Captivity in the Abron kingdom of the Gyahan

UNITED NATIONS

AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

DAKAR

ilaiie.

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ho<5A

CAPTIVITY IN THE ABRQN KINGDOM OF THE GYAMAN

BY

Emmanuel Terray

Bxtrac-t from "L'esclavage en Afrique précoloniale"

>

Cl. Meillassoux

MARCH. 1978.

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CAPTIVITY IN THE ABRON KINGDOM OF THE GYAMAN

"

"âs _{in many other States} of pre—colonial West

Africa,

the

population

of the abron kingdom of the Gyaman included a number of captives» Where did they come from?

What was their status 7 What chance did they have of escaping from their condition?

What was their rt!le in the economic and social system of the Abron? How, in the light

of the data collected, can the system be described? These are the questions to which

this article attempts to reply.

Before beginning this study, we must briefly recall the situation of the abron kingdom in space and time<* The territory it occupies is ih the, north—east of. present day Ivory Coast and the'north-west of present-^iay Ghana, between the Comoe and the Black Volta, at the boundary between the savanna and tho forest.

Pounded around 1690 by the Gyamanhenc

(king)

Tan Date, the kingdom of Gyaman

fell in 1740 under tho domination of the Ashantif and that domination was maintained until

1875

despite numerous insurrections in

1750s 1764? 1798, 1800, 1818»

The Gyaman only recovered its independence in

1875,

^a few months after the defeat; of the Ashanti by the British and the first fall of. Kumasi. Between

187-5

and

1882,

it ^expe¬

rienced a phase of rapid territorial expansion, followed by a period of serious in¬

ternal unrest tíhich only ended around

189.0.

Invaded by Samori in.

1895,

it was oc¬

cupied at the end of

1897,

the western part by the French, and the eastern part by the

British. ^...

f-r>: •)& iU-.m '

A

The abron -kingdom was a political type of community,

including populations of

very

■different languages, origins, organizations an&

cultures, intricately interwoven.

Let us list them briefly. There are among them: gyr

language

groups,

belonging to

the sonufo units — the Nafana, masters of

the territory before the arrival of the

Abron — and gurunsi units — the Lorho, the Legha,

and above all the Kulango, the

pea¬

sant backbone of the kingdomj mandé language groups

—the Goro and the gbiru then the

Ligbi accompanied by numu blacksmiths, who

transmitted their language to the Hwela

indigenous inhabitantsJ then and above

all, the Byula,

some

setting in the great

mer'

chant city of Bondoukou in the very heart of the

kingdom

otft'-r"-' ru, m»"''""!! m"- of the

Barato,

all

bf

whom were

primarly occupied in

commerce }t

ahd last of all, akan-

language groups: Agni, who peopled the

satellite kingdoms of Bini, Bona and Afiikaso,

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^-

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and

Abron,

who were

themselves

no

doubt formed by the merging of two .elements

ï a

brong group of guart language, settled long

before to the south of the

read leading from Bondouicou to Wenchi, and a group which came at the end

of the seventeenth century from

Akwamu, to the north of

Accra,

The latter

constituted

a

sort of warrior aristocracy

•which was the origin of the foundation of the kingdom and which exercised political

power almost alone? to this group belonged the lineage of

the king,

that of

the chiefs

of province, and the great majority of "political cadres" of the

State: safohene

(captains) okyeamc (spokesmen) etc.

In all that follows, we will be exclusively concerned

with the captives owned by

the Abron, and in particular by that aristocracy. So ^we will leave aside the domestic captives of the kulango peasants, and the captives held by the dyula merchants,

3» The captives and Wealth: the problem of social mobility

What is the captivos's situation with respect to the possession and use of goods?

Here the changes which may occur during a captive's life are particularly important.

Originally the captive owns nothing; he works on his master's land and in return his

master* feeds him? he can therefore accumulate no wealth. Subsequently, if the captive

has established good relations with his master, it is customarys particularly if he

has' taken a wife, to

allocate

him a

plot,''

This plot will, enable him to provide

for his needs as regards the staple food ^{— yams —} the master continuing to make the supplementary purchases — meat, fish, salt — which require a "money" expenditure

and are made for the whole court. That is no- doubt what Tauxier meantttboa he

"The donko was provided with food, either entirely by the master, otf, if he had his

own plantation, with half his

food,"?

Under those circumstances,

the

captive has, depending on

tfie

aase, two or three days to cultivate his plot, and he works the

rest of the time on.the master's land. Thus the surplus labour of the captive here

"takes the form of a labour service,, which enables him already to amass some wealth,

since he can make what use he likes of the surplus product he has obtained from the plot granted to him. The payment of dues in kind seems to have been much more rare?

actually wo only heard it mentioned in a single case: when a captive inherits the

1, Tauxier, Louis,'

192Í, Le Noir

de

Bondoukou, Leroux, Paris,

^p,

328,

note,

2», ibid.

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Page 3*

plot of one of his companions who has died, he cultivates it and harvest the crop, hut hands over half the _crop to his master»

We observe the same kind of progression concerning trading activities» In this

field the captives are first employed exclusively as carriers, either for their own

master, or for someone else» In the

first'

case, the master ensures their subsistence during the j- urney, but keeps all the earnings; in the second casé, the master, hires

out their services to ^a third party; the

lalter

^is responsible for their subsistence,

and he also pays a fee — the "wage" of the carriers — which is also handed over en¬

tirely to the master»

^

At this stage, the captive has

therefore

no opportunity of getting rich» Later he may begin to work partly fòr himself» or rather he can dis¬

pose of what he can carry over and above the load entrusted to him by his master} he will sell the surplus and keep the earnings for himself» Finally the old captives

can begin to work for their own account, but they must hand

one«*third

of the profits

over to their

master»^

Therefore the captive has several "direct" means of improving his material con¬

dition and amassing some wealth» Added to these direct means is an indirect means:

he can inherit some of the goods accumulated by another captive» It is true that, according to Benquey, "he cannot

inherit"*^,

but once

again

this rule, universally

valid in.theory — since, in this connexion, everything that the captive owns is the property of his master — only applies in fact to the newly arrived captives» It does not concern someone who has already stayed a long time with his master and has earned his trust: we have already seen that he could be allocated the plot of one of his deceased companions, provided that he hands over half the proceed® to his master.

Similarly, ^on the death of a captive, the master appropriates half the movables ^— gold dust,

loincloths,

etc» — left by the deceased} the other half ^goes to his ^son

(kunkoba)}

but if the son is too young, it

is'the deceased's

"brother" ^— i»e» ^one

1» Benquey, cap.,

1902,

ooutumes des

Abrons, in Clozel and Villamur, 1902» Rapport

sur la captivité dans le cercle de Bondoukou, 1904» quoted by Tauxier»

1921.

p. 223*

2» Ibid, p» 222} Tauxier, op. cit»

3. Benquey, op»

cit»

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of his comrades, bought or captured at the ^same time ^as he - who receives it, and

makes it fructify, until the ^son is old enogh to use it»

How will the captive use his "fortune"? He usually uses it to acquire captives in his turn» He can then be dispensed from the labour dues which his master expects of himï his own captives will replace him; moreover they will work the^land and will _engage in trade for himî he will enjoy with respect to them all the proro¬

gatives of a real master» It is true tl *t the master can claim services from the captives of his

captive, but he

cannot give them orders directly; if he wants his

household to live without friction, he will only address them .through their master,

i.e. his captive» Thus captivity,

the

lowest grade of the social hierarchy, is

itself a hierarchized condition»

The earliest administrators plainly found it difficult to understand this si¬

tuation, and they stressed its precariousness: "Whatever may have been said, ^pro¬

perty did not exist for the slave: customary law knew no rule in the rela/tions with his master than the latter*s convenience» Certainly a number of them managed to constitute a small nest egg with which they usually bought slaves in their turn,

but that was only a matter of tolerance on the part of the master who actually pos¬

sessed everything and could take it at any time» Once again, the indigenous theory

of captivity has been confused with its reality; in fact, the captive who has become rich can only be stripped of his possessions because of serious misconduct; but, if, precisely, he has been able ^{to get}

rich,

it

is

first of all because he has be¬

haved well, and there is no reason to suppose that he would change his attitude

when he had obtained the reward for his efforts»

As regards the possession of material wealth, then,, a captive ^can rise consi¬

derably above his original condition» We still have to determine the limits of this ascension; and also to measure its social consequences» He we are confronted with

an aspect of the problem of social mobility in the abron country»

In certain akan comtries, this mobility appears to be considerable» It is

manisfested in two forms» Firstly some captives or men of low extraction _can, by

i Report of

1908, Archives

of

Abidjan, XV, 45,

124»

'

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t"

engaging in "private" occupations— first of all trade, but also the mining of gold — accumulate a gr«at deal of wealth; and wo see constituted, besides the

holders of traditional political power, a category of rich men whose influence

is exclusively based on the possession of material goods» Because of their regular contacts with the European traders and the accelerated monetization of their eco—

nony, the peoples of the coart experienced this process very early, and by the 17th century it had become widespread among them» But they did not ha.ve the monopoly of

it» Although we cannot deduce from the data published by C»H» Perrot the existence

of a category of rich non in the

Indcaiic,,

we

nevertheless

find mentienod in it the

s

"spcotaculcar" economic ouccoco of certain

captives»/' '

We do not find anything'like that in the abron country, where

the

correlation

between wèalth and social status seems much more rigorous» In fact, in the kingdom

of

Gyaman,

as also,

it

seems,

in

the

Ashanti

Kingdom, the enrichment of"the in¬

dividual through the sole exercise of private activities came quite soon up against

insurmountable barriers, and it

entailed

in itself, few social consequences» For

example,

a man who

devoted himself

entirely to trade tíould, if successful,

quickly

incite the cupidity of tho king and of the chiefs of province, and would very pro¬

bably have to pay quite heavy fines, ^on various pretexts, in order to slow down considerably or even finally to halt his ascension» Furthermore a purely "private"

success is profoundly suspect in abron country: in a society in which the idea

of economic growth is hardly accepted at all, an individual can only enrich him¬

self, it is thought, ^at the expense of others; ithat one person gains must neces¬

sarily have been withdrawn from others, all enrichment assumes a redistribution

of goods» Some of the mecanisms by which thia redistribution functions — the fines,

dues and services — are recognized and accepted by society, but they always operate

to the benefit of :the holders of political power: on the other hand,.a personage who accumulated wealth without recourse to these recognized meohanisms would ne¬

cessarily be suspected of using unavowable methods and above all of witchcraft»

The captives, whose special aptitudes in this field are already commonly acknow¬

ledged, would be particularly liable to suspicions of that kind, and to the terrible

consequences they entail» In fact, in abron country, it

is

only the Dyula who can

1» Perrot

Claude^ílélène, 1969,

"Hommes libres et Captifs dans le royaume agni

de

l'Indénie", Cahie*s

d'Etudes

Africaines,

vol

IX,

No, 35|P» 490-49

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keep aloof from the official political hierarchy and yet get rich with impunity:

in a way they play in the Gyaman the role played by the rich men on the coast,

hut their status as guest of the kingdom and the fact

that

they belong to Islam

"considerably modify the significance and impact of this role#

In other words, the acquisition of

wealth

can only be pursued as an autonomous activity within rather* narrow limits, and

the

wealth amassed within these limits

V .. .

■does not by .itself bestow social influence and political strength» A man,.'who has built up a certain fortune aannot hope'to keep it, increase it and make it serve his social and political

ambitions

unless he places- it at-the d&oposal of

the

carcs-^

tituted authority» Two methods are then open to him: ho can provide direct assis¬

tance to the finances.of the king and.the chiefs of

province,

whose expenses are heavy and who arc frequently in difficulties; he can also recruit and equip, at

his own eaponse, a company of warriors which he

will

place in the

sovereign's

service in time of war» As a reward the king or the chief of province will' Appoint

him safohenè arid entrust him. with the supervision of a;dumber' of villages;, ho will

then exercise over these villages the jurisdiction of first instance and will there¬

fore collect sortie of the fines, he will take part in the

collection

of'dues-.arid will

also extract his share! the. recognised mechanisms of redistribution and concentration

of wealth will henceforth operate in his favour. In short, wealth only leads to

power to the extent that its holder can use it to become integrated into the exis¬

ting hierarchy, and it.is only by this integration that a man can get richer without being in danger at any moment of spoliation and downfall»

"But it must be. stressed here that wealth is only one of the paths which lead

to the higher rungs of the political ladder: a man who has distinguished himself by his bravery, his eloquence or his wisdom can also be appointed safohene by the sovereign» Thus, in this duality of wealth and power, it is unquestionably power which plays the decisive role: while wealth is one of the means of acceding to power, it is far from being the only one; on the other hand, beyond the threshold

we have mentioned, the accumulation of wealth cannot be pursued except as the con¬

sequence of a rise in the political hierarchy, and

its

continuance depends strictly

on the vicissitudes of that rise»

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Therefore, to pose the problem of social mobility both in ashanti country and

: • I ... •• :

in abron country is to consider whether and to what, extent a political career is

open to e,ll and particularly to the captives». Let us specify this term political

."career"» In both kingdoms one can see captives, as unofficial advisors, playing

an important political role» Bowdieh serrerai times mentions the presence of

"confidential slaves" in the train of the king and chiefs of

Ashanti,

and says that there, are quite ^a number of.them,

although

he indicates that they only from

a small minority of the. total number of captives» They are both confidents and advisers of their masters; the king and the chiefs behave ^as familiarly with them

as they behave, distantly to their own subjects} this, says Bowdieh, can be explai¬

ned by their .desire to attach to themselves a foreign- force to repress the discon¬

tent of the lower classes of their own country» Similar "grey eminences" are also met with in abron history: thus, at the bottom of the letter which the king

Kwaku Agyeman transmitted to lieutenant—commander Brotonnet after Samori*s capture of

Bondcukou,

asking for help from the French, we can read the following note:

"This letter written at the urgent request of the king Ardjoumani and under his dictation, in the presence of Kofi, his ^son, Ardjoumani, his grandson, Dibois

(sic)

his captive, all three being his intimate counsellors"» However, it seems that in Gyaman this occult role was played mainly by the Byula» But in any case, can the

existence of such personages be regarded as an indication of social mobility? I

do not think so; true, these captives are exempted from the hard labours which

are the lot of most captives; they led a softer and more comfortable life and

exert real influence on the sidelines; but they remain excluded from the official

social and political hierarchy, and they owe all that they are to the whim of their master, who may reduce them to nothing overnight without any formality» Furthermore;

it is precisely insofar as they remain detached from this official hierarchy and romain captives that they can play their part: if their master trusts them, it is primarily because he does not feol threatened by them, because their status as in¬

feriors prevents them from ever sotting themselves up as his rivals#

1» Kwaku Agyeman to the Governor of Ivory Coast, 9

August 1895?

Archives FOM,

'Missions 11»

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So, neither for Ashanti nor for Gyaman can we speak of social mobility except insofar as men of low

extraction, and, in the

^{case we are} concerned with, captives,

can aspire net only to positions in which they can exert a real influence, but to functions and grades socially instituted and recognized by the political community at

a whole; in this respect Ashanti 'and Gyaman followed profoundly different paths»

In Ashanti, although only a: minority of captives can engage in a political carreer so defined, the elect can rise very high in it. On this point Bowdich mentions

several significant examples, such as that of Musoe, the sclavé of "Quashie

Jacon",

chief of one of the provinces of Wassa: Musoe became chief of Samcow, and granted hospitality and protection to his former master when the 'latter was driven from office by his rival Esson Cudjo; above all that of "Agay"

(Agyoi),

who in his youth

used to carry on his head loads of salt between Akwamu and Kumasi, and who won the

trust of his successive masters so much by his frankness, his eloquence and his wisdom, that the last of them, the Asantohene Osei Bonsu, finally appointed him

the second okyeame

(spokesman)

of the kingdom» At the same time, the sannahene

(treasurer)

Opoku declared to Hutchison that he had "a slave who has a thousand

armed servants and who could create trouble for him»" Half a century later^ Ram¬

seyer and Kuhno relate the case of Akyena, a captive of the Ashanti chief Adu Bofo, who conducted them from Krepi to Kumasi after their capture! "Akyena, an old

man of about sixty with a bald forehead and ^a greying beand, was perhaps the most unpleasant of all our guards».. A slave of high rank> he himself owned a large

number of slaves and several wives»" lis Ellis observed, the importance of the po¬

sition attained by Akyena is underlined by the fact that Adu Bofo did not hesitate to entrust to him the custody of the valuable white prisoners and the command of their escort, although it was formed of free warriors»

In abron country, we did hot ^come across any example of this kind! only one

rile,

that of karat involves the captives in the political scene; and even that

intervention is, as we. will see, very indirect» The primary mooning of the term

kara is "soul, spirit"! the captive invested with the rile of Kara is in a way the incarnation of his master's soul» In Cfyarnan, every free man can have a kara captive; the king and the chiefs of province have several, but then one of them

has pre—eminence» The master chooses his kara even before he is enthroned;

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henceforeth the kara will lead the same existence as he does» Thus the kara of

a king or of a chief of province, recognizable by the gold dise he wears around neck, never goes to work in the bush; he wears the

clothes

of the king and eats

the same food as he does; he accompanies him in all his journeys and, in time, ^.

of war, stays by his side» The kara is respected by all ^; "He is like the king's son", we were told, you cannot insult him"; hence people arc ready to ascribe to

him a proud ancL arrogant character: he "boasts"

(0

di

bakoma)•

Every week, on the anniversary day of the king's birthday - day indicated by his first name there

is a ceremony, the ^prupese of which

is

to "wash" the

sovereign's soul

of

the im¬

purities which ^may have accumulated on him and which might ultimately affect his

vi—

On that day, the king has eggs and a dish of food prepared which the

kara goes and places on the ground in a place previously covered,with kaolin» Then

the kara paints his checks white, again with kaolin,, puts on a white ^pagne and

adorns himself with the king's jewels; then, to the sound of drums, he is borne in

a palanquin to the river, where he is also brought ^a sheep and a chicken» THere,

the kara- and his escort wash themselves; the sheep and the chicken arc also washed

and are sacrificed on the return» When the king dies, the kara are put to death,

and it is the body of the first of them which is placed in the sovereign's tomb under

his _corpse»

Because of his long intimicay with the chief, the kara may become the depositary of the secret thoughts of his master, and that is why, at least in

Ashanti,

some of them were spared at the time of the royal funerals ; they had to

be able to transmit their knowledge to the successor» Our abron informants did

not mention exemptions .of this kind» The fact remains that in,the Gyaman, the kara,-"Well placed to receive the confidences of his master, and assured of total

immunity

against court intrigues

so

long

as

the king is alive.,

^can,

if he has the

desire and the ability, exert an important influence, and this time the influence

is recognized and accepted»

» Must we conclude from the existence of the kara that the political career is open to captives at least partly? I do not think/so, for although it is reserved

for the captives, this role of kara in also the only one

they

can

aspire

to. Now

it is clearly above all of a religious nature and can therefore not be confused either

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with governmental on-administrative functions — sannahene

(treasurer),

gyasehene

(bailiff),

okyeame

(spokesman),

safohone

(captain)

^or

with the functions

assumed by -the members of the king's household and court — asokwafo

(musicians),

akofranafo

(sword-^bearers)

^, brafo

(executioners),

etc.

More specifically, the kara derives

all his _power

froè

his '-'mystical" identity with the person of his master; so he

does not _{occupy a} definite post in the political hierarchy. If he has influence,

it is exercised directly through the king; he has no direct power.

Although!he

can take advantage of the royal wealth, he has no, goods of his own. Hence the

kara is by no means a sign of social mobility to the advantage of the captives.

Thus the Gyaman is quite different in this respect from Ashanti whore we find

not"only the okra, but also, as we have seen, some captives who rise very

high

in

the political hierarchy proper. What is the explanation for this difference bet¬

ween the two kingdoms? Without dwelling on this point, which would require

"a

long

"history; I, think that it stems from differences of origin and structure between

the

two States: the kingdom of Gyaman is a State based on conquest; in it, a small

'warrior aristocracy of akap origin governs a majority of kulango peasants and captives from the north; thus the* unity of the kingdom is fragile ; in order to

preserve it, both the cohesion and homogeneity of the

dominant category needs

to

be ensured. For this purpose there are several concurrent arrangements; sharing

of power between the king and the chiefs of province, interlinking of the provinces, widespread opportunities of access to power in the ruling aristocracy thanks to a system of succession by rotation — all these features tend to reduce the occasions

for conflict within the abron minority, and hence to protect

its

unity. But

it

is also necessary to prevent this miniroty from becoming dissolved in the multitude

of its subjects: thai is why it constitutes a relatively closed group and acquires

a sort of monopoly of political responsibilities. In contrast, even though Ashanti rapidly became an empire, its initial nucleus ^— the States of the Confe¬

deration, Kumasi, Juaben, Bekwai,

Kokfu, Mampon,

Nsuta — forms a homogeneous

whole

as regards language, custums, and religion, and also as regards

historical origins;

with the clan system,

irt

has also a powerful factor of integration.

Hence, without

endangering its unity, it is much more capable

than he Gyaman

of favouring the.pro¬

motion of foreigners, even of slave origin.

And

when the

Asantehene, desirous both

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Page 11•

of administering his empire efficiently and of balancing the power of the tradi¬

tional chief, tried to constitute a body of office—holders entirely devoted to

his person, the captives ^were particularly appropriate recriiitc for that body, since, hov/evor high they might rise, they would alt^ays hold all

their

fortune

at the royal pleasure.

4• Economic functions of the captives

What are the functions assumed by the captives in the economy of the kingdom?

It seems to me that they can be ranked under three headings.

Firstly,

the captives perform a very large part of the farm work. Grossing

the Gyaman from south to north during his voyage to Bondoukou, Ewart writes that large quantities of land are under crop; all the work is done by slaves who are

mainly Moshi and Grunshi. In fact, while it is difficult to conceive an abron

court without captives, it is nevertheless ^an exaggeration to assert tha,t they

do all the work in the fields. When the master is simply a free _man, he also

takes part in the work, as do his children and his relatives. The captive then merely has tc work harder than the others, and he is given the most arduous and dirty tasks. But it is another matter in the court of the king, of the heads of province and even of the notables

(safohene,

okyeame,

etc.)ï

before the colonial period one cannot imagine an abron chief bent over his hoe. Here it is indeed the captives who do all the work, with one exception: in the case of the king and of

the chiefs of province, the inhabitants of the capital—village and those of the surrounding villages are requisitioned in turn for one day during the most inten¬

sive periods of activity, especially that of the earthing of the yams. But apart

from this occasional assistance, the abron aristocracy lives on the work of its captives. The sons, the servants and the oldest captives of the king or of the

chief supervise the progress of the work. Being allocated to work in the fields,

many of which are far away from the village, many captives do not live in their

master's court, and spend most of their time in encampments installed near the plantations where they work: so thoy can protect the plantations from raiding by agoutis and other wild animals.

Secondly, the captive perform most of the work connected with gold mining.

In abron country, this is practised in two quito distinct forms, both as regards

the techniques used and the organization of work and distribution of the product.

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First of all, the gold, in the form of dust, is extracted from the alluvial deposits in the rivers that' flow over the gold-bearing landsf by means of a planning procedure similar to that of the wash-troughs used by all the individual gold-seekers in the 19th century, both in America and in Australian While the men gather the allu»

via, the washing proper is done by the women and the captives® Every family head is

free to try to procure gold in this way; however if the prospects outside his own

village and his own province, he will have to pay a due to the chiefs of the village

and of the province to whom the site he is exploiting belong? i*ily the king and

the heads of province are exempted from this due, so that they can have their cap¬

tives prospect for gold wherever they likeo

^

Therefore, along the "auriferous" rivers

•J. "' > » :-

v;e find side by side the free men and the captives sent by the king, the chiefs of province and the notables under the supervision of one of their sons .'or of their

servants*

Elsewhere, gold is extracted from real mines, the main ones being distributed

between two zones*

2

^{pj1G first} one is to the south and south-west of Bondoukou, along

the road leading from Bondoukou to Asikaso via Dadiasi, Asuefri and Matemangwa® This

was the first to be exploited, and its existence seems to have been one of the causes that determined the arrival of the first Abrons in the regiono The other one is

constituted by the mountains which ri^se to the west and north—west of Bondoukou, ^near Sapia and Sapli: its' exploitation seems to have begun after the defeat inflicted

on the Abron by the Asantehene Opoku Fare around 1740» it is particularly at Siraude

that the Abron found the gold which enabled them to pay the tribute demanded by the Ashanti from that date on; it is also at Siraude that the nuggets were discovered with which the king Adingra had made a chair in solid gold, thus defying the autho¬

rity of the Asantehene Osei Bonsu, which led to the war of

l8l8®

^{If we are} to be¬

lieve Freeman, the first of these two zones is also the richest, and it attra&tod

many foreigners; Ashnntis, such as those whom Adingra had thrown into the mineshafts

on the eve of the 1818 war,and

Aowins,

such as those whom Lonsdale came across between

Daimb and Bentikrum, and who had been established in the Qyaman for five generations®

lT~

_Tauxier, p® 337®

2 • Report of Lang,

1892,

PROCO

African

West., 435"

.

R3PRGDUCTICïï/OO3/7 8

Page 14»

is free to undertake them, they are in fact reserved to the king, the chiefs of province and the richest notables.

Gold mining is largely a seasonal activity --which is practised .during the first

'weeks or months of the miner and major dry season» Por the rains make the -work

■ ttgry difficult: the mineshafto are flooded; moreover the rivers are in spate, and

then only divers can reach the alluvia deposited in the riverbeds» But this is

- hardly a profitable operation: while the diver is rising to the surface nr. i. , most

of the sand collected falls-back to the bottom. Lastly, in this period it is farm

work that occupies most of the available workers: so the villagers, confine them¬

selves to exploiting the gold on the territory of their ^own village, and engage mainly in crushing quartz and looking for nuggest. But olesewhere the .panning of

the sand and of the gold-bearing earth requires large quantities of wa-ter: but water

is increasingly scare as the dry season advances, and gold mining is only .possible

around the permanent rivers. So the times of year most propitious for gold mining

in its various forms are those immediately following the rains; it is then that

occur temporary migrations to the gold-bearing sites which ^can involve whole vil¬

lages. Thus in November 1893. Braulot met in Asikaso the inhabitants of he abron village of Kandena, located about a-hundred kilometres further north.

Because of this seasonal character, gold eiitraction in abron country mobilizes considerable numbers of workers. To speak only WP the mines, the exploitation of

a mine requires the simultaneous•• ■ ' awork of at least three people: the miner at the bottom of the shaft, the one who raises to the surface the blocks of quartz or the calabashes full of earth, and the women who pans it; also the arduous nature of the work requires frequent replacing.of the teams, so that for every mineshaft ^we have

to reckon two teams so constituted. If the mining site is far from that of the washing, carriers must also bo provised. As here are hundreds of mineshafts in

operation .at the same time, it is easy to understand the large numbers of manpower needed. We have ^some data ^on this, which cannot be taken as gospel because the

evidence is second — or third—hand, but they indicate never the less the orders of magnitude. Dupuis, who went-to Kumasi in

1Ô20,

writes: "On the banks of the Barra,

a river which has its source near the large Moslem town of Kherabi and flows south¬

wards into the Tando or river of

Assinio,

the Garnans practise the panning of

HJSPfîODUCTIOli

/OO3/78

Page 13»

The technique used in this second case is quite different: the aim here is to

reach the gold-bearing seam itself. So shafts of 70 cm to 1 metre in diameterare dug, with an average depth of 3 "to

10

metres, and which, if we believe Clozel, ^con

2

be as much as 20 metres» Since the aim is to exhaust the seam, and since the

Abron,

unlike the

Baule,

do not pierce horizontal galleries linking the different shafts,

these are dug at ^very small intervals, at most a few metres apart: the area exploited

thus looks like a skimming ladle» On the walls of the shaft a clay flange of spiteal shape is fixed, by which the miner goes down to the bottom of the shaft using the

method known to mountaineers by the name of "opposition": the feet are placed on the flange, and the back is supported on the opposite wall» When the seam is reached,

the mining begins: the gold—bearing earth, deposited in calabashes, and the blocks

of quartz are lifted to the surface with the aid of tropical creepers

(lianas).

At

the surface, a team washes the earth or crushes the quartz» So that this washing

(panning)

can be done, most of the mines are installed near rivers; when this is not

thercase,

captives transport the earth extracted from the shaft to the nearest river;

or else deep pits, 1»50 to 3 metres deep, are dug and the earth is washed with the

rainwater deposited1 at the bottom of the pit»

The work in the mines is entirely done by captives because, we were told, it is

very arduous 'and above all very dangerous work» In fact, when the scam is reached, the. miner begins to dig around him while lying down; thus the shaft quickly takes

the shape of a cone becoming wider and wider at the base» As no timbering is done to

shore up the arches,

'they

frequently collapse,

and'

the miner is then

burisd

under

metres of debris which make any rescue impossible» That is why the free men do not

venture to the bottom of the shafts»

But in view of the uncertainty of the drilling — the seams are not reached at

oncq, and are not equally rich ^— and consequently the need to dig a large number

of

mineshafts, and lastly because, as we

shall

^see, each of the exploitable

shafts

oc¬

cupies at least three to six people, only those who have an abundant slave manpower

J0

can engage profitably in mining enterprises. Therefore, although in theory everyone

1 Report of Davidson-Hclston, June 30»

1896, P»R»0»C»0«

96/275; Clozel, P»J», 1906, Dix

^{ans a}

la Cote d'Ivoire,

Challemel, Paris, p»53—54*

2. Clozel, ibid»

REPR0DUCTI0N/003/7 8

Page 15»

gold, and ray informants report that during the rainy season there is work for

8,000

or

10,'000

slaves for two months

^

"• Less than thirty years later, Gordon, who was visiting the Gold Coast in

1847—1848,

saidî "The main mines owned by Ashantee are in the Gaman, a

territory

annexed by

that

kingdom at the beginning of last century»

It is said that they arc extremely rich and, according to the reports ^we have receive

. o ^•

40,000

people are

employed

there "•

To judge this information better, it will be

recalled that the earliest French administrators'assessed the population of the kingdom at some

80,000

at the beginning

of

the

20th

century r : even if the small

pox epidemias mentioned by various travellers, the animal disease epidemic of

1892

and Samori's

ocoupátion

^may

have'had

considerable demographic consequences, that population was certainly not more than

100,000

in the 19th century®

One last economic task is largely the responsibility of captives: the transport

of goods» This is mainly done, not on men's backs, but cqj their heads» It is true that, according to the

evidence

of Blin,

the

abure

interpreter of captain Menard,

and of Monnier, beasts of burden, particular donkeys, were

found in Bondoukou» But

they coTild not acclimatize themselves lastingly in the region, and died quite soon®

Moreover they could only be used on the roads radiating from Bondoukou to the north,

where the forests gives way to the savanna» Lastly their use is only

possible

at

certain times of the year» Binger states for example:

"From

Salaga to Kintampo,

and from the latter point to Bitougou, pack animals ^are only weed during a very short period, when the grasses have been burned and the sorghum has just been har¬

vested, a period which in this latitude corresponds to the months of February and Marchj later when theire is no sorghum one cannot think of

making

this journey with animals,* there only remains the carrier»"

Certainly, the captives do not have the monopoly of human porterage»

Free

rner.

can engage in it for their own account or that others: in that case they hire them¬

selves out to a particular notable or; merchant who will in return provide for their

Dupuis, Joseph,

1824»

Journal of a residence in

Ashantee, H»

Colbourn, London, Cass,

1966, Fart

II,

p»LVI—LVII»

2* Gordon, Sir Charles Alexander,

1874»

Life on

the Gold Coast,

Bailliere, Tindall, Cox, London,

p»40»

3* Clozel and Villamur,

19C2».

Les coutumes

indigènes

de

la Cote d'Ivoire, Paris,

^ p»3î Clozel,

1906, p»63«

* ; ;

RSPRODUC

TICK/GO 3/7 8

Page

16•

subsistence during the journey and ^pay a wage in proportion to the distance tra¬

velled» As an indication, we note that according to Davidson-fíouston, the car¬

riers engaged by merchants to go from Bondoukou to Cape Coast received, in

1896,

for 23 days march, the equivalent of five shillings for the subsistence and £1 sterling for their wage» This porterage by free men was even, according to cap¬

tain Benquey, the only form of wage labour that the abron country had known before

the French colonization

^

^{• But here} again, in Qyaman just as in all the neigh¬

bouring regions, the king, the chiefs of province, the notables and the richest

merchants relied mainly on their captives for transporting the goods they wanted

to sell» Returning from Bondoukou in

1892,

Lang wroteî"û trader from the interior

transports his goods to the coast by means of half a dozen slaves who are avai¬

lable for carrying loads on the return journey, if they have not been sold»"

When the expedition is organized by the king or by a chief^ he entrusts

its

su¬

pervision to one of his sons, one of his servants or relatives, or else to an

old

captive» Someone who intends to form a caravan can indeed hire captives for this

purpose? in that case he will provide for their subsistence and will pay their

o

master the equivalent of the wage they would have received if they were free»

We have already mentioned above the effects of the emancipation of the captives

in the Gold Coast Colony, in

1874

the direction of

abron

trade! anxious not to

see their captives flee as soon as they arrived in British territory, the king

and the chiefs preferred to turn towards Assinie and Bassam»

Agriculture, gold mining, porterage: these were, in abron country, the

main

economic branles in which the captives ^were employed» To assess the importance

of captive labour in the functioning of the abron economic system, it remains to

assess the place occupied in it by these various branches» Two cases must be dis¬

tinguished here»

In abron country, as we have seen, the captives wore far from being the only people to bear the burden of farm líork; the men of low extraction and the

kulango

' ' ' .

. ■, »'

peasants took a large share in it» On the other

hand, 'it

is the ^use and exploi¬

tation of. the captives which enabled the abrorrraristocracy to be exempted from

1» Benquey, in Clozel and Villamur, op» cit»

2» Benquey,

in

Clozel and

Villamur,

op»

cit»

REPRODUCTIOW/003/78

Page 17.

any work in the fields and to devote themselves entirely to the social activities- political, judicial, administrative, military, ritual — through^which they per¬

petuated their domination» In this- sense, the surplus labour supplied by the cap¬

tives is a necessary condition for the hegemony of that aristocracy» However,

this surplus labour had the aim of ensuring the consumption of the dominant so¬

cial category; hence, to use Marx's terms, the agricultural production of the captives remained ''governed by. use—value", which gives to no "boundless thirst

•for surplus labour" In other words, however harsh the condition of the cap¬

tives, captivity here remained patriarchal ip nature,;-.-.in;, tbat, the.-*çonsumption re¬

quirements of the masters did not impose a continuous aggravation of the exploi¬

tation, a continuous groirth of the volume of surplus labour extorted»

But the Gyaman was also incorporated in a vast network of long-distance trai- de which linked middle Valley of the Niger to Ashanti and the coast of the Gulf

of Guinea, Kong and Anno to Salaga and to the hausa country» In that network,

the Gyaman intervened in three ways» Firstly, numerous trade routes>intersected

on its territory, particularly at Bondoukou, which thus emerged as an important

transit point» From western Sudan and Kong came the salt of the Sahara, the cloth, the cattle, the ironmongery; from the Anno white kola nuts; from Ashanti,

•Vv *- • •

rod kola nuts; from' the coast, firearms and powder, British and Dutch fabrics,

iron _{and copper} in bars, hardware, alcohol, kitchen salt» The role of Bondoukou

was especially important because in several respects the town was a transhipment point in the network: it was at Bondoukou that pack animals gave way to human porterage when go'ing south; it was Bondoukou that was the junction between the

zone of payments in cowries and that of payments in gold dust» Lastly, while

the traders from the south never crossed the Comoe and usually stopped at Bon¬

doukou, the traders from Kong, Bobo and the Niger valley also hardly ever went

further than Bondoukou» ATthough some caravans went as far as Wenchi, Ktimasi

and even7 Cape Coast, most of them stayed at Bondoukou: the caravan leader entrus¬

ted his goods to a Dyula in ■the town who sold them to the southern markets*

But in this role of relays and transit, it was above all the lyula.ànd their captives who were active, from the diatigi who met the foreign merchants and

acted as their agent, tp the„,captivec established in the* farming villages near

: ■ 7v*' .-,Y■ ■

1 » Marx, Capital, Book I»