus
from the Henrietta Marie.
Weapons such as this fired 20 lead shot at close
range and needed to be reloaded after each
shot.*******
Slavery in
Africa
Gold and spices
provided the initial transaction for Europeans
heading for the African shores, but by the 16th
century the demand for labor in the European New
World colonies grew and slaves became the most
valuable commodity for European traders.
Slave and
Traders, Sierra Leone.********
Powerful African
leaders met with European traders and arranged
for the exchange of slaves for European goods,
such as pewter basins, guns, beads, and cloth.
Europeans and
Africans Meet to Trade.*********
Soon Africans
were rounding up slaves in groups of one, two
and three hundred for sale to the increasing
number of European vessels arriving in coastal
ports.
Sieboko's
slaves carrying fuel and cutting
rice.**********
*John
Snelgrave: A New Account of some part of Guinea
and the Slave Trade, 1734, Courtesy of the
Bristish Library
**Artist's rendering after the account of O.
Dapper, Courtesy of the Foundation Dapper, Paris
***Sapi-Portuguese 1490-1530, Courtesy of the
Museo Preistorico e Etongrafico, Rome
****Artists Unknown, Benin, Nigeria, c1500
*****Photo: Dylan Kibler
******John Churchill: Collection of Voyages and
Travels, Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum,
Greenwich, England
*******Photo: Dylan Kibler
********O.F. von der Groben: Guineische Reise,
1694, Courtesy of the British Library
*********John Churchill: Collection of Voyages and
Travels, Courtesy of the Maritime Museum, Newport
News
**********Etching, 19th century, Courtesy of
Northwind Archives
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