A Medieval Trade-Route from the Niger to the Gulf of Guinea

Abstract

The Portuguese first sailed along the coast of what is now Ghana in 1471; thereafter regular trading relations were established at numerous ports of call between Axim and the Volta. The impact made by the newcomers upon local peoples with whom they came into direct or indirect commercial contact was marked. The creation of new maritime markets stimulated trade over wide areas, and the trend away from subsistence economies gained pace (so fortuitously producing conditions necessary for the subsequent development of the slave trade). Archaeological evidence from Southern Ghana bears witness to a sharp growth in urbanization in the sixteenth century; the numerous towns that arose show a pattern of settlement quite distinct from that of the earlier Iron-Age (‘paléonégritique’) agriculturalists.