An optimal zone: the West African savanna
"In the past the Sahara formed what Bovill (1968:1) called 'one of the world's greatest barriers to human movement', although, as Bovill was able to show so brilliantly, that barrier was repeatedly bridged by trade."
"If the ocean could remain a barrier for so long, it is perhaps surprising that so formidable a barrier as the Sahara Desert should have been successfully bridged by trade at least eight centuries earlier. The fact that it was has often been explained as the result of another cultural innovation: the introduction to Africa of the domesticated camel, as a mode of transport over long distances through arid regions (Bulliet, 1975). It will be argued below that the 'ship of the desert', as the camel has so often been called, did not inaugurate trans-Saharan trade but, in the hands of people who knew how best to utilize its peculiar physiology, it undoubtedly led to a very substantial development of that trade. The camel seems to have been brought into use in the Sahara during the first few centuries AD, coming originally from Arabia, although it appears to have been known in Egypt for many centuries previously (Rowley-Conwy, 1988). It was not until after the seventh century AD, however, that the coming of the Arabs to North Africa brought about the development of trans-Saharan commerce based on the use of camel transport (Mauny, 1978: 286-92)."
CONNAH, G. (2002). African Civilizations: an archaeological perspective. Cambridge University, United Kingdom.
"If the ocean could remain a barrier for so long, it is perhaps surprising that so formidable a barrier as the Sahara Desert should have been successfully bridged by trade at least eight centuries earlier. The fact that it was has often been explained as the result of another cultural innovation: the introduction to Africa of the domesticated camel, as a mode of transport over long distances through arid regions (Bulliet, 1975). It will be argued below that the 'ship of the desert', as the camel has so often been called, did not inaugurate trans-Saharan trade but, in the hands of people who knew how best to utilize its peculiar physiology, it undoubtedly led to a very substantial development of that trade. The camel seems to have been brought into use in the Sahara during the first few centuries AD, coming originally from Arabia, although it appears to have been known in Egypt for many centuries previously (Rowley-Conwy, 1988). It was not until after the seventh century AD, however, that the coming of the Arabs to North Africa brought about the development of trans-Saharan commerce based on the use of camel transport (Mauny, 1978: 286-92)."
CONNAH, G. (2002). African Civilizations: an archaeological perspective. Cambridge University, United Kingdom.
